Chapter 547
A fierce surge of emotion rushed to her eyes. Elissa’s eyelashes fluttered, and tears spilled over, falling like shattered pearls. She looked down, frantically wiping her cheeks. “Why… why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“He wouldn’t let me.”
The boy had claimed that if Elissa ever found out, he would lose all his dignity.
Thinking of the past, Aaron chuckled softly before his tone turned gentle. “Later on, when he ruthlessly pushed you away, I figured telling you would only make it harder for you to move on.”
There was nothing left for Elissa to misunderstand.
The only reason her mentor was telling her this now was because he had finally learned of Rowan’s agonizing hidden struggles. He was worried she still harbored lingering doubts, and he wanted to pull her out of the dark.
He wanted her to know that long before Rowan was forced to abandon her, he had already exhausted every ounce of his strength to secure her future.
The more Elissa wiped her eyes, the faster the tears fell. She couldn’t stop them.
Aaron reached out, his warm, wrinkled hand gently patting the top of her head. “I’m telling you this so you can trust him with absolute, unwavering certainty.”
After all, when trust had been so thoroughly shattered, rebuilding it from scratch was a monumental task.
Aaron added, “But my decision to officially take you as my student had nothing to do with him. I only promised him one meeting. Everything that came after was purely due to your own talent and relentless hard work.”
Elissa’s vision was entirely blurred, but she nodded emphatically.
Coming down the stairs with bags of various sizes, Jacqueline and Tanya were shocked by the sight. Jacqueline hurried over and immediately scolded Aaron. “So what if she hasn’t told Rowan about the pregnancy yet?! Did you really have to scold the poor girl to tears?!”
Aaron glared, his mustache twitching in indignation. “Stop jumping to conclusions! Who scolded her?!”
Elissa quickly sniffled, rushing to defend him. “Jacqueline, he really didn’t scold me.” Mollified, Jacqueline wanted to ask why she was crying, but seeing Aaron waving his hand to signal her to drop it, she swallowed her questions.
Getting her emotions back under control, Elissa took the shopping bags from Jacqueline, her heart swelling with warmth. “You bought way too much…”
Jacqueline waved her off. “It’s not too much at all! When it comes to babies, you can never have enough supplies!”
“Just take it.”
Aaron gave his wife a sideways glance. “Jonathan’s kids are living too far away from us. Now that she’s finally got a pregnant girl to fuss over, you have to let her experience the joy of being a grandmother.”
Elissa burst into laughter and didn’t try to decline any further.
While Jacqueline managed to bite her tongue, Tanya had no such restraint. While driving them to the mall, she kept glancing over. “Why were you crying like that?”
Elissa rolled the window down a crack, letting the crisp breeze soothe the tightness
in her chest, before repeating exactly what her mentor had told her.
Tanya clicked her tongue in awe. “Honey, did you save his life in a past life or something?”
How could such a ruthless billionaire family produce a man this deeply devoted? Elissa didn’t know how to respond.
After a moment of thought, Tanya walked back her own statement. “Well, it’s also because you’re amazing. If you were terrible, Rowan wouldn’t be stupid enough to do it.”
Elissa didn’t argue, but deep down, she felt that compared to everything Rowan had done, she simply wasn’t good enough.
Sensing her heavy thoughts, Tanya immediately dragged her toward the designer boutiques the second they reached the mall, determined to distract her with luxury bags.
She hadn’t expected that the moment they stepped into the first store, they would experience the true meaning of enemies being on a narrow path.
Maya was modeling a limited-edition Hermes bag, while Marcia stood next to her playing the ultimate sycophant. “It’s gorgeous! That bag perfectly highlights your auta You look exactly like the elite heiress you are.”
Tanya was genuinely amazed seeing a true heiress so willingly suck up to a fake
one.
Holding back her usual venomous remarks, Tanya exchanged a mutual glance with Elissa, and they both turned to walk out.
Catching sight of them out of the
here,
corner of her eye, and feeling emboldened by Maya’s presence, Marcia threw out a contemptuous mocking speer. “Since you’re he why not come in? Oh wait, without the title of Mrs. Frank, you can’t even afford a single designer bag anymore, can you?”
“We saw a rabid dog, and we didn’t want to get bitten.”
Tanya let out a cold laugh. “Who knew it could still bite from this far away.”