Love’s New Bloom By Simone Hastings - Season 1 Episode 75

In an underground bar at 3 am, two men acting low–key were making deals in a corner, both of whom had ordered drinks for themselves but had left them untouched.

Ian, who had a black cap on, lowered the brim and said to the other man, “We were once classmates, Tyler. You even took two million dollars from me in one fell swoop, so what you’re about to tell me better be worth that much.”

The man sitting opposite him was wearing a black mask with graffiti art, and he had sunken dark circles under his eyes. The man came closer to lan and replied, “If it wasn’t for my relative living abroad who desperately needed the money to cure their illness, I wouldn’t dare make such a big gamble in the first place. 1 guarantee you that this will be worth every penny!”

There was still some hesitation in lan’s eyes, but upon remembering that he had the information of his elementary school friend’s address and the details of his family members, he lowered his guard a little. He then took out a bank card from his pocket and put it on the table.

Tyler also put a paper envelope bag he’d brought with him on the table. He picked up the bank card, put it in his shirt pocket, and asked in a low voice, “What’s the password?”

“The password is…” Ian whispered the combination to him.

With that, Tyler stood up and was about to leave when he turned back to remind lan, “You’d better burn all the information immediately after you’re done reading it. No one should get a hold of this information at all costs. If not, my life and my relative’s lives will be in danger!”

Ian nodded cautiously and promised, “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure it’s destroyed.”

An hour and a half later, lan returned to his villa and immediately retreated to his study.

When Mary heard some shuffling noises, she knocked on his door. “Come in,” he said.

“Why are you only back at this hour, lan?” she asked. “Did you go drinking with someone? It’s dangerous to drink and drive, you know-”

“I didn’t drink, Mom!” Ian rudely interrupted her. “It’s late. You should go to bed. I still have a few things to attend to in my study.”

She nodded and decided not to disturb him anymore, but before she closed the door, she turned around and asked another question, “Please tell me the truth, lan. Was the reason behind your divorce with Erin really because you went and had another woman on the side?”

He immediately stopped flipping through the documents. Upon recalling his goal of getting Erin back, he lifted his gaze to look at Mary. “It’s true, Mom. I was the one who let Erin down…” he trailed off sheepishly.

“But in the pictures from the Internet that your aunt showed me, Erin had clearly been caught canoodling with another young man, and she was even caught crying. How can you explain that?” she quizzed. She still refused to believe that Erin did nothing wrong.

It caused lan to stand up and walk toward her. “I know what you’re talking about, but that incident involved an A–list celebrity who couldn’t afford to be caught in a scandal with Erin, so he publicly clarified their relationship on Twitter. It turned out that he just wanted to thank her for donating one thousand dollars to him when she was fifteen,” he said sincerely.

His explanation caused her to loosen the frown on her face. “How could this be? I even gave her a good lecture when I bumped. into her today. I guess I was the one who misunderstood her, after all,” she said remorsefully.

“It’s fine, Mom. I’ve already apologized to her on your behalf, so you don’t have to take it to heart anymore. I divorced her in the heat of the moment, so I definitely want to marry her again! I hope that you can accept her as your daughter–in–law again too. I was the one who wronged her,” he said solemnly.

Mary felt heartbroken when she saw her son so depressed. She had a scowl on her face as she said, “She can be really stubborn at times, so I imagine this will be quite a tall order.”

“I still want to give it a shot regardless of the outcome! You should go to sleep first, Mom. You don’t have to think about it so much,” he said as he lightly grabbed his mother’s shoulders to lead her to the door.

“I’m quite fond of Erin, actually. Compared to all the vixens out there, she’s so much better. I’ll invite her out for dinner someday to make amends with her face–to–face, Ian. I know I’m much older than her, but since I’m the one who accused her, I should definitely go and apologize!” she commented while shaking her head.

“That’d be amazing, Mom! Erin’s a soft–hearted girl, so I’m sure she’ll forgive you if you apologize to her! I’m also at fault for this whole matter. Sorry that I didn’t tell you about it earlier,” he replied with some surprise in his eyes.

“Forget it. What’s done is done. You can continue with your work while I head to bed first,” Mary said, waving her hand.

Half an hour later, after laying out all the information on his desk, he stood up in shock and started pacing back and forth in

the room.

“Oh, Chandler, I kept thinking you were the prince of the Frost family, but who knew that you were actually the shunned eldest son! Bet you also didn’t know you have a half–brother!” he laughed maniacally.

Before he got a hold of this top–secret information, he wasn’t sure about his plans to recapture Erin’s heart, but he was brimming with confidence now.

If Chandler had succeeded in laying out all the groundwork for him to divorce Erin, then he could certainly do the same back to him so that he let go of her!

Two weeks later, Erin dropped her mother, Cherry, off at the train station.

Cherry had come to visit under the excuse of letting her try some of the tea from her hometown, but in reality, she wanted to pry into her daughter’s relationship. She had already caught wind that Ian wasn’t the person who rescued them that time in

Aunder.

To think that the other side would let her go when she still had a huge amount of debt left from her husband’s gambling and that they’d never been intimidated or threatened since their return to Southwrok County.

Cherry couldn’t think of any other person who had that much sway and power to pull it off.

Erin had made up a weak excuse, saying that it was her friend who helped to appease her mother’s curiosity for the time being.

Cherry pretended to believe her, too, as she reckoned her daughter was already old enough to know better. She no longer pressed her for answers as long as she didn’t feel like revealing the truth.

As Erin gazed at the train speeding away into the distance, she felt somewhat touched. She felt that if it weren’t for Chandler’s help in the beginning, things wouldn’t have turned out so smoothly now.

Staring at the bank card in her hand, she realized that Cherry had given her the two million dollars that she had initially given her, saying that she should use the money to buy a house instead and that a divorcee like her shouldn’t continue to live with.

her friend like that.

Obviously, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her mother the truth, so she lied and told her that she was living with her friend Holly instead.

It was 6.30 pm on the weekend, so Erin was ready to take the subway back. Barely five minutes passed when Holly’s ex- husband, Eugene, called her again. It was the sixth time he’d called her this week, so she finally decided to pick up the call.

“Who would’ve thought getting the esteemed Miss Erin Lane to pick up her phone would be so hard? Am I such a ferocious beast to you, which is why you hate me so?” Eugene lamented.

She didn’t feel like explaining herself, so she said bluntly, “The reason I’m not picking up your calls is simple–I have nothing to say to you.”

“We were schoolmates before, at the very least! Not to mention that your best friend is also my ex–wife and the fact that I also liked you back in college. I didn’t think those were enough to make you ignore me?” he sighed.

She had already walked to the platform and was about to step into the subway when she said, “Are you done? I’ll be hanging up now. I’m about to take the subway home, so you’ll need to cut it short-”

“Where are you now?” he asked.

“At the train station,” she answered plainly.

Eugene asked excitedly, “Are you at the Neweast Train Station now?”

“Yeah,” she replied with a frown.

“Wait for me. I’ll go pick you up! I’m in the area, so just wait for me for five minutes!” he exclaimed.

“You don’t have to. I can just go back by myself,” she declined. 1

“Just give me a chance to apologize, Erin! That night when I almost made a move on you at the hotel…I swear I really regretted everything afterward! Can’t you give me a chance to redeem myself? This incident has plagued me so much that I couldn’t eat or sleep properly for the past few days. Let me treat you to dinner. I don’t think you’re the type to hold grudges, right?” he rambled on anxiously.

She sighed as she listened to him rattle on for ages. “Are you saying that if I agree to go out for a meal with you, you’ll be willing to drop this whole thing?” she snapped.