Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 398

Chapter 398: Be her Hearth
“Shouldn’t you be—” Emil began, but he was silenced by Mateo’s glare. His words came to an abrupt end as everyone turned and looked at him.

“Do forgive my brother,” Mateo glanced at his younger brother before turning to look at Aaron. “He could be a bit foolish sometimes.”

“Hey!”

“I am Mateo Ashford,” as he introduced himself, Mateo held his hand in front of Aaron, who glanced at the outstretched hand and waited for Mateo to finish speaking. “Doctor Harlow’s friend.”

Only then did Aaron raise his hand and take Mateo’s outstretched hand. “Aaron Harlow. I am Ariana’s brother.” Instinctively, he couldn’t help but raise his guard against this man.

His eyes flickered between Ari and Mateo, though he didn’t know anything, Aaron seemed sharp enough to sense that something was amiss.

‘He is a smart one,’ Mateo thought while smiling at the man as he dropped his hand to one side.

Aaron took a few more looks at Mateo and his brothers, his eyes shrewdly moving from one to another. But even if he sensed something, he didn’t voice his concerns.

Instead, he then turned to look at Nicolai, who had been silently standing behind him.

“And you are?”

Nicolai’s expression twisted into something that was part anger and part annoyance. He incredulously asked, “What? Can’t I be her friend?”

“You?” Aaron asked back, his voice filled with curiosity and disbelief as he looked up and down at Nicolai and, just like everyone who knew and was friends with Ariana, shot him a look of pure contempt.

Like Nicolai, it was a hobbledehoy. A besmirch on the presence and name of Ariana Harlow. Maybe he was because Nicolai’s greatest ambition had always been ruining Ariana’s pristine image.

However, who the fuck was this fucker to look down at him like this?

Aaron turned to look at his sister and remarked casually, “I never knew that you had a friend like this.” It was because his sister was the sweetest and kindest woman he had ever known.

And Nicolai —well, he wasn’t someone whom he would like to see getting close to his sister. From his long hair to his leather boots, this man seemed like the kind of guy who chewed and spat out women on the ground.

“And funnily enough, if you pay more attention, then you would notice that you don’t know your sister that well,” Nicolai gave him a look with his eyes staring at Aaron threateningly. “Like how you don’t know that your other—”

“Nicolai,” Ari glanced at Nicolai, she knew what he wanted to tell Aaron, but she didn’t wish to break the news to Aaron in such an unkind way.

Her relationship with Ariel had always been rocky, but Aaron had tried to treat both of them equally. He would be most upset after hearing the truth.

Nicolai glanced at her accusingly, but Ari held her ground. She then turned her head and looked at her brother before saying, “And Aaron, please be a tad bit polite towards Nicolai, he was the one who saved me. The least you can do is thank him for what he had done, stop chastising him,”

A slow smile spread on Nicolai’s lips upon hearing her words. She was protecting him, right? Of course, there could be a very good possibility that she was only showing kindness for his courageous acts and brave deeds—but he wanted to think it was the former.

He did believe it was the former.

“He did?”

“Yes, I did,” said Nicolai. “What’s with that tone of surprise?” the fuck it was supposed to mean?

“No, it is nothing personal,” Aaron shrugged and added swiftly, “You don’t look like much of a protector, do you?”

“I am hers, do you have something to say about it?” Nicolai began as he took a threatening step towards Aaron, he hadn’t forgiven this man as easily as Ari for all the shit he had pulled when he was young and a brat.

“I think that will be enough,” before another fight could break out, Ari stopped Nicolai from pummeling her brother to the ground. And yes, even though she had nothing to do with the Harlow family, she still treated Aaron as one.

For he had stood up for her when no one had. Before anyone did.

She looked at Nicolai before smiling at him. She said to him, “I would like to talk to Aaron. Alone,” she added when she noticed Nicolai parting his lips to say something.

Nicolai didn’t seem inclined towards the idea. He walked over to Ari’s bedside and whispered, “You really want to talk to him, alone, at that? Have you forgotten what his sister did? What if this is a trap?”

“What do you mean by trap?” Aaron had been paying keen attention to Nicolai’s actions and thus, he could easily hear what the man was saying and wasn’t pleased with how he made his visit sound suspicious.

He glanced at Ari before asking, “What did Ariel do?”

Ari glared at Nicolai, she hadn’t wished to talk about this matter with Aaron so soon, but the man remained stubborn. He said to her, “You seem to care more about others than you do about yourself. The least I can do is to look out for you.”

She was injured, lying on the bed with bandages covering her entire body, and yet, Ari was more worried about upsetting Aaron. Putting others before herself, what bullshit.

Nicolai thought and believed as foolish.

“Aaron would not hurt me,” Ari released a sigh as she raised her hand to either pat or take his hand but thought against it and lowered it back on the bed. “He is no longer the same —and I don’t believe that he would suddenly change.”

Aaron warily looked at Ari and Nicolai, he was not following their conversation at all. He asked in worry, “Ari, what are you talking about? What do you mean by those words?”

“I believe that we should leave the two of them alone,” Keon, ignoring the objection-filled glances of his two brothers, spoke up. He looked at Ari who shot him a look of gratitude and added in a subtle voice, “After all, this is something private and neither of us should trespass on it.”