“It’s time you brought Anna back to the States and gave her a permanent position in HQ. She isn’t needed or wanted here, and it’s only holding up her life. Book a flight.”
Minhui’s shocked silence held the air static as she cleared her throat, trying to gauge what was happening here even if she sort of knew. She could guess it and had seen her brother’s internal statement that day. She was in the loop even across the seas.
Kai flinched when his cell was ripped out of his hand as if it puffed into thin air, and Tian calmly pushed him to sit down with a hand to his chest. Appearing before him and bringing his air of command.
“Minhui, we will call you later,” Tian answered for him, hung up, and stared down his best friend. “This is not the way when everyone is emotional. You need also to take a breath and step out.”
Tian had enough. Listening to them, seeing it escalate, and fully aware that outside the door was a floor of employees who could probably now hear raised voices, he needed to step in. He flickered down at the cell in his hand when he felt a vibration and saw the pop-up message on the screen. It was the perfect interruption, and he saw a way to end this showdown.
Can we talk? I am in the underground beside Ling’s car.
Meilei wanted to see him face to face, so Kai dropped everything. Anger, hatred, the bristling of a man about to explode and instead was flushed with a warm sensation of anticipation and nerves. Forgetting everything about Anna, her bitchy words, or even her reason for showing up here and seeing only that Meilei had extended an olive branch. Finally, after weeks of one-sided interactions, unanswered texts, and awkward chats when seeing Yue.
Kai darted to his feet to leave, and so did Anna, reaching for him in a needy, grabby way, but Tian stepped between and blocked her. Fielding off her hands and grabbing her wrists to stop the impulsive display. Irritated that she had reverted to a toddler, he was now going to be the one to put Kai’s demand into action. He agreed that Minhui needed to take Anna back to the States and give her a chance to break her obsession with Kai so that she could finally move on. She wasn’t needed here, and Tian didn’t particularly care if she was. She brought nothing to the table for OTS.
Tian was business-minded and had long gotten sick of being Anna’s leaning post. Stuck in the middle, fielding off her tears and always having to play nice. She was exhausting and he was not even dating her or the focus of her longing. He had enough to deal with and a woman in his life who didn’t exactly like this one. He separated emotion and logic and knew it was time for Anna to leave.
“Sit down, you and I need to have a long overdue talk about this shit and your future here. I’m not your friend in this; I’m your boss, so do what you’re told.” Tian’s tone, although neutral, was commanding, and he physically took her shoulders in his two hands and forced her back to sitting.
Kai turned, nodding goodbye to his friend and sighing off Anna’s pouted face. He had no headspace for her anymore. Walking off, caring nothing about what he knew Tian would do, he instead focused on the one woman in this that mattered. Everything had changed in Kai’s priority list since San had shown face, and he would never let anything, especially not Anna, stand in the way of going to Meilei anytime she wanted him.
“Meilei?” In nervous anticipation, Kai wandered around in the dark corner of the underground parking, searching for Ling’s car. It was familiar to him, seeing as he had seen it before and headed for the far corner.
“I’m here.” Meilei walked out to his left behind a double row and waved his way, seeming sheepish and not at all her usual distant and closed-off self. He could tell at first glance she wasn’t upset or mad and relaxed a little, hoping whatever she wanted to say was not negative.
She clutched a lunch bag to her chest like a shield and watched him with uncertain eyes. Something different about her manner today set him off ease. Kai paused, smiled her way to hide his warring inner emotions, and walked to her to close the gap, aware of the eery silence down here and the lack of others. It was not even lunch break, so he doubted employees would come strolling down.
“You came down for that?” he nodded at the bag, hating how nervous she seemed as she clutched it, displaying all the uptight signs of an anxious person. Stiff, voice low and washy. Her manner was shy and reserved, reminding him of the first time he ever met her back so long ago, and it struck a deep pain in his heart. He had fallen for her on sight that day, seeing a sweet, vulnerable girl with a dazzling smile and beautiful eyes. She hadn’t changed all that much.
Putting her on the spot while people read something about her around her. He should have given her the day off first. He mentally scolded himself for always being clueless in doing things for her. He never seemed to be able to get this right.
“About the statement..” he didn’t know what to say except the repetitive ‘I’m sorry’ he had been saying for weeks. It felt so lacking in the grand scheme and somehow empty, but he was at a loss for how else to tell someone you regretted everything and would turn back time to fix it all if you could.
“Go on.” Kai stepped back to give her space, sensing her tension, yet his eyes were glued to her. His heart hammered, yet his insides fluttered.
Meilei caught the way his lips twitched as though he wanted to jump in and justify why he needed to, but she knew why. He had always been compelled to do the right thing. She couldn’t deny that, even after all they had gone through. He did the right thing for Yue even when they were still at war, putting the custody aside to see her stable. The truth was Kai had never been a bad person.
Kai stood rooted to the spot, silent in agony as his heart pounded at her words. His hands turned clammy, and he could not tear his gaze from her face’s softness. The vulnerability on show. Scared that what she had seen since his return was a different person, she could no longer connect to the man she had loved because he knew he had changed in many ways. San coming back had put him back onto a path of being more like who he was, but he had caused Meilei so much harm before that.
Since Kai, Yuelin had stopped running away from her aunts on days out. She had stopped hitting boys at school and was generally scolded less by teachers for her sometimes mischievous behavior.
“What are you saying, Meilei?” Kai was crumbling inside, hearing her talk this way. Freely expressing herself. It was more than he had hoped for coming down here, and he was expecting nothing more than a stilted chat on his statement. But he also didn’t understand what she was trying to convey.
“I will never hurt you or Yue in any way again, Meilei. I swear on everything dear to me. You and her are my priority. I won’t ever stop making up for what I took from you. Sorry is not enough but I mean it anytime I say it.”
Meilei couldn’t handle the intense way he seemed to gaze deep into her soul. Sparking loss and agony in the deep crevices of her once-shattered heart. It was so reminiscent of his loving and adoration back then that it sliced her painfully, and she stared at the floor instead. Scared at seeing it, she tried to focus on what she wanted to say. Courage evading her in that one area.
This was a huge step for Meilei, and even saying it had her voice trembling with hesitation, but she had thought about it long and hard. The only way to stop seeing him as some ominous shadow in her life was to get used to his presence and be there to help her daughter bond properly. Not standing guard, watching and waiting for him to screw up. But actually taking steps to build friendship again to ensure Yue wouldn’t be affected. She realized that Yue was only little and Kai was forever in her life. As her mother, she had to make this work for all of them.