Chapter 488 The Little Things He Kept

Chapter 488: Chapter 488 The Little Things He Kept

Rose didn’t deny it.

After all, Ryan had spent years navigating the business world. Given his position and influence, he knew people across the industry and had access to information most people could only dream of obtaining. If anyone could dig into Liam’s background, it was him.

Liam was a prominent figure in his own right now, hardly someone who could be investigated without a little effort. But the business world had always been a place where the powerful held the advantage.

And Ryan was certainly one of the powerful.

"I’m not sure yet. I just want to learn a little more about him first."

"All right."

Ryan held out his hand to her.

"So, what do I get in return?"

Rose let out an exasperated laugh.

"You’re charging me for helping me now?"

"I’m doing this for my own benefit, actually."

Before she could respond, he reached over and took her hand himself.

"Let’s call this my payment."

The irritation Rose had felt a moment earlier vanished almost instantly.

She glanced down at their joined hands.

"That’s all?"

Just holding hands?

"If you’re interested in paying a little more, I’m not opposed to the idea."

Ryan took his time, lowering his gaze to her as one eyebrow lifted ever so slightly.

Rose scoffed.

"Keep dreaming."

Ryan didn’t bother denying it.

Considering everything they’d been through, he saw no reason to hold back now.

Rose didn’t take him to the campus cafeteria after all. She didn’t want to give the other students or faculty another reason to gossip about them.

Instead, they ate together in her office.

Ryan took her request seriously and promised to look into Liam’s background.

After that, Rose set the matter aside for the time being.

That evening, on her way back to the Taylor house, she ran into James.

He’d just finished a phone call and turned to look at her.

"Did Ryan come to see you?"

Rose nodded.

"Did he go looking for praise, too?"

The corners of James’s mouth curled upward.

After making such a grand gesture, Ryan had apparently wasted no time trying to earn brownie points with Rose.

Rose looked at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

James paused.

"He didn’t tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Rose pursed her lips.

"He just said he had a headache."

And he’d made quite a production of it, too.

Right after dinner, Ryan had started complaining about a headache. When she’d tried to check on him, he’d pulled her into his arms, flopped down on the couch, and insisted that holding her for a little while would make him feel better.

It had been a transparent attempt to take advantage of her concern.

James was briefly at a loss for words.

Then he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I thought he’d use the opportunity to tell you what he’d done. He’s drawn up a complete inventory of his assets and laid out exactly how they’ll be divided. If he ever does anything to betray you in the future, the Taylor family will have the right to take control of the assets covered by the agreement."

Rose fell silent.

What was that if not giving away his fortune—and placing his future in someone else’s hands?

Ryan really had left himself with almost nothing to fall back on.

And yet, he still wasn’t accustomed to putting his sacrifices on display or using them to persuade her.

He’d always been like that.

Rose drew a deep breath, but it did little to ease the sting behind her eyes.

The emotion building inside her was becoming harder and harder to contain.

"Forget it," James said with a helpless sigh. "I’ll admit it. Maybe no one else could ever give you everything the way he does."

He stepped closer to her.

"Rose, you can’t spend your whole life looking backward. At some point, you have to look ahead. And as far as Ryan goes..." He paused, shaking his head. "I honestly don’t have anything left to criticize."

Rose didn’t answer.

Instead, she abruptly turned around and hurried off in the direction Ryan had gone.

For the past two days, he’d shamelessly found excuses to spend the night with her. But outside those hours, he was still staying at the place James had arranged for him.

Rose hurried all the way there, barely catching her breath before pushing open the door.

She found Ryan sitting behind the desk. He’d apparently just finished showering, and his hair was still slightly damp. In his hand was a small, pale-blue pouch that he was examining quietly.

The moment he heard her enter, he looked up, stood, and walked toward her.

"Why were you running?"

He lifted a hand and gently brushed her forehead, smoothing away the strands of hair that had stuck to her skin.

"Look at you. You’re sweating. Go take a shower before you catch a cold."

Rose looked up at him.

Her throat felt tight, and she struggled to get the words out. In the end, her gaze fell on the little pouch in his hand.

"Why do you still have that?"

"Didn’t you tell me the Buddha wouldn’t protect you?"

Ryan lifted the pouch and gave it a small shake.

"I’m keeping it anyway."

He opened it and carefully took out several folded amulets he’d held on to over the years.

"Every one of these has your name on it. I don’t particularly believe in this stuff myself, but if it has your name on it, I can’t help believing in it."

Rose froze.

She took the amulets one by one and examined them.

Every single one bore her name.

And the handwriting was unmistakably Ryan’s.

There was one for every year.

Eight years had passed, and he had eight of them.

Rose’s throat tightened until it felt almost impossible to swallow.

Perhaps it was the light, but her vision suddenly blurred.

Then she noticed something else inside the pouch.

"There’s something else in there?"

Ryan hesitated for a moment before placing another small object in her palm.

"This."

Rose stared down at it in disbelief.

It was a tiny piece of milk candy.

The clear wrapper had yellowed slightly with age, and the candy itself had changed color a little. Even so, the wrapper was clean and remarkably well preserved.

She recognized it immediately.

It was the brand of milk candy she’d loved back then.

She used to slip pieces to Ryan to coax him into taking his medicine.

But after he’d left without saying goodbye, she’d found a glass jar on her bedside table filled with the candy she’d given him day after day.

He hadn’t eaten a single piece.

He’d saved every one and returned the entire jar to her before leaving.

Except for one.

He’d kept that single piece all these years.

It was as though that tiny piece of candy represented a little pocket of peace in his heart—a reminder that his time in the countryside had been real, that those days with her hadn’t been some fleeting dream.

He’d held on to it as a source of comfort through everything that followed.

Rose stared at the candy in her palm.

He loved her.

He had always loved her, quietly and deeply, even when he’d done everything he could to make her believe otherwise.

A tear slipped down her cheek and landed on the wrapper.

Ryan’s previously relaxed expression changed at once.

He gripped her shoulders and bent down to look at her.

"Why are you crying?"

Rose lifted her eyes to his.

For a moment, she felt as though the man standing in front of her couldn’t possibly be real.

The same dreadful fear rose inside her again—the fear that he was only an illusion, a figment of her imagination that would disappear the moment she reached out to him.

She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him again.

Rose rose onto her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him without saying a word.

Ryan’s pupils contracted.

For two seconds, he stood there in stunned silence.

Then he pulled her firmly into his arms and kissed her back with all the passion he’d been holding inside.

It felt as though they’d been reunited after years apart, both desperate to confirm that the person in their arms was real.

Neither wanted to let go.

Neither wanted to leave anything unsaid.

That night, their reunion went far beyond physical desire. It was as though every unspoken feeling, every regret, and every year of separation had finally found its way back to where it belonged.

Neither of them wanted the night to end.

Again and again, they reached for each other, wanting to close every remaining distance between them, to hold on so tightly that nothing could ever tear them apart again.

Rose pressed kisses against his shoulder and neck before closing her eyes.

Thank goodness.

Thank goodness they were still here, still themselves, still able to hold each other.

From this point on, she wanted to make every day count.

She wanted to hold on to this happiness.

No more unexpected tragedies. No more painful separations. No more running away from the life they could have together.

*****

As it turned out, neither of them had realized just how much they’d missed each other.

After a night spent making up for lost time, Rose didn’t wake until the afternoon.

She opened her eyes feeling utterly exhausted.

They’d been apart for so long, and neither had wanted to waste a single moment once they’d finally found their way back to each other.

She’d barely caught up on her sleep when the bedroom door opened.

Ryan stepped inside, leaned over, and pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. A teasing smile played in his eyes.

"I took the day off for you. Don’t worry about anything."

Rose’s face turned bright red.

If he hadn’t been so persistent the night before, would she be in this state now?

People joked that men over twenty-five were already running out of steam, but she had a feeling Ryan would still be just as energetic at sixty.

"Get out. I need to change."

She felt strangely self-conscious.

Strictly speaking, she and Ryan had never actually dated. Their relationship had gone straight from a complicated marriage to separation, and now, somehow, back to this.

Yet suddenly, she was experiencing the sort of shyness she might have felt at the beginning of a new relationship.

Ryan simply pulled her out from under the covers and guided her toward the bathroom.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he spoke.

"I’ll help you change."

Rose immediately sensed that things were heading in a dangerous direction.

She glared at him.

"Don’t push your luck!"

Ryan raised an eyebrow.

"RoRo, think about it. We’ve already lost so many years together. Don’t you think we should make up for that lost time?"

"Ryan! Stop trying to use that shameless argument on me!"

He chuckled as though her protest amused him.

"Fine. Then let’s talk for a while first."

He lifted her and settled her on the bathroom counter, bracing his hands on either side of her as he looked at her.

"You asked me to look into Liam, didn’t you?"

His expression grew more serious, though the playful glint in his eyes remained.

"Do you want to hear what I found?"