Amelia was stunned for some time. When she finally snapped back to reality, she shook her head and
glared at Lucian. "That was before. Not now, and definitely not in the future," she told him.
Nothing would change the fact that the An Group saved the Zhan Group. Because of this, it went
without question that Lucian would marry Shelly. There was no way that Amelia could bear to mess up
their relationship. If she did, how different would she be from a home wrecker?
Lucian looked deeply in Amelia's eyes as he pretended to keep calm. "Do you really want your child be
born without a father?" he finally asked.
His question had definitely provoked the anger in Amelia's heart. The last thing she wanted was for the
baby to be brought up.
Although she didn't deny that Lucian was the baby's father, she never thought about asking him for
some support.
Taking a deep breath, Amelia tried to calm her nerves. "He's mine," she said through gritted teeth, "He
has nothing to do with you."
There was so much strength in Amelia's voice that it was quite obvious she was not going to change
her mind any time soon.
Meanwhile, Lucian understood the underlying meaning in Amelia's words -- she was making a cold
remark that was based on their relationship.
"But the child is also mine! You can't just cut me off like that just because you say so," Lucian glowered
coldly.
For a while, the two just stared each other down, pain and anger in their eyes.
Finally, Amelia spoke up. "If you really insist on being associated with this child," she said in a low
voice, "You'll leave me no other choice but to get an abortion."
Maybe it was because of the amount of rage she felt or because it was what she really thought was
best; whatever the reason, Amelia said such vicious words right at Lucian's face without a second
thought.
After saying that, Amelia's lips trembled. She did not expect that she would be capable to say
something as harsh as that.
Immediately, Lucian's face was filled with sadness and loss. It was as if he had just lost a hopeless
battle. Averting his gaze from Amelia, he straightened up and adjusted his tie.
"As long as you take care of yourself, I will not come to bother you," he said coldly. It was obvious that
Lucian was in so much pain.
Looking up at him, she saw how broken the expression on his face was. Seeing Lucian like this made
Amelia hurt so much.
Lucian walked to the door, his hand already on the knob. Before going out, he paused at the doorway
and cast a sidelong glance back at Amelia. Her face was the same as he had always remembered, a
truly beautiful woman that could easily move his heart.
However, there was something different about the way she looked right now. It was as if she was no
longer the same woman who always had a smile on her face.
"Lily said you should finish the chicken soup she made for you, or else she would be sad," Lucian said
before finally walking out and closing the door behind him.
A sharp, piercing pain went through Amelia's heart when she heard the door click close.
Burying her face in her hands, Amelia allowed herself to cry for a while. At that moment, she felt so
drained and tired. After a while, she pulled herself together and walked up to the table in the dining
room.
There was a big bowl with a lid on top. Amelia lifted the lid, and instantly the smell of the soup wafted
into her senses. It smelled so good and comforting that she felt as if a great weight had been lifted from
her shoulders.
Wiping the tears away from her face, Amelia went into the kitchen and grabbed an empty bowl. With a
sniff, she sat down on the table and helped herself to Lily's soup. Amelia tried to eat slowly, but she
couldn't help gulping it down so quickly. It was such a familiar and comforting taste that she managed
to eat everything all by herself.
After eating the very last drop, she noticed that there was actually a note stuck on the container:
"Mrs. Amelia, I thought you said that you were on a trip... Why did you lie? Despite all the bad things
they say about you on the news, I don't believe that you are really that willing to leave Mr. Lucian. You
love him so much, and he loves you too. I won't go back to my hometown, Mrs. Amelia. I will wait for
your return to SJ Gardens. I know you will come back soon."
The handwriting, the way it was written, the choice of words... It was apparent that Lily was the one
who wrote this note.
After reading Lily's message twice over, Amelia felt an uneasiness sweep through her. It appears that
Lily was doubtful that Amelia would give up on her love for Lucian without so much as blinking an eye.
The more Amelia thought about it, the more she came to realize how ungrateful she really was. Lily had
been nothing but kind towards Amelia, and yet Amelia still found it in herself to lie just so that she could
leave SJ Garden.
The courtyard was fairly calm and quiet. Mrs. Chen wasn't going to come back tonight. After cleaning
up and fixing her things, Amelia was just about to go to sleep when her phone suddenly rang. It was a
message from an anonymous number. Judging from how the message started, Amelia already had a
good guess who it was:
"I can't control who my man meets up with, but I can tell you off. Let me be clear about this -- if you
ever get in touch with Lucian again, you will deeply regret it. If you had any sense left in you, you'll just
do as I say."
'I'm sure this message is from Shelly,' Amelia thought.
Amelia's eyes started to get hot from the tears that were starting to form. Every breath she took, she
felt as if her chest was getting tighter and heavier. Shelly's message was so painful that it was like
someone was tearing Amelia up into a million pieces.
As much as she didn't want to think about it, memories of her times with Lucian flooded her thought.
How his kiss felt, how he looked at her with that sweet smile... Amelia curled up into a ball on the bed
and hugged her legs tightly. Sadness had become like an old friend in Amelia's life. Recently, there
wasn't a day that had passed that she wasn't sad and crying.
The following morning, Amelia woke up a bit later than usual. She had barely gotten any sleep last
night. Sitting up, she looked over at the time. When she saw how late it was, she groaned in
annoyance and washed up.
After freshening up, she went out and saw that Mrs. Chen was busy in the kitchen. "Good morning,"
Mrs. Chen greeted when she saw Amelia walk in, "You're here. I have made breakfast for you. Come
and let's eat together."
Biting her lip, Amelia hesitantly went over to Mrs. Chen. "Mrs. Chen, I'm so sorry. You weren't able to
come home last night because of me," Amelia said apologetically.
'If Lucian didn't go and approach Mrs. Chen, she wouldn't have stayed over at someone else's house
for the night,' Amelia thought, feeling filled with guilt.
"I didn't expect that I could live in a luxury hotel and enjoy such good service. If I could, I wouldn't have
gone back here at all!" Mrs. Chen grinned as she lightly joked.
Hearing this, Amelia was in astonishment. It looked like Lucian treated Mrs. Chen better than she
initially expected.
Then, Mrs. Chen turned to solemnly look at Amelia. "If you two really love each other, then I have no
business with your relationship with him. But... I would just like to say that young man is quite a kind
and considerate gentleman. He went out of his way to make sure that I was well taken care of just so
that he could have the chance to be with you." Although Mrs. Chen felt embarrassed to say this, she
kept true to her word that she would put in a good word for Lucian.
Amelia came to her senses and flashed a light-hearted smile at Mrs. Chen. "I didn't think that you'd sell
me out like that in exchange to stay at a luxury hotel."
"Of course I'm not trying to betray you, my child. But now you are pregnant and the baby's father is
willing to take responsibility. Why are you so angry?" Mrs. Chen couldn't figure it out. She seldom read
the news, but she had read a few reports about Amelia and Lucian on the newspaper. It was just
impossible to believe that Amelia couldn't live a happy life with Lucian.
"Mrs. Chen, I have to go to work at two o'clock in the afternoon. I'm just going to run some errands
before then," Amelia said as she turned to leave, trying to avoid the topic.
"Silly girl," Mrs. Chen sighed, "Don't wait until the love is completely gone. When that happens, it will
really be too late."
Hearing this, Amelia felt that there was a thorn in her heart. Nonetheless, she didn't look back at Mrs.
Chen, and just went on her way.
It was a sunny day in April. Amelia walked down the street by herself. The trees along the sidewalk
provided ample shade from the sunlight. Taking a deep breath in, Amelia tried to clear her head and
vent out the unhappiness in her heart.
She arrived at the shop an hour earlier than her usual shift. As soon as she opened the door, warm
sunlight poured into the milk tea shop. Amelia got busy and started working around -- watering the
plants, cleaning the tables, setting up a soothing playlist, and the sorts.
Normally, people went to the shop in the afternoon to put their feet up and relax. But since it was
already spring time, afternoons usually had a sleepy atmosphere.
A little past 3 o'clock, Amelia had her first customer.
"Hello, welcome!" Amelia greeted, struggling a bit with her English. For a while, she racked her mind,
trying to remember the little English she knew.
The man who had just entered looked like he was a foreigner. After hearing Amelia struggle with her
pronunciation of English words, the man beamed at her. "I'll have a glass of lemon black tea. Thank
you," he said in fluent Chinese.
"Y-yes, sir! Please wait for a moment..." Amelia's eyes were wide open out of amazement. She did not
expect that he would be able to speak Chinese so well.
It was highly probable that Amelia's English-speaking skills were even inferior to that of a junior high
school student's. During her English classes back in the days, she was always absent-minded and
often didn't know the answers to her exams.
Amelia was definitely caught off guard when her first customer today was a foreigner. But after she
heard the man speak Chinese, she couldn't help but quietly breathe a sigh of relief.
As she made the man's order, she made sure that she was especially careful and precise. She
followed the steps as diligently as she could. After a few minutes, she was able to make some lemon
black tea without any trouble whatsoever.
She took it over to the man and was about to speak to him in English, but the words seemed to get
stuck on her tongue. "Please enjoy," she said to him in Chinese, flushing deeply and quickly walking
away.
The foreigner smiled at her, and took a sip of the drink that she had just made.
Amelia was back at the counter. She was hurriedly looking for a next song to play that the man might
be familiar with. 'Maybe he'll have a better time here if he hears a song from where he's from,' she
thought to herself.
When the music began, the man looked out the window and put his glass back down on the table. It
was hard to tell what was on his mind, but judging from the look on his face, Amelia could only guess
that he wasn't averse to the song she had played.
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