"Have you lost it?" Leon asked tentatively.
"No!" Michelle instinctively shook her head.
'It's good to hear that, '
Leon thought and secretly heaved a sigh of relief. He let go of her wrist and asked, "Why don't you wear it then? You said you liked it."
"I put it in a safe in the bank. I want to keep it safe," Michelle answered truthfully.
After she finished speaking, however, she hung her head like a guilty child.
Leon couldn't help but chuckle. He'd thought of various possibilities, but that she'd put it in a safe had never once crossed his mind.
"I gave it to you because I wanted you to wear it. Why did you put it in a safe?" Realizing that his tone sounded a little harsh, Leon patted her head to comfort her. "I'm sorry. I thought you didn't want it."
"How could I not want it?" Michelle looked up and beamed at him. "Leon, I really like that bracelet, but..."
But it was too expensive.
Now that she knew the bracelet cost tens of millions of dollars, she really couldn't wear it. She felt like she'd tremble all over if she did.
Upon seeing how Michelle suddenly stopped speaking, it finally occurred to Leon that she'd already known his identity and, by extension, the value of that bracelet.
She knew not because he told her. She heard it from others. Maybe because of that, he always forgot about it and felt that they were still the same as before.
But they weren't. Their situation had changed.
She was his girlfriend now.
"When you're free, take the bracelet out of the safe and put it on. Never take it off again in the future, okay?" Leon said solemnly.
Michelle smiled and obediently nodded.
Leon got a message from Michelle right after he got home. He sat on the bed and read the message.
"Leon, do I really have to wear it? It's too expensive! Tens of millions! What if I accidentally broke it? Or worse, what if I lost it?"
Leon smiled helplessly. He could already imagine her panic look just by reading her message.
"You have to wear it."
Michelle's reply quickly came in. "Leon, please! It was a birthday gift you gave me. I'll be crushed if it's broken or lost."
Leon replied, "Sorry, but you'll still have to wear it."
Michelle only sent a crying emoji as a reply.
"Don't act like a spoiled child, Michelle.
Be a good girl and put it on. Don't take it off again in the future."
"Got it!"
"Believe me—you won't break or lose it," Leon wrote.
"Really?"
"Really! What I said is as real as the fact that I'm now your boyfriend."
After Leon sent the last message, he seemed to fall into a kind of trance. Although the two of them were dating, the whole thing still felt surreal for him.
Maybe the fact that Michelle didn't wear the bracelet kind of triggered him.
The bracelet bore the unique mark of the C Island's royal family. After the bracelet was created, his mom asked him whom he'd give it to, and he said he'd give it to his future wife.
He didn't say girlfriend. He said future wife.
He didn't know when he first fell for Michelle, or how he could have the courage to say something like that when he didn't even know for sure if Michelle also liked him.
It was as if the love and courage he felt had quietly taken root and grown in his heart without his knowledge.
In his eyes, Michelle wearing that bracelet was equivalent to her being his woman.
And for the rest of her life, she could only be his woman.
His thoughts were interrupted by the vibration of his phone. It was another message from Michelle.
"Leon, I'll go to the bank and take it out tomorrow. I'll wear it and never take it off again.
I won't take it off no matter what.
Not even if you ask me to." Michelle ended the message with a smiling emoji.
"Alright. That's a promise."
Michelle quickly replied, "Okay, that's a promise! Leon, you should go to bed now. Good night, and have a good dream."
The smile on Leon's face gradually widened.
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