"How much time is it going to take?" Elara asked from the back seat, wondering what went wrong in the Frost mansion in her absence and why the hell everyone was treating Daniel like that.
She tried calling her parents and George, but no one answered.
After trying multiple times, she finally called Xylon, who picked up but said he had no idea because he wasn’t even in the state.
She didn’t know why, but she had an intuition that it was because of her.
Last time also, the way her father was looking at Daniel, barely controlling himself because she was there and because they met after so long, wasn’t something she had missed.
And the fact that the man was suffering in this heavy rain because of her made her heart ache.
"It’s going to take some time, Miss Elara. I am trying my best. But the rain has definitely slowed the traffic. If I speed, we will be risking not only our lives but everyone’s lives on the road," Antonio said.
Elara chewed her lower lip before dialing Daniel’s number, who wasn’t picking up his phone either.
She then called the unknown number.
"Did he go inside?" Elara asked hurriedly.
However, the line went dead immediately. She redialed the number, only to hear it was switched off.
After what felt like an eternity, they finally reached Frost’s mansion.
She saw a silhouette kneeling at the entrance, and her heart skipped a beat.
Elara didn’t care about the umbrella or anything and rushed to the man.
"Daniel, what the hell are you doing? Stand up. Let’s go inside, or you’ll get sick." Elara tried to pull the man up, but he did not move.
"You should go inside, Elara. This is between your family and me," Daniel said.
Elara pursed her lips and turned to look at Alen, who was standing at some distance under the beam.
"What the hell is going on here? Someone’s got to tell me something," Elara raised her voice as Alen sighed.
"Miss Elara, our boss came to your house to ask your father for permission to marry you. Senior Thames said that he wouldn’t allow you to marry the man because your stars clash. Moreover, you guys have the same temper and traits, which are not good for a couple. Our boss said he would do anything to marry you, and the senior Thomas asked our boss to kneel before the mansion. Rest, you can see..." Alen said.
Elara turned to Daniel, who sat in the heavy rain with his fists clenched on his knees, and her eyes watered at the sight.
She had indeed asked him to marry her if he wanted her to stay with him forever. She didn’t know he would take those words so seriously, like this, and...
Elara walked to Daniel.
"You don’t need to kneel. Get up. I will talk to my family," Elara said.
Daniel, however, shook his head.
"No. This is my way of proving I can do anything for you, and I definitely don’t joke when it comes to you." Daniel looked up, and though it was becoming hard for him to open his eyes, she could clearly see the resolution in his eyes.
Elara kept looking at the man for some time before she sighed and rushed to the house.
Elara walked into the house and saw her family sitting on the couch, all their phones placed on the table, and her anger surged.
"What the hell is this?" Elara asked.
"Elara, sweetheart, what happened?" Gabriella stood when she saw her daughter drenched from head to toe, but Elara raised her hand to stop her mother from moving.
She didn’t move her gaze away from her grandfather, who looked back at her with the same resolution.
"I can’t allow you to marry him," Thomas said.
Elara took a deep, shaky breath. After she made the wrong decision by choosing Andrew as her husband, she didn’t really feel she had the right to ask for anything.
And thus, she nodded at them.
"I know what happened with Andrew was unfortunate. However, at that time, I was naive and new to love. Daniel made me realize what true love feels like, and what I felt for Andrew was merely gratitude masked in love," Elara started speaking before she took a deep breath.
"You are my parents, and I respect your decision. But I have started to fall for the man who mourned my death and has been living like a widower for four years, because he thinks he has been mentally married to me for so many years. I respect his emotions more than I love him, Grandpa," Elara said.
And then, without waiting for their reaction, she turned to leave.
"Where are you going, baby? You are drenched. Please get changed, or you’ll get sick," Gabriella said.
Elara smiled at her mother briefly.
"I am going where my future husband is," she said and then walked out of the house.
She stood beside Daniel before she knelt, shocking everyone with her actions.
"Elara, what are you doing?" Daniel asked, shocked.
Elara grinned at the man.
"Do you think only you want to marry me? I want to marry you, too. Shouldn’t we face this challenge equally?" Elara asked.
Alen looked at Miss Elara, not knowing what to say. He had called her so she would persuade his boss to go inside the house or into the car so they could return home, but instead, she was kneeling beside him.
Was this what Elder Thomas meant when he said both of them had the same temperament, and it wasn’t good?
"Elara, what are you doing? Stand up," Elder Thomas said when he saw his granddaughter’s face already turning pale.
Elara tried her best to breathe through the rain, unsure why she felt that way. She wasn’t weak like that.
Daniel turned to his woman, not knowing what to say.
She was really a stubborn girl.
He took off his soaking coat and placed it over her head so it would at least let her breathe.
"Stupid girl," Daniel whispered to her before he looked ahead, resolute.
"I love you," Daniel said after some time, and Elara sneezed loudly before nodding.
"That’s why I am sitting here." Elara smiled at him.
"You have always been worth it," Daniel said.
Everyone watched the duo, engrossed in their own little world, and Gabriella felt for her daughter.
"Dad, what are you doing? How can you be so stubborn when your granddaughter is getting sick? Call them inside. We can talk about it later." Gabriella held Thomas’s hand.
"We are not coming inside until you permit Daniel to marry me," Elara said loudly.
Logan looked at his stubborn daughter, unsure whether to be proud of her because he, too, had once acted like that to marry Gabriella, or to get angry because she was getting sick and not thinking about herself at all.
Just like she didn’t think about herself when it came to Andrew.
George, on the other hand, was unconditionally rooting for Daniel this time. Though he didn’t like the man much because of his background, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that he was still the best man he knew who wouldn’t hurt his sister.
Besides, while Elara sat beside him, he saw a spark in her eyes that she had seemed to lose when he met her right after she decided to divorce Andrew.