Chapter 137: A Real Surprise
Valerie’s POV
I haven’t had such a lively birthday since my parents’ death.
Today, I received gifts and ate with other people who specifically came to celebrate my birthday.
As I saw them off in the evening, I couldn’t help but feel my eyes water from the unshed tears.
I haven’t been so happy in a long time.
Shadow, whom today I knew was called Casper, noticed me and stopped to look at me.
"What’s wrong Little Ghost?" He asked curiously, which attracted the attention of Caelan who was already heading towards the car.
"Nothing." I said with a smile through my unshed tears.
Caelan turned to look in my direction and I couldn’t look away for some reason.
He looked at me for a while then walked back to stand in front of me.
I didn’t know what he was up to, but I could feel that he didn’t have any malice towards me.
So, I didn’t react for a moment.
Then he stretched his arms and for a moment, I flinched because I thought he was going to hit me.
To my surprise, he smiled at me. One of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen, then he pulled me in for a hug.
The way his long arms wrapped around my small frame made me almost disappear in his embrace.
That one hug made me feel so safe and almost addicted.
I wanted to hug him back, but I was afraid that would be too forward.
So, my arms remained hanging by my side until he let go and moved back.
"Happy birthday, Little one." He said beside my ear, causing me to tremble from the familiar sensation I had felt a few times that day every time we came into contact.
Without my knowledge, a smile formed on my lips.
Even when Caelan let go and their car had already disappeared, I stood in the driveway still smiling like an idiot.
"Okay, they are gone. You can go back inside now." Lizzie finally made an entrance.
I don’t know why but it felt as if she had been hiding from the two men.
Ever since they came, Lizzie had disappeared for the whole day.
"You finally decided to show up?" I asked sarcastically but Lizzie didn’t seem to mind.
"Wasn’t I leaving space for you to interact with your new friends? If I hovered everywhere, how were you ever going to bond with them?" Lizzie asked as if what she said made sense.
"Don’t think I don’t know you were hiding. I won’t ask why. You will tell me when you are ready." I didn’t want to make things difficult for my only companion.
So, I didn’t dig into her behavior.
"Let’s go check out what gift Lan truly gave me." I said while turning to head back inside.
Back into the house, I took the small box that had been stuck in the roses and opened it.
The roses were already put in a vase with water for preservation.
This was the first time I had received flowers, and pink roses immediately became one of my favorite things in the world.
"Hurry up and see what’s inside." Lizzie urged me and I hurriedly opened the box.
I was expecting to see some kind of jewelry. Maybe a small necklace or something.
But I didn’t expect that in the box was a USB.
"Why is there a USB drive?" I asked out loud.
"Why don’t you put it in your computer and see what’s in the USB? Maybe it’s something incredible." Lizzie said, but my heart had already cooled.
What did I expect? Even my own mate didn’t care about my birthday. Why would a stranger I met today for the first time care about the gift he gave to a former slave like me?
"Don’t start overthinking and persecuting people without facts. First, check what’s in the USB drive before passing a judgment." Lizzie said when she noticed my thoughts.
"What good thing fitting a birthday gift could be inside a USB drive? Is there even a reason to check? I shouldn’t have been so careless. Letting my guard down just because a handsome guy smiled at me. How pathetic." I said this but my heart felt as if it was shattering into millions of pieces.
I had never felt this way even when I watched Mike pounding into Innocent live.
"Why does it hurt so much?" I asked and tears were already streaming down my face as I spoke.
"Val, when did you become so hypocritical like those people in the Night Claw Pack and judge people without evidence? You haven’t seen the gift yet and you are making assumptions about someone’s good intentions. Is this the right thing to do?" Lizzie asked with a stern and angry voice and only then did I seem to wake up.
’Yes, I have been disappointed so many times that I started speculating about others without proof. What was I becoming?’
I was basically becoming what I hate the most.
People who prosecute others without proper evidence. The same way my father was framed and killed without proper investigation.
"I am sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I’ll go get my laptop now." Without another word, I ran upstairs to my office and grabbed my laptop then went back to the living room.
I put the USB into the port in the laptop and once it showed up on the screen, I clicked open the folder inside the USB.
To my surprise, in the folder, there were smaller encrypted folders inside and it took me nearly thirty minutes to crack them.
However, the real surprise was inside these smaller folders.
In one of the folders, there was a file with a humongous amount of information about hacking and computer science.
With this information, I could advance my skills by a huge margin.
Who would have thought that someone I met for the first time would be so generous?
However, the real birthday gift was in the other folder.