Lost card

"Lu Tian, I never knew you were serious about it," her cousin said as he walked to him.

"It has been a while," Lu Tian replied casually although he maintained his usual coldness which was very different from her cousin who could not stop smiling from ear to ear.

"I was shocked when you called. Is there anything you want to drink?"

She watched her husband sit down beside her before shaking his head to An Lin's offer. "What brings you here?" Lu Tian did not hesitate to ask as soon as he got comfortable on his sofa.

"I . . . I came to see my cousin," she replied only narrowly successful at preventing her voice from trembling like her heart did.

"Oh, meet my cousin, Lin . . . Lin . . ."

"Lin Jing," Lu Tian helped him complete the sentence.

"Oh, sorry, I am not very good with names," An Lin apologized to Lin Jing smiling guiltily. He paused when it occurred to him that his old friend had corrected him. "Oh wait, do you two know each other?"

"Yes, we do. Meet my wife, Lin Jing," Lu Tian immediately introduced Lin Jing.

Lin Jing was shocked by that sudden speech because she never expected him to acknowledge their relationship. When she realized it was her cousin and they counted as family, she relaxed.

"Wow! How did you two meet?" her cousin asked after a couple of seconds in shock.

"I met her when she was still in college," Lu Tian replied naturally.

Lin Jing did not find that to be a natural response because he was both right and wrong. They had met before that but she was in college when she spoke to him for the first time and he came to her because of a painting.

"Oh really?" her cousin looked at her in fascination as he asked her. She stiffened at first but nodded reluctantly.

It was surprising that Lu Tian even remembered that she was once a college student who did not hesitate to give her crush a gift of her best painting.

"That is so cute, you should really come back home whenever you get the chance because grandfather will be glad to have one of the females in the family bring in one of his favorite youngsters."

"How is the old man doing?" Lu Tian asked him after Lin Jing awkwardly agreed with a nod.

"Getting older but also stronger, he amazes every time I see him," An Lin replied. "I just hope I inherited that gene of his."

Lu Tian smiled and nodded at that statement.

"You were about to ask for something before my friend came," An Lin asked as soon as he remembered.

"I wanted to seek your help to let me get back into the family. I am not very close to my father and his wife and I could really use a family," Lin Jing forced those words out of her lips although that was not what she came to say but since the culprit was so close to her . . .

"Oh, that will be very easy with his help. Grandfather likes him a lot," An Lin replied. "I will think of the perfect moment and I will call your husband."

The last thing she wanted was to communicate with her cousin through her husband but since that was what her cousin wanted; she did not want to complicate things so she agreed. It was noticeable that he still felt distant with her but was close to her husband so she had agreed with his plan.

***

"I hear no word of appreciation," he said on their way back home. He was sitting with her in the car although that was the last place she wanted to be at the moment.

"Hmm?" his statement baffled her as she raised her head to look at him.

"You are supposed to be appreciative. I brought you back to your family, you used my connection," he explained. His explanation shocked her even more she could not remember when last she heard her husband speak to her about trivial matters like this.

"I did not use your connection, he is my cousin," she corrected him as she looked away from him outside the window.

"Whom you haven't spoken to all your life, right? When I heard you were at his company, I called him to inform him that was about to pay him a visit and I am sure your request for his help would have been ignored if I was not present. He only agreed because we were married," he smiled in satisfaction as he told her.

Lin Jing who had turned to look at him at the beginning of his second statement felt a strong urge to roll her eyes at him but she was forced to look out of the window in defeat since he was right and she could see that her cousin only gave her attention when he knew she was married to Lu Tian and she used his connection.

"You do not want to acknowledge that because you went to him for something else, right?" Lu Tian asked.

It took her all her will power to continue staring out of the window although her body had tensed and it further tensed when she felt his hand reach towards her. He had never been abusive, rather he ignored her but she could not help but shrink away from him.

He did not give her the chance to escape since there was no way she could escape out of the closed door of a moving car as he reached for her chin and turned her head towards him.

"You wanted to use him to leave, right?" he smiled as he met her gaze but the smile was far from his cold grey eyes that did not spare her a second to blink away.

"You are hurting me," she murmured looking down at his fingers that pinched her chin and held her head in place to prevent her from turning away.

"I am not," he said as he leaned closer to her. "You know I am not and I don't wish to," he added icily.

She shivered getting caught in the lie she wanted to use to escape his gaze. "Does my cousin know you are a playboy?" she forced those words out her lips as she sought an escape from the evil glint she noticed in his eyes. She was not sure what it meant but she was sure that she did not want to find out.

He smiled amused as he released her chin and leaned back. "Why do you ask? Did you go there to complain?" After a few seconds without getting a response from her as she turned to face the window, he said, "That was a good escape route, it won't always work, though."

He might have sounded casual with what he said but she was sure he meant everything he said and it was definitely a threat. She swallowed as she continued to stare out of the window wondering why her husband changed so much after her rebirth.