Mr. Preston who had been silent all along suddenly reacted and took his wife into his arms, patting her back comfortingly.
He had been a witness to the mental torture his wife had suffered after losing their daughter, constantly blaming herself for losing her.
This self-blame would have almost evolved into full blown depression if it wasn't for the timely discovery by him and his sons.
To be honest, he wasn't considered an affectionate persons, in fact, normal people would even call him indifferent. But when it came to his family, he tried to remedy that, especially after their daughter was lost.
Taking this into consideration, he had gradually delegated his responsibilities to have more time to accompany his wife after she showed the signs of mild depression.
Back then, although he was also in deep pain he couldn't show it because for one, his personality was just like that and two, he knew he couldn't afford to show any signs of it since he had his wife and young sons to comfort.
However, behind their backs he had poured immeasurable resources year after year into finding his baby daughter even without any receiving any news as the days went by. Yet, he never stopped investigating, he didn't dare to as he still had some hope in his heart that she was fine, after all, no news could also be considered good news.
Time had flown by in that way and his sons had also matured a lot, so when handing the business over to his eldest son, he had also entrusted him with continuing the find.
He gave the same instructions to his twin sons as well and he, himself also never stopped investigating.
Maybe, their efforts finally touched the heart of the one above, because one day, just when they were about to give up and accept the cruel reality, he and his wife had encountered a woman who looked about eighty percent similar to her!
Maybe not even his wife had an idea of how ectastic he was on seeing the woman becuse intuition had told him right at that moment that this was his daughter!
Notwithstanding, he still retained a part of his rationality and cautiousness and insisted on paternity testing even if both him and his wife already had an inkling that she was indeed his daughter. After all, the fact that his family had lost a daughter was an open secret and he was worried that someone would take advantage of the situation and deliberately deceive them.
Fortunately, she had indeed be proved to be his lost daughter!
Yet now..
This particular daughter that they had spared no efforts in finding was doubting them and making his wife sad?
He found it a bit hard to accept and couldn't help but develop some dissatisfaction towards her.
Turning towards Selena, he opened to speak and his voice was just like his personality, calm and steady.
"After you got kidnapped by your nanny, it almost caused an irreparable rift between the two families since the reason you got kidnapped in the first place was because someone didn't want both of our families to unite in marriage. This someone was Nathan's uncle, Simon."
"He did it because he wanted to be the Royale's family heir and he knew that if you should be betrothed to Nathan, our two families would be inevitably inseparable in interests, making his goal harder to achieve!"
"... after your aunt Celia found out that he was the culprit behind your kidnapping, he was handed over to us to deal with and seeing that there was no intention of shielding him made our relationship ease. In fact, probably due to guilt, they have spent no less effort in looking for you..."
Mr. Preston paused here to look at Selena deeply and asked slowly, "Do you find it unacceptable that our family's friendship with the Royale's still continued as usual after what happened to you? Just because Simon was handed over?
However, he didn't wait for her to answer and answered the question himself.
"But nothing can be done about it even if you feel aggreieved and uncomfortable, because that's just the way it is when it comes to families like ours. Their way of handling the matter decided what was more important between a relative with deep thoughts and the precious friendship between the families. Likewise, had they decided to shield him, it was a no brainer that our relationship with them would have stopped at that moment."
"The reason I and your mother is saying all this is to make you understand that no matter how deep our friendship with the Royale's run, when there is a choice between them and our children, we will always choose you. Just like this marriage alliance, at most it is just a verbal promise and with all the years gone by and the fact that the two likely protagonists didn't have the chance to grow up together, this promise is obsolete!"
"So everything depends on you. If you would like to go through with it, fine and if you don't want to, it's also fine. Our family has never been in the business of selling their daughters!", This declaration came from Mrs. Preston who had sat upright from he husband's embrace.
Selena stared at her two parents and the rims of her eyes turned red and tears swam in her eyes as she bowed in shame.
"I am sorry...", She whispered with self-condemnation.
In fact, Mr. Preston was wrong. She felt no dissatisfaction at all towards their approach to the Royale's because..
She was also a businesswoman.
So she understood too well that people's interest were always inextricably linked together and if nothing absolutely intolerable happens, it would continue to be so.
This was the same in the business world, not to talk of noble and century-old families like the Royale's and Preston's.
Maybe, if she were 10 years younger, she would have been indignant on being told this but she wasn't. She was already past that immature and rebellious age.
Moreover, it wasn't like it was the entirety of the Royale's that planned her abduction, so to end the co-operative relationship and friendship between the two families because of an unimportant person would definitely be a stupid decision.
This was the businesswoman in her who tries to maximise her interests at all times speaking!
Both Mr. and Mrs. Preston instantly felt whatever dissatisfaction that had arose in their hearts dissipate on seeing her looking so remorseful.
It was still Mrs. Preston who took action as she was aware that her husband had already said almost a month's worth of words today only and could no longer expect him to say anything more.
"Everything is fine now. Don't blame yourself too much. It all boils down to the fact that you still haven't had the time to fully understand us, but there will be time in the future, right?"
This marked the end of Selena's memories...
****
Back to the present.
Selena who had just relived her memories blinked and returned to reality.
Ever since that day, she had explicitly informed her parents that she had no interest in Nathan at all and she, in fact had a boyfriend she loved very much back in Nova.
Of course, she had deliberately kept hidden the fact that the boyfriend was now an ex.
She had no idea why she lied but she just did and only then did she know she would be lying if she said she didn't bore any hope at all for him in her heart.
But...
It's been so long and there hasn't been any news from his side.
'Does this mean we are really over?', She mused.
Yet, thinking of this made biting pain course through her, especially when she thought of the fact that he might have moved on and some other woman might have replaced her space by his side.
No!
How dare he move on when she couldn't still stuck in the same place he left her?!
No, no, no. She must have overlooked something! She couldn't have read him wrong! Definitely!, Selena started thinking.
Or had she really loved the wrong person all along?
No, that can't be. She was sure Ryan really loved her and to be honest, that was why she had been confident enough to bring up a break-up since she believed he wouldn't agree. So, it came as a shock when he really did agree!
Her approach was wrong, she admitted it since it was indeed a desperate way to force him to take action to marry her.
But that wasn't the problem right now, the problem was, why would someone who obviously loved her agree to a break-up?
Was it really because he was against marriage and wanted to maintain the status-quo? But that couldn't it be it as well as she had caught him showing envy in respect to Justin's married life multiple times!
And even if he was really against marriage, the least he could have done was tell her about it and see if she agreed with continuing the relationship, instead of making her wait year after year!
In addition, she had been too impatient and emotional on the day she proposed they break up to care about his state of mind at that moment.
However, now that she finally had the time to think deeper, she realised that when he had first heard hers and Nina converstaion that day, he had been raging but after they arrived at his apartment, he had suddenly calm downed and agreed to break-up.
There has to be a reason for why he suddenly had a dramatic change, right?
Did he encounter something he didn't want to get her involved in?
This suspicion became even stronger when she remembered his line of work...
How could she have overlooked that?, she thought to herself
Moments later, Selena closed her eyes and took a deep breath, only opening them after a while with determination flashing in them.
She decided she wanted to give himself and her a last chance, even if the answers she got in the end was not what she expects.
She wasn't being pathetic in love, she just didn't want to look back in the future with regrets in her heart...
Being a decisive person, Selena took action almost immediately and took only the most important items and went to board a plane after informing her parents...