Chapter 178

Chapter 178 I don’t want you to meet with him I couldn’t hide the change in my expression when I read the message.

Noticing my suddenly solemn face, Aaron’s eyebrows furrowed, and he looked at me with a hint of concern in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

I handed the phone to Aaron. “It’s Vincent…”

When he heard Vincent’s name, Aaron’s face clouded over. His lips went taut, and his voice was as cold as ice when he said, “What’s he texting you for?”

From his tone, I could tell Aaron felt threatened by Vincent, and I could understand that. But Vincent’s mother was a very good person. I hadn’t grown up with any sort of maternal affection, but Vincent’s mother showed me what a mother was supposed to be like, warm and caring.

Although I didn’t want anything to do with Vincent anymore, I couldn’t ignore his mother when she was on her deathbed just because Vincent and I broke up.

Meeting Aaron’s unhappy gaze, I wet my lips and said, “Vincent isn’t contacting me for himself. His mother is terminally ill…”

I took Aaron’s big, warm hands and told him firmly, “Vincent’s mother wants to see me again before she passes away, and I want to see her.”

As I’d expected, Aaron’s expression darkened even more when he heard this. His whole body was tense, and his lips were pressed into a straight line. After a while, he stroked his thumb against the inside of my wrist and said, “Olive, please don’t go! You know I don’t want you to see Vincent ever again.”

Out of all the time I’d spent with Aaron, I thought this was the most Dividing into pages now unreasonable he had ever been. I tried to explain, “Vincent and his mother are two different people. I’m going to visit his mother, and it has nothing to do with Vincent himself.”

Aaron’s frown didn’t go away. “But she’s his mother. Won’t you see him, too, if you go visit her? Olive, I don’t want you to see him!”

It was true; if I visited Vincent’s mother, I would definitely run into Vincent. But was it really that big of a deal? My relationship with Vincent was ancient history. Was I not allowed to talk to his mother, someone who was really important to me, just because she was related to Vincent?

After Aaron repeatedly insisted that I stay away from Vincent, I started to run out of patience.

I yanked my hands out of Aaron’s grip and took a few steps back. Leaning against the cool wall, I leveled a stony gaze at Aaron. “Aaron, does my past with Vincent bother you that much?”

I had to admit, I was happily in love with Aaron. But that love was dependent on the fact that I was free to do what I wanted.

If the price of my relationship with Aaron was being trapped, bound by Aaron’s will for the rest of my life, I knew it wasn’t worth it.

I watched as Aaron clenched his hands into fists, then slowly loosened them. After repeating this gesture several times, he gave a sharp nod and said coldly, “No, it doesn’t bother me.”

His jaw was clenched tightly, and there was a strange look in his eyes: jealousy!

So Aaron was trying to control me because he was jealous of my past with Vincent? I was so angry, I gave up trying to calm Aaron’s temper.

I clenched my fists and gave him a serious look. “What if I have to go?”

No matter what kind of person Vincent is, no matter what he did to me, those things were between me and Vincent. His mother had nothing to do with it.

Besides, his mother was terminally ill, and she was asking for me on her deathbed. I couldn’t refuse that kind of request.

I had already made up my mind to go back to New York, so I ignored Aaron’s advice and started looking for a flight ticket on my phone. But when I opened the flight booking software, Aaron’s big hand suddenly reached out and grabbed my phone.

Aaron tapped hard on the phone screen to turn it off. His voice was bitter and cold as he said, “I told you not to go!”

The way he snatched my phone away was so rough, I almost couldn’t believe he had done it. I lost my temper and shouted, “What’s your problem, Aaron?”

“My problem? My problem is that it’s Vincent!” Aaron’s words stabbed through me like knives.

He put my phone in his pocket and stood in front of me, blocking me with his tall body, thinking he could stop me from leaving.

But if I really wanted to do something, there was no way Aaron was going to stop me. I ducked and slipped right beneath his arm.

As I stormed away, I stopped a bartender who was about to pass by me. I tried to smile convincingly and handed him some folded bills from my wallet as he stared at me in surprise. “Excuse me, can I borrow your phone for a moment? My phone was stolen, and I need to buy a plane ticket to the U.S.”

“Ma’am, do you need to call the police?” The bartender’s expression changed from shock to sympathy, and he took out his cell phone and handed it to me.

“Thank you so much.” I took his phone and started to book a flight.

I was just about to buy my ticket when Aaron stood up.

He strode over to me, took the bartender’s phone out of my hand, and stuffed it back into the other man’s pocket. “Sorry, this is my fiancee, she was just playing a prank on you.”

And then, despite my struggles, Aaron picked me up and carried me out of the bar.