Hearts System: 1000 Ways to Tell CEO I Love You

Chapter 65: I’ll Always Be With You

"My dad’s out on a business trip. He won’t come to pick me up." The girl waited for the man to end his call. She took out her pink phone and fiddled with it. "I’ll call Mom instead."

"He’s out, and he doesn’t leave you with a watcher? That’s incredibly irresponsible of him." The man laughed, but he cut it short. A male teenager came running to them from the street.

Luellen, in the memory, even gasped and got off her swing set. She smiled widely, but the male teen pulled her by the arm and then almost shoved her behind him. The boy turned his nose up at the man in a long coat. However, he just grabbed the girl again and dragged her away behind him.

He angrily snapped at her, "Why are you talking to strangers? Didn’t I tell you not to talk to anyone? You’re so annoying! Why do I have to watch over you?"

The girl in the memory cried a little. "I’m sorry, Nathan... I won’t talk to strangers anymore. Please walk me properly..."

"No, this is your punishment."

The girl sniffed and looked back at the man in the distance. He only stood up and watched them take a turn. The girl turned toward the male teen. He even shoved her inside their family car.

She winced but collected herself before sitting up properly. The male teen sat beside her, visibly upset. The car drove away as the image faded into black.

...

Luellen opened her eyes and stared at the innocent wall where her gaze landed. She didn’t make a noise before sitting up. The System had greeted her with the Day Count and told her about clearing the penalty. However, that didn’t interrupt her thoughts. She even frowned heavily at the bed.

The maiden held her chest as if feeling her damaged heart. She whispered, "Did everyone around me change their attitude toward me when I almost died? That was clearly Nathan Chrome in the car with me... and the man in the park... That was Leander for sure...

"System, are you helping me recover my memories?"

[Pro-tip! Memories are stored in a dedicated space in one’s brain! The Hearts System cannot recover what is lost, but remnant memories will be accessed if found!]

"Oh... so you can recover some of it..."

Luellen smiled a little. She got up from the bed and looked around. It was as if, when she woke up, so did the System. Leander’s room slowly turned into her dedicated space. She entered the ensuite and prepared for the day. She was on leave until Monday, leaving her three days off work and the weekend. Her duties must have piled up, killing Summer, who needed to catch the important ones.

She took out her phone and thought of calling her best friend. It was already past nine. Summer should be deep in her work. Still, it was only the best time to call.

Summer’s phone rang, and the call was picked up on the third ring. Luellen stayed smiling as she waited.

"Sue! I’m so sorry for not coming to work for so long!" Luellen almost bounced in glee at the thought of talking to Summer. "You don’t have to worry about me a lot, though!"

"Why won’t she? You still collapse out of nowhere."

"Eh? Leander?" Luellen’s smile froze. She then chuckled nervously. "Did you confiscate her phone? Uhm, I just want to check up on her. She had to do my tasks, and there are a lot of them. Please let me talk to her."

Leander seemingly huffed, but the sound was too soft for Luellen to be certain. He then answered, "She’s in the middle of a video conference for a meeting."

Luellen pursed her lips. She glanced at the clock again. "So early in the morning? Uhm, okay... Can you tell her I called? Maybe I can call her again around lunchtime."

"You sound healthy enough to return to work." Leander hummed, soon sighing louder as if arguing with himself. It was just that he seemed to have murmured away from the phone. Another male voice resounded, conversing with Leander in the middle of his phone call.

"Ms Piper..." Houston’s voice came through, as if he had taken over the call this time. "There should be a laptop in Leander’s room. If you want to help, you can work from there. Don’t forget to sign out of Leander’s accounts, however."

The maiden’s shoulders flinched as her real supervisor asked her to work now. She could only nod, even if he couldn’t see it. She said, "Got it, Mr Houston. I’ll start in a few minutes."

Only a hum served as his acknowledgment. When the call ended, Luellen had to work on herself again. She got up and read a message from Leander about the laptop. It had its own passcode and log-in verifications, so he had to walk her through them. With a set of instructions for the day, Luellen figured she couldn’t be too lazy by then.

Perhaps the only interruption was when Beckett delivered her breakfast to Leander’s room. He stayed and chatted for a few minutes before getting back to cleaning their house. Luellen soon locked in until lunch...

When Leander initiated a video call.

"I’d hate to talk about work during lunch, but I’ll need to relay a change in schedule with you." Leander ate at his desk, even though he never did that before. He couldn’t bring his laptop to the pantry either.

"It’s okay. Do you need me to come with you?" Luellen smiled. However, she received a strange gaze from the man. She smiled more deeply. "I remember what happened before... but I don’t want to inconvenience you too much."

"That’s quite ironic. I’d want to concentrate on business every time I take the time to leave the office for them." Leander didn’t speak outside of his monotone voice. "I’d be more at ease if you were here, guarded by security and Henny. I could simply take Houston and Ms Bloomfield for it. However, they moved the venue three states away."

Luellen stopped chewing all of a sudden. She even left her spoon against her slip. A blink came as an answer. "Oh..."

Leander looked up at her and stared at the screen, catching how her gaze dipped from dismay. Her hands even slowly lowered as if they were running low on energy. He blinked before looking down at his food again.

They remained silent for a moment.

Luellen soon noticed it and broke the silence with a gleeful yet feigned cheer. "I guess I can only bid you good luck on winning, Leander! Uhm, how long will you be gone? It should be on weekdays since it’s a business trip. Uhm... do you... do you need to pack? Wait, I probably shouldn’t touch your things without permission..."

"A lot more people from your father’s circle will be there. They might be more calloused than Director Lawford and that man." Leander whispered, Luellen’s smile freezing. "Will you be safer around me?"

"...I will be." Luellen tightened her hold on her utensils. "I’ll make sure I will always be with you!"

She might have phrased words differently, but Leander only chuckled in response.

That kind of soft laugh almost tugged on Luellen’s heartstrings. She pursed her lips and looked down at her chest. A deep smile curled her lips again.

’How could they stop me when nothing kills me? I have my Hearts System now.’

END OF VOLUME 1