Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 119: Marry Me

Her feet moved quickly, when she stormed through the doors of the director’s office, her gaze settled upon the man behind the desk.

She felt fury in her chest even if she knew she had no right to, after all in his eyes perhaps she wasn’t even worth looking at, she was just an object to him.

It had all clicked into place and nothing could convince her otherwise.

"Was it fun?" Her voice trembled even if she tried to control it not to.

The man’s cold eyes had only looked up at her with a slight hint of displeasure as she burst through the doors of his office, after seeing it was her he looked away, his face calm and steady as he silently continued his work.

"Now it all makes sense, right from the moment you set your eyes on me you already concluded I was some cheap woman trying to trap you, your brothers or any other rich man I could get my hands on. It was all because of the contract wasn’t it?"

His hands came to a sudden pause, his dark eyes narrowing faintly.

The contract?

Was she talking about their surrogacy contract?

She knew?

How did she find out?

"I signed the damn contract because I had no choice, it was my very last resort to save my brother. But someone like you couldn’t understand emotions or sentiment even if you wanted to, not when you go around playing with other people’s minds."

He raised his gaze now to meet hers, standing up from where he was seated to walk around until he was standing in front of her.

Her heart was thundering in her chest, all she felt was the urge to yell and scream and let out the tumultuous emotions currently roaring inside of her.

"When we first met I misunderstood your character, for that I will apologize." His steel like voice rang in the silence of the spacious office, the prideful tilt of his chin and confidence that oozed out of him made the words he just spoke sound like something absolutely foreign to his tongue.

"I’m sorry."

Sorry, a single word that translates appeasement for a wrong once committed. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d once uttered those words, but ever since he found out how hard she had worked to help her brother, her absolute devotion to family, he knew he owed her that word.

"Sorry?" Anne repeated the word with disbelief.

"I don’t care that you misunderstood my character, I don’t care that you saw me as the most disgusting woman alive. You must have enjoyed being so nice to me hiding behind a mask, keeping me tied to your under a contract while showing your true opinion of me as your real self."

She was angry, she knew she shouldn’t be. She had suspected it was him for a while, but the confirmation of it still stunned her.

As the masked person he made her feel warmth, and as himself...he mainly ridiculed her every chance he could get.

"It was my choice to keep my identity hidden, I’m surprised that is what brothers you so much." He regained the air of casualness to him, strolling back to his seat with ease.

"The contract clearly stated my identity would be kept hidden and you signed it, tell me Annelise, what makes it bother you that I am the person you’re contracted to? Do you dislike me, despise me? Do you see me as a monster of a man whose blood you do not wish to carry inside you?"

As he spoke his eyes darkened, something dangerous lurking in their depths.

Why it bothered her?

Why it hurt her?

Why it made her feel like fire was scorching in her chest so furiously she couldn’t breathe?

The masked person had made her heart skip, the masked person had made her feel something she had never felt for any man before.

And somewhere inside she might have started to...

She didn’t let those thoughts settle, she didn’t let herself accept them, because clearly now she knew it was all a lie.

The masked person didn’t exist, that soft person who would tolerate her crazy drunk antics, who would do so much for Kristen because of her, who would warmly ask what she wanted to eat. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

That warmth was something that never existed in this cold man, Andrew Sterling.

And that was what made it hurt.

The person she was beginning to imagine, the person she was beginning to hold close to her heart didn’t exist, only this man did, and she didn’t know what to do with that realization, it hurt deeply.

Perhaps it was because she knew Andrew Sterling wouldn’t be capable of being the image she conjured in her daydreams.

That night when she returned home she’d played the masked stranger’s voice in her head.

’Holding back your appetite is not good for you. You should eat as much as your heart desires, especially now... I’ll ask again, is there something you want to eat? If you answer negatively I’ll be forced to feed you anything I can think of until I’m certain you’re full.’

She’d smiled at those words, and her heart had fluttered at those words.

That night she realized something had begun to awaken in her heart, and she tried to put a face to him. A face to the indifferent yet kind man behind the mask.

Uncontrollably she had seen a warm kind face, a face that would hold her gently at night, kiss her forehead and hug her to the warmth of his chest.

She’d imagined love even when she knew she shouldn’t.

What would happen if the masked person fell in love with her, could he really fall in love with her?

If that happened, she would be immensely happy, because in her heart she...

Anne stopped those thoughts, determined not to conjure them in her head again, because right in front of her staring at her with a darkness swirling in his eyes was the renowned Andrew Sterling, a man who knew no emotions.

Thinking about the questions he just asked, he couldn’t be farther from her real thoughts.

She despised him?

She knew she didn’t, even as Andrew Sterling she’d come to start realizing he wasn’t the monster he posed to be to everyone.

But the one thing that made it hurt was because she knew, deep inside that he wasn’t the man who would give his heart to her, there wasn’t even a possibility of it. So that silent little dream, that tiny little hope had been crushed even before it got any chance.

Composing her emotions, Anne stood straighter.

"What I feel doesn’t matter, I’m nothing but someone who’s tied to you by words on paper." She spoke those words with a cold detachment, that she didn’t see the slight trace of disappointment that flashed through his eyes.

"The fact you know your place pleases me, you’re right. Words on paper." He repeated those words with a bitterness he couldn’t be able to swallow.

He’d always told himself that much, she was nothing to him.

But why did it hurt so much to hear it from her?

Just as she was nothing, he was nothing to her either.

The light throbbing ache in his chest was a feeling he was beginning to get used to all because of her. He’d felt it when she’d gone limp in his arms a few days ago, he’d felt it as he watched her complexion go pale, her breath leaving her.

Just like he now knew joy, he knew it whenever he looked upon the giant photograph on his wall in his room. He knew it because uncontrollably his lips would raise up in a soft little smile.

He never knew rest without her, couldn’t sleep a wink without her.

Ever since she crashed into his life things had never been the same way he remembered. She was chaos in itself, a beautiful tempting chaos, and he couldn’t believe his grandfather was making him do this.

He never encountered a problem he couldn’t solve until her, never been made to do anything he didn’t want to until her, and now he’d have to get it all back under his control, and it would start with a single word on paper.

"Now that you know, there’s no need to continue delaying this." He broke the tense silence in the room, feeling a pang in his chest at the liquid swirling in her eyes that she seemed to refuse to shed.

"What keeps you with me are words on paper, officiated words that hold a lot of weight."

His gaze flickered down to her stomach.

"You’re carrying my child." He noticed how she seemed to tremble before looking down at her own stomach in disbelief. Perhaps the reality hadn’t sunk in on her yet.

"My grandfather is a very conservative man, he still holds on to ancient and outdated beliefs. One such beliefs is that..."

He strolled towards the windows where he gazed down upon the world from a lofty view.

"No child should be born out of wedlock."

Anne’s gaze raised to his back, slightly understanding where he was going with the conversation and dread filled her.

"He believes it not only causes bad luck but bad karma for the child’s future."

’Look how you and your brothers turned out.’ The old man would always say.

To Andrew he didn’t feel like he turned out any bad, perhaps Gabriel turned out terrible with his indecisive lifestyle and uncontrollable addiction to any beautiful human being that identifies as female.

"What is between us is nothing but a contract, so I’m changing the terms to our original contract."

Her brows drew together, every nerve in her body stiffening as he uttered the words,

"Marry me."