Chapter 380: What Can’t Be Taken Back

Ellis didn’t rely on Easton for anything—but Emma did. She depended on the family trust fund to get by. She couldn’t ignore Easton the way Ellis could.

“He can come or go, I don’t care.”

With a slight edge in her voice, Ellis turned to Emma.

“Ms. Emma, let’s sit in the garden for a while.”

Emma didn’t hesitate. At Ellis’s words, she headed out to the garden.

As the two women disappeared from sight, Easton didn’t show any reaction. Not a trace of anger. He was well aware that his past actions—reckless and selfish—had left a debt behind. And now, he was paying for it. Some things, he knew he had to take on himself.

The sun was shining, the breeze was warm, and the weather was beautiful. Sitting under the garden pavilion, Ellis found herself, for once, quietly enjoying the blue sky, the drifting clouds, and the blooming flowers. A servant brought out tea and snacks. Emma signaled for everything to be set down by Ellis’s side, then spoke thoughtfully.

“Ellis, you and Easton…”

Emma trailed off, but Ellis already knew what she was getting at.

“There’s nothing between us. I’ll never remarry him. I’d rather die than say yes.”

Emma frowned slightly. The last time Easton visited, he warned her not to set Ellis up with anyone or meddle in her love life. From the way he talked then, and even more so now, Emma could tell—he was dead set on getting Ellis back. He acted like it was only a matter of time, like Ellis couldn’t escape him.

Emma wasn’t intimidated. She knew better than anyone—Easton wasn’t good for Ellis. Staying away from him would be better for them both. The chaos from their past relationship had already messed up her peaceful life once. She wasn’t willing to go through that again. Truth be told, she was getting old. She didn’t have the energy to deal with drama anymore.

Emma glanced back toward where Easton had been and said, “If you’re really not getting back with him, deal with him already. Don’t let him keep showing up here. It stresses me out.”

“If I could get rid of him, I would’ve done it already,” Ellis said, helpless. Easton clung to her like a leech. There wasn’t much she could do. Still, he was at least a little less intense now. Not hovering 24/7. Not enough to make her want to punch him.

“But if you can’t deal with him, what happens when you want to marry someone else and start a family! He’s going to waste the best years of your life hanging around,” Emma said, clearly worried Easton would mess up any future relationship Ellis might have.

“It’s easy to find someone when you’re young, but once you get older…”

Ellis hadn’t come to listen to a lecture. Especially not one that seemed to be sliding toward matchmaking again. She immediately thought of Edric. When she accidentally found out Edric had been her blind date match—and then learned he’d started actively pursuing her—it had been nothing but a headache. So she cut Emma off before she could go any further.

“Ms. Emma, I’m not even thinking about remarriage right now. Say whatever you want to me, but don’t bring it up in front of Easton. If he ends up kicking you out of the old house or freezing your accounts again, that’ll be on you.”

Easton was a total control freak. When he found out Morty liked her, he stormed in and laid into him—physically. If she hadn’t been there to stop it, Morty might’ve been seriously hurt. She’d learned something from that: anyone who liked her, if Easton found out, would be in trouble. Even if no one was interested, Easton’s random outbursts were reason enough to be cautious. If he caught wind that Emma was still trying to set her up, he’d absolutely take it out on Emma. For now, he wouldn’t go after her—but he had no problem going after everyone else.

Emma shuddered slightly and patted her chest.

“Fine, fine. You deal with it how you want.” She took a few sips of tea to calm down, then added, “I’m not getting involved in anything between you two. But do me a favor and tell him—if he has something to say, he should come to you, not me.”

Just because she wasn’t interfering didn’t mean she wanted Easton hanging around her either.

“Got it. I’ll tell him,” Ellis nodded.

The conversation wrapped up, and they sat in silence for a while. Ellis noticed a few strands of white in Emma’s hair and thought, I haven’t seen Ms. Emma much over the past year, but it feels like she’s aged a lot all of a sudden.

Emma caught her staring.

“What are you looking at?”

“Ms. Emma… you look older.”

“Who doesn’t?”

Emma’s reply was calm, not defensive. Just a quiet acknowledgment of time passing. That softened something in Ellis’s chest. She turned her eyes from Emma’s head to the sunlight on the ground and thought about all the things Emma had done over the years. No matter how much she hated Emma’s manipulation—drugging her, trying to get her pregnant with Easton’s child—there was still one thing that couldn’t be denied: Emma had raised her. As long as Emma didn’t pull any of that again, Ellis was willing to keep the connection.