After Noah left, Dove leaned forward slightly and chuckled. "So, the Davis family is indeed having so chaos on their side, huh?" She blinked before laughing softly and added, "Anyway, they must be cursing a lot right now, isn’t that right, Dante?"
Dante simply smiled as he observed the mischievous glint in Dove’s eyes, and he answered, "Hm, they surely might be."
When she noticed him staring at her, she blinked and instinctively touched her face. "What? Is there sothing on my face?"
Dante also blinked, then a small smile appeared on his lips. He slowly shook his head. "No, Dove. There’s nothing on your face. I was just thinking about sothing else."
Dove tilted her head, her curiosity growing. "Oh? Is that so? Is it sothing about ?"
Dante studied her for a few seconds before nodding. "Yes."
"Oh?" Dove raised an eyebrow, now even more intrigued. "What is it, Dante?"
Dante hesitated, weighing whether he should ask or not. Would bringing it up make her feel like he was prying into her life and privacy too soon?
But he couldn’t ignore it. He wanted to know what had been on her mind at that mont. No matter how much he tried to brush it aside, it kept bothering him.
But asking wouldn’t make her angry, would it?
His thoughts wrestled with one another, but in the end, he took a deep breath and decided to follow his heart. It was risky but if it upset Dove, he would apologize to her later.
So, he asked, "Dove, what were you thinking about earlier?"
"Earlier?" Dove blinked, not imdiately understanding what Dante was referring to. "What exactly are you talking about, Dante?"
Dante swallowed before clarifying, "When Director Noah was here. You were talking to him, and then suddenly, you seed lost in your thoughts. But from your expression, I could tell that whatever you were thinking about wasn’t pleasant."
Hearing that, Dove imdiately understood. Dante was referring to the mont he had lightly tapped her leg to bring her back to the present. She nodded. "Oh, that ti..."
Dante simply nodded, waiting for her to speak while carefully observing her expression, making sure she wasn’t upset.
Dove pressed her lips into a tight smile and shook her head slightly. "It’s a long, old story, Dante."
Seeing that she didn’t look annoyed, Dante leaned forward slightly and blurted, "Well, we have plenty of ti right now."
Dove blinked in surprise, and Dante quickly cleared his throat. "I an, only if you’re willing to share," he added, not wanting to sound like he was pressuring her.
Dove remained silent for a mont. Dante, realizing she might not want to talk about it, ntally scolded himself.
You! You idiot! Don’t you have any control over your curiosity? Do you have to ask every question that crosses that stupid mind of yours? Haven’t you heard of self-control?!
He cursed himself internally for bringing up sothing that made her hesitate.
What is she going to think of now?
Just as he was drowning in regret, he heard Dove’s voice.
"It was about Noah," she confessed.
His heart pounded.
So, he was right.
Then, he saw an almost painfully sad smile appear on her face.
"Do you know, Dante," she began, "before I left for abroad, my family life was... complicated. The only family mber I truly recognized was my grandfather. My stepmother, Freya, and I never got along—even when I was just an early teenager. I had my pride, and she had her biases against . And maybe... maybe things got worse because neither of us were willing to take the first step toward understanding the other."
She exhaled softly.
"But Noah? He was different. He was the big brother I never had. I never thought of him as my stepbrother. To , he was everything a big brother should be—caring, responsible, protective, and always there to guide ."
Dove’s eyes clouded with nostalgia.
"He was like that until I was fifteen or sixteen."
A bitter chuckle escaped her lips.
"I don’t know what changed. I don’t know if I did sothing wrong, or if sothing else happened, but suddenly, Noah started avoiding . It was as if I had turned into a plague. If I was in a room, he wouldn’t be there. If I went sowhere, he wouldn’t go.
"And when I tried to approach him, he would either walk away without a word or speak to with such coldness that it felt like a slap in the face.
"There were tis when I really needed his help—tis when I was desperate. Even in situations where a complete stranger might have stepped forward to assist, Noah... he saw struggling and just walked away."
Seeing that, Dove was drowing more and more in that sadness of that part of the past, Dante to lighten up the mood a little, he blurted out, "Ouch!
Dove blinked her eyes, getting back to the present and narrowed her eyes slightly and said, "Are you finding it funny, Mr Dante?"
Dante shook his head to the left and then right, before saying, "Not at all, Madam. I would never do that. But isn’t it so humouring that... basically, one day, he ’best big bro,’ turned into a ’ghost’ out of no where?" Dante asked, raising an eyebrow.
Hearing him say it like that, Dove’s brooding mood, lighten a lot, and she chuckled and replied in aoght hearted tone too, "Exactly!
I an, I checked—I wasn’t invisible, and I definitely didn’t have so contagious disease, but that’s how he acted."
And what followed her comnt was both of them bursting out laughing. It definitely made the mood a lot lighter for further conversation.
Dante then asked, "So what happened then? Did you not confront him?" Though he did not like to hear that Noah was such an important presence in Dove’s life at one ti.
Of course he already had an idea from before, his n giving him a brief outlook of her relationship with her family. But listening to it, directly from her point of view was a lot of unsettling.
Dove sighed, "I tried... but he would just walk away. And may be, my emotions too did not allow to run behind that too much. So after being shut down so many tis, I figured, why bother? If soone wants to talk to you, they will. If they don’t, you stop trying."
Dante blinked his eyes and asked, "So that was what you were thinking earlier?"
But Dove shook her head and said, "Earlier today, when Noah suddenly said he ’believed ’ and ’trusted ’... I had a flashback."
Dante watched as a faraway look filled her eyes.
"When we were younger, he used to say those exact words wherever he used to encourage . And in that mont, I just... I just rembered those days.
"mories that now feel bittersweet."
Dante nodded his head slightly. Hearing it from her directly, gave him an idea on what was actually bothering her. And why she looked dazed at that ti.
He then asked curiously, "So if I may ask, what changed?"
Dove looked at him a little curiously and he said, "You said you did not use to talk to your step mother and Step brother. So what changed now? Because it seems normal."
Dante wanted to listen her understanding about it directly.
Dove supported her face on her palms and said, "Well, we never talked to each until I returned from abroad.
"The day you saw talking to Noah and his mother? That was the first ti in years that we spoke to each other politely or you may say, civilly."
Dante saw as Dove passed her a small smile before shrugging lightly and said, "And it is because of my son."
"Gavi?" Dante blinked his eyes in question, and Dove nodded. "Yes."
"Dante, I know what it feels to have an incomplete family life when you are young.
You miss out a large part of childhood. If leaves you being difficult in your life ahead, and so on. And I don’t want my son to face anything like that.
I know Freya and Noah. And though, they might be... Difficult. But they are not bad people, at least for a child. So, if talking to them politely, being around them and living with them in the sa house, and letting the old grudges go, would let my son enjoy a happy family. I am willing to do it a hundred more tis."
Hearing Dove say that, it was now Dante who were into a trance. Right now, he could see a smart, mature and very sensible young mother sitting before him. And this young woman was the mother of his child.
And at this mont, he ca to a very big realisation. He gave away his heart and feelings to the very right woman.
"You are a brave and perfect woman, Dove." He said out before he even realising it, making her blink.
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