The Memory of the Alps

“Running away like this, do you regret giving up the title of a Madam?”

He leaned over, cornering me in the elevator, his ten fingers tightly intertwined with mine, his grip squeezing a bit hard to the point of pain, as if his inner self was extremely anxious and afraid that I would change my mind.

I withdrew my gaze and looked towards him: “What exactly do I have to regret?”

“If you don’t regret it, why did you come find me today after working so hard to escape?”

Mentioning this escape, I remembered the main point I needed to clarify.

“Sebastian, I will never marry a madman like Luke. I questioned my brother William earlier. He said that before I got into the accident and lost my memory, my relationship with Luke’s family was just a social business partnership, there was no romantic relationship at all. It was after I woke up from the coma with amnesia that they, for family interests, colluded to make up a story tricking me that he was my lover, so I vaguely let them arrange and agree to the engagement.”

“Mm.”

What did this indifferent ‘mm’ mean?

“I think the stupid reason I left for New York alone that year without saying a word of goodbye to you was probably because I found out I had a dangerous disease. I didn’t want to affect your future. You were busy studying and struggling so hard with your startup back then, the pressure was heavy. I intended to return to the US to ask my family to find a good doctor for a successful surgery and then come back to Paris to find you. But life is unpredictable, I didn’t expect the complication of amnesia. My parents never liked me dating a poor person, so they also pretended not to know of your existence. My brother William… He confessed that he was indeed a bit selfishly worried for me at that time, not wanting me to cling to someone without a career like you, so he went along with Luke’s plan to hide it and cut off contact… But please don’t hold a grudge against my brother. I understand he did it only because he worried too much about his sister, afraid I would suffer hardship and poverty being with you…”

The excuse wasn’t even finished when the elevator doors opened. He coldly pulled my hand and walked straight towards the door of his private office.

Passing by the rows of desks of various departments with the curious eyes of employees surrounding us, he appeared extremely cold, majestic, and serious.

However, the moment the oak door of the office slammed shut, the shell of his cold calmness shattered and vanished instantly.

He rushed over to hug me tightly, resting his tired chin on my shoulder, whispering: “You don’t need to try to explain and justify anymore. Whatever the bitter truth of the past is, I selfishly only care that you are here right now.”

“You really don’t care about the truth? You don’t hold a grudge that I cruelly left without a word of goodbye back then?”

He lowered his eyes, his voice hoarse with emotion: “Lily, are you willing to give me a chance to start this romance over with you?”

“But my brain still hasn’t been able to recover the memory fragments about you…”

He dejectedly let go of his embrace, the flame of expectation dying out in his eyes.

I hurriedly grabbed his hand and continued: “Although I haven’t recovered my memories yet, my heart’s instinct tells me, I seem to still flutter and like you!”

“If your heart says so, then those painful pasts are no longer important. Let’s consider the seven years of separation erased, and start our love again from zero, okay?”

He used his gray eyes to stare intently, boring into me.

That melancholic gaze was filled with intense, deep affection.

But as a sensitive woman, I felt it carried a certain avoidance of the truth.

He seemingly didn’t want to hear me mention the past seven years, or more accurately, he was afraid of me bringing up the events that happened in those seven years.

What secret was he afraid of revealing?

Could it be related to Luke’s tricks?

“Sebastian, the truth about me and Luke is actually completely clean, not like what you’re misunderstanding… Mmph…”

My lips, which were still blabbering, were suddenly covered by a passionate kiss, blocking the explanations I was about to say.

Before I could compose myself from this sudden kissing attack, he reluctantly pulled away.

“What are you doing…”

“Didn’t you just say out of your own mouth that you like me? In that capacity, am I not allowed to kiss the person I like?”

It was perfectly fine, just that the progression was a bit too fast.

Waiting a moment in silence, perhaps seeing me standing frozen without reacting.

He looked a bit uneasy and regretful: “You don’t like this abruptness?”

I seriously thought and evaluated my feelings for a moment.

In the past, every time that bastard Luke wanted to force a kiss on me, deep in my subconscious I felt extremely disgusted and nauseated, so I never let him achieve his goal of touching my lips; every time I defensively dodged faster than him.

But when facing Sebastian’s kiss, actually if I wanted to, I could have completely dodged it just now, but my body’s subconscious instinct didn’t want to resist and react against it at all.

“No, I like this feeling.”

I smirked, smiling sweetly at him.

His eyes seemed to take a heavy blow, a bit stunned and not believing his ears.

The eyes staring at me gradually became deep with desire. At that moment, it seemed a wild beast that had been suppressed and starved for seven years was finally unchained and released.

Seeing his masculine Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed, slowly moving his face closer to mine intending to kiss again, I shyly broke free from his controlling embrace.

I deliberately strolled around, pretending to observe the interior of his grand office.

The entire floor of this skyscraper belonged to him. Standing and looking down from the floor-to-ceiling windows, one could take in the panoramic view of the most bustling and magnificent economic center of Paris.

Hearing my brother’s disdainful recounting before, he came from an immigrant orphan background. Back when studying at the expensive university, he had to grit his teeth and rely on excellent scholarships and money from washing dishes part-time to cover his living and study expenses.

When he was courting me, he was so broke that he could only take me for walks around the campus, and very occasionally, when he saved up a little money, he would invite me out to buy crepes on the food street.

On my birthday parties, other playboys competed to gift me luxury supercars and expensive designer goods, while he only shyly gifted me a handwritten notebook summarizing the final exam review.

He was a man so poor that wherever he went, he was severely despised and ridiculed by my aristocratic family and my brother. Yet, in just seven short years of effort, he turned the tide, going from empty-handed to building and owning a large technology empire with an extremely bright future in France.

Surely, over the past time, he must have endured a lot of difficulties and fierce challenges alone…

But heartbreakingly, during the darkest and most difficult time of his life, I wasn’t able to stand shoulder to shoulder and support him.

“Sebastian, sit down and tell me in detail about your process of overcoming difficulties in your past seven years?”

He was slightly taken aback and hesitant: “It’s nothing, the pace of life was very dull, just burying my head in the computer. There’s nothing dramatic to tell like a movie.”

“No, I want to hear everything.” I put on a serious face, crossed my arms, and pretended to be angry, “Are you going to open your heart and tell me or not?”

He sighed, seemingly helpless against my stubbornness.

Finally, he raised a white flag to compromise, promising to tell me everything slowly after dinner.

However, when clearing the table, as he leaned over to pick up food for me, my sharp eyes spotted a bandage wrapped around the back of his hand.

“Why is your hand scratched and bleeding like this?”

He startled and quickly withdrew his hand to hide it: “Yesterday I was fixing something and accidentally got scratched by a piece of glass, it’s just on the surface, it’s fine.”

Looking at his evasive expression, my intuition knew for sure the truth wasn’t that simple.

After dinner, I resolutely dragged him down to the pharmacy in the lobby, bought bandages, and personally disinfected and reapplied the medicine for him. Just as I stuck the band-aid on and looked up, I suddenly realized he had been tenderly staring at me unblinking.

“Is there something on my face?”

“It’s getting late, why don’t you sleep over at my apartment tonight?”

“…”

Sebastian’s deep eyes really knew how to emit a seductive charm. I was just slightly careless and hypnotized before nodding in agreement to carry my bag to his penthouse apartment.

He made an excuse saying that as a girl alone in a hotel during this sensitive time, it wasn’t safe, and his spacious house had an empty guest bedroom.

But looking at his nervous expression, it wasn’t hard to guess without using a brain that he was obsessed with the fear that I would disappear without a trace like a bubble in the blink of an eye.

After all, with my track record at the hospital last time, I evaporated without saying goodbye just like that.

As soon as we stepped into the house, the living room floor was still scattered with shattered mirror glass, seemingly the owner hadn’t had the mood to clean it up.

I frowned in confusion, looking at him accusingly.

“…I probably accidentally bumped into it and knocked it over while cleaning yesterday.”

He really was a man with absolutely no talent for lying.

I glanced back at the deep bandaged wound on his hand. Earlier, when I removed the gauze to treat the wound, I saw the angle of the cut was very strange, not like an accident.

Now connecting the dots, it seemed the truth was that yesterday, out of anger, he smashed this glass mirror with his bare hands…

What kind of shock did he face that made him so resentful to torture and hurt himself?

In the middle of the night, lying on a strange bed, I tossed and turned unable to sleep. Feeling a bit thirsty, I tiptoed out, intending to go to the kitchen to pour a glass of water.

However, just as I turned the doorknob and opened the guest room door, I saw light spilling out; the door to Sebastian’s master bedroom right next door was also slightly ajar.

“You have something on your mind and haven’t slept?”

“Where are you going in the middle of the night?”

Two whispering voices rang out almost simultaneously in the quiet space.

I froze, startled for a moment, then answered softly: “I’m a bit thirsty and looking for some water.”

He stood up from the armchair and followed me into the open kitchen.

He poured me a glass of warm water himself, leaning against the kitchen island, standing opposite, watching me take each sip.

While I was feeling awkward and blushing from being stared at, he suddenly spoke in a deep voice: “Do you really want to know what happened to me over the past seven years?”

“…”

I have to admit, if Sebastian wanted to use his voice to seduce someone, he really knew how to flirt.

By the time I finished drinking the water and reacted to the situation, I was already lying obediently on his King-size bed.

In my ear was his warm, clear, and soothing baritone voice, slowly recalling and narrating the things that happened during the long seven years like a storyteller.

His seven-year story seemed to have truly passed as boringly and dully as he had warned.

His daily orbit, besides burying his head in code and work, was just meetings and work.

I listened to it like a lullaby and fell asleep after a while.

When the sunlight shone in the next day, I was awakened by the loud sound of him talking on the phone.

As I stirred and opened my eyes, I blushed to find myself curled up neatly in his firm arms, while he had one arm loosely hugging my waist and the other pressing the phone to his ear.

The angry tone of the person on the other end of the line coming from the speakerphone was exactly my brother William!

I jolted up like a spring, completely awake.

“You have the guts to seduce and kidnap my innocent sister, where are you hiding her? Don’t have illusions of grandeur thinking that just because your startup took off and you have some money now, I’ll lower myself to agree to you two being together! Just because I’ve now reversed my stance and object to Luke, doesn’t mean at all that I’ll choose a bastard like you as my brother-in-law!”

“Does it matter if you support it or not?!”

I blurted out, interrupting to defend him while still half-asleep.

Sebastian looked down at me deeply with surprised eyes.

The next second, my brother’s loud, angry yell pierced through the speaker: “Lily Evans! Do you even know the concept of shame, kid? It’s broad daylight, the sun is high up, why are you with that bastard at this hour? Your voice is groggy, are you lying in someone else’s bed?”

Knowing I slipped up, I had to stubbornly retort to cover it up: “You colluded with an outsider to deceive me for so long. I’ve been tolerant enough not to settle the score with you, what stance or face do you have now to loudly question and control me?”

“…One thing is one thing, didn’t I just put in the effort to deploy troops to save your life from that madman yesterday?”

“Tch, you helping me with that mission was a fair transaction because I used actress Sophie’s schedule information as bait to exchange. You achieved your goal, so where did you lose out?”

Hearing the mention of his weakness, his dream goddess Sophie, William predictably choked and fell silent.

I smugly smirked in victory: “I’m announcing that I won’t be flying back to New York in the near future. As for the messy situation with the wedding over there, you might as well play the good guy and clean it up for me.”