Ariana looked at him calmly, and her rosy lips moved slightly as she spoke.

"You loved your mother very much, right?"

“Maybe.” Theodore's response was brief, his tone brisk and aloof, and his eyes exuding indifference. Perhaps it had been so long since he had become accustomed to being alone that he had already become numb. Whether it was his mother or his past, these had all become a long-past memory to him. He could reminiscence these memories, but they could never arouse an emotional response from him.

Ariana, on the other hand, was an exception to him. She was one of the few aspects of his life he cared about the most.

“can you tell me something about your childhood?" Ariana couldn't help but feel curious about what made Theodore so cold and indifferent. He told her he couldn't understand love, and she had wrongly assumed he only meant love between women and men.

Theodore averted his gaze with no emotional change on his face.

"There's nothing to tell."

Obviously, he didn't feel like talking about it.

Ariana was a little disappointed, but she didn't force him.

Even if any two people fell in love, it took quite a long time before they began opening up and sharing their secrets with each other, not to mention the special situation between her and Theodore.

“Dinner's ready." Ariana ended the conversation herself and turned around to serve the hot meal on the table in the dining room.

There was fava bean soup, steak tartare, black truffle pasta, and other dishes, all wafting a tempting aroma, and the shimmering light added a comforting sense to the food.

Theodore, who had always been picky about food, perked up when he took a seat at the wooden table. He dug in and didn't leave a titbit of food on his plate, which once again showed his approval of Ariana’s excellent culinary skills.

After dinner, satisfied and satiated, Theodore sat by the window and enjoyed some red wine to ease his palate. He was in an ecstatic mood, probably because the food tonight was ineffably delicious or because the woman behind him was unceasingly making trivial but cute complaints.

Outside the window came the gentle, rhythmic patter of raindrops. Ariana craned her neck to look out the window and found that it was raining heavily, which was a rare occurrence in this season.

“Why is it raining all of a sudden? It's causing so much noise. Could it be hail?"

Ariana intended to leave, but now the rain had arrived at the wrong time. She asked if the driver could drive her home but was told the driver had asked for leave this afternoon.

“stay the night. Don't leave," Theodore suggested at once. Slightly squinting his eyes like a mischievous fox, he said, exuding elatedness, "About that boy, I'll appoint someone to send him back to the hotel. You can rest assured on that."

“That's not what I'm worried about," Ariana muttered grumpily. She was afraid it would be awkward for a man and a woman to stay in the same place alone for an entire night.

"Then what are you worried about? Horace brought some clean clothes for you to change into when he got the food ingredients.” Theodore already premeditated all this to happen. Now all he had to do was wait and see if his prey was willing to fall for the trap.