True Fated Marriage (Grace and Heinz)
Chapter 1475

"I don't want you to force yourself. I want you to read it properly."

Maria was really afraid that Liam wouldn't seriously read it.

It was a popular book she bought with her own intentions at a high price. She hoped that Liam would read it soon and be left with a deep impression that could help when revising it in the future. If he understood the characters in it sooner, it might have a favorable impact on him.

However, she didn't want to reveal her intentions to Liam yet. Things could change a lot in three years, so Maria considered it an intellectual maturity instead of her trying to conceal something. "Do you not believe me?" Hearing what she said, Liam still smiled warmly. "Relax, I won't treat it half-heartedly. After you leave, I'll read it properly when things settle down."

Maria felt relieved at his reassurance. She saw that it was past ten when she glanced at her watch and hastily said, "Oh no, I need to head back. My parents have been lecturing me these two days for going home late."

"Let's go. I've been pestering you for too long today." She sighed. They got up, and Liam handed Maria her clothes.

The both of them changed their outfits and quickly made their way downstairs.

On the way back, Maria recalled the words of her mother and immediately relayed it to Liam, "By the way, my mom wanted to tell you that the car you helped her repair is working perfectly, and she wanted to thank you!"

"I wasn't the one who repaired it, it was 4S garage." Liam smiled and said, "It took quite some time to get it fixed."

"It doesn't matter. She's not going to be driving it anyway. My dad said that we should just give the car away if we don't drive it. Leaving it idle for a long time will cause it to break down."

Liam nodded. Then he thought of an idea and said, "Let's invite Leah and Ernest out for a meal together before you leave."

Maria was surprised. She turned to look at Liam and asked, "Why the suggestion?"

"I should do so. I'll treat your cousin to a meal and get his help to take care of you in England. It's a fair exchange."

Hearing what Liam said, it sounded as if he regarded her as someone who belonged to him, which was why he thought of asking for such favor from Ernest.

Maria's heart was filled with warmth and happiness. Blushing faintly, she nodded and said, "Okay, we can go out tomorrow."

"Call Leah and let her know after you get home. I'll invite Ernest." Liam had an ulterior motive.

"You're inviting Ernest and Leah to help them get together, aren't you?" Maria didn't think Liam would take the initiative to come up with something like that on his own. He took the initiative, wanting to treat them to a meal, and he probably had some kind of ploy.

"We can plan this, but their fate is ultimately up to them." Liam didn't deny what Maria said. "It all depends on Ernest."

"That's true. Ernest can be rather reserved sometimes, so it's hard to figure out if he'll shoot his shot with Leah."

"Then, well let nature take its course." Liam wasn't overly worried about it.

"Yeah." Maria sighed, feeling like time was passing by too quickly. "I don't know which day Ernest booked our flight tickets for, but it has to be in a few days, so let's have our meal soon. That way I'll have time to pack my belongings too."

"Each moment that you're not preparing for your flight, every spare second you have belongs to me," Liam said in an overbearing manner.

Liam's greed for her made Maria feel warm and content. She was elated at the thought of being wanted.

She agreed without hesitation. "Of course."

At that same night, Maria got home and called Leah. "Hey girl, I'm about to head back to England for my studies. Let's eat out tomorrow, it'll be a treat."

Upon hearing that she was going back to England, Leah was shocked. "Are you returning so soon?"

"School is about to begin," Maria said. "I'm going back with Ernest."

"Okay, sounds neat, let's go for a meal!" Leah accepted the invite graciously. "However, who's treating?"

"My very own Liam," Maria said.

"Your very own Liam?" Leah burst into laughter. "All right then, will Ernest be coming too?"

Hearing Leah willingly bringing up Ernest's name, Maria smiled slyly and said without answering right away, "Do you want Ernest to come along with us?" "Ernest, of course, has to come along." Leah admitted frankly. "If I'm going to be the third wheel without Ernest, I'd stick out like a sore thumb next to you and Liam. So, it's better if Ernest is dragged into this with me."

"Sure, no problem," Maria said. "Liam had already called Ernest. Tentatively, we decided to go out for lunch."

"Why lunch?" Leah asked. "Wouldn't dinner be better?"

Maria did question why Liam wanted to arrange for a lunch, but Liam told her that he would feel more comfortable doing his activities after eating.

Mariah blushed instantly after hearing his words.

She felt like Liam was constantly thinking about it at the back of his mind, but his arrangements made sense.

If he went for his activities after lunch, he would still have an ample amount of free time. It would be better and less tiring than needing to go back out right after their activities.

However, she couldn't explain all of that to Leah, so she came up with an excuse, "Don't you have your book to write at night? We don't want to interrupt with your updates at night so we thought we'd schedule a lunch."

Leah pondered for a moment and said, "You have a point. Lunch it is, then."

After hanging up the phone, Leah then realized she had a problem. Her recent updates were always uploaded at the crack of dawn, which was the reason she was staying up late and waking up late on the next day. Due to that, she had been leaving her house only in the afternoons.

So, that night, Leah had to make an early update.

She received a text message all of a sudden. When she opened it, she saw that it was from Ernest.

"I'll pick you up at noon tomorrow, is that all right?"

Upon seeing the text message, Leah smiled and asked wittingly: "What are you picking me up for?"

When Ernest received her text message, he couldn't help but to laugh. "You must have received a call from Maria already. You're asking me this on purpose. What are you trying to do?"

"I was just testing to see how you'd react." Leah replied.

As she sent it, a voice message came in response. "How can you judge my reaction solely through words?"

Hearing his deep voice coming from the speaker of her phone unexpectedly, it sounded magnetic, and Leah's heart stirred.

She held her cell phone and listened to the voice message over and over again, feeling resigned to her current state.

She was entranced by the timbre of Ernest's voice.

After some time, she managed to suppress the butterflies in her stomach and sent him a voice message. "I'm just pulling your leg, don't mind me. You can pick me up tomorrow, I'll wait for you." Hearing the voice message, Ernest responded with another one. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Go to bed early."

Leah replied, "Okay, good night."

She put down her cell phone and went back to writing. She finally made an update at 1:30 at midnight and left an author's note at the end. "Feeling like you're happy with the people you cherish, but unbeknownst to them, you still feel lonely and despair. Time is fleeting, but some people are destined to meet again."

After she finished her update, she washed her face and prepared to go to bed. Suddenly, a text message notification came from her cell phone.

She opened the notification and was surprised when she saw that it was a voice message from Ernest. "Leah, did something happen?"

Leah was stunned and her heart skipped in her chest. She replied with a text message. "Why aren't you sleeping? It's almost two o'clock."

Another voice message was sent by Ernest in response. "I just saw your update and the author's note at the end. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I was just about to sleep." Leah still replied through text. "Good night."

There were no more replies after that, and Leah waited for a few moments before going to bed. She thought she wouldn't be able to fall asleep, but not long after she closed her eyes, she found herself waking up at 10 in the morning the next day.

Leah checked her cell phone the minute she was awake, only to find that she did not receive any text messages.

Ernest's icon was dormant. There were no new messages.

She stared blankly at her screen, not replying to others' text messages.

She got up and began taking a shower. After drying her hair, she put on a face mask and lay down on her bed, feeling extremely sluggish.

School was about to start, and Leah thought about needing to readjust her biological clock, as well as to start memorizing some legal provisions.

Ernest arrived downstairs at 11:30 in the morning. As soon as he pulled up, Leah saw his car from upstairs and immediately phoned Ernest. "Hey, didn't you say you would pick me up at twelve? Why are you here half an hour early?"

"Did you see me?" Ernest looked up subconsciously and saw Leah standing by the window of her balcony, waving at him with her phone in hand.

He got out of the car and said, "I'm used to arriving slightly early. Are you ready? Can we set off now?"

"Come up first, I need a few more minutes to get dressed," she said.

Ernest was taken aback for a moment and responded, "Okay."

He hung up the phone, took out a succulent plant from his car, and went upstairs.