Joshua lowered his eyes, hiding the darkness within them.


    "Okay."


    ...


    Two dayster, Neville arrived with Marvin to meet Ste and Joshua. Marvin, much like Keen O''Brien, idolized Joshua, constantly calling out "Mr. Joshua" this and "Mr. Joshua" that whenever he saw him.


    Watching Joshua listen patiently to Marvin, Ste felt a strange sense of destiny. It was hard to believe that Marvin and Joshua were actually rted. Then again, with so many Gardners, they were probably distant rtives, barely connected at all. Otherwise, Joshua would have at least heard of ine.


    "Star, are you listening?" A deep, maic voice sounded beside her.


    Ste turned to see Neville looking at her with concern.


    "You seem a bit distracted today, Star. Is something on your mind?"


    Ste had no intention of telling Neville that Joshua was a Gardner.


    Given Grandma Connolly''s attitude, she knew how much she disliked them. And with Neville''s devotion to his sister, who had been imprisoned and died in sorrow, leaving behind a three-year-old child, he likely wouldn''t be fond of the Gardners either.


    As for Joshua, even though he was a Gardner, he seemed to be on the fringes and shouldn''t be dragged into it.


    "No, it''s nothing," Ste said casually. "It''s just that when you mentioned the art exhibition, it reminded me of someone."


    Neville was curious. "Oh? Who did you think of?"


    Ste smiled. "A girl from my university days who once bought one of my pieces. You could tell she loved art and had a very unique perspective on it. For some reason, she was forced to give it up. But even so, you could still feel her passion for painting whenever she spoke about it."


    Hearing this, Neville realized, "It sounds like she went through something simr to you, Star."


    Just as they were talking about ''L,'' Ste''s phone vibrated.


    She nced at the message and smiled. "The girl knew I was going to an exhibition today and asked if I could take a few pictures for her."


    Neville nced at the screen and saw the message.


    "You''re going to the exhibition today? Could you take a few pictures for me?"


    Ste replied, "Sure."


    The other person politely sent back, "Thank you."


    A momentter, another message came through.


    "Have fun."


    Ste didn''t reply again.


    The conversation was simple and polite. The other person wasn''t clingy, never overstepping her bounds.


    Neville knew that while Ste seemed approachable, very few people ever truly got close to her.


    The four of them soon arrived at the exhibition. The gallery was sparsely popted, feeling almost deserted.


    Ste found it strange. "Isn''t this exhibition supposed to feature works by famous artists? I heard it even includes some rare, historical pieces Why are there so few people here?"


    Ste walked over to one of the paintings.


    set


    She recognized it instantly as the final work of a renowned European oil painter from thest century. It replica, it was the original.  s?novels


    wasn''t


    Ste had even read news about this painting before; it had supposedly sold at auction for a price in the tens of billions. The figure was so high it seemed absurd.


    And now, a masterpiece worth that much was just casually ced in an inconspicuous corner?