PopularNovelChapter 214
In short, Mr. Smith looked utterly unconvinced.
"She is, in fact, my wife."
Timothy repeated the words, his gaze steady and earnest.
Mr. Smith had known Timothy for a decade. He was well aware that Timothy wasn't the type to joke about such
things.
So, despite his surprise, he had no choice but to believe that the beautiful young woman really was Timothy's
wife.
"Tim, you're a lucky man to have such a beautiful wife. Congratulations."
A faint smile tugged at Timothy's lips.
Before anyone could say more, their attention was drawn by a commotion from
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Larkin's group.
"It's wrapped up so tightly-it almost looks like a painting."
"It has to be a masterpiece, surely."
"I think so too. After all, it's a gift for Larkin no one would show up with something ordinary."
Sallie rolled her eyes. Jessica, bring a masterpiece? As if.
Sheila looked confused. Jessica had call this way to Larkin's birthday party, making such a show of her gift.
Surely Timothy must have prepared it for her.
A pang of disappointment tugged at Sheila's heart.
Kane let out a cold snort. "If you're going to bring a gift, just bring it—no need for all this mystery. Let's hope it's
actually impressive, or this will be embarrassing."
Yates watched on, clearly intrigued.
Vince hadn't seen the gift Jessica had prepared for his grandfather, but he'd seen her intricate paper-cutting
before. He'd even dropped hints to his grandfather about wanting one of her pieces. He had a hunch: this had to
be one of Jessica's paper-cuttings.
He smiled and said, "Jessica, go ahead. Open it."
Larkin, meanwhile, barely glanced at the gift. He didn't really care about presents —he just recognized the
handiwork of her late grandmother and wanted to meet Jessica in person.
Jessica gently lifted the red cloth covering the frame. Beneath it was a beautifully mounted bas-relief paper-
cutting.
Before mounting it, she'd had the shop paste the delicate cut-out onto fine art paper, so to the untrained eye, it
looked almost indistinguishable from a traditional painting.
The banquet hall fell into an awed silence.
Larkin, visibly moved, stood and walked toward the piece. Adjusting his reading glasses, he bent closer, eyes
fixed on the intricate new work.
"Wow, are we sure this isn't machine-made? It looks almost too perfect."
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"Yeah, it hardly seems possible a human could make that by hand. It's beautiful, sure-eye-catching, even-but if
it's done by a machine, it's not really worth anything."
“Even if it is handmade, so what? All flash and no substance. Anyone can see it's not the work of a true master-
the paper's so new, it definitely isn't an antique. All this fuss for something so ordinary?"
"Honestly, it's not even as impressive as Miss Howard's jade pipe."
Though swere shocked by how lifelike the piece looked-its 3D effect so real it seemed to leap from the
frame-these people were no strangers to fine art. Among the upper crust, only pieces by master artists or
genuine antiques were considered truly valuable. Anything else, no matter how beautiful, had no place in their
homes.
Sallie's face grew even darker; she felt Jessica was making the Lawson family look ridiculous.
Sheila, for her part, knew Jessica was talented with paper-cutting-exceptionally so. But what did that matter?
Jessica wasn't a renowned artist; even a beautiful piece would draw ridicule if it didn't have a famous signature.
It was just a flashy stunt-nothing more, and soon everyone would see it.
Larkin, however, was undeterred. He kept adjusting his glasses, examining the work from every angle.
Just then, an elderly man stepped forward. "You people have no idea what you're looking at. This is bas-relief
paper-cutting, a long-lost art form. Very few people alive could create something like this."
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