Aaron seems very surprised to hear Anne's answer, he did not expect to be immediately rejected by Anne. Even though he had high hopes for Anne and had imagined his happy days with Anne.

"Why not, Anne? Is there another man in your heart?" Aaron asked quickly. A disappointed look was clearly visible on his handsome face.

​​

"For now, there's no one really special, Aaron, I need a lot of consideration if I want to start a relationship again, though..."

"Even though what?" Aaron who couldn't wait, cut off Anne's words.

Anne smiled. She decided to cancel her intention to tell about Jack. Anne felt that Aaron didn't need to know about Jack, which she wasn't too sure of herself. Anne did not want to reveal an uncertain relationship. She did not want Jack's good name to be damaged if he boasted that she had a special relationship with him.

"Even though I'm a widow, I have to be selective, Aaron. I don't want to fail for the umpteenth time," replied Anne slowly avoiding to talk about Jack.

"Is this just an excuse to reject me because you already have another man in your heart?" Aaron asked the same question again. He was very sure that Jackson Patrick Muller had managed to win Anne's heart.

"I've already answered you, Aaron. Why are you asking the same question again? I am a woman who had failed to maintain my marriage, Aaron. Bearing the title as a widow is very hard. Being a widow is a burden, although not all widows are evil or tend to damage people's relationships, but the society judges a widow very badly. Don't you think so too? That's why I don't want to rush into a relationship with a man. I don't want to waste time with people who don't have the same mindset as me, Aaron. What's more, I'm currently still in college, I want to achieve my goals. I've had enough of wasting my youth for a man who doesn't respect me as a woman. I hope you can understand my situation, Aaron. I hope you're not offended. After all, you have the right find another woman who is 100 times much better than me, a good woman who has a good family background. I'm not like you, you're too high for me, Aaron," replied Anne at length. She tried to speak as softly as possible so that Aaron wouldn't hurt.

Aaron was silent when he heard Anne's words. There was a pain in his chest that could not be expressed when he received rejection from Anne.

Seeing Aaron mute, Anne felt guilty. She slowly grabbed Aaron's hand which was still on the table and gripped it tightly.

"We are still good friends, Aaron. Someday, when you really find a woman who loves you very much, I will be the first person to be very happy for you, Aaron. You deserve to be happy. Forget your past, everyone must have bitter memories. Even though it's hard, but believe me, you can get through it, because I'm also in that stage. I'm trying to move on from the bad things that happened to me in the past. Remember, Aaron, you deserve to be happy," said Anne softly while continuing to smile at Aaron.

"Can I still see you, Anne?" Aaron asked quickly.

"Of course! We're friends and I'd like to apologize in advance if I haven't been responding to your messages or picking up your calls lately. I've been working, Aaron, my working hours are quite busy as an intern and every time I get to the apartment I'll definitely go to bed and… "

"Are you an intern? Where do you work as an intern? Then how's your flower shop, Anne?" Aaron immediately interrupted Anne's words with a fairly loud voice.

"During winter, there are less people who are interested in flowers, Aaron, so temporarily the flower shop is closed until the winter ends. I did an internship at a company that collaborates with the campus. During the college holidays, Edward and I along with several other students worked part time at Ganke Inc. Production."

Thump!

"Ganke Inc. Production? I think I've heard the name of this company, but ..."

Aaron stopped his words when he managed to remember the company where Anne was working as an apprentice.

"And Leonardo Ganke, the CEO of this company, is my ex-husband." Anne continued what she had stopped before. She felt it was time for Aaron to know about Leon, because by admitting Leon is her ex-husband, Aaron would definitely be sure that she hadn't been lying all this time.

Bang!

Aaron immediately stood up so that the chair he was sitting on fell backwards and made quite a loud noise.

"Anne, th-this isn't very funny," Aaron stuttered with a very shocked expression.

"Only Leonardo Ganke who was able to change his status to being single again at the civil registry office in Germany, and his wife Steffany was my friend, a woman I saved from the side of the road who ended up stabbing me in the back by snatching my husband. But that's okay, I don't care about that now. I'm sure this is all a beautiful part of God's plan for me. I'm sorry if I didn't tell you all this from the start," said Anne slowly, completing her confession.

Aaron was completely speechless at the moment. He never would have guessed that a CEO of a large company whose cooperation proposal he just turned down was actually Anne's ex-husband. A man he had thought was non-existent, because Aaron was sure that Anne wasn't really serious about what she had said that she was a widow.

Because lunch time was over, Edward, who had been talking to Daniel outside the coffee shop, went back into the coffee shop, even though Daniel had forbidden him from entering.

"Anne," Edward called from behind. "Our break time is over and it looks like Mr. Leon has also returned. We have a meeting after lunch, Anne," he reminded quietly.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We only have ten minutes left. I'm sorry, Aaron, we have to get back to the office. See you later." Anne said goodbye to Aaron, who was still silent.

After saying that, Anne then grabbed the coffee cup that was on the table and walked out leaving Aaron and followed Edward, who had already left. When Anne opened the door, she met Daniel who smiled at her. Because her break was almost over, Anne then quickened her pace towards the car where Edward was waiting for her. Once Anne got into the car, Edward then stepped on the gas pedal and left the coffee shop to return to the office.

Meanwhile, Aaron, who was still in shock, didn't realize that Daniel was standing in front of him.

"Boss, what are you doing? Everything's okay, right?" Daniel asked softly while touching Aaron's shoulder.

"Call Charles in Berlin right now. Find out all the details about Leonardo Ganke, including his marriage to Anne two years ago," Aaron answered flatly. He stared at Daniel without blinking.

"W-what??!! Miss Anne's ex-husband is Leonardo Ganke???"

Continued