Liam massaged his nape while listening to Daryl’s concerns.

“Mr. Chua has a lot of connections. Every company that is close to him pulled out of our contracts and we are no longer their legal advisers. We lost twenty percent of our clients, they signed at Yao law firm instead. Liam, we are facing some great losses at this point.” Daryl commented.

Liam looked at him and scoffed, “Noah will surely gain a lot from it, so just let it go…”

Daryl’s face crumpled as he continued, “Hey, even if you two are close now… Business is still business, you know. Liam, we are losing too many clients. Geez…”

“Lana is back…” Liam casually stated.

“What?! When?” Daryl burst out. Now he could finally understand why they lost so many clients. It was because Liam turned down the proposal for the arranged marriage by Mr. Chua.

“Yesterday…” Liam answered, expressionless.

Liam’s intercom buzzed, it was Mian.

“Sir, Miss Kenzie is here to see you and she insists to go inside…” Mian informed him.

Liam looked at Daryl, asking for help. Daryl scratched his head and answered the intercom, “Mian, Liam just went inside his room to rest for a bit. He’s really not well, I personally gave him some medicine for his headache. Can you have Miss Kenzie escorted to my office instead, please?”

“Noted Attorney Cha.”

“Thanks, Mian,” Daryl replied and immediately left Liam’s office to entertain Kenzie.

Liam heaved a long sigh. He could have entertained Kenzie and talked to her properly but he was not in the mood to do so. He was too distracted because of Lana and his thoughts were full of her.

His mobile phone suddenly beeped, when he checked it was a message from Lana.

“Why is she so active?” Liam murmured as he opened his phone’s inbox to read the complete message.

[I will go check how things are at Huang Mansion today and then at the office at Zhao Building. I decided to take over the company and focus on mom’s business. I will come home early to prepare us some dinner. See you soon. I miss you…]

Liam felt like his heart could burst open anytime now.

He emitted a long deep sigh and then typed a reply.

[I won’t come home today. I will sleep at Sy mansion instead… Enjoy staying in my apartment…]

He stared at the message for a long time contemplating whether to send it or not. After some time, he quickly deleted what he had typed and replaced it with,

[I will have dinner outside, with a client.]

His brows furrowed when he read the text again, he started deleting the message again.

“Maybe it’s better if I don’t reply…” Liam murmured, still contemplating what to do. He was once again torn. He wanted to have dinner with her but his pride was telling him to keep his distance and remain cold.

******

Lana pouted her lips as she waited for a reply but sadly there was no response.

Her face twitched as she walked outside to visit Huang’s mansion. She wondered how long Liam would treat her this way, coldly. She was not used to it. She hated every second of it.

“Maybe I should quickly move on to the seducing part?” she whispered as she started the engine of her car. Then she smiled at how impatient she was to be with Liam in a normal relationship again. It was like she couldn’t wait but she knew she had to since she made a huge mistake by leaving him just like that.

She arrived at the mansion and their butler greeted her at the entrance. They were aware of her return.

“Welcome back mistress Lana.” her butler greeted. He followed Lana as she walked around the house. He briefed her on the changes, if there were any and why it was necessary.

“We kept everything as it is except for the upgrade in the security systems, as you suggested. All the technologies we’ve installed for use are top of the line and the renovations you requested have also been completed.”

Lana nodded and turned to him to say thank you before she dismissed him.

After going up a few steps on the stairs, she stopped in front of the big portraits hanging in the center. They were the portraits of her mother and her deceased husband in their wedding outfit, her mother with her when she was a kid, and her mother with her and Liam.

“As promised, I will hang a portrait of Liam and me with our future children in this collection too, mother. I will soon make it happen. Again, I’m really sorry for delaying it and keeping you waiting for a year…” Lana whispered with a determined smile.

She first went inside her mother’s room. Everything was the same. She opened the closet and grabbed one of her mother’s favorite dresses. Lana unconsciously hugged it while she sat on the side of her mother’s bed.

“It’s been a year mom since you left me. I miss you so much…” she whispered as tears fell from her eyes. All memories of her with her mother were perfectly intact because they were all good memories and she would cherish them all her life.

Except for the one memory that was nothing less than a nightmare to her, for months after her mother’s death. It was the day that her mother hugged Liam and received those bullets on her frail body to save him.

Lana could still clearly remember her mother’s face from that day. That smile, while blood was spilling out of her mouth as if she was happy with receiving all those gunshots to save Liam. She knew that her mother did not regret it, and would probably do the same thing over and over again but the pain of losing her like that was just too much for her to bear. Her mother’s last smile turned out as a nightmare that broke her deeply.

Lana chuckled as she wiped her tears away. She then grabbed a photo frame from the bedside table and stared at her mother’s beautiful face.

“I bet you would have been scolding me right now had you been here… Saying that I wasted months when I could have had another baby. You probably want to whip me right now for being stubborn and wasting my time, wasting a year of my life after all the sacrifices you made for me…” she whispered with a smile while touching her mother’s face in the frame.

“I’m really sorry, mom. But I promise you now, that this daughter of yours will be stronger and I will not let the past make me weak again as it did before. I let you down, I know. But it’s not too late… Watch me and cheer for me. I love you so much mom.” she whispered as she kissed the photo frame.