Chapter 24
After Preston’s passing, Cedric visited the Norwood residence every week with the kids so that they could spend more time with Louis
As it there was an unspoken agreement, no one brought up Preston’s name after that
To clarissa and Jamie, Preston had just gone somewhere far away without specifying when he would be coming back.
However, whenever Cedric bought a cake for them, the girls would definitely leave a slice in the fridge.
The sad atmosphere in the Norwood residence gradually lessened with time.
On the other hand, Clarissa and Jamie grew more and more mischievous with age. They would turn their house upside down whenever their parents were not paying enough
attention
Jolene woke up from a nap one day and found the girls crouching over a corner of the house, seemingly going through something. She was about to walk over and give them a scare, but the girls came running to her while waving a few pieces of paper.
“Mommy, who’s Starley?”
Jolene halted in her tracks. She noticed that the things the girls were holding looked quite familiar. They were the love letters that Cedric had kept hidden from her During their seven years of marriage, Jolene had searched every inch of their bedroom but still could not find the letters. Yet, the girls somehow managed to find them. Jolene could not help but find this amusing.
She placed the papers back inside the box and whispered a few things to the girls.
When Cedric arrived home that day, Clarissa and Jamie ran up to him excitedly and clung to him.
“Daddy, who’s Starley? Why did you write so many letters to her?”
Cedric’s brows twitched when he spotted what they were holding. Just as he was about to take the letters away from the girls, Cedric heard the sound of Jolene letting out a cough
She leaned against the railing on the second floor and smiled brightly, looking like a sly fox.
Cedric could tell she had gone through the letters just by looking at the expression on her face. Strangely, he felt rather relieved now that the secret that he had been hiding for more than ten years was finally exposed.
While the nanny took the girls outside to play, Cedric brought the letters and walked over to Jolene. Before he could say anything, Jolene quickly explained her innocence.
“It was your daughters who found the letters. I have nothing to do with it.”
Cedric pulled Jolene into his embrace and breathed in the pleasant scent coming from her hair. He smiled softly.
“These letters were meant for my Starley, after all. So, you can’t really say it has nothing to do with you.”
He was finally telling her the truth after such a long time. Jolene raised her hand and pinched Cedric’s ear.
“Be honest! When did it start? Why didn’t you tell me about it after we got married?”
With Jolene, Cedric was always the one to give in first
“I started writing those love letters when you were 17, and I fell for you back when I was 13. Do you still remember how we were both down with the flu when we were younger? My parents were busy with work, so they asked for your mom’s help to look after me.
“The two of us stayed in the same ward. Your symptoms were not that serious, and you recovered quicker than I did. Every day, you’d help bring me my herbal medicine or sweets Yet, you dared not speak to me because you were afraid of me. You didn’t even wake me up when I was asleep.
“Sometimes, you’d sit next to my bed for as long as an hour. The medicine would turn cold, and you would doze off while waiting. When I woke you up, the first thing you did was take the bowl of herbal medicine with you. You explained how drinking cold medicine might be bad for me and went outside to get someone to warm it up for me.”
Cedric continued, “I’m a quiet, reserved person. My siblings and cousins were mostly much older than me. Those who are around the same age as me could sometimes be my nieces and nephews. Most of them were scared of me. That’s why I’m on my own most of the time.
“You were the only one who would greet me politely whenever you saw me. Whenever you gave Preston presents for certain occasions, you would ask him to pass on a gift to me too. You were kind and polite, and I remembered that all these years.
“However, I know the person you liked wasn’t me. There’s also quite a big age gap between us. So, I decided to keep my feelings to myself. Luckily, I finally have the chance to tell you everything.”
Since those things had happened a long time ago, Jolene could not recall every detail of those incidents Cedric mentioned. Still, seeing how Cedric’s eyes lit up when he shared those stories brought tears to Jolene’s eyes.
While she was trying to reach for her own star, Jolene did not expect that someone else would see her as the star that shone light into their life.
She wiped her tears off by rubbing her face against Cedric’s chest. Jolene asked in a choked voice, “Are you the Santa who always leaves a gift outside the window of my roomy
Christmas?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“The dress that I wore during my 18th birthday party… Did you put the dress along with Preston’s gifts?”
“You figured that out too?”
“You must be thrilled to hear that I’d chosen you as my partner for the prearranged marriage back then.”
“I was over the moon…”
