Love's Change of Heart

Chapter 60

“Don't worry. Leave this to me. I'll get a good price."

Louis nodded. "Thank you."

The manager of Patheon Club said, "You don't need to be so courteous with me, but… are you sure you won't regret this?"

"What's there to regret? Compared to this, money's more important right now."

The manager sighed. "Okay. I'll get it done as soon as I can."

"Alright," Louis said before turning to leave. All rights © NôvelDrama.Org.

The manager moved away, but when he spotted the man standing nearby, he walked over at once. "Mr. Pearson."

Aidan stood there quietly, dressed in a plain white shirt. His hands were stuck in his pants pockets as he stared in the direction where Louis had gone. "What does he need money for?" he asked plainly.

The manager was breaking out in cold sweat as he recalled that Louis had hit Aidan before, but he could not leave Aidan's question unanswered. "His family seems to have run into some trouble."

"How much does he want?"

"150 thousand…"

Aidan snorted. He forgot how greedy that entire family was as it was always at least six figures. He said nothing, and the manager's heart was about to beat out of his chest in silence.

Eventually, the manager said, "I'll get going now if there's nothing else, Mr. Pearson."

"Go on."

Once the manager walked off, Oscar appeared from the side. "You're not going to ask what happened?"

"Not interested," Aidan retorted coolly as he walked off.

After leaving Patheon Club, Aidan received a call from a number not on his contacts list.

He frowned and answered the call, only to hear Leanna's careful voice. "Are you busy right now, Mr. Pearson?"

"Say what you want."

"I…" Leanna hesitated for the longest time about what to say. The moment she heard Aidan's icy voice, she regretted making the call.

Aidan got impatient. "Why don't I say it for you?"

Leanna was startled. "Huh? I—"

"How much do you want? 150 thousand? 300 thousand?"

"That's not what I meant. I just wanted—"

He cut her off. "Leanna McKinney, did I do something today to let you assume that you can come to me and ask for money?"

She fell silent. She did not know what to say.

"You're not an eighteen-year-old girl who's innocent and gullible. You don't think that a kiss proves that I like you, right?" Aidan questioned coolly. "We've slept together so many times now. If I was ever going to like you, I would've by now, don't you think?"

"I didn't think that," Leanna said tersely.

"Good. There's no point even if you had such thoughts." Aidan ended the call at once.

Less than two minutes later, Jonathan was put out of his misery when he received a text from Aidan telling him that he did not need a female companion anymore. This… Did they get into a fight again?

…

Leanna clutched her phone and sat by the window for the longest time. She had only meant to ask if she could delay this month's repayment to next month instead.

Who would have known that he was in such a foul mood? She had not even said anything to set him off, but he exploded at her and assumed the worst of her.

She would have to become insane before she would even think that he liked her.

After a while, Leanna called Jethro, but sure enough, the call did not go through. She sent him a text before tossing her phone aside and closing her eyes to rest.

After waiting for three days, she finally received a call from him and he seemed to be using some sort of landline. He sounded frantic but fairly pleased as he asked, "My beloved daughter, do you mean it? Are you going to give me some money?"

"Yeah. Come and take it tomorrow."

"Let's not wait until tomorrow. Where are you staying? I'll come to you now."

"I haven't gathered it yet. Come tomorrow, or else, don't come at all."

"Sure, sure. Tomorrow it is," Jethro agreed at once.

Leanna gave him an address and hung up at once without wasting any more of her breath.

The next day, as soon as she walked out of her door, she saw Louis standing in front of her.

"I'm coming with you," Louis declared.

"Don't do anything reckless, okay? No matter what, don't get into a fight with them."

"Got it."

Once they arrived at the agreed-upon location, Ron and his men were already waiting for them.

When he spotted Leanna, he got up and asked, "Did you bring the money?"

She took a card out. "It's in here."

Ron stuck his hand out to take it from her, but she said, "Hang on. We need to wait for one more person."

He frowned. "Are you trying to pull some kind of trick on me?"

"There's just the two of us. What tricks can we pull?"

"Fine. I'll give you ten minutes."

Leanna stood there in silence with a cold expression.

Ron could not help himself from scrutinizing her. Three years ago, when he went to collect Jethro's debt, she left a deep impression on him.

She was beautiful, intelligent, and quick on her feet. She would have had a bright future ahead of her had she not ended up with such a father. It was a pity.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Jethro called out cheerfully, "Leanna, the money…" He paused when he spotted the men, after which his expression changed and he immediately turned to run.

Ron reacted at once. "Get him!"

Jethro had not gone very far before he was pushed to the ground and given a kick in the abdomen.

Once he lost all the fight in him, he was carted off into the private room.

As soon as he was ushered in, he began to yell, "Leanna McKinney, you rotten b*tch! I'm the one who raised you, but you worked with these guys to set a trap for me?! I'm…"

He received a punch to the stomach before he could finish his sentence.

Ron looked over at Leanna. "Ready to hand over the money now?"

She passed the card over to him with a straight face.

He was about to get one of his men to check the amount inside the card when she said, "Don't bother checking. There's only 7,500 in there."

Ron's expression darkened at once. "Are you toying with me?"

"That's all the money I could gather." Leanna glanced at Jethro. "He's the one who owes you money. I lured him out for you now, so shouldn't you be asking him for money?"

Ron and Jethro did not expect that this was her plan as Jethro began to curse at once. His mouth was so foul that even Ron became annoyed.

Jethro settled down after taking a few more punches.

Leanna said coolly, "If you don't want the 7,500, fine. Just beat him up and get it over with. I'll finally get some peace back in my life."

"Little girl, that's not how it works." Ron narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to her.

Louis stepped in front of Leanna and glared at Ron. He was half a head taller than Ron, which made Ron seem a lot less intimidating in comparison.

Without even turning to look, he called out to his men, "Beat him up."

At once, the room was filled with Jethro's agonized cries.

Leanna forced herself to not see what was happening, but she heard all his screams nonetheless. She felt a surge of nausea, but she clenched his fists and bit her lip, forcing herself to stay quiet.