Madly Yours (Nora Reed) novel Chapter 457

Nora Reed hung up the phone and turned back into the exhibition hall.

Sienna Quigley was still standing in front of the display board for *A Walk in the Clouds*, lost in thought.

"Sienna?" Nora walked over to her side and gently touched her arm.

Sienna snapped back to reality and forced a smile. "Finished with your call?"

"Yeah." Nora nodded, her gaze lingering on Sienna's face. "Are you okay? You look awful."

"Do I?" Sienna raised a hand to touch her own cheek, letting out a hollow laugh. "Maybe they've got the AC turned down too low in here. It's a little chilly."

Nora didn't say anything, just stared at her.

Sienna grew uncomfortable under the scrutiny and looked away. "Let's go. We should check out the other side. I saw some really interesting pieces over in that zone earlier..."

Nora grabbed her wrist, lifting her chin to point at the design on the display stand. "That piece... is there something wrong with it?"

Sienna's expression stiffened visibly.

"You've been distracted ever since we walked through the door. And as soon as you saw that design, your whole demeanor changed. Besides, the look on your face back there wasn't the look of someone seeing it for the first time."

Nora paused. "Whose design is that, really?"

The moment the words left her mouth, Sienna's eyes welled with tears.

She bit her lip, fighting desperately to hold them back, but the tears fell like a broken string of pearls, pattering down one after another.

Nora was startled and hurriedly dug some tissues out of her purse, handing them over. "Sienna, please don't cry. What's wrong? What exactly happened?"

Sienna took the tissues and covered her eyes.

Her shoulders trembled slightly, as if she was trying with all her might to suppress something. But the dam broke. All the emotions she had bottled up for so long surged out like a flood, impossible to hold back.

Nora gently wrapped an arm around her shoulders, neither speaking nor pressing for answers.

Her gaze drifted back to the blueprint, a storm of complex, unbearable emotions swirling in her eyes.

"*A Walk in the Clouds* was his final project for grad school. He locked himself in his studio for an entire month just to perfect this design..."

"He told me it was the masterpiece of his life. He was going to enter it in an international competition, win gold, and make sure I saw his name up there on the podium."

"And then?"

Sienna closed her eyes, a single tear slipping down her cheek.

"And then... he died."

Nora's heart clenched painfully.

"The day he finished his final defense, I was throwing a tantrum, insisting he go buy me a gift. Right after he walked out of the store, he was hit by a truck running a red light. By the time he got to the hospital, he was already gone."

Sienna's voice was eerily calm, as dead as stagnant water, but the sorrow in her eyes was so thick it practically suffocated the air around them.