Chapter 4

Time ticked by, second by second.

The crowd at the exit gradually thinned out, but no matter how long I waited, I didn't see anyone who looked like they were coming to find me.

I started to get a little anxious. Had I missed her? Or had Lily not made things clear to her sister?

Beside me, Vivian seemed to be getting impatient too. She glanced at the watch on her wrist and said evenly, "The person you're picking up still isn't here?"

"Should be any minute now..." I said, brushing it off, but inside I was less and less sure. I took out my phone and decided to call Lily to find out what was going on.

The call went through quickly.

"Hey, Lily, where is she? I don't see her anywhere. Did she already go out?"

"No!" Lily's voice came through the receiver. "I just finished texting her, and she said she's already at the exit. She's wearing a beige trench coat and pulling a silver suitcase. She's really easy to spot!"

A beige trench coat? A silver suitcase?

My brain went completely blank, like I'd been struck by lightning. Instinctively, stiffly, slowly, I turned my head and looked at Vivian, who was standing right beside me, also wearing a beige trench coat and also pulling a silver suitcase.

She seemed to sense something too, and was looking at me with a puzzled expression.

"Ethan? Do you see her?" Lily's voice kept going on the phone. "How about this. I'll call her again and give her your license plate number so she can go straight to you. Where'd you park?"

My throat went dry. Before I could answer, something strange happened.

The very second after I hung up, the phone of Vivian, who was standing right next to me... actually started ringing!

The crisp ringtone sounded jarringly out of place in the quiet night.

Vivian seemed a little flustered too. While digging her phone out of her trench coat pocket, she said to me, "Sorry, I need to take this."

Maybe she was in too much of a hurry, or maybe her fingers were slippery from the rain. As she swiped to answer, she accidentally tapped the speaker button next to it.

A voice I had only just heard, one I knew extremely well, came clearly through her phone, ringing out in the awkward air between the two of us.

"Hello? Viv, honey, your brother-in-law's younger brother is coming to pick you up. He's a really handsome guy! His license plate number is XXX-XXXX, so just go straight to him..."

Time seemed to stand still in that moment.

I stared at Vivian, and she stared back at me with wide eyes. That face, which was always so cold and frosty, was filled with the same shock and disbelief as mine.

I was stunned.

"How... how is it you?"