Billionaire Lawyer's Secretary - Chapter 158: Chapter 158

Elara picked up her phone from the carpet. "Mom... What are you doing back?"
Janice had just arrived herself. She took off her coat and tossed it on the sofa, eyeing the half-packed boxes and suitcases scattered around the room. "Are you moving out?"
Elara couldn't exactly tell Janice she was moving into a house Adrian had given her, a house in Veritasiton Hills worth over sixty million dollars.
She stammered, "No, I was just... cleaning up a bit..."
Janice couldn't help but think, 'Who cleans by packing everything into boxes and dragging out suitcases?' "Are you planning to move in and live with Alex?" Janice asked directly.
Janice wasn't blind to Elara's feelings for Alex. After all those years, she figured it might be nice if things worked out between them. But she drew the line at cohabitation before marriage.
Elara felt an odd sense of relief. Whenever something involved Alex, Janice always seemed to go easy on her, probably because Janice thought Alex was the perfect student.
But Elara knew Alex wasn't her shield anymore. "Mom, Alex and I aren't together," she said.
Janice smiled. "I know you two aren't together. That's because I made him promise not to date you or even live together with you until you graduate from college. That's why he didn't dare to get together with you.
"But now things are different. You've graduated, and you're planning to settle down in Veritasiton. I approve of you getting married, but there's one thing: no living together before marriage. What if you end up pregnant..."
Elara froze, her hand pausing over the glass. She frowned. "What do you mean, no dating before I graduated from college? What exactly did you say to Alex?"
Janice sat down on a high stool on the kitchen island and took the glass from Elara. "The summer after you graduated from high school, Alex came over with a bouquet of roses to see you. I walked in on him."
"To see me?" Elara echoed, her voice full of surprise.
"Yeah, he came to confess to you," Janice replied.
"Confess?" Elara froze, her whole body stiffening in shock.
It was Valentine's Day, over a month after Elara had finished her SAT exams. Alex had been struggling for a long time before finally deciding to confess his feelings.
The night she finished her SAT, her parents told her they'd actually been divorced for years. She spent days crying alone at home, but she never confided in Alex.
After that, she started spending every day with Julian. Alex tried to see her several times, but she always avoided him.
Julian told Alex that he and Elara had signed up for a racing competition and were busy practicing every day, which was why she didn't have time to see him.
Alex knew exactly why Elara was avoiding him. Ever since the love letter Elara had written to Alex before the exams disappeared without a trace, she started keeping her distance from him.
Elara thought he'd rejected her, but in reality, Alex just wanted her to focus on her exams.
Alex knew she was applying to schools abroad, and Westbridge University was close to his company. He'd originally planned that once she moved overseas, he'd slowly start a relationship with her.
But after more than a month of silent treatment, Alex got anxious and decided to confess on Valentine's Day.
They'd both had feelings for each other for a long time; the confession was just breaking the last bit of tension between them.
On Valentine's Day, Elara had made plans to go out for seafood stew with Ruby. Around eight o'clock that evening, Ruby texted Alex to say they were done, and that was when Alex decided to go to Elara's house to confess.
Usually, Elara was home alone. Fabian was always in the lab, and Janice had moved out, so Alex felt safe going there with the roses to confess his feelings.
But that day, Janice had gone back to grab something. When she opened the door and saw Alex standing there in a suit, holding roses with a smile on his face, she froze.
Alex hadn't expected Janice to be home either. His smile faded a bit as he respectfully greeted her, "Ms. Langton."
Janice had been teaching finance at Veritasiton University for over ten years, and Alex was one of her students.
Janice's face fell. 'Showing up at our place with red roses on Valentine's Day? What is he up to?' she thought. "Alex, are you dating my daughter? She just graduated high school," Janice demanded.
Alex hurried to explain, "Ms. Langton, it's not like that. Elara and I aren't together. I just... I came here tonight to confess to her. She's done with her exams now."
"Confess? You sure you're just here to confess, knocking on our door this late? Not up to something else?" Janice shot back.
"Ms. Langton, I've never crossed any lines with Elara. I've always kept the right distance, but I really have liked her for a long time," Alex said sincerely.
Janice was firm. "No way. She's only just turned eighteen. She doesn't know what she's doing. You can't use the respect she has for you to get her to date you. That's unethical."
"Ms. Langton, I'd never pressure her into dating me..." Alex said.
Janice cut him off. "That's enough. Just leave. I won't let Elara date at all until she graduates from college."
"Elara and I have feelings for each other. I think you can tell that, Ms. Langton," Alex insisted.
"Yes, but she's still young. She likes you because she sees you more like a brother right now, and what she feels for you is more familial than romantic.
"If you get together and she meets someone she truly falls for, it'll just end up hurting both of you. You need to give her a chance to see the world, and then let her decide for herself if she wants to be with you."
Alex fell silent. Janice had struck a nerve. He'd always wondered if Elara just saw him as an older brother, or if what she felt was truly romantic love between a man and a woman. Maybe Elara herself was really confused about it.
"It's not that I'm forbidding you two from being together," Janice said. "If, after you graduate from college, Elara is still chasing after you, then you two can give it a shot. I won't stand in your way then."
In the end, Alex left in silence, but the bouquet of red roses stayed behind in Elara's home.
Elara felt a pang in her chest. "Wait, you mean those roses were from Alex?"
"Yeah, you thought someone else had sent them to me, and you got so mad you stomped them to pieces. Don't you remember?" Janice said.
Elara suddenly remembered that bouquet of roses. It had been sitting right there on the dining table. Ninety-nine roses, draped in a layer of black lace, with tiny warm-yellow fairy lights twinkling between the petals.
There was a tiny, hidden card tucked inside, so well concealed she'd never notice it unless she searched carefully. Elara picked up the card and looked at it.
[Ms. Langton: I've liked you for so long. I can't even remember how many years it's been. Will you be my girlfriend? From AK.]
Elara had instantly gone up in flames after reading it. On her way home, she'd overheard some neighbors gossiping that Janice had left her dad for another man, that she'd had an affair and cheated on him.
She didn't believe a word of it and even got into an argument with those neighbors. But as soon as she got home, she saw the roses that another man had sent to Janice.
When Janice came out of the bedroom with her suitcase packed, Elara kicked the suitcase aside and exploded. "If you're going to fool around with other men, then just don't come back.
"Letting someone send flowers to our house. Are you treating Dad and me like we don't even exist?"
That bouquet of roses, Elara had ripped them to pieces with her own hands, not a single rose left whole. She'd been down in the dumps for ages after that.
At that moment, just thinking about it made her heart twist so hard she could barely breathe. 'Ms. Langton... That's me too!' Elara thought.
'So, Alex liked me too. He said on the card he'd liked me for a long time. Just how long was that? Could he have liked me even longer than I liked him?' Elara wondered, her mind spinning.
Elara struggled to steady her shaky, uneven breaths. "Wait, you mean you were the one who stopped Alex from confessing to me? Why would you do that?"
"Did you even know what love was back then? If he'd confessed, you would've said yes in a heartbeat. But what if you realized later you didn't really like him?" Janice replied.
"And how do you know I didn't like him?" Elara shot back.
"You two grew up together. It's so easy to mix up family affection with real love," Janice said.
Elara shook her head in anguish. "So, what if I did get them mixed up? Why can't we be together just because it's family affection?
"And isn't it all because of you that I can't tell the difference? Did you ever give me any real family love? What right do you have to rob me of the kindness Alex showed me?"
"Elara, you're twenty-two now. Are you still as rebellious as you were when you were a kid? Everything I've done, I've done for you!" Janice snapped.
"For me? Or just to control me? Why did you have to keep Alex away from me? Why?" Elara shouted.
The pain in Elara's heart wasn't because she still had feelings for Alex. It was because, all these years, she'd thought her love was one-sided. She'd been drowning in disappointment, helplessness, and loneliness.
There were times she even wondered if she just wasn't good enough, if maybe no one in this world would ever truly want her.
Before she met Adrian, she'd always believed she didn't deserve to be anyone's one and only.
And at that moment, Janice was telling her that Alex had actually come to confess to her, that the confession card had been from him all along. She was so angry.
"Elara, I really think I did the right thing. And besides, things turned out well, didn't they? Good things always take time.
"Four years have gone by, and you two still have feelings for each other. That just proves it's real. It's not too late for you to be together now. Since I'm back this time, why don't you two make it official?
"Once you're done covering Susan's work, you can go work at Hartley Group with Alex. That way, you'll be on the same page in both your careers and your lives, and I can finally stop worrying."
"Mom, Alex is already married to someone else," Elara interrupted, her voice flat.