Chapter 274 - Thank You. I Love You.

After the kidnapping incident, Wilmer and Orita took drastic measures. They dictated that the girls would no longer live on their own. Everyone had to come back to the Wilde mansion to live together, including Wilmer.

That meant that Edward temporarily moved into the Wilde mansion for three months while he helped Scarlet recuperate from her trauma. Claire was impressed. Edward might make a very good psychotherapist in the future if he decided to pursue that career option. Under Edward's gentle and nurturing care, Scarlet slowly came out of her shell.

She revealed that she watched someone getting shot and bleeding out in front of her while she hid under the table. The guilt that Scarlet felt for not being able to do anything and self-hate escalated so quickly that took Edward by surprise. He knew that Scarlet had always been a sensitive person but he never thought that she was the kind to blame herself for everything that went wrong.

It took the combined efforts of Claire, Edward, Alex and the man who got shot to console her. Dragon was still hospitalised when that happened and Rebecca visited the Wildes when Dragon told her about Scarlet's distress.

After a long heart to heart talk with Rebecca, Scarlet eventually accepted the fact that it was an unfortunate turn of events but was also glad that nobody died during the shooting. To take Scarlet's mind off from Dragon's injury and prevent the girl from taking it on herself to care for her boyfriend during his hospital stay, Rebecca suggested that Scarlet helped to plan a recovery party for Dragon at the Wilde mansion.

Scarlet and Alex agreed to that so they've been busy attending school and catching up on classes they missed for two weeks while getting over the kidnapping incident. Edward and Scarlet also had the talk about their future. Edward was finally able to tell Scarlet about his previous profession now that he wasn't a spy and he was given permission by his father to disclose non-confidential parts of who he was and what he did. At the end of it all, Scarlet simply told Edward to do what he liked doing.

"It doesn't matter if you're a spy, a psychotherapist, a counsellor pretending to be a teacher or an informant and hacker. As long as you're by my side, I'll be more than happy to support you and your dreams."

Edward teared up when he heard that. Scarlet then confessed to him that she had plans to gradually fade out from the glamorous celebrity world that she lived in.

"As it is, I made more than enough money to live a comfortable ordinary life with you. Liu Xiu Wen is just a screen name. I think I would like to go back to working on books with Alex under the name Permanent Frost."

Naturally, Alex didn't disagree with working on a new project with her sister. Claire wasn't surprised at Scarlet's decision to abandon her acting career and pursue a writing one. Everyone in the Wilde mansion saw that coming and the person happiest to hear that Scarlet was returning as Permanent Frost was Debbie.

While things were slowly picking themselves back, Elfie and Jasper were the only ones who caught no breaks. During the three months that Alex and Scarlet spent recovering in the Wilde mansion both physically and emotionally, the young CEO spent most of his days working until Alex couldn't take it any longer.

Both boys didn't tell anyone what they were doing and Wilmer was completely in the dark. The only person who had a clue about what they wanted to do was Danny. However, the informant kept his mouth shut. Wilmer was in for a surprise when he returned to work fully.

EZ Express was close to bankruptcy when the world learned about a new young and powerful CEO by the name of Jasper Hopper who bought it and revamped the company's structure from the inside out. Financial experts were shocked at the decision to buy over such a scandalous company with poor internal controls and shady dealings. 

Jasper didn't pay attention to the criticism he received. Instead, he fired every staff working for the company and held onto the assets it had. Together with newly recruited employees, Jasper built the company back up from scratch and renamed it to Hopper Inc. As promised, Jasper reserved spots in the management for the E.C. Class and the Special Class if they wanted.

In two months, Jasper implemented new systems and transformed the inefficient system within the new company into one that was mostly automated with Elfie's help. Together with Kiwi Cat Studio's vision, Hopper Inc. became the biggest company in America doing distributions of goods and offering comprehensive logistic services with the existing warehouses EZ Express used to own.

In addition, Jasper started an entertainment company to support his girlfriend's activities. GOlden Frost and Hopper Inc. ended up partnering and some of the most talented entertainment industry's individuals joined.

Lin Lin named herself the Chief Composer and Creative Director. The Lopez girls signed up with Jasper to start their new dance studio with the company. Jin Si-Han and Tom Makino ended up changing entertainment companies once Hopper Inc. was up. They chose to debut as a duo and took on multiple acting gigs on the side for publicity. Jasper also leaked the news of Britannia's possible coming back with the company to propel its popularity even further and sat back to watch the share prices increase.

The face of the company was definitely Jeff Kumar who became a popular comedian online after signing with Hopper Inc. However, as he was still pursuing his education, Jasper put his activities for tours on hold. Khalid on the other hand finally settled down with an entertainment company after hearing that Jasper was in charge. The popular DJ signed the contract and boosted the company's value even further.

The last two people to join Hopper Inc. were Jean and Jun Le but when they finally did, Jasper felt that he was finally ready to make his announcement to the world. Jun Le was named the managing director in charge of Hopper Inc's operations while Jean decided to work from wherever she was to translate doc.u.ments for Jasper's international dealing.

CEO Zhu was impressed with Golden Frost's newest partner that they formed a new alliance that sent the media in a frenzy. Many thought that this was a joint-venture based on personal interest with Scarlet dating CEO Zhu and Alex dating Jasper Hopper.

Jasper admitted that he was indeed dating Alex but he dropped the bomb when he told them he intended to propose to her after receiving her father's blessing. On the other hand, Scarlet denied the rumour of her dating with CEO Zhu.

The world and Wilmer were not prepared for such news. Naturally, the follow up to the rumours was a confession in the form of an uploaded photo of Scarlet and Edward who had his lower face censored on her social media account. Nobody knew who the mysterious person was but Scarlet simply told them his name was Edward and her fans should respect her privacy. Scarlet also took that opportunity to make an announcement that she was going to be releasing her first book in a long while and admitted to her pen name as Permanent Frost where she works with her sister who was the artist.

Needless to say, the world was given new reasons to obsess over the rich, beautiful, kind and talented Wilde family. They were such a hot topic that the news of Julian and Lucian Anastasia's arrest and sentence became completely overshadowed. Everyone forgot about the corrupted police commissioner and the mayor of NYC. The disgusting photoshopped images of Scarlet and Alex resurfaced and many fans slammed the person who did it, leading into the artist's arrest and the bankruptcy of several media companies who allowed it to circulate.

Despite everything chaotic happening in the world, one thing remained steady as Scarlet sat in the car with Edward beside her.

"Hey Edward," she called to get his attention. It had been three months since the incident and it felt like it was finally behind her.

"Yes?"

Scarlet smiled and looked into his hazel eyes. "Thank you. I love you."

Author's Note: This is the official ending of Love Journal. However, there will still be more bonus chapters and scenes coming up as well as an Epilogue so stay tuned!

All in all, Love Journal has been quite the journey and I'm glad it is finally over. If you liked my works and writing style, please check out the other works I have on ! I will also write outside of so do check my website and social media profiles for news and latest updates. There will be a special video for the doc.u.mentary of writing Love Journal on Youtube so remember to subscribe!

With that, this is it from me, Destiny Aitsuji. I hope you enjoyed this story, it wasn't easy for me to write this.