Finn hurriedly ran down the stairs, his eyes immediately locking on Aoife.
The one screaming was not Aoife, but someone else. Finn looked at the stranger, all the women who appeared here tonight were wealthy ladies.
The woman’s dress was stained with watermarks, she pointed at Aoife: “What’s going on here? Why would you let a fool in? She dirtied my dress, how will you compensate me, she’s so stupid and ugly!”
“I’ll compensate.” Finn strode over to shield Aoife behind him, instructing his assistant on the side, “Sullivan, remember this lady’s contact information and home address.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You…” The woman wanted to say more, but when she saw Finn’s gaze, she couldn’t even catch her breath, let alone speak.
“I’ll pay for your dress, shouldn’t you also apologize?” Finn’s face remained calm, authoritative without anger.
Human nature couldn’t resist watching a commotion, but here, no one dared to gather around, they could only watch from a distance with ears perked up.
The woman muttered a “sorry” before hastily fleeing.
Turning back to Aoife, Finn saw her standing there blankly, holding a tissue in her left hand and a crushed grape in her right, the juice seeping through her fingers and staining her skirt.
“I didn’t mean to dirty her dress, I didn’t know she was behind me, I wanted to clean it for her, she called me a fool, Aoife is not a fool…”
Taking the handkerchief from his assistant, Finn carefully wiped the dirt off Aoife, saying gently, “Yes, Aoife is not a fool.”
Though simple-minded, Aoife still had her dignity, she was sensitive and could sense the mocking gazes around her, even if no words were spoken, she could see the sarcasm in their eyes.
“Why would they allow a fool like her in here, looking so dim and ugly.”
“How could Mr. Snearl have someone like this by his side, it’s embarrassing.”
“Look at her blank expression, she must be mentally disabled, probably would pick up and eat things that fell on the ground.”
“Stop it!” Aoife covered her ears, but no one spoke, she was experiencing auditory hallucinations.
“Aoife, what’s wrong?” Finn worriedly called out to her as he saw her distant and vacant expression.
One of Aoife’s most severe symptoms was losing control over her body, becoming stiff like a puppet. While usually simple-minded, she could still smile and talk, understand others, but when triggered, she would become like this, as if losing her spirit.
“What’s happening? Why is no one speaking?”
“Could she be having an attack?”
“Look, there’s water flowing from her feet…”
These words felt like needles piercing Finn’s eardrums.
Finn took off his coat and wrapped it around Aoife’s waist, then lifted her up and left the place.
This whole farce ended up as a joke on Finn alone, while others enjoyed the gossip.
No one would have expected Finn to bring a fool to the Burns family’s doorstep in front of so many people, not only dirtying someone’s elegant gown but also publicly embarrassing herself.
This should be one of the most embarrassing things to happen to Finn.
Finn was accustomed to hiding his emotions, he held Aoife tightly as he carried her out.
Aoife still hadn’t regained consciousness, lying stiff in Finn’s arms. Only once they were in the car and the heating turned on did she ask Finn, “Ethan, did I embarrass you?”
Finn felt a pang in his heart, “Aoife, you didn’t embarrass me.”
Though left unsaid, Aoife understood. She could read the gazes of those people, she choked out, “Aoife was just eating cake and not wandering around.”
“Yeah, Aoife is very obedient.”
“Aoife remembered not to pick things up from the ground to eat, and not to rummage through trash cans.”
“Aoife is great.”
“With you liking her, that’s all that matters, she doesn’t need to be anyone else in their eyes.”
Relieved, Aoife sought Ethan in her mind, leaving just a simple-minded Aoife in this world, belonging to him from beginning to end.
The crushed grape in Aoife’s hand was starting to feel uncomfortable, Finn carefully wiped her hand clean with a damp tissue, delicately clearing each finger.
Aoife watched Finn earnestly cleaning her hand, her heart fluttering slightly. She said, “The grapes there are very delicious, so sweet. I wanted to share them with you, I remember you love eating grapes the most.”
Finn didn’t like grapes, it was Ethan who did.
Finn’s most despised fruit was grapes, during a time of abuse by his nanny, he dug through trash cans to eat rotten food, mostly grapes and bananas.
Seeing the disappointment in Aoife’s eyes, she had carefully selected the biggest, roundest grape from the fruit plate to give to Ethan, but she ended up crushing it.
Finn wiped Aoife’s hand clean, “Let’s buy grapes on the way back.”
It was still early for dinner, and Finn was worried about Aoife being hungry, so he took her to a store to buy a clean maternity outfit before heading to a restaurant.
There was a piano in the restaurant, but today’s pianist was on break. Aoife kept staring at the piano, wanting to approach it but hesitating to leave Finn’s side.
She kept looking at the piano, blurry images flashing through her mind, slipping through her grasp.
Finn noticed her fixation and looked in the same direction, where a piano stood.
“Do you want to play the piano?”
Aoife shook her head, “I want to listen to you play.” She had a feeling Ethan would know how to play the piano.
Finn also played the piano, he asked, “Any songs you’d like to hear? I’ll play it for you.”
During her pregnancy, Aoife had listened to a lot of music, mostly relaxing instrumental pieces and cheerful children’s songs.
With a poor memory for song names, she hummed disjointedly, Finn recognized it as “A Wedding in a Dream.”
Even though Aoife had forgotten everything due to her condition, she still remembered Ethan, calling out to him over and over, “Ethan.”
She remembered Ethan liking to wear a clean white shirt with neat short hair, liking baby’s breath flowers, liking grapes, and playing “A Wedding in a Dream” for her.
Ethan was gone, but he lived on in every corner of Aoife’s life, his presence evident everywhere.