Chapter 112
“I couldn’t stand them having your attention and acting like fangirls who have met their idol for the first time,” Daniel whispered the moment he started the car.
Elara looked at him, wide-eyed, her chest heaving up and down heavily as she took deep breaths, trying to calm her heart that was beating at a rapid pace because Daniel just made her run out of the mall while the two ladies were busy ordering food.
She had just excused herself to talk to Justin over the call regarding their new project, but who would’ve thought Daniel would rather pull her away from them?
“I was meeting them after so long. They would be so disappointed,” Elara pouted.
Daniel looked at her from the corner of his eye, turning the car towards the highway to take her to a place where there wouldn’t be anyone to disturb them.
“They’ll understand,” he whispered before he placed his left hand on her knees.
Elara looked at his hand, his protruding veins making her heart race once again, just for another reason, as the thought of those hands running up and down her neck suddenly took over.
No. This is wrong. I am still married to Andrew.
“You know, you never loved Andrew,” Daniel whispered, catching her off-guard.
“Hm? What do you mean?” She asked, almost offended.
“You married him because it was convenient. It might be true that you were infatuated with him or respected him enough to devote yourself to him because he saved your life once, but do you really think what you felt for him was love?” Daniel asked.
Elara bit her lower lip, shifting her attention outside the car at the passing trees.
“You can’t manipulate me into thinking I was never in love just because your ego wouldn’t digest it,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper as she nipped at her nails.
The man smiled.
“That was just a speculation. You’ll have your answer when you’re ready to accept it,” Daniel said.
He didn’t force his ideologies on her, nor did he force her to agree to what he said. He just stated a fact and gave her the choice to believe it or not.
That was what Daniel thought he was doing. But in Elara’s eyes, he was just confusing her more and more with such statements.
If what she felt wasn’t love, then what was it really?
She used to crave Andrew’s presence, his love, and his care, just as anyone would. She was attracted to him, too, and was ready to spend the rest of her life with him if he was a good man and had acted right.
But it was also true that a significant part of it was because of the threat, the sword named Arnold hanging over her head.
Elara shook her head and closed her eyes, not wanting to think about anything.
Daniel looked at her from the corner of his eye and smiled meaningfully.
It was working. He thought.
If she were ready to question her emotions for Andrew after spending four long years with the same feelings, curing her trauma with Arnold would be easier.
All he would need to do was help her accept her emotions and embrace that fear, then slowly teach her to let go of them, just as she was freeing herself from the feelings that had held her in that toxic relationship for so long.
Daniel stopped the car at some distance from the beach and stepped out of it slowly, not before kissing her forehead.
He looked at the enormous sea waves coming towards the shore and then dissolving into nothingness with a sigh.
The girl didn’t even have any idea how much he wished to give her a peaceful life away from everything.
With a sigh, Daniel gently pulled the door open and unbuckled her seatbelt, lifting her in his arms and walking to the farmhouse he owned.
Rather than placing her on the couch in the living room, he took her straight to the bed and gently placed her on the king-sized bed.
He was about to cover her with the comforter when he saw her lips lift slightly into a small smile.
He furrowed his brows. What was she thinking about that made her smile even in her sleep?
“Daniel,” Elara whispered, and to say the man froze mid-action would be an understatement.
His heart seemed to stop for a few seconds before it started beating erratically, his eyes flickering to her lips that were still moving.
With a gulp, he leaned forward, bringing his ear closer to her lips to hear what she was saying.
“Can you be my—” She whispered, or at least uttered something that sounded like it, before stopping.
Daniel kept leaning, hoping to hear the complete sentence to know what she wanted to say, but to no avail did she say anything else, and the man ruffled his hair, frustratingly.
“Seriously, you have to be the most annoying drug that is killing me slowly inside like a poison. Can’t you see it’s becoming hard living away from you?” Daniel groaned over her, his scowl deepening when he saw her smiling in her sleep again.
Suppressing the urge to kiss her relentlessly to punish her, he stood straight and left the room.
At the same time, Sophia, who had reached home and was still in a daze about what had happened, didn’t even hear her daughter’s call asking if she had talked to Andrew and knew what Elara said about giving her the role.
Rather than going straight to her room, Sophia walked to the room of the one person she knew could give her the answers she was looking for.
Williams Lloyd.
She knocked on the door, and once the man said ’enter,’ she walked inside the room with thousands of questions written all over her face, but one was the most important and prominent.
“What is it, Sophia?” William asked, confused, since she wasn’t someone who was a regular in his room. The women in this house liked to spend their time in parlors and at kitty parties, or enjoying themselves with friends, rather than sitting together.
“We all were against marriage, Father. I hated her. Andrew didn’t want to marry her. Carla never approved of her and Heather. He was neutral. But you… You were the only one who was hellbent on getting her into our family. You said she was a gemstone we would never find,” Sophia said.
Williams squinted his brows, unsure what she was talking about.
“Get to the point, Sophia,” he said.
“Elara, Father. Why were you so hell-bent on getting her into our family? What do you know about her?” Sophia asked, and Williams couldn’t help but pause.