Chapter 82



After Hayden and the others spent more than ten hours on the plane, they finally landed at the Maldives airport.

As soon as they stepped off the plane, they felt the refreshing sea breeze. They could almost smell the fishy odor, but it wasn’t unpleasant.

Stella had been glued to Freddie for the entire trip. As she got off the plane, she felt tired. On the way to the hotel, she was like a koala bear, hanging onto Freddie’s neck and dozing.

When they arrived at the hotel, Freddie sent Stella to sleep in a room on the second floor. Then he took the luggage. After a walk around, he tidied up the rooms.

“Hayden, you can stay upstairs with Stella, since the room upstairs is bigger. I’ll stay downstairs.”

Hayden handed her a glass of water. “Thank you. Have some water first. I’ll go look upstairs.”

Freddie burst out laughing. “You don’t need to be so nervous. Seeing you so polite, I feel very uncomfortable.”

Hayden looked around helplessly. This room was fully set up with cameras. In the corner of the room, there was a cameraman hiding, posing as an invisible man. How could she not be tense?

“I really can’t do it. I’m afraid I’m going to collapse in these five days.”

“It’s okay, relax. They’re mainly focusing on Stella and me, they’ll cut most of your scenes during post-production too.”

Hayden hesitated for a moment. But suddenly, his eyes lit up.

“How about I let Stella follow you starting tomorrow? As long as the two of you don’t interact with me, the cameras wouldn’t chase me.”

Freddie was speechless.

Hayden quickly said, “Okay. Please take care of Stella these days.” Then he went upstairs.

It was already dusk. The night breeze was blowing.

Pushing open the glass door to the second floor balcony, Hayden could see the orange sea reflecting the setting sun in the distance, glistening in the sunlight. On the beach were coconut trees and their shadows. A few couples strolled along the seashore.

Hayden leaned against the balcony and inhaled deeply, feeling refreshed.

It had been a long time since she had been this relaxed.

Although it was an accident to shoot this travel show with Freddie, she was grateful for this opportunity. After all, it was a rare opportunity to travel at the business rate.

Suddenly, she heard the message tone on her phone. She pulled it out of her pocket, looked down and, out of the corner of her eye, glimpsed a familiar figure on the floor below.

Instantly, his heart skipped a beat. She lifted her head and looked toward the door of the cafeteria by the pool, and found a man dressed in a casual beige shirt sitting with his back to her. This man looked like him.

Hayden was startled by this sudden thought that popped into her mind.

Are you crazy, how could you mistake yourself for him, she thought.

As she rambled on, another message came through. She came back to her senses and looked down to read Freddie’s message.

“[Stella is still sleeping. I’m going down to get something for dinner. You can come down to stay with her].”

Hayden replied, “Okay.”

As he sent the message, he turned around and went downstairs. As he turned around, he noticed that, in the cafeteria downstairs, a little boy was perched on the chair in front of the man.

The little boy wrote a line on the small board.

“[Why don’t we go straight to them?”.]

The man unhurriedly took a sip of tea, “There’s no hurry. There are cameras all around you and that’s inconvenient.”

The boy was a little disgruntled. Pouting, he looked displeased. Then a few more lines appeared on the drawing board.

“[Anyway, if I can’t meet them, I won’t go home. You can’t go home, either].”

The man seemed distant and calm. However, when he read what he wrote, he looked a little helpless. “Okay, I know, now can you eat well?”.

Hearing his response, the boy seemed less upset. Reluctantly, he took a bite of his food.

However, he was complaining about the food inside. It wasn’t tasty at all, it couldn’t compare to Hayden’s dishes. What’s so funny here? he thought to himself.

Later in the evening…

Freddie bought some dinner to eat with them. Stella happened to wake up, and so the three of them ate dinner together on the second floor. Because of the trip, they all felt exhausted, so afterwards they went back to their rooms.

At night, Stella and Hayden slept on the second floor. In the sky outside the window, they could see all the stars, as if they were in a dream. Since the curtain was not drawn, a breeze came in from time to time through the slits in the French window along with the salty smell of the sea, which made them feel very much at ease.

The figures of a man and a boy were dimly visible on the balcony. When the boy saw Hayden, he wanted to enter the house, but the man held him in his arms to stop him. The man whispered to him, “If you go into the room now and wake them up, we won’t have any fun tomorrow.”

Although the boy was reluctant, he could still look down, gazing enviously at his little friend Stella sleeping in Hayden’s arms.

“Now you’ve seen them. Let’s go back to sleep.”

The deliberately low voice disappeared in the breeze. The two figures on the balcony tiptoed, turned and left.

Early the next morning, as they were eating breakfast. Freddie suddenly asked, “By the way, Hayden, did you close the balcony door last night?”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“The balconies in this hotel are all shared by two suites, so guests can enter the two suites through the second floor balcony. I don’t know if we have neighbors next door. Remember to draw the curtain and close the window at night, I forgot to remind you last night.”

Hayden nodded. He didn’t take it seriously.

“Really? I didn’t close it. But there shouldn’t be anyone in the suite next door, I didn’t hear any movement. When I was on the balcony yesterday afternoon, I didn’t run into anyone.”

Hearing that, Freddie reminded her to lock the door again. He then stuffed things like sunscreen, his water bottle, a hat and a pair of sunglasses into his backpack before finally leaving to Stella’s impatience.

Hayden watched as Freddie and Stella got into the car at the hotel entrance.

“You’re really not coming with us?” Freddie asked before the car door closed.

His tone still carried a tinge of expectation.

“You know I’m dizzy, right?”. Hayden shrugged helplessly, “If I go with you and get on the boat, you’ll not only have to take care of Stella, but probably me too. It’s too much trouble, forget it.”

Freddie muttered, “I wish I could take care of you.”

However, his voice was too low, so Hayden didn’t hear him clearly.

According to his schedule today, Freddie would take Stella sailing out to sea. On the one hand, Hayden was seasick; on the other, she didn’t want to be filmed by multiple cameras at any time, wherever she went. Hence, last night she told them she would not be joining them.

When the car left, Hayden went back to the hotel.

“A cup of coffee, please.” He asked at the coffee shop by the outdoor pool.

Then she sat there until noon, feeling quite relaxed.

In the distance, a small figure was caught by a hotel employee, who was speaking English to the boy.

Hayden peered through the sunglasses. Suddenly, she felt puzzled. Then she instantly straightened up – wasn’t that Noah?

“Hey, Noah?”

She stood up and shouted his name from afar. The boy immediately looked up at her. Quickly freeing himself, he ran to Hayden and hugged her thigh immediately.

“Noah, why are you here by yourself?” She asked him.

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