The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven)

Zane gazed at me. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but he didn't.

I asked, "Do you have something to tell me?"

Zane questioned casually, "Aren't you jealous?"

"Jealous? Why?" I was confused.

Zane said hesitantly, "If I plan to mentor Sage, I'm going to work very closely with her."

"I trust you, and I trust her, too," I said with determination.

I continued, "Since you've chosen me, I'm sure you won't fall in love with someone else. She doesn't even trust her own family and only trusts herself. That means she won't rely on a man to change her fate. I don't think she will fall in love with you." But when Zane heard my answer, he was a little upset. He grumbled, "But I want to see you get jealous."noveldrama

I chuckled and played along, saying, "Well, I do feel a little uncomfortable when I see your interactions with other females."

Zane's gaze softened after he heard that. He said, "But the one I love is you."

I was surprised by that response.

Zane rubbed my hair and said, "I'll get back to work."

"Okay."

...

I went back to focusing on illustrating my comics. The past few days had been busy, and I wished I could spend all my time in the office doing nothing but illustrating comics.

After a few tiresome hours, I finally completed all my drawings for the morning. Just as I lay on the couch, wanting to give myself a break, somebody knocked on the door. Zane had gotten used to having visitors as he worked. Zane said, "Come in."

Sasha came in and went straight for me. She wrapped her arms around my waist and said, "You have no idea how weird Shane is! I thought it was ridiculous enough that he came to look for me at the company, but who would've expected him to do something even more bizarre than that?"

I put my arm around Sasha's shoulder and tried to soothe her. "What happened?" I asked.

Trying to keep herself calm, Sasha took a deep breath. She said, "A few days ago, he called me and said that my father tried to stand up for me and offended the Winslows in that process. Now, the Winslows have withdrawn all their funds, which may cause my family to go bankrupt!

"He also said that if I'm willing to marry him, he will convince his family to continue investing in my father's company."

As Sasha repeated what Shane had said, she couldn't help but roll her eyes.

Sasha continued, "I scolded him over

the phone. Lasked if he was crazy! He already has a girlfriend, and they're obsessed with each other also asked why he wasn't focusing on treating his girlfriend right and why he was bothering me."

Looking at me in the eye, Sasha asked, "What do you think he answered me with?"

Unable to figure out Shane's train of thought, I asked, "What?"

Sasha scoffed and said, "He said he realized that even when he was with his girlfriend, he couldn't stop thinking about me. He believes that he still loves me.

"And so, I continued scolding him for over half an hour. Then, I told him I saw the news about my father's partnership with Huxham Corporation. The Huxham family is richer than his, so I'm sure they can resolve my father's problems." In response, I complimented Sasha, "Well, you're pretty smart, aren't you?"

Without skipping a beat, Sasha said proudly, "Of course! After that, I reminded him to stop thinking of me and to pay attention to his family business. Otherwise, he may not even be aware when his family's business goes bankrupt. "Say, why are the people in his social circle so dumb? If his family's business goes bankrupt, his entire family will have survival issues. But he doesn't care about that; instead, he only cares about romance!"