Maxwell froze on the spot, as if someone had struck him over the head with a club. His face turned pale in an instant.
As for Evangeline, a flicker of smugness and malicious glee instinctively flashed across her face. But it lasted less than a second before she immediately put on that all-too-familiar innocent expression of hers. Her eyes reddened, and tears came on cue.
She looked at me, her voice trembling.
“Aria… I didn’t mean to. He insisted on grabbing it.”
“I wanted to keep it safe for you, that’s why I didn’t give it to him. Really… I never thought he would tear the embroidery. I’m so sorry…”
She sounded so sincere, so wronged.
But all I felt was the world spinning around me.
That was Peony Elegance,
The piece I had stitched through countless sleepless nights, until my finge
