Filed to story: Leaving the Country After Divorce Novel (Lucian & Roxanne)
After Estella handed the handkerchief to Roxanne, she had been staying at the latter’s side. Upon hearing that they were heading downstairs, she immediately reached her hand out and grabbed Roxanne’s hand, much like how they did it last time.
Right before her hand touched Roxanne’s, a phone rang.
Roxanne promptly turned around to take the phone in her bag, and her fingertips brushed past the little girl’s.
It wasn’t easy for Estella to build up the courage to hold Roxanne’s hand, yet she failed at the last second. She blinked slowly as disappointment colored her expression, and she started fiddling with her fingers.
Lucian saw how they almost held each other’s hand. His eyes darkened in response.
Roxanne picked up the phone and saw it was a call from Madilyn.
She handed her kids to Madilyn tonight because of her appointment at the Queen residence.
So, when she saw the call, she thought something happened to the children and speedily answered.
As her finger swiped across the screen, she accidentally pressed the speaker icon.
“Hello?” Roxanne spoke without noticing her mistake.
In the next second, she heard two cute voices ringing through the air. “When are you coming back, Mommy?”
It shocked her and she quickly turned off the speaker mode..
The children’s voices vanished in an instant.
Despite that, she could feel her heart beating like crazy. She worriedly and subconsciously shot a side glance at Lucian.
Her first reaction was that she was afraid he would learn of her children’s existence.
Lucian’s face was currently as dark as the sky before a thunderstorm. There was an icy look in his eyes.
I heard the voices coming from the phone. It was a boy’s voice calling her “Mommy.” Did she get married again?
When he realized that, rage flooded into his mind and heart.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down.
That was the only way he could resist the urge to pin her to the wall and question her.
Jonathan didn’t detect anything wrong between the both of them and smiled. “Are you married, Dr. Jarvis?”
Roxanne’s mind was in so much chaos that she just nodded.
When Jonathan saw that, he smiled. “I couldn’t tell you already have kids.”
She apologized, “I’m sorry. Please excuse me while I take a call.”
When Roxanne walked out of the room, she lowered her voice and spoke to the children. “I’m still treating a patient right now, so I’ll be back much later. Go play with Aunt Madilyn first.”
The children were used to her returning home late, so they agreed.
Concurrently, inside the room, Lucian’s expression was so cold that it was reaching the freezing point.
Rage was boiling in his heart.
Estella’s attempt to reach Roxanne’s hand and the “Mommy” he heard on the phone kept echoing in his mind.
No wonder she acts so coldly toward Estella. It turns out she had already married someone else and given birth to new children! That’s why she abandoned Estella back then!
He stared at his daughter, who was still standing in her original spot.
Despite her obvious disappointment, she still stared at the door, waiting for Roxanne to return.
Watching her like that made his heart ache.
So what if she has returned? She still doesn’t want to take care of her child!
The look on Lucian’s face was terrifyingly dark as he approached Estella and carried her into his arms.
The girl stared at him with confusion and tugged his collar, indicating that she didn’t want to be carried
Of course, he didn’t notice it as he coldly announced, “It’s getting late, so I’ll be taking Essie back home now. If Old Mr. Queen wakes up, give me a call. I’ll stop by another day.”
Before Jonathan could reply, he left with Estella.
Roxanne had just ended her call and was about to head back in.
When she arrived at the doorway, she saw Lucian walking out expressionlessly.
Her heart clenched, but just as she wondered what to do, he walked past her and left without glancing at her.
She was a little stunned at his sudden departure, though when she returned to her senses, she laughed self-deprecatingly in her mind.
It seems like he didn’t care about the call at all.
Six years ago, he didn’t care about me either, not to mention I did that sort of thing to him when I left.
Of course, he won’t care about me now, nor would he care about the two children. To him, we’re all strangers.
Roxanne knew they lived in different worlds. She thought about the emotional roller-coaster she had just gone through earlier and felt like a joke.
She stood outside the door for a long while before sighing gently. Upon tidying up her thoughts, she entered the room.
Only Jonathan was left in the room.
He had witnessed their interaction earlier.
For some reason, I feel like their relationship isn’t as simple as it seems.
Lucian, especially, seems weird. It’s the first time he showed so many emotions toward a woman.
He was really curious about their history, but because it was their private matter, he didn’t inquire further about it. Instead, he started talking about Alfred’s condition with her.
Estella was panicking as Lucian brought her out of the mansion and into the car. She quickly wrote a sentence in her notebook and tugged the hem of his shirt before showing it to him.
The sentence read: I haven’t talked to Ms. Jarvis yet. Can we stay a little longer?
Seeing that, Lucian felt a surge of mixed feelings, and his eyebrows furrowed.
Estella noticed her father looked kind of down, and a caring look appeared in her eyes. She then wrote two more sentences: What’s wrong, Daddy? Why aren’t you happy?
Lucian’s expression turned grim when he saw what happened. “What’s there to talk to her about? Pretend that you don’t know her the next time you see her and don’t ever interact with her again.”