When Noelle heard those words, she could only feel her heart bleed. She bit her lips as her eyes turned red.
She already knew what the result was. When Carter wanted to get rid of Asher, as his wife, she did nothing to support him. Instead, she chose to give in to the pressure and chose to divorce him. She was the one who drove the knife to the very depths of his heart.
As such, she had already decided not to blame him if he chose not to help the Stewards. If she had to find someone to blame, that person would be herself for making the wrong decision. As for the Stewards? They could only blame themselves for getting rid of the only man that could save them.
Noelle had no words as she simply let her tears roll down her cheeks.
"Where do you wish to go, Master Sander? Allow me to drive you there," Castor asked.
"Nephele Hotel," Asher replied after pondering upon it for a moment. Originally, he did not want to bother Castor, but Asher knew that if he were to refuse Castor, it would be the same as hurting his dignity.
"Master Sander, Lady Steward, this way please," Castor made a gesture inviting them both.
Asher did not think twice when he left. Livia could not help but give Noelle one last look before following him.
Noelle could feel the jealousy taking root within her. How she wished that the woman that was following him was her instead.
"Master Cra... Master Sander, if I may have a moment of your time."
At this time, the voice of an aged man came from among the crowd. Asher did not even have to turn to know that the person that was calling out to him was Carter. He simply continued walking toward Castor's car.
When Carter saw that Asher did not even bother to turn back, there was only bitterness and shame left on his face. He dared not show even a hint of anger.
Anxiously, Carter quickly moved toward Noelle and forced a smile on his face as she said, "Elle, why not speak to Master Sander? He normally listens to you, right? Our household cannot lose someone like him."
Carter could never have foreseen that a scion from the Capital City would lower himself and marry into the Stewards. To make things even worse, he had been utterly humiliated during the two years that he was with the Stewards.
Carter was extremely distressed. If Asher was still part of the Stewards household... If he didn't exile Asher... The Leonards would never dare treat the Stewards like that.
As the patriarch of the Stewards, Carter could not allow the Stewards to be destroyed in his own hands. Otherwise, he would be the one who bore the sin of causing the household's extinction.
That was why he lowered himself and told Noelle to ask Asher to stay behind. He would even acknowledge their relationship as long as she could convince Asher to stay.
It was at that moment Noelle wanted to let out a chuckle. Carter was the one that forced Asher to leave in the first place. Now, the same person wanted Asher to return. How shameless could he be?
"I 'm no longer that important to him anymore." Noelle turned and returned to her household, with hopelessness and loss in her voice.
"Elle..." Carter wanted to say something else, but Noelle did not bother to stop even for a moment.
The youngsters from the Stewards became even more worried. Asher had made himself clear that other than Livia, no one from the Stewards had anything to do with him.
It was the same as telling Radley that he would not meddle in the affairs of the Stewards' survival.
"Asher! You were married into the Stewards for two years! Now that the Stewards are in trouble, are you going to simply stand by and do nothing?!" Erick cried out in rage.
"Asher! You cannot leave, the Stewards need you!"
"That's right! It was our mistake to have treated you so badly in the past! But we guarantee that we'll not do that anymore! So please, just stay and help the Stewards survive this crisis!"
"Asher..."
The youngsters' voices overpowered one another as they begged for help.
Livia glanced at Asher cautiously. When she saw the icy sneer on his face, she stopped herself from saying anything.
She knew that Asher had suffered a great deal in their hands for the past two years. The anger that he had kept within himself for so long could not be doused so easily in such a short time. Nothing would come of it, even if every single person from the Stewards family begged him.
At the end of it all, Asher simply boarded the vehicle with Castor shutting the door. Shortly after, Castor drove it away.
"Julian, let us leave as well. If we stay behind any longer, it'll be against his wishes," Freya said after giving it a thought as she ran her fingers through her hair.
Julian nodded in agreement and said, "The reason Radley wanted us to come over is to make an example of the Stewards. In the end, it was Asher that taught him a lesson on humility. This is fine. This will demonstrate to Radley that Rollinsford does not belong to the Leonards."
With that, the two of them left before anyone took notice. Both of them knew that Rollinsford was going to be thrown into turmoil. They needed to inform their household of this news as soon as possible.
"What should we do now?" Mikaela asked Radley cautiously.
Radley had the color drained out of his face, but his eyes seemed to be filled with primal rage. After a few seconds of silence, he then said, "Let's return and inform Grandpa about this."
With that, even Radley left without another word.
When the Stewards saw the Leonards leave, the youngsters could not help but let out a sigh of relief. They had survived for now.
The Mercedes-Benz was driven at a respectable speed. Asher and Livia sat at the back while Dove sat in the passenger seat. Dove would look at that handsome face from the rear mirror from the corner of her eyes every once in a while, and her heart was still not at ease.
Ever since she could remember, there was no one around their age that could force his brother to submission. In her memories, Castor had always been the one to lead those from their generation.
However, Asher, the man that the entire Rollinsford thought to be nothing more than a lowlife had completely surpassed her expectations. She was swept off her feet.
Dove could not explain the reason for it, but in that moment, she felt that the calm man in the rear-view mirror was suddenly so much more attractive. His calm eyes, and his sculpted face. She had to admit that Asher was physically quite attractive.
"Lily, I think Mr. Steward simply didn't think things through. Don't think too much about it. Once he has calmed down and reconsidered what he had done today, he would take you back to the Stewards. The hotel is not a convenient place to stay in, why not stay with us for now? The Yaegers and Stewards have been friends for so long, so you don't have to worry about it. Not to mention that Noelle and I are peers as well," Dove said.
However, when Dove was conversing with Livia, her attention was always on Asher.
Even though Livia was not that experienced, she could still ascertain what Dove meant by that. Friends? The Yaegers would not budge even when Noelle and Carter begged them for their help. It had been made absolutely clear that it was because of Asher that they had humbled themselves and offered her help.
Dove was being amicable toward her, but Livia knew that her aim was to get close to Asher.
Livia then said, "I'll listen to Asher on this. I'll stay wherever he wants me to."
"Master Sander, perhaps you should move to the Yaegers? Treat it as your own home. No need to be so courteous with us," Dove said with a sweet smile.
Asher merely replied with a smile, "There's no need to trouble your household for something like this. Castor, you can stop at the road ahead. We're here."
Dove wanted to continue the conversation, but Castor quickly gave her a look. Once the car had stopped and he had sent both Asher and Livia on their way, Castor then said to his sister, "Dove, Asher is someone with a very complicated background. I hope that you'll not try to get close to him again."
It was a simple enough task for Castor to see through Dove's intentions. The number of suitors that tried to court his sister were in the hundreds, and yet her heart remained her own all these years.
The only reason that she would show such keen interest in Asher was because he caught her eyes.
"Castor, am I destined to become just another ordinary woman?" Dove retorted, unimpressed.
When Castor heard the dismissiveness in her tone, he was taken aback at first. However, his shock quickly turned to helplessness. "Of course not, Dove. Fine, I'll tell you about him since you're considering it. He's not from some Sander household. His real name is Asher Crawford, a scion from the Capital City's Crawford household. The Crawfords' status in the Capital City is equivalent to one of the great households in Rollinsford. But you have to understand that the Capital City is filled with influential factions of its own. Two years ago, Asher accidentally crippled a scion from another great household…"
Mason's home.
Noelle had locked herself in her room. Ever since she married Asher, Noelle moved into the home belonging to the two of them. She had scarcely returned since two years ago, and her bedroom remained the same as before she got married. Noelle sat on the bed, unmoving as she held a stuffed doll in her arms. There was an empty void left in her heart, as if she had left something behind.
Mason and his wife Teena were sitting in the living room. Both of them were not at their best at the moment. Mason lighted up his cigarette and breathed in deep. He could not help but complain with a sigh, "I didn't see that coming. Asher, a scion from Capital City."
"True. Why didn't he tell Elle about his real identity after being married to her for two years?" Teena said with her brows drawn together.
"I can see that Asher is still in love with Elle. If not, he wouldn't have stayed with the Stewards for two years. I believe that he must have some reason for doing this. But what I don't understand is that Livia has changed so much in such a short time. Is it possible that she had known about Asher's true identity earlier on?"
Mason then heard footsteps coming from outside when he mentioned that. He turned around only to see Carter with a deep frown on his face.