Chapter 147: Stop whatever you are trying to pursue Kevin
"I’m sorry, Uncle, but I’m in a rush. I’ll play with you another time," Leo said as he quickly finished his breakfast before hurrying off with Teddy.
With Ivy already gone, only Xander and Aaron remained at the dining table.
"You seem to have a lot of free time these days," Xander remarked as he glanced at his younger brother. "Don’t you have any surgeries scheduled?"
Aaron’s lips twitched.
"Brother, why do you always want me to work myself to death?" he complained. "You know how rarely I get the chance to spend time with you. Now you want me buried in work twenty-four seven?"
Xander ignored the complaint and continued eating his breakfast.
Aaron rolled his eyes before changing the subject.
"Anyway, how was your blind date?" he asked. "I heard Aunt Liliana is determined to bring a daughter-in-law into the family as soon as possible."
The moment the topic came up, Aaron’s expression darkened.
"Do you even know who the girl was?"
Xander raised an eyebrow at his reaction.
"Nora Ford," Aaron replied with a look of disbelief before shaking his head. "Honestly, I still can’t figure out how she managed to catch my mother’s attention."
The atmosphere around Xander instantly grew colder.
Back then, when he had signed the agreement with Florine Ford, he had never understood why she had accepted it so readily. But after learning from Ivy that Florine wasn’t her biological mother, everything finally made sense.
Greed.
That was the reason.
Florine had traded Ivy’s future for the luxurious life she had always wanted, and he had been the one who handed it to her.
A wave of guilt washed over him.
His jaw tightened, and his hand slowly clenched into a fist beneath the table.
Aaron immediately noticed the shift in his brother’s expression.
"There’s something else you should know," he said seriously.
Xander looked up.
"Ivy isn’t the biological daughter of the Fords."
"I know."
The response came so quickly that Aaron froze.
"You know?"
Xander nodded.
"Ivy told me everything."
For a brief moment, silence filled the room.
Xander lowered his gaze to the untouched food on his plate.
"And now," he said quietly, his voice heavy with regret, "I feel even more guilty for forcing her into that deal without ever asking for her consent."
Aaron studied his brother carefully.
For years, Xander had never shown a sense of remorse, not even when his parents died in that accident. He had completely shut down from every emotion a human could harbour, but seeing him weighed down by guilt now was something Aaron had never expected.
Perhaps Ivy had changed far more than just the atmosphere of the house. Perhaps she had changed Xander too.
***
Meanwhile, Ivy arrived at the café where Kevin was already waiting for her.
The moment he spotted her, he let out a small smile.
"I honestly thought you wouldn’t come," Kevin said, amusement lacing his voice.
After all, she hadn’t even bothered replying to his messages.
Ivy pulled out a chair and sat across from him.
"I came because there are a few things I need to make clear," she said calmly.
Kevin’s smile immediately faltered.
For some reason, he had assumed that after his public announcement, Ivy would be happy. At the very least, he thought she would appreciate what he had done.
But looking at her now, he wasn’t so sure.
"What do you mean?" he asked cautiously.
An uneasy feeling settled in his chest.
The Ivy sitting across from him felt like a stranger.
The girl he had known in high school had changed so much that he could barely recognize her anymore.
Even now, as he looked into her eyes, he couldn’t understand what had happened to her after that incident.
Back then, when Nora had spread rumors throughout the school claiming that Ivy was obsessed with him, Kevin had gone straight to the principal and exposed the truth. He had revealed Nora’s lies and the way she had constantly bullied and targeted Ivy.
At the time, he had believed he was doing the right thing.
But after that day, everything had changed.
Ivy stopped coming to school regularly. And even when she did appear, she kept to herself.
She never sought him out.
Never spoke to him.
Never even looked his way.
It was as if he simply didn’t exist.
For years, Kevin had convinced himself that she just needed time.
Now, sitting across from her, he was beginning to wonder if the distance between them had never been about time at all.
"What is it that you want to make clear?" he asked quietly.
Ivy met his gaze.
There was no anger in her eyes.
But there was also none of the warmth he remembered.
And somehow, that hurt even more.
"Stop whatever you are trying to pursue, Kevin."
Ivy watched Kevin’s expression carefully.
She could tell he had countless questions running through his mind. He wanted to know why she was acting this way, why she seemed so distant whenever he tried to get close to her.
But before anything else, Ivy needed him to understand one thing.
She had long outgrown the feelings she once had for him.
Back then, they had only been teenagers and she had been far too shy to confess her feelings directly.
It had taken every ounce of courage she possessed just to write that letter.
A letter that never reached him the way she had intended.
Instead, it had become a source of amusement for Nora.
The contents had been mocked and ridiculed before students and teachers alike, turning Ivy into the laughingstock of the entire school.
Even now, years later, she couldn’t completely erase those memories.
No matter how much she wanted to move on, they lingered in the corners of her mind.
The endless nights she spent crying herself to sleep.
The days she was deliberately denied food as punishment.
The endless chores Florine forced onto her because she believed Ivy had somehow wronged Nora.
Every painful memory came rushing back. One after another like wounds that had healed on the surface but still ached beneath.
For a moment, Ivy lowered her gaze. Sometimes she wondered how things would have been if Raven had been the one in her place.
Raven would have fought back. She would have defended herself and wouldn’t have silently endured every insult, every accusation, and every injustice thrown her way.
But Ivy had been different. She had accepted the blame. Accepted the punishment. Accepted the loneliness. All without saying a word.
Looking back now, she realized that the person she pitied most wasn’t the girl who had loved Kevin. It was the girl who had believed she deserved to suffer.
The silence between them stretched. Then Ivy finally lifted her eyes to meet Kevin’s. There was no resentment in them.
Only a calm certainty.
And somehow, that expression made Kevin’s heart sink more than anger ever could.
