Chapter 9 Being Pestered By Her

Reid wanted to pull Aria out of the water, but she climbed out by herself and walked away, leaving a trail of water.

Too distraught and distracted by her thoughts, Aria went back to her room and slumped on the sofa, hair still dripping wet. The news of Milton and Roxanne's wedding was still blaring out on the television.

"Mom, if you were here to see this, you would have realized how wrong you were to fall in love with that man."

Since her mother passed away a long ago, Aria's memory of her mother stopped at a time when she was very young.

It had been a while since Aria cried, so she let the tears that had welled up, flow freely down her cheeks. At a young age, Aria had learned how to put up a front, to never let others see her in a fragile state. It was Lennon who had taught her the benefits of being a strong and independent woman. After all, the future of the entire Yan Group would fall on her shoulders.

It wasn't until the clock struck midnight that Aria finally dragged her weary body out of the room to get some air.

She wandered aimlessly across the garden and came to a bar at the leisure center of the resort. Without hesitation, she stepped inside and found a seat at the bar. "Get me a bottle of whiskey."

The waiter stared at her incredulously at first, as if he had heard her wrong.

The second Aria repeated herself, he nodded at her vigorously and rushed to fetch a bottle for the lady.

One drink after another, Aria downed them in succession and before long, she was in a state of total insensibility, slurring to herself horridly.

Aria leaned against the sofa, barely clasping the bottle between her fingers.

Meanwhile, after Reid caught the news of Milton's wedding on the television, he immediately left his room to look for Aria. When he asked the person in charge of the resort, he was relieved to find that Aria was still in the resort as her car was still in the parking lot.

However, when she didn't open the door to her room after he rang the doorbell a few times, the last place he expected to see Aria was at the bar, drunkenly rambling to herself.

He sat down next to her and said, "Hey, you're here to make trouble for me, aren't you?"

With seemingly a lot of difficulty, Aria opened her heavy eyes and looked at Reid with surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here for you. If anything happens to you here, I'll have to answer to my grandpa," replied Reid, shaking his head at her disapprovingly.

"Excuse me? What I do with my life is none of your business." Aria waived at the waiter and said, "Bring me another bottle, please."

"That won't be necessary. You've already had a bottle to yourself." Reid glanced down at the bottle with surprise as he couldn't believe that this woman had almost finished a whole bottle of whiskey.

"Don't worry. I have money. You don't have to pay for me." Aria staggered to her feet, but then slumped back onto the sofa because she could barely stand steadily.

Reid carefully pulled her up and winked at the waiter, hinting at him not to bring another bottle.

"Reid, just leave me alone!" Shortly after, Reid managed to drag her out of the bar and carry her into her room because she wasn't in any state to go anywhere on her own.

Lying on the sofa, however, and still in a drunken stupor, Aria held Reid's hand tightly and begged, "Please don't go. I don't want to be alone right now."

Perhaps it was because she was in a drunken state that Aria could no longer keep her walls up and she finally revealed her fragile self to him.

At last, when Reid saw the tears in her eyes, he realized that all his preconceived ideas of her as an arrogant princess of the Yan family were wrong. She was just another person whose helplessness now touched his heart.

"Mom, please don't leave me. I don't want to be alone," Aria mumbled with her eyes closed as the scenes of her mother jumping off a building played in her head.

Reid didn't know much about the Yan family and that suited him just fine. However, that was the case until he met her and now it seemed like he had to dig deeper to try and understand why this woman was so persistent on marrying him.

Aria was half asleep, eyes barely open, when her stomach contracted violently but it was too late for her to run to the bathroom. The nausea clawed at her throat and she ended up throwing up, lurching forward and still holding on to Reid. Unfortunately, the helpless man was not spared.

He frowned and shook his head as he stared at the troublesome woman in front of him. It seemed as though she was set on making his life difficult and there was nothing he could do to stop her.