When Barney returned to the villa, he saw that Nellie had already prepared her luggage, she didn’t have much, just a small suitcase.
Barney frowned, “You’re leaving?”
Or had Andre already called her and threatened her again?
Although on the way back, Barney had been mentally preparing himself, but when he really saw Nellie about to leave, his heart, nonetheless, ached.
Nellie met his eyes and came up him with a smile.
She nodded.
Without saying a word, they already let each other know the answer.
Barney moved his lips to say something but Nellie said first, “When you came back today, thinking it was Nancy who drove me away, I already had an answer in my heart about our future.”
Yes.
When it became clear that the old lady hadn’t even let Barney know that she had come too.
It even drew everything back to Nancy, and at that time Nellie was appalled in his heart while he was beginning to struggle to make a choice.
Barney was shocked, not realising that this decision she had made was not because of Andre, but because of the Brooks family itself.
His tone was tight as he spoke, “You don’t think I can protect you?”
Nellie shook her head, “Yes, it’s the Brooks family that’s too complicated.”
Her tone was light.
Yet the word ‘too complicated’ was so heavy in a relationship.
How many relationships, because of family complications, eventually turn sour.
“I don’t want to go to that kind of hysteria with you, so…” When she said this, Nellie suddenly couldn’t go on.
She was trying to keep the best moments between herself and Barney.
She had seen too many changes in relationships and did not want to see herself and Barney go to that point where they were all different.
So when she realises how complicated the Brooks family is, she subconsciously retreats.
He’s so wonderful.
“You know, I’ll protect you and it won’t come to that between us.”
“I know, and I believe you, but I have no more confidence.” Nellie’s tone was calm as she answered.
The section with Andre was so hard going that she was exhausted.
So naturally, in knowing that the Brooks family was so complicated, she knew exactly what would become between her and the Brooks family.
When she was really with Barney, there were simply too many things to go through.
It was she herself who had lost the confidence to go on like that, so she had to back off.
“Forgive me, okay?” Looking at the man in front of her, Nellie was tight and bitter in her heart.
There was a dull pain in Barney’s heart.
“He threatened you, right?”
“No, it’s me, I don’t have the confidence anymore.”
“Then give yourself to me, just leave everything to me, you just have to trust me alone.”
“No, I only believe in myself.”
Nellie shook her head faintly.
It gave the impression of extreme determination.
Barney’s heart felt a sharp pain.
It was a heartache for Nellie, how far had she been pushed by Andre? It was surprising that no one wanted to believe it.
Nellie, “I’m sorry.”
“Because of the Brooks family, you have so little confidence?”
“Yes.” Nellie nodded indifferently, but had to admit that this was what she was really thinking inside.
She, for real, was scared.
After learning about the scene between Alina and the Collins family, she had an instinctive fear of the male family.
Those things that happen will take her by surprise and will leave her unprepared.
She was, literally, scared.
“Have you really decided?” Barney looked at Nellie, somewhat undeterred, clearly hoping that she would stay.
No matter what the cost, the road ahead, he walked with her through it.
However, Nellie shook her head, “Barney, I have already passed those youthful and impulsive years, I don’t have that kind of energy and strength anymore.”
Right now, she just wanted peace and quiet.
Yet the old lady, the Brooks family, made her feel tired.
Before with Barney, it just felt so easy, and it was this same ease that was constantly drawing her in.
Now knowing that this ease, which could well turn out to be bad, even turned out to be too much for her to break through, she backed off.
She didn’t want to be that way even if she had to let go.
After spending so much time with Andre and ultimately losing out herself, she dared not think about how much time it would take with Barney to get the Brooks family to fully accept her.
That would be a long time.
It was so long that she had to feel the urge to retreat.
“What if I don’t want you to go?”
“We’re all adults, and I’m sure you understand.”
The word ‘adult’ allowed Barney to hear the firmness in her attitude.
He, after all, couldn’t keep her around.
In fact, Barney always knew why Nellie wanted to be with him, because it was easy and simple.
It was because of this ease and simplicity that he had been afraid to let her go too deep into his own family.
He had panicked today when he knew that Nancy had come looking for her again and had even thrown a cheque at her.
Unexpectedly, she saw the Brooks family itself in that cheque and therefore backed off so decisively.
“So are you, really, going back to him? He’s been bad to you.”
Once, she had endured.
So, was she still going back to Andre?
And Nellie’s smile froze on her face when she was asked if she was going back to Andre.
After the end with Andre, she realised very clearly the truth that if she could not break through in life, she would let go.
So when she felt this complexity around Barney, she actually really let herself go.
The experience of not going deeper was kind to her.
And now, was it time to go back to Andre? She shook her head, “I’ll take care of Andre and start over.”
She and Barney said it was over, not to go back to Andre, but of course, there was an element of threat from Andre.
But even if she went back to Shirling, that didn’t mean that she was going to be with Andre again.
They have said the end between them.
Then it was naturally unlikely that they would want to be together again.
When he heard Nellie say this, Barney’s heart felt slightly better.
“So this is over between you and him, but we…”
“I ended it with you not because of him.” Nellie said before he could finish his words.
It was not because of Barney that she agreed to go back to Shirling with Andre, and naturally it was not because of Andre that she ended up with Barney.