“Is he sleeping with her?” her tone cracked, and the words brought instant tears to her eyes. Her stomach clenched, and her heart was cramping. Her lip trembled, and she dropped her chin to her chest to try and control the sudden outburst of emotions. She closed her eyes and dabbed her cheek to catch a stray tear.
Tian sunk, deflated that she was turning emotional. He couldn’t stand seeing women cry and never knew how to comfort them. He wasn’t the softest of men. He was more of the practical and logical type who tried to keep emotions out of it and wished Qian was still here to counteract Anna’s breakdown. For all his cheeky and youthful playfulness, Qian was a master at dealing with sobbing girls. He had four sisters and remained friends with every girl he had ever dated. They didn’t scare him, and he was a hugger. Tian was not.
After he came home from his year here, she knew a girl must have hurt him because he had returned a different person than the one she knew. His heart had hardened, he went wild with parties and alcohol, and his entire persona was much colder. She had hoped he would heal in time and one day open his heart to her. That one night together had given her hope, only to have him dashing her down in the cold morning light.
Tian took a moment to think about his next words, knowing Anna was a sensitive soul when it related to Kai, but he was also slightly frustrated with her. It had been years of waiting for him to feel something, and she was still holding on. It had gone beyond sad and became almost embarrassing.
He had followed his friend from venture to venture, lived in so many cities, and was so used to temporary apartments and jet-set lifestyles that it had become tiring. He wanted to stop moving and stop starting over with new companies in crisis and make something permanent. OTS had called to him the second he laid eyes on the company details when they were considering the acquisition, and he didn’t regret choosing this as his final stopping point. He was turning thirty. Anna wasn’t that much younger. It was time they started thinking about life beyond Yanhue Corp.
He wished Anna would do that for herself too.
“I’ll think about it.”
“How did he find out?” Suying cradled Meilei in her soggy mess in a curled-up position on the couch. Hugging and rocking her and ‘shhhing’ her into calm. Meilei was in a state of shock. She was disheveled with a tear-stained face, her hair sticking to her cheeks and slick with a mixture of sweat and hysteria. She stared blankly ahead, her head nestled against Suying’s chest while Ling paced back and forward, reading the papers in her hand.
They were home after Ling got the garbled hysterical call from a hyperventilating Meilei on the executive floor and brought them both here. Suying came as soon as she got the message.
The office gossip would have had a field day if the staff had found her that way. Ling was glad she had dropped Yue off early and beat morning traffic to work for an early staff meeting. Otherwise, Meilei would have been alone for longer.
“Because he has evidence enough to show he is the most likely father due to her age and the legal right to know either way. You know our culture favors the fathers in most things.” Ling snapped, even more irritated as she flipped through it for the third time and then threw it down in a temper on the coffee table.
Neither did Ling or Suying, and Ling eventually sat down on the nearby armchair and leaned in. She was bubbling with excessive rage and energy and could barely stay still.
“Can we go get her now?” Meilei whimpered. She had been trying to retrieve Yue from school since she got home. Panic-driven and a need to get her here and safe for fear he would take her from there.
“There is another problem.” Ling hated to be the bearer of bad news, but her practical brain was already racing ahead.
“Which is?” Suying wasn’t sure she wanted to hear, given Ling’s lack of tact in most things. Sometimes, she was too blunt and to the point and didn’t soften anything for her friends.
Meilei hadn’t even thought of that, and his words about seeing her in court crossed her mind. It was almost like a warning to stay away until then, or maybe he meant that it would be so soon she wouldn’t need to see him before then. She had no clue.