Chapter 302 Right out the door

Joan actually had her eye on Alana’s boyfriend, but unfortunately, he wasn’t interested in her.

She couldn’t understand what was wrong with her. She would have stripped down and thrown herself at him, yet he wouldn’t even touch her, he just kicked her right out the door.

Just thinking about it was humiliating!

Miranda felt torn. “Sweetie, if you put it that way, you might as well just go steal Alana’s boyfriend.”

Joan retorted angrily, “I’d love to steal him, but he doesn’t want me!”

Miranda was exasperated, “Oh my, if you ask me, you were just too impatient yesterday. Who goes up to a man and starts taking off her clothes to seduce him right away? He’ll think you’re not a proper girl!”

Joan pouted. “I couldn’t help it. He’s so handsome, I’ve never seen a man that handsome before. I just couldn’t resist.”

Miranda said, “In my opinion, you have to reel men in slowly, tease them little by little. He goes to the ward every day with Alana to visit Grandma. Why don’t you come with me? We’re bound to run into him. Once we do, you can start teasing him little by little.”

“Men are all big pigs, they can’t change their philandering ways. If you tease him back and forth, he’ll eventually give in!”

Joan felt a surge of excitement. “Will this really work?”

“Why don’t you just give it a try and see?”

Joan thought to herself, Well, I’ll give it a shot!

********

Meanwhile.

At the hospital.

After lulling her grandmother to sleep, Alana stepped out of the ward.

She saw Stephan taking a call in the hallway and didn’t want to disturb him just yet.

She waited until he finished his call before walking up to him and wrapping her arms around his lean waist.

Stephan let her hold him for a moment before gently pulling her hands away. Then he turned around and embraced her again.

“Is Grandma resting?”

“Yes, she’s resting.”

Stephan lowered his gaze and brushed aside the soft strands of hair from her forehead. “Are you tired?”

Alana shook her head. “Not really. I’m fine.”

Stephan didn’t call her out on it. Having spent so much time with her, he’d noticed that no matter how tired she was, she would never readily admit it.

It wasn’t that she liked to tough it out; she was simply used to it.

Perhaps it had something to do with her childhood experiences.

Her parents’ divorce and the fact that they abandoned her must have been a huge blow to her.

Besides, he still didn’t know why her parents had divorced back then.

“What did you think of what I just said to Grandma?”

Alana blinked. “The things you said?”

Stephan cupped her face, his dark eyes fixed on her delicate, beautiful features. “I was talking about coming to ask for your hand in marriage.”

Alana bit her lip, her heart fluttering slightly. “Stephan, haven’t I told you before that I don’t really want to get married in this lifetime?”

Stephan nodded. “Yes, you have. And I told you that I’ll wait for you, until the day you’re ready to marry me.”

Alana lowered her eyelashes, thought for a moment, and decided to be honest with

him about what was on her mind.

“Actually, I’m quite afraid of marriage. I’m afraid of taking that step. I’m afraid that once we’re married, our relationship will change, and we’ll never be able to go back to the way things are now.”

Stephan gazed intently at her and asked earnestly, “Why? Why do you think our relationship will change for the worse? Why not get better and better?”

Alana bit her lip, momentarily at a loss for words.

Stephan fell silent for a moment, as if he had guessed something. “Is it because of your parents?”

Alana pressed her lips together and slowly nodded.

“My parents are definitely a big reason why I’m afraid of getting married.”

Stephan paused for a moment, then took her hand and led her over to sit on a nearby chair.

“Can you tell me about your parents?”

Alana buried her face in his chest and began to recall the past.

“I don’t really know much about how their story began; most of what I know comes from my grandmother. My grandmother said my parents were in love at first. They were together in college, got married right after graduation, and then had me.”

“From the time I was born until I was two or three years old, their relationship was still pretty good, at least, it was very harmonious. My dad went to work every day, and my mom stayed home as a housewife, taking care of me. When my dad came home from work, there was always a table full of steaming hot food waiting for him. But gradually, life suddenly changed...”

“I don’t know what happened, but my dad started coming home later and later, and less and less often, sometimes he wouldn’t come home for days.”

“My mom would often argue with him about it, and he’d say she was unreasonable. At first, it was just minor arguments every few days, but it gradually escalated into major fights, and even physical altercations. Every time they fought, I was right there, hearing every word.”

“At the time, my mother suspected my father was seeing someone else, so she’d check his phone every few days. If she found the slightest hint of something suspicious on his phone, she’d start a huge scene.”

“My father claimed it was all just casual flings related to work, that all men are like that, and asked my mother to understand and be more forgiving. My mother was soft-hearted and forgave him time and time again, but all she got in return was him becoming more and more aggressive.”

“Their arguments grew fiercer and more hysterical, and they even started getting physical with each other. On several occasions, she was accidentally injured.”

Alana had hated seeing her parents fight, so she ran over to try to break it up again. Her father accidentally pushed her, and she fell, slamming her arm on the ground and breaking it.

She was admitted to the hospital and had her arm put in a cast; it took several months to recover. Once, they were arguing on the street, and the fight eventually turned on her.

Her mother pointed at her father and screamed, “The biggest regret of my life is marrying you and giving birth to your child! If it weren’t for Lana, I would’ve left long ago, I wouldn’t have stuck around with you all this time!”

Her father snapped back, “Then get out! Take our daughter with you, I won’t stop you! You only gave birth to a daughter, not a son. I don’t care about her!”

“Why should I be the one to leave with her? You were the one who insisted I have her. I went through so much to give birth to her, how dare you just say you don’t want her and walk away?”

“If I’d known back then that you were carrying a girl, I never would have let her be born!”

The argument grew fierce, and then they left Alana behind... alone, in the middle of the night, standing helplessly on the cold street for a long time.

That was the first time Alana experienced the pain of being rejected and abandoned by her parents.

Shivering from the cold, she asked herself through her tears.

What had she done wrong?

Why did her parents despise her so much, why didn’t they want her?

She was such a good girl...never crying, never throwing tantrums, and always helping her mother with the housework.

But what had she done wrong?

Why did they all see her as a burden, why didn’t they love her, and why did they even abandon her on that deserted, pitch-black, freezing street?

And it was precisely because of this incident that she always felt abandoned and rejected.

Everyone would reject her and cast her aside.

On top of that, aside from her grandmother, almost no one around her was willing to be sincere with her. With so many people mocking and belittling her, she always felt she didn’t deserve to be loved.

This led to her feeling inferior and afraid of being loved.

Just like at the beginning, when she didn’t dare face Stephan or accept his love.

Yet she clearly longed to be loved; the more she lacked something inside, the more she craved it.

So in the end, she couldn’t resist Stephan.

It was Stephan who gave her the will, the courage to break through her inner insecurity and dare to love.

Hearing this, Stephan couldn’t help but pull her in his arms closer.

He had never imagined that she had endured so much pain at such a young age.

How had she managed to endure it all at such a young age?

His heart ached, and he couldn’t help but lean down to kiss her forehead, soothing her with, “It’s okay, don’t say anything anymore. I understand now.”