8 Back to present day

Josh had just arrived home from the party. He had just flew in and didn't even rest up because he wanted to go to the party in order to see her. In the five years that he has been away, there was not a day that he didn't think about her. He always thought that she would be waiting for him since they were so good together. They even talked about their lifetime together on multiple occasions. Now, he has to see the person he loves leave with another man and she even told him to call her Mrs. Li. They never even officially broke up. How could he get himself to call her anything other than his wife? Calling her someone else's wife, she can dream on. He will win her back, its just a matter of time. Now that he is back, he will do everything to win her back. He just now had to figure out what has been going on for the past 5 years that he has been gone, how her relationship is with her husband, and whether she still has feelings for him. He knew he was grasping at straws but until their is no hope left, he would not back down. He owed this to her.

Josh took a quick shower and got changed for bed. He was lying down on his bed and making plans on what he would need to do. He was to attend the board of directors meeting for his family company on Friday and start the following Monday. He had a week to collect his bearings, get used to the time change and find out how to proceed to win back the wife that should have been his. He was tired from the long flight but he couldn't help but keep thinking about Ashley and her supposed marriage. He wanted more than anything to talk to her, even if it was for a short while but she didn't want anything to do with him. He couldn't blame her though, he didn't keep in contact with her for these five years but it wasn't because he didn't want to. He wanted to explain everything to her, to tell her all that he went through these five years but how was he to get her alone to do that? He dozed off while thinking of ways to get her alone.

Alan and Ashley had been home for about an hour and both had already gotten ready to turn in for the night. They both were lying on their bed with a little uneasiness lingering in the air. Ashley rested on her side with her back towards Alan while thinking about what had happened earlier today. It had been five years since she last talked to him. She didn't expect that the next time she spoke to him would be so cold but when she saw him, she was unable to suppress the betrayal she felt when seeing him completely fine like he had just returned from vacation. The bitterness that was pent up inside her made her want to show him the wonderful life that she is currently living, the wonderful life that she herself put together without him. Her thought was cut off there as she felt Alan embracing her to go to sleep. She knew that he probably wanted to talk more about it but wouldn't push her until she was ready. Alan had always been understanding like that and at times, she didn't think she deserved such a great guy even if this was all an agreement. The guilt and gratitude she felt for him kept gnawing at her inside but she didn't know what to do to make it lessen or to have it go away.

Alan had a lot of questions in his mind when he saw the interaction between his wife and her ex-boyfriend but he would wait until she was ready to open up. He had never been pushy with her since that one night over four years ago. He allowed for her to have her time and space as long as their image of a perfect loving couple still remained for everyone to see. But as time keeps moving forwards and he starts to achieve more of his life aspirations, he becomes greedier to fulfill the other part of it - the part of having his future generations inherit all that he has worked hard on to accumulate - but that wasn't part of the initial agreement. He would have to start romancing his wife and get her to love him back to start a family but with the new guy in town, he was going to have competition. Who knew having a wife would be so hard? He has to get her to love him and forget about the guy that she waited for whose appearance seems to be effecting her more than he would like. Also, even though divorce has never been mentioned, he has to make sure she doesn't want to look for a divorce after she is able to pay him back. He gave her that option when he offered 5% of his company at the time of divorce and who knows if she would capitalize on such a good deal or not.

He turned to face her and wrapped his arms around her waist as he got ready for bed. They were able to survive five years together and do well, they will be able to brave any storm. If not, all the good feelings that they developed in these four years together would all go down the drain: the comfortable atmosphere they have, the habits that they grew accustomed to while living together, everything.

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During the three years that they both were giving space to each other, both of them focused on their respective companies. Ashley was able to stabilized her company and increase growth by 8%. Her foothold in the company was now permanent. No one questioned her managerial abilities but the board keeps pressuring her to help expand to other fields as well in order to further grow the company. Unfortunately, Ashley has no plans to grow the company like what her husband has been doing with his. She promised that she would takeover the company to her dad but she never had the ambition to create something bigger. At 29, she still wanted a love story for the ages, someone to rely on instead of being relied on. She wanted to just go back to being a pampered little princess.

Alan's company developed very well during this time. His original company Liao Liao grew almost 50% thanks to the R&D department over at his wife's company and the demand for social media in today's society. As that company grew, he took capital out from the company to invest into other fields and as a result established Li Global Enterprise. After creating that company, he made it the parent company of Liao Liao and created a few other subsidiaries in real estate development, communications, and hospitality where he acquired one mall and two hotels. He became the successful businessman that he wanted at the age of 33. He now had leisure time to spare for creating a family which would fulfill the other half of his lifelong aspiration.