The Alchemists

With difficulty, Caspar went out of his penthouse and descended into the lobby of the St. Laurent Hotel. He called Jadeith and asked him to drive to the airport immediately. The hotel staff and guests were astonished to see him.

Caspar had never been seen drunk before. The staff didn't know what they should do. They wanted to help but at the same time they didn't want to be rude.

"Hey... what's wrong with you?" They looked relieved when Sophia, who just came out of the elevator, approached Caspar and grabbed his shoulder. "Are you drunk?"

"Hmm..." Caspar shrugged.

"Did something happen? You rushed to the airport this morning, and then you drink so much..." Sophia narrowed her eyes and looked at Caspar attentively. "Where are you going?"

"To Singapore."

Jadeith arrived and signaled that the car was ready.

"I'm coming. I can't let you go in this state. Please let me repay your kindness and help you this time."

Sophia helped Caspar walk to the car and sat next to him. Shortly before the car moved, she changed her mind.

"Jadeith, wait a minute, I'll get the hangover soup from the restaurant."

Sophia got out of the car and walked to the hotel. She returned a few minutes later with a container filled with hangover soup and cutlery from the hotel restaurant. She let Caspar sleep on the way to the airport.

When they arrived, she took care of their documents and helped Caspar get into his private plane. After they took off, she served the soup and coffee to Caspar so the man would recover soon.

"Eat... so you will feel better," Sophia said, feeding Caspar. "I've never seen you like this. Does this have anything to do with your wife? I can't imagine anything else causing you to be like this..."

Caspar nodded slowly. He initially refused the soup from Sophia, but after being pushed several times, he finally accepted.

"What happened to her?" Sophia asked.

"She finally called me," Caspar answered reluctantly.

"What? Why did it take her so long? Then what did she say?"

"She said she had forgiven me..."

"Then?"

"She wants to meet. I think we should meet for the last time, to resolve the problem between us."

"Then why did you drink so much? Isn't that good news?"

"Do you still remember the child Lauriel brought yesterday?"

"Hmmm, why is that?"

"That's Finland's daughter."

"Ohh..." Sophia covered her mouth out of surprise. "Is that... is that why you are like this?"

Caspar nodded.

"I don't know if I would be able to meet her in person. I might embarrass myself even further. I'm afraid that if I meet her, I will only beg her to come back to me... That would be very embarrassing."

Sophia bit her lip. "Don't do that. I don't want to see you embarrassing yourself. You have sacrificed too much..."

Caspar didn't answer.

The trip to Singapore was too short. His heart wasn't ready yet. The next thing they knew, they had arrived at the Continental Hotel and it was already 7:00 p.m. Finland would arrive soon.

"If you are unable to meet her, let me see her on your behalf. I will deliver your message and receive the message from her for you," Sophia said, looking at Caspar's gloomy face.

Finland arrived at the hotel lobby with Aleksis. She sent a text message to Caspar informing him of her arrival. Caspar, who had seen her arrive from behind the elevator, almost walked toward her direction. However, then he saw Aleksis in her arms.

Instantly his body stiffened and he became very sad. He then turned to Sophia.

"Sophia... I can't meet her. Please ask her to return my mother's ring, so that we no longer have business with each other. I'll be waiting at the penthouse."

After saying that he entered the elevator and pressed the 40th floor button. The elevator door closed just as Finland turned toward his direction. She caught a glimpse of Caspar before the elevator door closed and her heart started beating so fast.

Was that Caspar? Why didn't he come out of the elevator?

"Good evening, Finland." Sophia suddenly appeared before her when Finland was busy with her own thoughts. "Caspar sent me to talk to you."

"So... Sophia? Why doesn't he want to see me in person?" Finland asked. She found it really difficult to hide her disappointment.

"Sorry, he's busy. He asked me to take his mother's ring from you."

"I want to meet him in person..." Finland insisted.

"Sorry, he won't see you."

"I have something to say... it's very important."

"You can tell me, and I will pass it on to him."

Finland looked at Sophia who was beautifully and elegantly dressed. She recalled that Sophia was a purist who was not related to Caspar's family. Why was she here now?

"Why are you here?" she asked in a cold voice.

"I've been living with Caspar for a year now. I went against my family to be with him."

Finland bit her lip. This information shocked her to the core.

"Are you two...?"

Sophia nodded before Finland could finish her question.

"I love him very much. It was very hard for him to forget about you, but he finally realized that a relationship with a commoner like you is too complicated."

"But I ..." Finland bit her lip until she bled. "But our child ..."

Sophia's face looked shocked, but she was able to quickly compose herself and hide her feelings behind a flat face.

"He knew since last year that you had a child, but he thought that the girl was your child with Jean. Seeing how you chose Jean over him so many times, he assumed that you're actually in love with Jean. That made him realize that it was time to move on and forget you."

"If he knew I had a child... why did he never contact me?"

"You think Caspar doesn't know what was going on with you? He has unlimited access to anything. He didn't want to contact you because he deliberately wanted to forget you. You have no idea how much he suffered after you left him."

Finland burst into tears hearing Sophia's cold words.

"No way... Caspar knew Jean and I are just friends. I've never slept with anyone else. This child of mine is his..."

Sophia pretended to look concerned and shook her head.

"You can't blame him. You always chose Jean over him... it's only reasonable that Caspar suspected that she's not his kid. Please don't make him suffer any more. Caspar struggled hard to forget about you for the past year..."

"I must hear this from him myself..." Finland insisted.

"You want to hear him say that he hates you and rejects this child directly? Go ahead..." Sophia handed her phone to Finland, signaling her to call Caspar, "I was going to spare your feelings, but you're so stubborn."

Finland bit her lip that was bleeding. She felt such chaos in her heart. She thought about Caspar's voice this afternoon on the phone which sounded as cold as ice. Her tears streamed down even harder.

Everything that happened was not as she expected.

Caspar was not happy when Finland contacted him. He had long known that Finland had a child, but instead of being happy, he thought that Finland had an affair with Jean and that Aleksis was Jean's child with her. Apparently, he also moved on and lived with Sophia now. So much had changed…

Finland felt very sad...

She picked up her phone and sobbed at Lauriel.

"Could... could you pick us up here...? I... I can't go back alone..." she whispered softly.

Sophia looked at Finland with a grimace. She then stretched out her hand.

"Please return his ring. His mother's ring."

Finland tried really hard to hold back her tears. She didn't want to break down even more in front of Sophia. She removed the ring that was encrusted with blue diamonds from her fingers. Those blue diamonds reminded her of Caspar's blue eyes.

She took one last glance and handed the ring over to Sophia. She then wiped her tears and walked to the sofa in the lobby. She tried to keep herself composed as she waited for Lauriel to arrive.

Sophia accepted the ring with a faint smile then walked to the elevator and went up to Caspar's penthouse on the 40th floor.

Lauriel arrived 10 minutes later. Finland, who couldn't contain her sadness anymore, immediately burst into his arms. She sobbed bitterly at Lauriel's chest.

"Ssshh... did you two have a fight?" he asked softly while stroking Finland's hair.

Finland did not answer. She just cried and nodded.

Lauriel waited patiently for Finland to calm down. He did not care about people staring at them.

After a while Finland finally calmed down.

"Let's go back to our hotel, okay..." Lauriel said, taking Aleksis from Finland's hands. He placed his arm around her shoulders and took her out of the Continental Hotel.

"I want to go back to America..." Finland whispered in a hoarse voice. "I no longer have a purpose here..."

"All right. We will go back to the hotel to get our luggage, then we go straight to the airport," Lauriel said in a soft voice. "Tomorrow we will already be in San Francisco."

Finland nodded. She rubbed her bleeding lip and held back the tears that were about to flow.

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From the Author:

Sophia is really cunning/smart/evil, taking advantage of an obvious misunderstanding between Caspar and Finland...

Now, miscommunication added with evil third party can cause sooo much pain.

I intentionally give you long chapters today so we can get over the angst quickly. Don't worry, the coming week chapters are so interesting and heartwarming to make up for the pain (plus we will have mass release ... yeay).

Get your heart ready for the ride!!

Thank you for your support in comments and power stone votes. It means a lot to me. Please continue supporting this novel so that it will get more views and more people can share our love for our lovely characters. My novel has been FREE from the beginning and I believe will continue to be free (will not go premium). The original version in Indonesian is now on its second volume and readers can read it for free until the end.

Then how do I make money to support my writing? Ahahaha... I wouldn't dream of asking for financial support in P.a.t.r.e.on until we have got over certain chapters that contain angst ... LOL and until we have reached more audience. At the moment we only have 1000 readers in this version (I have 6100 readers in Indonesian).

I also published the paperback version for volume 1 for Indonesian readers who want to have the hardcopy while still maintaining the digital version to read for free here in Webnovel. I plan to do the same for the English version, publishing the English paperback for volume 1, once it's completed. I'll keep you updated.

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