Year Five The Perfect Goodbye Plan novel Chapter 202

How were they supposed to respond?

While the group fell into awkward silence, Shipley broke it himself. With a forced smile tugging at his lips, he said, “It’s fine. Sweet Silvia is mine too, after all. You’re working at her company, getting to know each other, helping her out—that’s good.”

“Oh? Should I be grateful to you for that?”

Silvia hadn’t planned to come out, but seeing that Shipley had no intention of leaving, she decided to handle things personally.

She opened the door, her tone laced with sarcasm, her gaze icy as she stared at Shipley.

He was holding a bouquet of blue and white irises, watching Silvia with a gentle, unwavering gaze.

After a long, tense moment, Shipley spoke. “Sweet Silvia, look. These are your favorite flowers. You mentioned wanting them a while back, so I bought them for you.”

Silvia stared at the bouquet, an odd glint passing through her eyes.

Irises.

They really were her favorite flowers.

And yet, the irony stung—her love for irises was tied to Shipley, of all people.

Years ago, when she’d followed Shipley to Luminova City, the first bouquet he ever bought her was a bunch of irises from a street vendor.

She remembered asking him then why he hadn’t chosen roses.

He’d only smiled softly and told her, “Roses are too cliché.”

Much later, Silvia discovered that in the language of flowers, irises meant “lasting friendship.”

Perhaps, in Shipley’s heart, they were fated to be nothing more than friends.

And now, they weren’t even that.

Silvia still kept her fondness for irises, but there wasn’t a shred of love left in her for Shipley.

A few months back, she really had wanted Shipley to bring her irises.

“Good girl,” Shipley murmured, his smile widening, clearly pleased.

See? Silvia was still so easy to please.

Silvia raised her eyes, let out a short, cold laugh, and met his gaze.

“You really think you can still control me with this?”

The trash bin stood just a step away.

Without hesitation, Silvia tossed the bouquet straight in.

The air in the room seemed to thin, tension rising sharply.

Shipley’s presence turned ice-cold.

But Silvia acted as if she hadn’t noticed. Her voice was cool, her expression taking on a hint of Kent Parsons’ famous disdain. “Shipley, take your cheap affection—and get out.”