Chapter 957

“I’ve thought about it, and I have a plan. I’ll make them accept it. This is something I need to consider. You don’t have to worry,” Aaron said with a tone of responsibility.

Lena fell silent. A few seconds later, she said, “Uncle, I’ve always seen you as my uncle, and never felt anything else.”

Ron’s apartment was on the fifth floor, giving Lena a clear view of his face. His expression was slightly tense as he continued looking up at her. Though she couldn’t see his eyes, she could still feel the depth of emotion in them, and the loneliness he must have felt after being rejected.

Lena lowered her gaze, unable to watch any longer. “Uncle, we have such a good relationship, don’t ruin it, please.”

“Do you know how many years I’ve liked you?” Aaron suddenly asked.

Lena’s heart skipped a beat. How many years had he liked her? Did that mean he’d had feelings for her all along? But he had never mentioned it, and she had never sensed it. He was always kind to her—she knew that, and everyone else knew it too. Even her classmates used to know that Lena had an overprotective uncle. Was his kindness only because he was family, or was there something more to it?

“When I first understood what love between a man and a woman was, you were the only one in my eyes. No one else mattered to me. You should know that, right?” Aaron’s final words made Lena remember the love letters she had once passed on to him from other girls.

When they were in school, Aaron was smart and handsome, and he had so many girls who liked him. Because he was her uncle, those girls would often try to get close to her to gather information about him or to pass on their confessions. Lena remembered how he would throw those letters into the trash right in front of her, and a couple of times, she had picked them up and read them aloud to him.

One time, he had coldly asked her, “Lena, do you know what it means to make someone like me accept their feelings?” He told her, “It means I no longer only care for you. My time would have to be shared with other girls, and I wouldn’t be able to take care of or protect you anymore. Would you be okay with that?”

She clearly remembered thinking about it for a moment and instinctively shaking her head. After that, she never helped anyone with their love letters to him again. Looking back, she was just in junior high at that time. So many years had passed since then. And now, to think he had liked her for all that time.

“But you never told me,” she murmured.

“I was afraid it would scare you, because you were still young. I was also figuring out a way to make the Ace family and your mother accept this. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make them understand,” Aaron said. The effort he put into this, and the emotional turmoil he went through, only he truly understood. But while he was trying, she had fallen for someone else, and so he quietly stayed by her side, supporting her from afar.

“Lil’ Lena, our relationship is only defined by the people around us. Once that definition is broken, we’re just an ordinary man and woman. We could openly love each other, be together,” Aaron tried to persuade her.

But breaking that kind of relationship was incredibly difficult.

“Uncle, society’s norms can be ruthless. We could ignore everything, but my grandparents, my mother—they can’t. Even if you prove you’re not part of the Ace family, that we have no blood relation, to others, we’re still family, and they’ll talk behind our backs,” Lena reminded him.

“We’ll go somewhere else, somewhere far away, like abroad,” Aaron suggested, already thinking of alternatives for her.

“Lil’ Lena, nothing else matters. The biggest issue is you. Do you want to be with me?” Aaron asked, and after the question, the air around them seemed to fall into a heavy silence.