He wanted to give Layla whatever she wanted and that was the way he had been treating Layla all long since she was a child.
"You know my condition," Eric deadpanned. "You wouldn't want Layla to marry me, only to be widowed later. She would be in far
more pain then. Just talk ssense into her and make her marry a normal guy. She will et aboutat spoint," Eric said.
Elliot agreed with Eric that Layla would suffer no matter what and it was normal to think that it would be better to cut the losses
early.
While others could look at the matter objectively, Elliot could not do so and all he knew was that he did not want to upset Layla.
"My wife told you everything." Elliot stared into Eric's eyes. "We won't try to talk Layla into giving up. If that's what you want, you
will have to talk to her. She is twenty-five, not two, or five. She gets to make the calls about her own life."
Eric had not expected such a sudden change to Elliot's view on the matter.
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"Don't look atlike that." Elliot scowled. "If you have a child, you will know how difficult it is to be a father."
"I might never be a father."
"But you are someone's child. You are your own person, not your parents' puppet. Your parents have been urging you to get
married, and have you listened to them at all? If you can't obey your parents a hundred percent of the time, why would you want
us to make Layla do something that she doesn't want to?" Elliot stood from his chair. "Do you want to talk to her? | can get Layla
here."
"No. | want stto think alone," Eric said.
Elliot strode out of the room.
Meanwhile, in Aryadelle.
Ivy returned hfrom school and the servants immediately started serving her portion of dinner.
She had returned hlater than usual, so Robert did not wait for her to start dinner.
"lvy, do you want to go outside withtonight?" Robert sat down next to her. "One of my classmates is having her birthday party.
She invitedstago and because she's pretty nice, | didn't turn her down at the time..."
"You should go, then!" Ivy smiled. "It's your gathering, so | will pass. | don't know anyone there."
"You can get to know them. | think the majority are girls." Robert wanted to go with his sister.
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It was not that he thought there was a need for her to befriend his classmates, but because Elliot had specifically told him to stay
with Ivy instead of running out to entertain himself.
If something happened to Ivy, he would not be able to care for her when he was not home, so he had stayed hevery day since
Elliot had gone to Bridgedale.
"Robert, just go! | don't want to go," Ivy said directly. "If this classmate of yours is nice, you shouldn't bail on her."
"But | don't want to leave you at home." Robert immediately decided not to go and took out his phone to send his classmate a text
message with an excuse.
"I'm an adult, Robert. I'm at home, anyway. Nothing is going to happen," she said with resignation. "Dad might have asked you to
take care of me, but you don't have to stick by my side at all times. | won't tell Dad if you go out."
"I didn't really want to go to begin with," he said. "It's too cold, and that party is packed with girls. Girls can be so annoying
sometimes. | prefer staying hwith you."