“What? Why?” Like a wounded child, Anna couldn’t see the error in her actions and was justifying it because she was in love with him.
Kai had heard enough and knew this would only make him angry.
“Kai..” Anna’s little broken voice, pouted lip, and big eyes made him walk away from her.
Anna’s lip wobbled. She sniffed back an impending waterfall of tears and spun on her heel to storm out and leave him alone.
Kai heard the door slam and sighed to himself without looking back her way. Shaking his head at the dramatics of women and how headache-inducing they all were. Sometimes, he wished he had never met any of them.
Now, he had to find a way to keep his parents restrained, and Minhui wouldn’t be much help.
Kai waited by the door that exited the tech department and headed to the underground parking, knowing that Meilei often went home with Manager Huo at that time. He checked his watch, mentally calculating how long before Yue got out of kindergarten, and leaned in to see if she was coming.
A few staff passed him, nodding in respect and greeting him, and he smiled, agitated and wondering why she wasn’t coming yet.
He had to be at the airport in an hour, and he was cutting a fine line with this.
Meilei came wandering out, sliding her lanyard over her head and slipping it into her handbag. She was unaware of his dark, tall figure lurking by the elevators and almost walked past him. Lost in thought as she mentally went through the error codes they had been battling all day. Her mind on Inhale and oblivious to her surroundings. Tao was staying late with Chou to work some more, but Meilei needed to go home and get her daughter.
“We need to talk.” Kai stepped out in front of her, scaring her almost half to death, and she flinched away with a jumped cry. Clutching her heart to cool the startled pounding.
“If this is about your family again, then don’t.” Meilei curled herself inwards, pulling her bag before her like a shield, and avoided looking at him. “I won’t change my mind. They need to wait until she’s comfortable with you. Once you’ve proven you will protect her.” On that, she was determined.
Kai heard her and pretended he didn’t. He was in no mood to back down. She didn’t understand that he was stuck between a wall and a hard place, and his mother could be so much worse than a mere demand to meet.
The elevator pinged, signaling they had reached the ground, and Kai automatically caught her wrist to pull her after him as they exited. Sure she would walk off to find Ling otherwise. It was so easy for him to put his hands on her, and she hated his familiar touch and bossy manner. Cursing him inwardly and outwardly and wriggling her entire arm.
Meilei squealed as his arms came around her upper body and waist, wrapping her in an unescapable hold, and he picked her up physically. Trapping her so she couldn’t move, he turned to walk her to his awaiting car. She was as light as she had always been, and he turned his face away from getting a mouthful of her hair. He knew he was crossing a line, but this was technically an emergency.
The door opened as they approached, as Qian dived to get it, and Meilei threw him a furious glare as she was deposited in the seat with a harsh throw. Kai pushed her in to follow, and Qian gave them a customary nod and smile before slamming it shut. He shook his head at his cousin’s out-of-character behavior and jumped into the driver’s seat without comment. An accomplice in this because he agreed that Kai had no other choice.
The action had also ignited a memory for him, although it was unwanted. A hint of the Meilei he had thought he knew.
He lifted his gaze and pinned her with a glare that silenced her. Bringing her back to still with a sudden black mood and thinning of air around them as his aura sparked, she recoiled her arm to move away from him.
Kai leaned in, snatching the seatbelt from behind her as they moved, forcefully yanked it across her body, and plugged it in before sitting back to do the same for himself. Ignoring her stunned silence at the once affectionate habit, and cursed himself for doing it. It was so automatic he hadn’t noticed he was doing it.
“Why is this such a big deal? Why can’t they respect my wishes and have some consideration for her?” Meilei couldn’t understand why this tiny thing was being so dramatized, but then his family was nothing like hers. They had always seemed to control everything their children did and applied pressure.
She remembered when Kai had pursued her, telling his parents she was what he wanted. They had at first venomously denied him. They tried to force a separation because she was not from his world or had the same status as he did, and they thought her inferior. They wanted him to marry someone from their level, not a penniless girl who would drag him down. Refusing to approve of their relationship.
Kai had dug his heels in and even swore to let them disown him and cut him off if they didn’t let him be with her, and in the end, they finally relented. He had been so set on walking away from his family, showing a stubbornness that matched his mother’s. She had finally allowed it on the understanding they could not marry or even think about marriage until Kai took up his final position in their business. He had to work hard first and get where they wanted him to be.
Meilei fell silent. She couldn’t deny that his mother was hard to deal with and had the finances and connections to follow through. She had made them suffer and had tried to make Meilei leave using guilt tactics, emotional blackmail, and even the offer of money in their early days of dating. All behind his back, she hadn’t the heart to tell him back then.