Chapter 16
“How can that be? We’ve only been apart for half a month! We were happy for the past two years, weren’t we?” Leila was desperate to prove their relationship had mattered and recounted things that had happened between her and Ian over the past two years.
However, he only felt like she was proving how much of a fool he’d been. He said, “But our relationship started as a lie.”
Leila froze. She had nothing to say in response to that. All she could do was look at him pleadingly. “I’m sorry, Ian. I know I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have lied to you, but that doesn’t mean what we had was fake.”
Her apology meant nothing to Ian. He’d given her his heart, yet she’d stomped all over it. He’d given her his sincere love, yet she and her friends had treated it as a plaything.
Whatever they’d had between them had ended the moment he’d discovered the truth–deception was something he would never be able to tolerate.
“Do you think an apology is enough to make up for everything I went through, Leila? Can it restore my broken heart? Can it give me back my kidney?” he asked. Leila turned paler with every question asked. She could only stand there weakly, feeling like something was lodged in her throat. She couldn’t speak
Ian looked at her one last time. “Go home, Leila. Stop harassing me; I don’t want to see you again. You can go back to being your heiress, and I’ll further my studies. We’re from different worlds–our meeting was nothing but a mistake.”
With that, he turned and headed upstairs.
Leila remained rooted to the spot as she watched his figure disappear from her line of sight. Ultimately, she remained silent.
She was the one who’d started this off on a lie, and she’d hurt him time and time again throughout their relationship. How could she be shameless enough to pester him for forgiveness?
The following day, when it was time for Ian to head to the lab, he went downstairs to see Leila still standing where he’d left her. He acted like he didn’t see her and made a beeline for Rosalie. He took the sandwich she held out and looked at her curiously. “Aren’t you going to ask about what happened?”
She smiled and rubbed his head. “That’s your private life. You’ll tell me if you want to talk about it. Besides, I had my suspicions about what had happened when I first saw you here. I’d heard about you having a girlfriend you loved back in Merania, yet you came here covered in wounds. I’m pretty sure she was the one who caused them.
“Those aren’t happy memories for you, so I don’t want to bring them up and make you relive the pain. That’s all they are to you now.”
That made Ian’s nose prickle. He lowered his head and ate his sandwich.
“Come on, cheer up so we can focus on our research! That’s the only constant in our lives,” she said.
He nodded. “Alright! I thought of a new approach after yesterday’s experiment. We can…”
Leila didn’t budge from where she stood. She watched as Ian’s figure slowly faded out of her line of sight.
She’d made too many mistakes; she no longer had the gall to continue pestering him. She was happy enough to have gotten the chance to see him one last time and see that he was happy.
That very afternoon, she booked a ticket back to Merania. When she got back, she was like a changed person. She took over the family business per her father’s instructions, but resisted an arranged marriage.
With her calling the shots at the company, her father couldn’t do anything to her, no matter how anxious he was for her to get married.
- 23.
Two years passed in the blink of an eye. Allegro College announced that a batch of its students who’d gone abroad to further their studies had returned to Merania and launched a new research project. Once it succeeded, it would prove to be a big leap forward for the country’s research standards.
Leila saw a familiar figure on the TV screen and paused while signing a document. She summoned her assistant and told her to make an anonymous donation of 100 million dollars to Allegro College’s newest research project.
That was probably one of the few things she could do for Ian. His kidney and all his savings were favors she could never repay in this lifetime.
