Rejected

"What? Say you haven't agreed, Mom! I'll destroy her first!" Brenda was annoyed.

"What ideas do you have, huh? We have three days. What could be done in such a short time?"

"Have you contacted Mrs. Finnegan?"

"What for?"

Brenda clicked her tongue. "About Livy going to university and living in the dorm. We have to get her out of the university!"

"I don't have time," Camile replied. "If she hears about this, she will definitely be annoyed."

"Then you don't agree. Don't choose the money!"

Camile didn't answer.

Dilemma. This was really a dilemma. Many debts have screamed for repayment, while she did not hold a penny. When she asked Livy this morning, Livy only gave her a few. So she threatened Livy with another fifty million.

Though, she'd be getting it in a bit.

Where had Arthur suddenly come from anyway? How could he come without knowing Livy was here? That was absolutely impossible, even Arthur had offered her money because he knew that she needed money. Did Arthur also know about the plan, so he asked her to stay away from Livy?

No no no no!

"Mom, think about this, if we choose money, we will cut ties with Livy, and that means we can't keep in touch with her in the future! What does all this mean then? Why did we set her up just to give her a bright future just like that, while are we falling?" Brenda said impatiently. She tied up her loose hair, feeling hot all of a sudden. Just as she felt that there was no other way, she actually thought of the idea she had thought of. "Mom, I think I know what I'm going to do."

"What?" Camile asked.

"I will get her in trouble." Brenda said, before repeating more clearly, "I'm going to come over to her university to see what I can do to get her into trouble."

***

When the food was served, the new maid came, came closer and whispered, "Young Master, she refuses to come down."

Arthur turned off his work tablet. "Ok."

All kinds of food were available on the table. Chicken and prawn preparations which were Livy's favourites, served to fill the table, they were even more of a vegetable dish and everything was made to the girl's taste.

They had promised to eat together before. When Livy suddenly wouldn't come down, maybe something had happened.

"You ... take this food upstairs." Arthur told the maid, before standing up taking the work tablet with him.

"Yes, sir."

In the room, Livy opened the door when she heard another knock. Slightly grumbling, she put on a sour face, but to her surprise she saw it was Arthur. The man was wearing black pajamas. The color contrast between his clothes and skin, stunned her. How pale he was.

Arthur went inside uninvited, and let another maid in with a food parcel. "You don't come down, then the food will go up."

Livy has absolutely no appetite. This was because of their conversation last time. Now she can't do anything.

"I'm actually not that hungry."

Arthur reached out to touch her forehead. "Are you ill?"

Livy didn't dodge in time, and instead her face turned red. Luckily at night, Arthur couldn't notice it. "No, just don't feel hungry. You don't have to do all this."

"We promised to eat together." Arthur's voice was deep.

Finally Livy felt helpless and followed Arthur's wishes.

The door closed behind them, leaving the two of them with food available on the table. Livy saw it was her favorite food. As she unhesitatingly took the plate, Arthur was busy with his tablet.

She pouted. "So you came to my room to eat or work?"

"Both."

"I can eat alone. Really. If you're busy, why do you need to pay attention to me? Just do your job," she pouted.

After she finished saying that, she realized that she was being too unreasonable and started to regret it. Why is she angry? It's not a strange sight if Arthur eats while working, right? Arthur wasn't going to listen to her anyway. She didn't feel the need to say all that because Arthur would just do as he pleased, he wouldn't spare her a glance anyway. He's just always going to be, now or in the future. It's useless for her to interfere.

However, what was unexpected was Arthur putting down his tablet. "I just got a little work done."

"..." Livy was taken aback.

"I'm home early today, and taking tomorrow off. So I have to finish all the work tonight or Evan will have a hard time with organizing everything." Arthur explained.

This was too unexpected.

Livy coughed slightly, forgetting her irritation and asked, "Can I ask you something?"

"Say it."

"You came to aunt's house today, did you really not know I was there? Then about that check too. You offered money for my aunt, with what purpose?" Livy asked hesitantly, observing for a moment the slightest change in Arthur's expression, but in the end she couldn't quite make out his thoughts at all.

Before answering, Arthur wiped his hands with an antiseptic wipe. Carefully sweeping between each finger, not missing anything, until his voice was heard, "What do you want to know?"

"Umm ..."

"If I said I was there because of you, would you believe it?"

Believes. Livy really believes.

So far, Arthur has the power and can do whatever he wants. He was capable and strong, let alone this small matter, if Arthur said he could buy five islands at once, she would believe it.

"Your aunt is a cunning person, I just wanted to test her a little." Arthur said, he finished wiping his hands and now took a boiled prawn to peel.

Seeing that he was able to chat while keeping his hands busy, Livy also started preparing plates and placing side dishes.

"Are you angry?"

Livy looked confused.

"Not everyone likes having their family bullied. I think if you get angry it's only natural." Arthur explained.

"N-No, I'm not."

At this moment, one of the peeled prawns was peeled and Arthur placed the prawns on her plate. Livy stared at the prawn in shock. Not thinking that Arthur would peel the prawn for her, she suddenly felt a sweet taste in her heart. As she stared at Arthur, his face still serious as he peeled another prawn shell, then placed it on her plate again when he was done.

Livy stared at the two clean prawns on her plate. "Then what do you mean by testing my aunt?"

"By giving her two choices."

She immediately remembered about the choice Arthur had given her aunt. So that's what testing means? In other words, his goal wasn't simply to keep her aunt away from her? Arthur had other goals too?

"What is your purpose?" Livy was curious, not taking her eyes off Arthur's hand which was placing clean prawns onto her plate again.

"Your aunt will choose one of the two options I give. Whichever choice she chooses, it has meaning," Arthur said calmly. "If she chooses money, then she really wants money right now. But if she chooses to keep you, she has a bigger goal, which is to control my wealth through you."

The spoon immediately fell from Livy's hand and she was shocked, Arthur's expression was calm as if he had expected Livy to react like this.

"You already know your aunt's goals, of course you know what her choice will be," said Arthur.

Livy knows. At this time, her aunt could not be influenced by money for a moment. The woman wanted long-term wealth. And she really wanted to take possession of Arthur's treasures through her, now Arthur even guessed the cunning intentions.

Livy was shaking and her heart was pounding with fear. "S-Sorry, I'm sorry. I-I do know my aunt's goal, but I didn't join in on the plan. I ... I actually w-wanted to get away from my aunt. M-My ... my goal ..."

Livy's words stopped when her hand was clapped by Arthur.

"Arthur, t-trust me ... I don't mean to take your money, like aunt. Not at all. You trust me, right? Even if my aunt were to slander me one day, I swear I don't have any ill will towards you. I won't wanted to hurt you." Livy resumed her words hastily, her voice breaking with tremors, she was afraid that Arthur would not believe her. Moreover, seeing Arthur's calm and relaxed expression, this frightened her even more. And she wanted to cry.

Seeing that Arthur had no sign of answering, her heart was even more erratic, she spit out the words in her heart subconsciously, "I-I like you."

Arthur's hand stopped and stared at her in shock.

Livy realized that she had said something stupid and couldn't hide anymore after this. She ventured to continue, “Y-You will probably laugh at me for this and I don't mind. I … I liked you after the time we were together. But believe me, I have no malice by saying this. What I'm saying... all is in my heart. Arthur ... I-I like you, and I don't want to hurt you."

"..."

"I know this violates our contract, but I don't know why these feelings can grow." Livy's eyes were blurry and she wiped them away so the tears wouldn't fall. She took a deep breath and smiled bitterly. "You ... you don't have to think about it, i-it's just how I feel. Better to, uh, forget it."

After a while, Arthur looked down and his hands returned to peeling the prawn. "I know you have no bad intentions."

Livy wasn't relieved at all even though she heard this, as Arthur didn't discuss her love confession at all.

Why? Is there really no hope for her?

Their silence lasted for several minutes. Livy kept looking down to see that the prawns on her plate had become more and more. Even Arthur is still peeling it until now.

"My stepmother ... also has the same goal as your aunt. They are working together now."

Livy looked up in surprise. She forgot her anxiety about her confession being ignored and stammered, “H-How could that be … auntie and m-mother-in-law?”

Her mother-in-law?

Why would her mother-in-law want her own stepson's property and work with stranger like her aunt?

Arthur raised his head and looked at Livy as if he understood her thoughts. "You have to believe. This is an atrocity that you have to see and realize. I'm sorry that I dragged you into this. And I'm assuming that you already knew that she wasn't even my biological mother, right?"

Livy's teeth clenched tight, she felt a little sour in her stomach.

"About your confession, I thank you. But ..." Arthur finished peeling the last prawn and wiped his hand with a wet tissue carefully, continuing, "... I hope you forget about it."

Then he stood up.

He stared at the frozen Livy with his dark eyes. "No matter what, my goal right now is to keep you out of trouble and protect you from any harm. You must trust me and study well. This is still the beginning, your life path is still long. There will be many things to trouble you in the future."

"..."

"Good night."

With that, Arthur left.

His departure left a great pain in her heart, but it also gave Livy a sense of something, that she might not be worthy enough to be by Arthur's side and want his heart.

"Why is this so painful?" she croacked.

She had just been gently rejected, it shouldn't be this painful. But why wouldn't the tears stop flowing? Was she really unworthy of Arthur? Does Arthur have someone in his heart?

Livy was crying hard, as her tears couldn't stop. She rolled over, covered her face with a pillow and screamed at the top of her lungs. It was so cutting, even to her, her heart seemed to be gripped so tightly and she couldn't hold it in.

It's the first time she's truly fallen in love and she's met with rejection.

After a while, her crying turned into weak moans, and the tears started to dry up, Livy sat cross-legged on the bed. She decided to look for things to distract her brain and thought that he should respect whatever Arthur's answer was, even if it hurt her. She started opening drawers to find something. Sure enough, she found something there, a teddy bear.

Wha?

Livy wiped the last traces of tears down her cheeks and picked up the dull doll.

"Why is there something like this in the drawer? When did I put it?"

All the furniture here was indeed prepared by Arthur, but all the contents of the cupboards and drawers were only filled by her with her personal belongings. She had no recollection of putting the doll in there.

Livy cradled the object in her hand. Forgetting a bit of sadness, she saw how worn and dull the doll was and guessed that this was a doll that had been around for a long time. Strangely, the more she looked at it, the more familiar this thing became to her.

"Where have I seen this? I didn't have many dolls in my childhood, but I remember having a few that looked like this one?"

As a child, she was a rather naughty child.

Little Livy really liked to climb trees and throw mangoes with dolls until they fell, but dolls were soft objects, so several times she tried to knock mangoes with them, her efforts never worked. If she remembered that, she wanted to laugh.

At that time, because of a doll she met a kind older brother who helped her when her skirt got caught and torn on a barbed fence. The elder brother looked ignorant and arrogant, but he didn't leave her in a predicament.

Where is the brother now?

Livy gripped the doll with all her heart, and felt that this seemed to be hers. It could be that this thing was tucked away and suddenly showed itself again, right?

... to be continued ...