?Chapter 1098:


    “I’m aware.”


    “Aurora, this is serious.” Dunn held her hand firmly, looking intently into her eyes. “I need you to consider this very thoughtfully and cautiously. Are you truly ready to marry me?”


    Aurora found herself captivated by him.


    She wasn’t certain if this was his way of proposing, but she chose to interpret it as such. As a woman, she felt too bashful to propose herself.


    “I’ve given this a lot of thought, and the answer has been in my heart for quite some time,” Aurora said seriously. “Dunn, I do.”


    The evening before Aurora and Dunn’s engagement party, Rickey returned from overseas secretly and confronted Aurora at her doorstep.


    Aurora didn’t send him away. Instead, she invited him inside and handed him an engagement invitation.


    “Rickey, I hope you cane and give us your blessing.”


    Rickey paused, looking away from the image of the ideal couple on the invitation.


    “Aurora, you’ve always said that Dunn would never lie to you. Well, I have something to tell you now, something he’s kept from you for many years.”


    Aurora sipped her coffee and then set down her cup slowly. “I know.”


    Rickey was taken aback. “What?”


    “I’m aware of everything, Rickey.” Aurora sat upright, her demeanor a blend of grace and determination. “Dunn asked you to look after me.”


    Rickey was visibly shaken. “Did Dunn tell you that?”


    Aurora shook her head. “No, I figured it out on my own a long time ago. When I discovered it, I fell in love with him. Rickey, thank you for everything, but I no longer need your protection.”


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    Rickey was taken aback, finding it hard to ept the truth.


    It took him some time, but eventually, he asked, “You know everything? The whole story?”


    Aurora’s face softened as memories of the past surfaced. “Initially, I never saw it that way. I used to believe that every person I met was meant to be in my life.”


    Rickey swallowed hard, still trying to assert his ce in her life. “I believe that too, Aurora, that meeting you was fate!”


    “Do you recall that time in junior high when we argued over something unimportant?”


    Rickey paused to think, his face paling as he recalled the event she mentioned.


    At that time, he was fond of motorbikes. He would often stay outte, speeding along the mountain roads with his friends.


    For many boys then, having a girl on the back of their bike was the ultimate cool.


    So, one day after Aurora finished her sses, Rickey approached her.


    “I’m noting with you,” she said.


    Aurora, in her school uniform and carrying her backpack, was always well-mannered and certainly not the type to spend the night on reckless adventures. Rickey employed every tactic he knew to convince her, but Aurora consistently refused.


    Frustrated, he grabbed her umbre, destroying it by bending the frame beyond recognition.


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