Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 123: I Won’t Marry You
Anne stood outside the director’s office, she raised her hand to knock but hesitated recalling her previous interaction with the man behind these doors.
When she’d met that doctor outside the office the other day, in all honesty what pushed her forward had been a burning suspicion, a suspicion he confirmed himself.
She had already known somewhere deep inside, but finding out that she was pregnant from his own doctor’s mouth seemed to have set off that suspicion.
She had stormed into his office fueled by anger, allowing herself to accept every suspicion as she spoke to him.
If he hadn’t been the masked person he would have denied it. But thinking back it should have been clear to her from the start.
How he always seemed to dislike her, how he always poured out his anger on her and no one else.
Because he thought she was a golddigger, a greedy woman willing to sell her own first child to a stranger for money. Anyone would be disgusted with her if they thought that of her.
He had to be the masked person to know that she’d signed a surrogacy contract, and that would only mean he was the person who contracted her.
Her anger that night hadn’t been because she found out she was pregnant, her anger had been because of that discovery itself. Something she’d confirmed when he’d kissed her at the party the other night but then she’d chosen to ignore it. Something she’d confirmed again when she woke up in his room the morning after the party but she’d still chosen to ignore it.
After she woke up that morning, there had been a photograph of her in that room. Something he probably kept to amuse himself or whatever the reason he had it there could be.
Regardless before leaving his room that day she’d seen something. It was a gold cuff link, and she’d seen it before, the only other place she’d seen it was at the Black Thorn Manor. Still she’d decided to ignore it and not let herself sink in the discovery that it indeed was him.
Andrew Sterling was the man with whom she was currently tied in a contract.
Anne swallowed a lump in her throat and knocked on the door.
Her life had turned out this way, it was no use running from it or ignoring reality.
"Come in." The familiar rigid voice behind the door called and Anne entered composedly.
The clear skies behind him through the tall windows further highlighted the handsome man sitting at the table, eyes focused on the computer screen until he raised his head to look at her.
It was off putting how he never gave away any expression to aid others in reading him, whenever she was round him as the masked person, she would try to put an expression behind his every word.
A single question he’d once asked, ’Are you tired?’
The mask usually muffled his true voice, but subconsciously she’d put a gentle expression to that question.
Perhaps that was because she’d chosen to see someone else despite knowing somewhere deep inside that it was this man. Instinct always told her it was.
"You said the contract terms will be changed, but the contract I signed only said I had to give you a child and nothing more."
When she began to speak, she seemed to have his full attention now as he raised his head to her.
"Sit." He suddenly said cutting of whatever she was going to say next.
She’d just stood in front of him with the aim to deliver what brought her here, she’d had no intentions of making herself comfortable in his space.
"What?" She asked after being cut off from what she’d been about to say.
He added calmly, "You have something to say to me, sit while you talk, I don’t like people standing over me."
Anne withheld the urge to roll her eyes.
He had such absurd rules for people it was ridiculous. And she’d almost assumed he asked her to sit out of kindness.
Anne sat down after letting out a soft frustrated sigh.
The sight of her exasperated expression sparkled a subtle smile on his lips, hiding the faint signs of amusement in his dark eyes. He couldn’t help but find it faintly entertaining, there was a certain way anger looked on her. And the anger she felt towards him was something he could feel in the air even if she no longer voiced any hostility in her words.
’That’s right little rebel. Find your claws.’ he’d thought to himself with a sense of elation filling his chest.
He knew there was a rebel inside her, and he’d wanted to see it come out.
Till now he’d seen the soft parts of her, but he knew she could be so much more.
He’d been surprised she found out it was him already, she came to know on her own that he, Andrew Sterling was the masked person at the Black Thorn Manor.
With the old man’s new terms, he’d planned to tell her anyway so her finding out wasn’t something he disliked.
The fact that she was incredibly perceptive enough to deduce it without being told somehow appealed to him, so much so he seemed to have forgotten how strictly he’d wanted to keep his identity hidden from his contracted women in the past.
If it was her, then it was fine. If it was her, he didn’t want to keep his identity hidden.
...
Inside the Sterling estate three nights ago.
There was a quiet tension in the air between the older man and his grandson as the old man had touched on a forbidden topic for the young man.
"You know my stance on marriage grandfather. I’m not getting married." He’d said to the cunning old man who’d been playing a game behind his back.
Usually Andrew would deduce whatever little plot the older man was harboring, just like how he deduced that butler Jones was placed next to him by the old man, but for what purpose he hadn’t known, he did now.
Marriage, the so called sacred bond he’d sworn against.
"You will marry if you still want the company, unless you want it given to another one of your brothers."
That had made him clench his fist, he hated it when his plans took a different turn from what he envisioned it to be.
"Which one of them will you give the company to, Gabriel? He’ll have the whole thing run down in months, he might know the basics of running a company but the board will drown him out he wouldn’t have a voice in that company."
The old man hadn’t replied, merely smiled, a crafty glint in his eyes as Andrew continued.
"Or were you planning to give the company to Donald? The boy hasn’t worked a single day in his life, will you hand a huge empire to him? You and I know that this plan of yours will fail. You don’t have me on a leash like you think you do grandfather, I’m not getting married."
His confidence had soared then, there was no situation he couldn’t control.
His grandfather would be signing a destruction warrant for SE if he handed the company to any of his other brothers. If there was anyone fit to take over SE it was him, and that had nothing to do with him being a Sterling but everything to do with strict discipline and hardwork. Every draining hour he’d spent to get to where he was today while his brothers frolicked.
Andrew knew there was nothing more to discuss, he wouldn’t accept this little plans of marriage regardless of what the old man would say, so he stood up with the aim to leave. Hopefully it would sink to the old man that he didn’t have him tied down, nor could he be made to do something he had no interest in when his grandfather’s next words made him halt.
"I’m not dying yet grandson, if I give the company to Gabriel or Donald, I would be there to mold them into the ideal CEO. And the company won’t be the only thing they’ll be getting."
Andrew turned over his shoulder to give the old man a look of suspicion.
"Like I said, no child of the Sterling blood will be born out of wedlock. If you adamantly refuse to get married I will not force you, but the child that girl carries must be born into the family. By the way, Donald seems to like her, I wouldn’t need to waste my breath too much to convince him to marry her."
Those words hit him like a flying bullet.
Get her married to Donald instead?
Something simmering began to trail through his veins as he turned tracing his steps back to the old man.
"And what makes you think she would marry Donald? She doesn’t even like him in that way?" The words came out of his mouth before he could fully think about them.
The vision of seeing her married to one of his brothers was more infuriating than he would want to admit.
"Who would she like then, Gabriel? He does have the charm for the ladies, it wouldn’t be too hard for him to win her over."
"Gabriel? That idiot isn’t ready to settle down anytime soon, do you think he’d agree to get married?"
"For the company, he will."
He gritted his teeth, annoyance gripping him tightly.
"You don’t want the girl grandson, what makes it so difficult to let your brother have her?"
"She’s carrying MY child!"
"Then take responsibility or watch one of your brothers have her."
They both stared at each other for a while, the older man’s confident gaze was unwavering, he undoubtedly knew that in this little exchange, he had won.
But Andrew never allowed himself to lose, not even if he were backed into a corner.
If the old man thought he’d won then he was wrong.
How could he let his own child be fathered by his brothers? He’d marry her but it wouldn’t be forever.
Conveniently, there was such a thing called a divorce.
"Fine, I’ll marry her."
...
The memory of that night still made him feel a bit ticked off. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂
"What were you saying about the contract?" He asked with an air of casualness as he continued to work as if listening to her was only another task he could handle alongside whatever he was currently doing.
"What I was going to say is...I will not marry you."
His actions stopped, a little dazed as if he hadn’t exactly heard what she he just said before he slowly raised his gaze to her.
"What did you say?"
"I won’t marry you, Mr Sterling."
