Regression - Second Chance At Life

Chapter 199 199: Car Talk

Adam got in his car along with Lana and drove out of the park following Claraʼs tail.

Both he and Lana kept their silence throughout the ride.

Adam didnʼt want to speak and put Lana in an unwelcomed situation. She just went through a very traumatic event, making her one of the very few unlucky people.

She and her friends were about to be r*ped and then trafficked around for either sex or organs.

One hears about these things every time in the news, but never gets to see or encounter them personally. Lana has become one of the few who got very close to the jaws of such heinous acts and escaped, only because Adam was there.

If not for Adam, Lana didnʼt know what she would have done.

She turns her head to look at Adam and sees him driving while keeping his eyes on the road. The carʼs interior is silent as he didnʼt bother putting on the radio or playing any music on his playlist.

Lana parts her lips, trying to say something to Adam, but hesitates. She tries it a few more times but canʼt bring herself to voice the words she wants to say.

She looks away again, and they continue to sit in silence, not knowing what to do in such a situation.

Adam, too, isnʼt much of a help here right now. He might be good at reading people and understanding their intent, but he doesnʼt know how to console an almost human trafficking victim.

Plus, this night has generally not been good for her. She found out that her boyfriend is a scum who is willing to call in gangsters just to get even with her. How immature and stupid one must be to make such a decision?

Halfway into the drive, Lana finally decides to build up some courage and speak up.

”Ummm,” she voices out, trying to get Adamʼs attention. Adam, of course, has been waiting for her to say something.

If she had nothing to say to him, then she wouldnʼt have asked to go back home in his car with him.

He turns to look at her and meets her eyes. Now that their gazes are locked, Lana blushes a little as she once again finds herself struggling to say the words she wants to say.

Adam doesnʼt pressure her; instead, he lets her take her time.

”Ummm... Thank you...” She finally says it. She has been meaning to thank Adam for a while, but couldnʼt bring herself to do so because she felt guilty and found her own behavior immature.

Adam did nothing wrong tonight. He only came with her on the request of her mother, and he made sure to keep his promise to her mother.

He didnʼt embarrass her in front of her friends and kept his distance from her. Letting her enjoy the music festival without him being an annoying presence next to her.

Sure, he did cause her ex-boyfriend Drake to go off the edge, but when she looks back at it, Adam really didnʼt do much. It was Drake who wanted to out-macho Adam and even tried punching Adam, but Adam treated him like a child.

Remembering how Adam fought off those gang members with ease, looking back at it, Drake clearly had no chance against someone like Adam.

As she looks at Adam, she canʼt help but have those memory flashes of the past when she was a small girl following Adam like his tail. She even remembers asking him to marry her when they grew up.

She remembers how excited she got every time her mother told her they were going to Adamʼs house.

As all these memories come back to her, she blushes.

”No need to thank me. I made a promise to your mother. I did what I could,” Adam says.

Lana just listens to him as she doesnʼt know what to say next. She couldnʼt think of anything.

Silence takes over between them once again, making Lana feel awkward.

To not feel awkward, she decides to talk about something else.

”Where did you learn how to fight like that?” she asks as she canʼt get the image of Adam wiping the floor out of grown men with ease out of her head. She couldnʼt help but find Adam sexy and hot while he was at it.

To her, Adam was just like the prince in those stories her mother used to read her before bedtime, where a prince comes riding on a white horse and saves the princess from the evil villain.

Just like the prince, Adam came and saved her from the evil villains.

Lana had grown out of those stories very quickly as she got into other things in her early teenage years. She started rebelling against her mom after she got a divorce and started getting into edgy stuff. She even had a very short but aggressive emo phase, which she grew out of, but a few things stuck.

Never did she think those memories of her loving those princess being saved stories to come back to her, and even go further as experiencing it herself.

”I do MMA, I am planning to make a career out of it,” Adam says.

Lanaʼs eyes widen, hearing Adamʼs words. She saw how good Adam is at fighting, but to have it as a career choice sounds dangerous, yet also sexy at the same time.

She can see Adam, just wearing those fighting shorts, covered in sweat, beating up other men while looking very cool, just like he was tonight.

Lana blushes again.

”But I thought you were trying to invest in a few start-ups and also a restaurant business,” Lana says. Looks like Clara told her about Adamʼs capital ventures.

”Well, a man can have multiple career paths,” Adam says, looking at Lana, smiling.

Seeing his smile, Lana feels her heart race faster, so she looks away immediately. ”Fair enough,” she says while trying to calm herself down.

She doesnʼt want Adam to see her get flustered like this.

She finds it embarrassing. She should be devastated right now, after all, she just experienced one of the worst nights she could possibly have, but here she is crushing hard on Adam like a teenage girl.

Just being around him made her forget about her bad night.

”I also have a question,” Adam speaks up.

Lana turns to look at him again, curious as to what Adam has to ask her.

”What is it?” Lana asks.

”Why did you lie to your mother about dating Rein, while in fact you were dating Drake?” Adam asks.

He clearly remembers Clara telling him about a guy named Rein that Lana is dating, only for him to get to the concert and realize that the Rein guy is just her friend, and itʼs Drake that she is dating.

So why did Lana lie?

”Well, itʼs because I didnʼt want her to get mad at me,” Lana says, taking a sigh.

”Why would she be mad at you. I donʼt think she is that type of person,” Adam says.

”No, itʼs not like that... A month ago, Mom came to pick me up from the campus when she saw me and Drake talking. We werenʼt dating yet. We were just flirting. And since you know how Mom is. She went and did some background checks on Drake and found things she didnʼt like. So she forbade me from dating him. When I asked about what she found, she didnʼt tell me what she found.

This just pissed me off, so... I started dating Drake... out of spite. Of course, I didnʼt realize that he was just trying to get with me. I should have listened to her...

Well, anyway, since I didnʼt want her to get mad at me again, I lied to her about dating Rein, so even if she catches me talking with someone on the phone, she doesnʼt suspect Drake,” Lana says.

Adam canʼt believe Lana would go to such lengths. To date a guy just out of spite for her mother. He underestimated how estranged the mother-daughter duo is.

”Well, now she knows... What are you going to do about it?” Adam asks.

Lana puts her head down and almost starts crying. ”I donʼt know...” she says meekly.

”Can I say something?” Adam says.

Lana lifts her head and looks at Adam again.

”I donʼt know what your relationship is like with Clara, but I know this. Your mother loves your very much, and I think you also see it. You saw how scared she was when she saw you,” Adam says.

Lanaʼs eyes start pooling with tears, hearing Adamʼs words.

”So... I was just saying, maybe donʼt try to fight with your mom. Maybe sit down and talk it out. Every time you feel frustrated about something, instead of shouting and storming off, sit down and talk it out with her,” Adam says.

Lana begins pondering Adamʼs words, taking his advice to heart.

”Since Dad left... I.. When I asked her why she and Dad got divorced, she just said she no longer loved Dad. Hearing that, I got very angry... She decided to divorce him just because she didnʼt love him anymore, but what about me? Because of her decision, I lost my dad. I have never seen him since...” Lana says.

Adam begins to realize why Lana is so rebellious and angry at Clara. She blames Clara for not having a dad in her life. And to a certain extent, she might be right.

Clara could have remained married even if she didnʼt love her husband anymore, just so Clara could have a dad growing up.

But since Lana is viewing this matter from the inside and through her own feelings, she forgot to take one matter into consideration.