When Ashlee was taking a bath in the bathroom, Darren was standing on the balcony, smoking. Not aware of the passage of time, he had already smoked a whole package of cigarettes.
It was the first time that he had ever been attacked by feelings of regret.
He regretted leaving Clara without saying goodbye two years ago; he regretted his engagement with Ashlee; and what's more, he regretted his tricks on and insults to Clara.
It was he himself who drove his beloved one away. Therefore, he could blame no one for this.
More importantly, now, Horace has already been with Clara.
When he thought about Horace, he could not help clenching his fist and smoking much more heavily.
He remembered that when he showed those photos to Horace, the latter chose to believe in Clara's innocence without hesitation.
Horace trusted her, probably because he had already known the truth. No matter whether he knew the truth or not, he did not hurt Clara after all.
Compared with Horace, Darren felt himself a coward and a loser. Such a comparison made him irritated.
The thought of those photos reminded him that there were still several of them kept in his phone which he forgot to delete.
At that moment, he felt that those photos hurt him a lot and he only wanted to delete them right now.
When he was deleting the photos, he suddenly noticed something bizarre.
Hold on.
Why did these photos look different from the ones that he had projected on the screen at the Kirkland family's dinner party?
Although he did not try to remember all that about Clara, he found that all the details about her were deeply printed in his mind and he could recall every detail.
Of course, he could definitely remember those photos at the dinner party.
The photos on his phone were almost the same as the photos projected on the screen at the dinner party except for one of them where Clara lay on the bed with her hair loose and scattered on the pillow.
Suddenly, Horace found it hard to breath.
Why…
He remembered that Ashlee told him that all the photos displayed on the banquet came from his phone. But why was there an extra photo projected on the screen?
Did that mean that…
One possible explanation occurred to Darren, which startled and even scared him. However, before he could ponder on it, a soft and tender voice rang behind him--
"Darren?"
He was brought back to reality by the voice. He turned around to find Ashlee Kirkland staring at him intently and quizzically with her hair dripping wet.
He found that Ashlee's face, which was similar to but more beautiful and flirting than Clara's face, made him scared and gave him goose bumps.
"Well, Ashlee," he involuntarily stepped back and said, "I had a call from my office. Something happened and I have to handle it. Don't wait for me. Take a rest."
Before Ashlee could say a word, he went straight towards the door.
"Darren…" Ashlee was stupefied by his words and when she wanted to stop him, he had already left the house.
Ashlee stood in a frozen manner, lost in thought.
"Why does Darren leave in such a hurry? Is he going to meet Clara?"
The thought of Clara and what she had learnt from the call made her pale.
She had sent someone to contact that old man and now she was told that the old man did not rape Clara two years ago and it was someone else who had done that.
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