How could she explain? What could she say? Even if she did, Waylen wouldn’t allow it because she took her own life at risk to negotiate with Mr. Bamford.
“Tinder, let’s go,” Waylen threw the handcuff as hard as he could. It bounced off at Leilani’s feet and hurt her ankle. It was painful. But she had no time to attend to it. She ran over to the sofa to pick the box up and chased Waylen
The noises in the hall alarmed Andrew. He opened the door and saw Leilani running after Waylen.
“Leilani, are we free to go?” It looked like Leilani decided to go without him. Was he abandoned?
Their moves seemed to prove his theory. They were already in the elevator and went downstairs. Andrew hurried over. When the elevator was left only a crack, he reached his hands in and forced the door open.
Inside the elevator was the aggressive environment. Andrew wasn’t frightened at all. He walked in with ease.
Leilani couldn’t help getting worried for Andrew since he walked in. They were always at each other’s throat. She was terrified that they would fight like the last time.
However, until after the ring of the elevator, Leilani realized she thought too much.
Waylen looked right ahead. He paid no attention to Waylen nor Leilani.
After the door was opened, he walked out. He didn’t wait for Leilani.
“Waylen?” Leilani followed him and deliberately gasped.
Andrew came to her to hold her up.
“What’s wrong?”
Leilani ignored him. She looked up. Waylen was far away. She couldn’t see him…
Andrew let go of Leilani and followed her sight.
“Do you have an argument?”
The second Andrew finished, Leilani rushed to the door. She could only see Waylen getting in the car. The car started fast and soon left without any trace.
“I guess the answer is yes.”
Leilani was silent. She glared at Andrew. Andrew zipped his mouth. But he smiled like he took pleasure in their row.
“Miss Peters,” a man in a black suit walked over to her under the morning glow from not far away.
“Kevin?” Leilani couldn’t believe her eyes. She walked down several steps. Kevin walked right in front of her.
“You are Kevin!”
He was alive…
So Arlington was alive…
“Mr. President asked me to pick you up,” Kevin bowed. He started to please Leilani. Back in Cambola City, he was just polite.
“Is my mother…” Leilani was in shock even since she saw Kevin. When she learned the news in the castle, she just couldn’t believe it. But Kevin was standing right in front of her. She felt her heart clenched, thinking they might take her mother back. She couldn’t help holding her breath.
“Olivia is also in the presidential house.”
Leilani had light in her eyes. She couldn’t help pinching her palm with her fingernails. Wasn’t she dreaming?
Was her mother in the presidential house?
But she was in a coma for such a long time. How did they bring her back?
Was she hurt?
“Miss Peters?”
“Em?” Leilani finally came around from the overwhelming joy, “I’ll come with you.”
A Porsche was parked not far away. The door was opened, and the bodyguard made a friendly gesture. Leilani got in without hesitation, followed by Andrew.
“How do you think they get out?” Andrew asked in a low voice. He could see the day when the mountain and earth shook together and how the mountain collapsed. It was a miracle to get out.
Kevin was on the passenger’s seat. He heard Andrew’s confusion. And he started explaining in a peaceful tone.
“On the day, Mr. President held Olivia out from the crystal casket, and it caused the strong shake in the cave. Huge stones started falling down from the top. When we ran to the entrance, many stones blocked it. We’re kept in the cave for dozens of days. We survive because of the ancient medicine underneath the crystal casket the Cambola people buried.”
Kevin could see the days.
“Luckily, the mountain stopped colliding. Then we found a different entrance at the side of the cave.”
“How fortunate are you,” Leilani answered. But her mind wasn’t really on it. She was in a daze with her phone in her hands. She called Waylen several times, and he didn’t answer.
When she called again, the phone was turned off.
Sliding right to unlock her phone, Leilani started texting him.
Although he turned off his phone, he wouldn’t turn off his tablet. Tablets could also receive texts.
“Waylen, I’m sorry I didn’t run through this to you in advance. It’s my bad. Mr. Bamford promised Andrew he would let me go, but I have the spend a day with him. That’s why I go to him.”
“Where are you? Will I see you this evening?
“I know you can see my message. How will you stop getting mad?”
“If you keep ignoring me, I won’t send you a text.”
So Waylen was really mad. He didn’t answer one of the texts.
Leilani thought about it and started texting Tinder.
“Is Waylen still mad?”
Waylen didn’t type words. He sent a bomb emoji.
So Waylen was like a bomb that would explode at any time?
“Leilani, what are you doing? We’re talking to you,” Andrew looked over and approached her. Their arms were touched. And Leilani put away her phone.
“Why are you so hot?” Leilani just touched his arm. It was so hot that it almost scorched her. So she withdrew hers.
She put her hands at his forehead the next second. She frowned.
“You have a fever!”
Andrew looked up at her. He felt so comfortable when she put her cold hand on his forehead. He wished that Leilani never withdrew it.
“When we arrive at the presidential house, I’ll ask the doctor to take a look at you.”
“It’s nothing. Just keep putting your hand on my forehead. I’ll get better soon.”
Leilani gave him a speechless look. She had so many messy thoughts that she wasn’t humored at all.
At the presidential house, she asked Tinder to send her their location. But he didn’t text back.
Kevin asked for the doctor and took Andrew to rest in the guest room.
“Miss Peters, the dressing room is on the second floor in case you need to get changed,” Kevin said.
Leilani realized that she hadn’t changed since last night. She had to put on a new dress to meet the president as manners dictated.
Her outfits were still in the closet. She thought she would never get back when she left here. But it was only a week’s time that she got back.
The wounds on her back were not healed. So she chose a suit that was easy to put on and off. She just unzipped her dress when she heard something behind her back. She immediately held it in case someone saw her undressed.
She looked back and was frozen.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you’re getting changed. The door was unlocked, so I just came in.”
Leilani looked at the woman in front of her in shock. She forgot how to think and what she was doing at the moment. She also forgot to talk.
Her rosy lips were apart because of too much shock. What she was prepared to say choked in her throat.
“You’re Leilani, aren’t?” The woman’s voice was trembling. She couldn’t tell it was nervousness or excitement.
“Mom? You…” Leilani walked over to Olivia, her maternal mother, though her dress was unzipped.
Olivia walked to her, as well.
“Leilani? It’s really you?”
“You’re awake. I’m not dreaming. You really wake up!”
Olivia had exactly the same look as Leilani recalled in Cambola City. Her beauty didn’t fade at all after all those years. She was still as pretty as a picture.
Olivia reached out to hug Leilani.
“Leilani, I miss you so much. I’m a bad mother. I didn’t look after you. I didn’t watch you grow up.”
“Mom, it’s not your bad,” Leilani didn’t know what to say. Olivia left her when she was only 4, and she never saw her again. She never knew what it was like to be loved by a mother. She also wasn’t sure how she was supposed to behave in front of her. She was overwhelmed.
Olivia kept saying while crying.
“You’ve turned into a gorgeous woman. I’m blessed to say you again.”
Then Olivia stepped back to check up on Leilani. Her belly caught her attention, and she fixed her sight on it.
“Leilani, are you pregnant?”
Leilani nodded in a daze.
Olivia kept asking.
“Where’s the father?”
Leilani didn’t know how to answer Olivia’s question. She had to make up something.
“He’s very busy.”
Olivia helped her get zipped. She wanted to make up for Leilani and gave her all the love she couldn’t give her in the last dozens of years. She had so much to tell her.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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