“She’s not the type to just sit down silently and take it so I’m sure that she’s demanding for the truth from her father as we speak,” he said before letting out a long sigh.
“It’s just so hard for me to believe that he would go this far. It’s just crazy…” I complained outrightly.
“It may seem so to you but it’s not unusual to get the press and the public involved to apply pressure,” Ace stated like it was completely normal.
“But…why would he do that to his own daughter? It’s not going to help with anything, will it?” I asked as I failed to connect the dots together.
“He’s probably doing this as a way to pressure Elizabeth to dissolve her marriage…” Ace surmised simply.
It can’t be…
I hadn’t realized that I had been chewing down hard on my lower lip until a wave of pain shot through my senses. The truth was just too sad for me to accept. I didn’t care about Kyle, but I thought that it was too harsh for Elizabeth to be placed in a situation like that. When I first heard of their plan regarding the merger, I never could have imagined that things would get this messy or this far out of hand.
“What’s going to happen? What are you going to do?” I asked as I felt a frown form in between my brows.
“I’ll wait a little while to see how things turn out and also for the storm to past, at least on the public front…” Ace replied without pausing to think.
He must have thought this through already even before coming over here to my place. His arms around my body tightened as if he wanted me to feel safe. It was probably the right choice at the time to wait and see rather than acting recklessly without more information. As far as I was aware, neither Ace nor Elizabeth nor their company representatives had given a public statement to address the rumors.
“That might be for the best…” I murmured in agreement.
“We should wait until we hear back from Elizabeth. Her father may or may not be involved. We don’t know that for sure right now,” he reminded me.
“That’s right. It’s all just speculation at this point,” I mumbled softly with a nod of my head to show him that I fully understood what he was saying.
We both fell into silence for a while as we seemed lost in our own thoughts. Ace still held me in his arms and his hand moved to stroke my back. The feeling of his large hand stroking my back while he held me in his strong arms gave me strength and comforted me. I also thought and hoped that stroking me and holding me may serve as a source of comfort for him.
“Ace…” I called his name softly after a while.
“Hmm?” he made an inquiring sound that urged me to go on with what I wanted to say.
“What do you think Elizabeth will do? Will she really break up with Kyle?” I asked in a small voice as I feared the worst.
I could tell that she was truly on the fence. It must be hard for her to decide between the two, but I couldn’t see her giving up her career and all that she worked hard for. I could have been biased because I could no longer see what was good in Kyle or why she should be desperately holding onto him.
“There’s probably no other way if she wants the merger to go through,” he replied solemnly.
“Do you really mean it?” I asked as a sinking feeling formed in my core.
He can’t really mean it. Was there really no other way that could serve as a happy ending for all parties?
“Elizabeth will have to break up with that husband of hers,” Ace said with a nod of his head.
His eyes told me that what I was thinking was absolutely correct. But I just had to ask one more time…
“Is there really no other way?” I asked while still daring to hope that the world couldn’t be so cruel.
“I don’t think so…” Ace replied before showing me a regretful smile.
“Isn’t there something that you can do to help her?” I asked although I knew that I was being overly persistent and demanding of him.
Ace’s face was solemn as he seemed to think through the various options available to him. Even I realized that there probably wasn’t anything that Ace could really do to help Elizabeth out of her situation. If there was something that he could do to help her, then I trusted that he would have done it already. However, no matter how I thought about it, it was just too sad and unfortunate that she had to be forced to make such a drastic decision about choosing the future of her family and the business over her marriage.
Her father clearly thought that this would be better for their business and family but what about Elizabeth’s feelings?
“She’s probably devastated about this…” I murmured.
“She doesn’t openly talk about her feelings that easily so I’m not sure how bad it is,” Ace said before letting out a soft sigh.
I could sense his worry for her and that made my belief that Ace is such a kind person even firmer than before. Unlike his father or Elizabeth’s father, Ace wasn’t wholly driven by money. He really cared about the people that he worked with and the other people in his life. That was probably what really drew me to him and made him respect him so much as a person.
“Doesn’t her father care about her feelings at all? She’s really hurt about all this as it is…” I murmured sadly.
“I’m sure that he cares in his own way,” Ace replied.
“Like a very twisted way. He’s got a strange way to show that he cares…” I muttered and I realized that I had gotten angry.
--To be continued…
