Chapter 295

"I thought you were mad at me for making me chat with Mrs. Sharp while you hung out in the kids' room."

Royce had been to my house before, so he knew the layout and that I had been in the kids' room.

I shook my head and patted his hand.

I knew my expression probably didn't look great right now.

Why was my mom crying while talking to Royce?

I walked over to Kelly, sat beside her, and gently wiped her tears with a tissue.

"Mom... how did you end up crying like this? Did Royce say something bad to you? I'll give him a piece of my mind."

Hearing my words, Royce came over too. "I didn't say anything bad. I was just promising Mrs. Sharp that I would take good care of you."

Take good care of me in the future?

If that was the topic, it wasn't surprising that Kelly was crying.

I looked at Kelly. "Is that really what you were talking about?"

Kelly looked at me and then broke into a smile through her tears. "You always act like a little girl in front of me, asking all these innocent questions."

"Even if I talked to Royce, what does it have to do with you? Royce and I are good friends. What's wrong with having a conversation?"

Hearing Kelly say that, I knew she didn't want to say too much in front of Royce.

I shook my head. "Fine, fine, you two are close. You chat away. I'll head out."

I pretended to get up and leave, but Royce grabbed my arm.

"Wait. I'll tell you what we talked about."

As he grabbed me, I kept moving forward, and the momentum made me fall into his arms, creating a moment of intimacy.

Kelly watched this scene and started crying again. "I really hope you two can be happy together, but if it doesn't work out, don't blame Caroline."

"Mrs. Sharp, why are you saying this again? I promised you, and I will keep my word."

Royce seemed a bit helpless.

I didn't expect Kelly to be even more of a crybaby than me.

"Alright, alright, let's not talk about this anymore..."

I was trying to smooth things over, but Kelly suddenly stood up.

"Royce, if you really listened to what I said today, I'll believe you! But if you don't treat Caroline well in the future, don't come to our house again."

She covered her eyes and ran to the bathroom, tissues in hand.

I hadn't seen Kelly this emotional in a long time.

Royce had gone to take a phone call earlier, and I walked over to him, overhearing his conversation.

"I know, handle the company matters first."

"Emergency meeting, we'll discuss it when I get back..."

"Why haven't you found any information on what I asked you to investigate?"

Royce was more serious and cold when giving work instructions, a stark contrast to how he was with me.

With me, Royce was always gentle and considerate, never suddenly cold.

After a while, Royce seemed to notice I was close by and said a few more words to the person on the other end of the line.

"I'm at my girlfriend's house right now. We'll talk about the rest later."

Girlfriend?

That word made my face flush.

How could he introduce me as his girlfriend to others already?!

When Royce hung up and turned to look at me, I quickly pinched him. "What did you say to make my mom cry like that?"

Royce winced in pain. "Do you really want to know?"

"Of course!"

Kelly was crying so much. I hadn't seen her like this since I got home.

Royce sighed and looked at me. "Let's talk in your room. I don't want the kids to overhear."

I was about to say it didn't matter, but then I remembered Brett's curious nature and how he might come out asking questions...

Just thinking about the kids' mischievous expressions gave me a headache.

I sighed too and led Royce to my room.

Kelly had been taking care of my room lately.

Everything was just like before.

Last time, I had a sudden whim and told Kelly I wanted my room to look like it did when I was a kid, so she rearranged it.

It looked just like it did when I was in school, with a study area, a desk, and a computer.

The curtains and bedspread were pink with little flowers, and there were lots of stuffed animals on the bed.

It didn't look like a room for a woman nearing thirty at all.

As I led Royce in, I suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. "My mom's been taking care of my room lately, so it might look a bit childish..."

Royce walked in and looked around.

He picked up a teddy bear from the bed, squinting slightly. "Isn't this the one I gave you?"

His words made me freeze, and I walked over to look at the bear with him.

After a moment, memories came flooding back.

"It really is the one you gave me..."

That was back when we were in school together.

Even though everyone said we were close and would probably date, we never actually got together.

But there were little gestures that showed our closeness.

"You put this bear on my desk after class one day."

The memories came rushing back, and I couldn't help but think of the past.

Royce nodded. "I won this bear at a fair with some friends over the weekend."

"You won it? What game were you playing?"

"Just a simple shooting and ring toss game. I scored really high."

Thinking about how Royce was so good at school and also excelled at games made me laugh.

"I didn't expect you to win it from a game... but this bear is really well-made."

I squeezed the bear.

"I thought it was well-made and didn't look like a cheap toy, so I wanted to give it to you."

Royce explained everything.

He said that when he went out with friends, most of the little trinkets they saw weren't worth much and didn't seem meaningful.

But this bear seemed perfect for me, so he decided to give it to me as a gift.

But our relationship was a bit awkward and ambiguous at the time.

Neither of us could make the first move.

He didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so he slipped it onto my desk with a note.

[A gift for you. Take good care of it.]

It was so cold, it didn't even feel like a gift.