Marriage with my daughter's father: Darling please be gentle - Chapter 235

Chapter 235: Chapter 235: as if someone is playing me

By the time Lilac stepped out of the house, Stanley had already pulled up and was standing beside the car, holding the door open for her.

“What took you so long? And why haven’t you answered my calls?” Stanley asked the moment he slid back into the driver’s seat.

Lilac fastened her seatbelt and gave him a cheeky smile. “I put my phone on silent and went in for a shower. Also…” she trailed off with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “I ran into someone. That held me up a little.”

She said it all in one breath, her tone breezy and unapologetic, leaving Stanley blinking at her in amused disbelief.

“So you’re telling me,” he said slowly, “you deliberately ignored me while I was calling?”

Lilac gasped, dramatically shaking her head. “No! I didn’t ignore you. I just… got caught up.”

Stanley raised a brow, not quite buying it, but his sigh was more amused than annoyed.

“You’re impossible,” he muttered, pulling the car into motion.

“But you love me anyway,” Lilac quipped, shooting him a grin.

Stanley smirked despite himself. “Unfortunately.”

Lilac laughed, the tension melting from her shoulders as the car sped down the road—her secrets tucked away, for now.

Stanley’s grip on the steering wheel tightened just a little as the car glided smoothly onto the main road. The silence between them wasn’t uncomfortable—just charged. Quiet, but humming with something unspoken.

Lilac, with her elbow resting on the window frame, turned her head slightly, watching him from the corner of her eye.

“You know,” she said casually, “for someone who insists I drive him crazy, you still always show up.”

Stanley didn’t look at her. His eyes stayed fixed on the road ahead, jaw ticking slightly. “That’s because someone has to make sure you don’t wander off into trouble.”

“So you admit it.”

“Admit what?”

“That you worry about me.”

He finally glanced at her then—a sideways look, brief but intense.

“You make it hard not to.”

Lilac’s breath hitched for half a second, but she covered it with a smirk. “Well, I’ll try not to be too flattered.”

Stanley let out a dry chuckle. “You always are.”

She turned toward him, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Her tone softened, playful but edged with something deeper. “But you never say it, Stan.”

“Say what?” he asked, though he already knew.

“What you actually feel.”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he pulled the car over to the side of the quiet road and shifted it into park. The air in the car shifted—no longer light, but heavy with tension that had been building far too long.

Stanley turned to face her, one hand draped loosely over the steering wheel, the other resting on his thigh.

“You really want to know what I feel, Lilac?”

She swallowed, the teasing gone now. Her voice was a whisper. “Yeah. I do.”

He leaned in slightly, just enough for her to feel the heat radiating off him. “I feel like every time I get close, you run. Like you enjoy pushing my buttons just to see if I’ll break. And God help me, I never do. I just keep showing up. For you.”

Lilac’s heart thudded in her chest. The teasing remark on her tongue died a quiet death.

“And I feel,” he continued, eyes locked on hers, “like if I ever kissed you… you’d stop pretending this is just a game.”

She didn’t move.

Didn’t breathe.

But her lips parted, ever so slightly.

“Then maybe you should stop talking and find out,” she murmured.

A moment passed, one heartbeat too long before Stanley leaned in.

But just before their lips could touch, Lilac’s phone buzzed between them.

A sharp, awkward sound that snapped the moment in half.

She flinched, eyes flicking to the screen. The name flashing there made her expression shift.

Stanley pulled back slowly, jaw tightening again as he sat straighter.

“Right,” he said, voice clipped. “Back to reality.”

Lilac stared at the phone a second longer before declining the call. Her gaze returned to him.

“Stan—”

“It’s fine,” he said, putting the car back into drive. “Let’s just get going.”

But the tension was still there. Smoldering. And now, it wasn’t just playful anymore it was undeniable.

Keeping her eyes on Stanley for a few more seconds, Lilac let the silence linger before sighing and declining the call. She placed the phone face-down in the cup holder and, without looking at him, slid it into silent mode again.

“Okay,” she said softly, her voice breaking through the tension. “Now that there’s nothing left to interrupt us… can we be real for a second?”

That caught Stanley’s attention. His knuckles had whitened around the gearshift, but now his hand relaxed.

He turned to her slowly.

And without another word, without hesitation, he reached out—pulling her into his arms.

Lilac blinked, startled at first, but the moment his face buried into the crook of her neck, her breath hitched. He didn’t say anything—just held her, close and tight, as though the dam of restraint between them had finally cracked.

His scent wrapped around her like something familiar, like home. His arms, always so guarded, trembled slightly where they held her.

She let herself melt into him, one hand lifting to gently brush through his hair, the other resting over his racing heart.

Neither of them moved for a while.

Finally, Stanley spoke—his voice muffled but raw.

“When will this end? When will I find her?”

The pain in his voice made Lilac still.

There was something raw in the way he said it—like every word was pulled from a place too deep for most to touch. The longing, the endless search, the ache of an unfinished story… it wrapped around her like a cold wind.

She tightened her arms around him, not saying anything—because what could she say to a heart that had waited this long?

His voice was quieter now, but no less broken.

“Things come to me… signs, clues. But the faster they come, the faster they fade. Every time I feel close, the hope slips away like it was never real. As if—” he paused, his throat tightening, “—as if someone is playing me. Keeping her just out of reach. Like I was never meant to find her at all.”

Lilac’s hand moved gently across his back in slow, steady circles. And for the first time since she met him, she realized that behind all his strength and control… was a man held together by nothing but hope—and the fear of losing it.

“When will I find Mia?”