Year Five The Perfect Goodbye Plan novel Chapter 284

“……”

The murmurs around Silvia were impossible to ignore; every word reached her ears, clear as day.

She glanced coldly at the crowd, her gaze sharp as winter glass.

A few people, catching her look, immediately fell silent, their gossip dying mid-sentence.

Just then, Silvia’s coworkers burst out from the office building, hurrying straight toward her and Shipley. Without a word, they stepped between the two, creating a human barrier.

One of them turned to Shipley with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Mr. Barlow, don’t you think it’s a bit much to keep chasing after her like this?”

“Yeah, Mr. Barlow,” another chimed in, “everyone knows you and Vianne have always been close. Isn’t it a little inappropriate to be harassing Silvia now that she’s married?”

Their words trailed off when Shipley shoved past them, his patience clearly at its limit. He barely looked at anyone else—his eyes were fixed only on Silvia.

“Sweet Silvia,” he pleaded, “whatever happened between your brother and her, I can explain. She lied to me, I see that now. I was wrong. Please—come back to me, will you?”

But Silvia was already gone, slipping behind the wheel and driving off without a backward glance.

She left work in the hands of her colleagues and didn’t return to the office that day. There was no way she could face it, not after everything that had happened.

Meanwhile, just around the corner from the office building, a woman stood pressed against the wall, her fingers digging so hard into the plaster she nearly tore it away.

Her eyes, dark with disbelief and despair, were glued to the spot where Silvia’s car had just sped away.

She’d heard every word Shipley had said to Silvia—every. Single. Word.

Why?

Everything Vianne had done—swallowing her pride, returning to the Ashford family home—had been for the sake of one promise Shipley had made her.

And now, after all that, she’d stood in the shadows and listened as Shipley confessed his true feelings to Silvia?

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