Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 280

Chapter 280: Thirteen years of Joke
The sound of footsteps echoed in the parking lot and Ariana looked up from the screen of her phone.

She had been battling with her inner demons and was teetering on the edge of calling Nicolai when she heard someone walk over to where she stood.

Ariana thought that it was Nicolai but as soon as she raised her head, she saw Noah who was walking over to where she was standing.

Her gaze flittered to the man who was walking behind Noah and her brows slowly furrowed into a frown. For the first time, Nicolai was not smiling, instead, he was sporting a blank expression which looked terrifying in a way.

Those red eyes of his were so quiet that Ariana felt that there was something wrong with Nicolai, and the gleam in them was missing. A scowl had settled on his lips and he seemed to be brooding over something.

Why was he brooding all of a sudden? What happened when she left these two behind?

Nicolai de Luca, who took joy in taunting people and provoking them, seemed to have been provoked instead, thought Ariana as she continued to look at the sullen Nicolai.

“Ariana?”

Because Ariana was too busy looking at Nicolai, she did not sense Noah’s presence. In fact, she didn’t even notice when the man came to stop in front of her.

She turned her head to face Noah and questioned, “What do you want, Mister Nelson?”

She had hoped that Noah would understand her refusal to talk to him, but it seemed like he didn’t notice her avoiding him, or maybe he was so used to ignoring what she wanted that he did not pay any heed to her actions.

Noah’s brows twitched at Ariana’s cold manner of addressing him. He said to her, “I want to talk to you, Ariana.”

“What a rare occurrence,” Ariana curled her lips in a cruel smirk before saying, “However, I don’t have the time to talk to you.” She turned to walk away but was stopped by Noah.

“I don’t need much of your time,” though Noah was not satisfied with Ariana’s cold stance, he still spoke in a polite voice. “Just listen to what I have to say, please?”

Please? Oh, ho ho. This was new, thought Ariana.

Noah had never used ‘please’ with her, he had ordered and demanded her to do whatever he wanted from her. But ‘please’, this word, was something that Ariana had never heard from Noah’s mouth.

It had never escaped his lips, at least not in her presence.

She paused in her actions and so did Nicolai. Even though his fingers were curled on the handle of the car’s door, he couldn’t pull it open. His eyes were staring at his shoes, but he was clearly paying attention to what Noah had to say and ——-

Ariana’s response.

“What do you have to say,” with half of her body twisted to look at Noah, Ariana questioned, “Is Ariel dying? Does she need my heart? If so, the answer is no.”

With that rotten personality, Ariel did not deserve to have her heart.

“What no! I am not here because of her,” Noah frowned and refuted Ariana’s claims. “I—— Dear lord, I just wanted to talk to you. Why would you think that I came to look for you because of Ariel?”

“Because that’s how it has always been between us,” Ariana stated with a subtle smile on her lips. “Remember?”

Hearing her words, Noah pinched the bridge of his nose. Ariana was right, their dynamics have always been too twisted. He, who believed Ariel blindly, had never spent even an hour with Ariana.

Noah closed his eyes and breathed out.

‘What’s wrong with him? By now he should have turned on his feet and left,’ Ariana had known Noah long enough to understand him. Given how little patience he held for her, Noah should have already lost his temper with her.

“Mister Nelson——-”

“I know it was you who saved me back then,” Noah started without allowing Ariana to say any more words because he feared that he would seriously lose his temper with her given how sharp her jibes were.

He opened his eyes and dropped his hand to one side before saying, “Back then when I was kidnapped at the age of thirteen, it was you who saved me, right?”

Nicolai, whose fingers were on the mission of twisting the metal handle of his car’s door, raised his head in surprise. His fingers slipped from the now twisted grab handle as he stared at Ariana with a shocked expression.

His heart was thudding in his chest at a pace which almost caused him to suffocate. Calm down. He needed to calm the fuck down, but how was he supposed to calm down?

Was it her?

The one who saved him when he was kidnapped was Pallas.

The one whom he had been looking for ages?

Ariana had her back on Nicolai, so she couldn’t see the expression on his face. More importantly, her mind had gone blank to the point she even forgot to blink. Only one question kept repeating in her head at that moment,

Did he find out the truth? How did he and when——

She closed her eyes and her fingers clenched unconsciously. There was panic and then there was relief.

But the surge of happiness that Ariana had expected never came. Her heart was as calm as the rustling wind that blew past the driving lot in which she was standing.

In the past, Ariana was simply obsessed with the idea of letting Noah know the truth but now, as she opened her eyes and looked at the man in front of her, Ariana realized that ——

It did not matter.

That was right. It did not matter whether Noah knew the truth or not. Because it was too late.

“So? What if I did? And what if I didn’t?” Ariana questioned the man calmly. “If this is all you wanted to say to me, Mister Nelson—— can I leave now?”