Delayed Passion: Miss Lynch's Unrequited Love-Chapter 15: Here Only for Her

Thea Lynch was stunned where she stood, and even after Ian Preston’s assistant helped her retrieve her luggage, she still didn’t quite understand what Ian had just said.

Perhaps the confusion on her face was too obvious, Ian suddenly laughed.

He withdrew his gaze from her, striding toward the front. As he passed by, he reached out and gently ruffled her hair, "Let’s go."

Coming to her senses, Thea looked at him. From the back, the man’s suit was immaculate and his waist proportion was excellent. He had one hand in his pocket, walking at a pace that wasn’t fast, waiting for her to catch up.

She furrowed her brow, jogging to catch up, "Are you going to Wexhaven on a business trip?"

"Hmm?" Seeing he didn’t answer, Thea pressed on.

"Being a PhD holder, you’re so smart, make your own judgment."

"..." Suddenly she felt like her intelligence had been insulted.

Actually, Thea leaned towards an answer in her heart, but was afraid of misunderstanding him, so she didn’t dare to speak it out.

From beginning to end, her intuition seemed to be correct.

Ian made this trip just for her.

——

There are still over three hundred kilometers left from New York to Wexhaven.

In the car, Thea adjusted her seat and lay down to rest.

Next to her, Ian hadn’t spoken to her again since they got in the car, constantly busy with work. She sneaked a glance at his computer screen; it was full of pending documents.

The two seemed to have returned to their previous mode.

During school vacations, he would occasionally visit her too. In the study at her grandmother’s house, she would sit on one side doing her homework, while he was busy working on the opposite. Aside from the sound of pen scribbling and keyboard clicking, no other noise could be heard.

He was inherently silent, ever since she could remember, Ian didn’t like to talk, always being concise and to the point. His naturally reserved nature always gave people a cold feeling.

He was vividly different from Silas Cheney, which is why she preferred playing with Silas as a child, always having some apprehension toward him.

During her illness, the Ian she saw was the most gentle she’d ever remembered, almost unreal. Only then did she realize, he wasn’t as fierce as imagined.

So even if they were in the same space without speaking, not interrupting each other, she still liked the feeling of being with him.

——

Getting off the car at her uncle’s house, Thea watched the driver help move her luggage, then glanced at the back seat of the car ahead.

Ian didn’t get out.

"Miss Lynch, shall I help you take your luggage inside?"

"Sure." Thea nodded, "You can just hand it to the servant at the door."

After speaking, she walked forward and knocked on the car window.

After two seconds, the window slowly rolled down, and Ian turned his head to look at her.

He was still in a video conference.

Thea swallowed back the words she had, pointed to the position behind her, indicating she was going in.

"Mm." The man nodded, watching her leave.

——

Inside the villa, uncle was still arms crossed watching the surveillance at the door.

Thea had finished eating a peach, but saw he was still unmoved, not quite understanding: "Uncle, what exactly are you watching?"

Her uncle didn’t even turn his head, repeatedly rewinding, "Who did you get off the car with?"

Yesterday he received a call from Thea saying she would come by car and told him not to pick her up at the airport. That was nothing major, the issue was, there were two cars coming to drop Thea off.

When he went out to greet her, he saw Thea bending over talking to someone in the back seat.

The car window was only half down, and he didn’t see clearly who was sitting inside. Just as he was about to go take a closer look, Thea said goodbye to that person, ran into the yard, and conveniently dragged him back.

This obviously wasn’t a random driver and car.

"Whose car did you catch a ride from?" Uncle turned, sizing her up and down. "I hope you haven’t met some troublesome man. There’s a lot of unpredictability here, they absolutely wouldn’t have a pure heart seeing a young girl like you."

"I’ve warned you countless times, especially here, be wary of those foreign men."

Due to a job transfer, he had to come here, Thea suddenly proposed going abroad with him.

At that time she had multiple emotional breakdowns, coupled with the local doctor contacting him saying there’s a chance of recovering Thea’s hearing, so impulsively he agreed to bring her here.

Compared to staying back in Westmere with the elders, at his place, Thea could be better cared for.

There’s no harm in changing an environment. At that time, it was also with that thought they brought Thea from Coronet to Westmere.

When he first moved Thea here, he knew the security here was average. He wasn’t afraid of robbery, just some lost property after all. But he worried Thea might be harassed.

So later whether Thea went to school or went shopping, he’d drive and pick her up when he had time, if not, he’d have the family servant accompany her.

Now seeing her get off a stranger’s car, naturally, he was anxious.

In his eyes, as a family elder, to him, twenty-four-year-old Thea was still a child, ignorant to worldly matters.

Her parents weren’t around, he, as her uncle, naturally had to take responsibility.

Thinking of his late sister and brother-in-law, his heart filled with guilt, "Did he lay hands on you? Did you remember the license plate number? Or could you describe what he looked like?"

Thea had no doubt that if she answered with impure intentions from the person, her uncle would undoubtedly find him overnight and give him a good beating.

She hastily explained, "You’re overthinking it. It was Ian Preston, he brought me over."

On hearing the name, uncle merely found it familiar, not recalling who it was.

Thea reminded, "That guy from The Preston Family in Coronet."

"Ah." Uncle realized, "You mean Ian the third."

Thea: "..."

Uncle curiously asked, "How long has it been since you returned home, and you made up with him?"

Back then, Thea and Ian had a great relationship, he saw Ian come to Westmere looking for Thea more than once.

At that time he felt Ian was quite loyal, really helping Aaron Lynch take care of Thea.

Though Coronet to Westmere was just over a hundred kilometers, generally, who has the patience to travel back and forth daily.

Moreover, Ian had just graduated and returned home not long ago, his company was at the startup stage, at the busiest time. Him being able to spare time to come over, showed authenticity.

He also communicated with Ian, but the latter insisted on picking and dropping Thea.

Back then Thea didn’t like to communicate with family, causing him to find out late that because she was a transfer student and was a bit introverted, Thea was being marginalized in class.

Everyone would also joke about her inability to speak.

There was even a time on her way home after school, a boy riding past her deliberately pulled off her hearing aid...

So later he even thought if these two little kids might eventually end up together.

Being childhood friends with a known background couldn’t be better, Thea having an extra reliance, the elders could be at ease.

But he didn’t expect things to turn out so ugly.

Back then, Thea’s slap was indeed loud.

Based on Ian’s temperament, even if he had feelings for Thea once, because of that slap, probably wouldn’t come back again...