The elevator pinging their floor had her turning away without an answer and moving to make a quick exit, but Tian caught her by the wrist and tugged her back. Causing her to stumble against him while he righted her with a hand to her waist, a little moment of spark between them. Ling found herself gazing up at his face, too close for comfort even if he was good-looking from all angles, and shoved him away even though he still had her wrist in his grip.
“What about him?” She snapped, irritated by how much her body temperature had risen in under three seconds, and her heart had started pounding. Tian cleared his throat, also affected by that maddening perfume he had only recently started to remove from his senses, and now she was invading it again.
“Come to my office with us. We need to talk.” Tian let her go as he walked by, all smooth swagger and a little too confidently for her liking, yet mentioning that asshole had her doing as she was told. She followed Kai and Tian out of the elevator, but Qian remained knowing he was not needed and along the corridor to Tian’s office. Walking behind and trying not to stare at Tian’s ass which was peeking out from under his tailored jacket and yet not hiding how perky it was.
She wondered what kind of workout he did as, given her memory of that night, he had abs, muscles, and pecks to die for.
Not that she was interested in seeing them again.
Silently following them inside, Ling walked to the nearest chair in the sitting area and sat down. Crossing her legs in deliberate smoothness and caught Tian eyeing her up as he walked by.
Kai moved to Tian’s desk, pulled out the chair, and seemed to collapse into it before swiveling it towards Ling’s direction but kept his distance. His entire normal cold and commanding CEO mode was switched off, and he seemed like a third wheel at some awkward blind date. An empty sack someone had thrown onto the seat. Ling was starting to pick up on a shift in him and could see now from her viewpoint that he looked exhausted and somewhat disconnected.
Tian casually walked to the kitchenette to lift three water bottles and returned to deposit them on the table. As usual, he seemed unaffected by anything and his normal steely self.
Ling was livid yet also weirdly hesitant. That idiot Tian actually did what he said he would do and finally cleared Meilei’s name. She didn’t know whether to slap or hug him and couldn’t control the choking mist of tears that veiled her eyes. Confused by this reaction and suddenly heavy with it.
She turned on her heel to walk out to try and pull her emotions back together, her mind swirling and halted by Tian’s firm snap.
“Sit down!”
He should have believed her.
Meilei was the love of his life.
“He won’t go anywhere near her again,” Kai growled, instant prickliness as he cut in, and Ling gave him a side eye glare, still standing and refusing to sit back down because Tian said so.
“You can rest assured that Kai’s right. San leaves first thing in the morning and knows never to return. Meilei will be safe from him. Kai will make sure of it.”
Ling snorted under her breath and mumbled a ‘Will he now?’ in sarcasm. Knowing fine well, if San came near her family again, she would be the one to castrate the little asswipe.
Ling stared at Tian long and hard as thoughts flowed through her mind. She had a million angry reactions but couldn’t keep it up. Yuelin was still in the middle of this mess, and maybe she should sit down and listen to them for her sake.
Kai sunk his chin to his chest and closed his eyes as his headache intensified with the suffocating wash of regret once more. He had already thought about this repeatedly and knew Meilei would never trust him again. He owed her too much.
Security and a white flag.
Kai had thought of it briefly after his mother had moved her in the hospital as a means to protect her, yet now he wanted it to prove to Meilei he wouldn’t use anything against her anymore. He would have to put full trust in Meilei that she wouldn’t cut his contact with Yuelin because the law would have zero impact if he did this.
Tian was shocked, given Kai hadn’t said a word about this yet, but kept his cool and didn’t react, only focusing on Ling and watching the open shock as it passed over her delicate features.
“You’ll give up your paternal rights over Yue? Seriously?”
Ling was momentarily gobsmacked. Her eyes flicked from one man to the other in mistrust, seeing nothing but blank expressions and a heavy sense of seriousness.
Ling told her he, too, saw San and knew everything, but it felt surreal, and she wasn’t sure how today would go. She hadn’t slept from tossing and turning and trying to evaluate her feelings over this entire thing. This was a scenario she hadn’t expected in her lifetime, and now she couldn’t run from it.