Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 124: Are You Testing Me?

He raised a very confident brow at her, now dropping the file he’d been looking through to focus on her.

What she just said had certainly come as a shock so much so he’d thought he heard wrongly before.

"It wasn’t a choice Annelise, you will marry me. Our first contract stipulated that I could add any terms I so wish at any point during the contract’s duration, this is the term I wish to add. I already have your signature on the previous contract, you can’t refuse to marry me."

She wouldn’t marry him?

He thought back to the words in extreme disbelief.

It felt like hearing a joke, but one that didn’t sound funny at all.

What woman in the world wouldn’t want to marry him?

He wasn’t a humble man so he wouldn’t downplay his own merits, but he was beyond certain there would be a long line of eager women waiting to marry him.

If he were to go out on the streets and ask any random girl to marry him, without a doubt that girl would jump in glee.

If he were to also put a requirement out there, saying he would marry the most beautiful woman in the world, many would put themselves under the knife to fit that criteria just to marry him. If they already fit the criteria, he was certain they would fight tooth and nail to be picked.

Not only that, if he were to even discard the Sterling name, toss away all his personal wealth, and become an absolute nobody wearing rags, women would still rush to marry him if only for his looks.

He was desirable to women not just physically, and that fact was something he couldn’t not be aware of. A man’s greatest power was knowing his own strengths.

He knew people disliked his honest way of acknowledging his own physical strengths, they called it arrogance, but none of them knew the amount of power knowing your own worth brings, it was precisely why many people were still stuck at the bottom in life, he was a man designed to be at the top, modesty and humbleness weren’t in his nature.

He was very aware of the fact that women wanted him, and talk of his marriage would send the whole city if not the whole world into a rapid frenzy but one thing Andrew never expected in his life, not even once was to see a day a woman would blatantly reject him to his face.

’I won’t marry you.’ She’d said.

He smiled at the absurdity of it and shook his head, knowing he’d said his part, he continued to work despite knowing that she was still there.

"That’s too bad Mr Sterling, I’ve already made my decision, if you won’t agree to it then I’d rather terminate the contract."

Again her words hit him hard that he snapped the file shut and settled his gaze on her.

"You can’t terminate the contract, that is not in your hands to do."

"I can if I refuse to marry you or give you my child." She didn’t think she’d dare to say this to him, and straight to his face even, but she steeled herself.

His casual gaze began to harden and she seemed to get nervous, shifting in her seat but still maintaining a stubborn look on her face.

"Are you testing me Annelise?"

"No, I’m just refusing to do something just because you demand it. I have a right to choose what I want for myself."

When she’d decided to come to his office, her original aim hadn’t been to refuse to marry him, it had just been a means to an end, she knew she couldn’t refuse to marry him not with the original contract between them, he had the power in his hands. If she chose to run away from the contract she would be leaving her brother.

Not that she hadn’t thought about it, fleeing with the child she was carrying, she wouldn’t need to be bound by the contract anymore, but leaving Kristen was never an option in her life, so if her fate was to marry a man without commitments, so be it. But what the man said next crashed into her chest with a suffocating pain.

"Yes, of course you do. Just like you chose to sell a child you haven’t born yet."

Perhaps it was the fact that she was constantly distracting him or dropping shocking statements that caught him off guard, those words left his lips before he thought about them, he only realized what he said when he saw her stiffening, slowly her eyes glistened with tears and he suddenly felt something heavy sinking into his chest tightening in a numb ache.

He hadn’t meant to say those words, immediately they were out he felt the urge to take them back, but words already spoken could not be taken back.

His lips parted as if he wanted to say something but no words came out, instead he settled for a word he thought more appropriate after what he said, even if that word still tasted absolutely foreign on his tongue and he’d never use it for anyone else,

"Sorry, I did not..."

"You are right Mr Sterling, just like I sold off a child I hadn’t born yet. Such things always seem to happen in my life and I make compromises, this time I won’t compromise. If I choose to go against the contract you have every right to send me to jail for it but that would only make it public that you had to tie a woman down with a contract for her to give you a child."

Anne spoke with composure in her voice but the emotions in her eyes couldn’t be hidden. Her words were laced with a subtle threat which she expected to infuriate him but it didn’t.

He’d said something to her that struck a painful nerve, it affected him, so much so that he couldn’t focus on anything else she just said.

"I didn’t come in here to completely reject your decision to change the contract Mr Sterling, I came to negotiate some terms with you."

His jaw clenched subtly as he heard what she just said.

So she wasn’t actually refusing to marry him, she’d just used that with the intention to negotiate, and he’d said something like that to her.

If she were anyone else he wouldn’t give a flying fuck about whatever the hell he’d said to them or whatever emotional response they had to his words, but her...it was always different with her and he felt the nagging itch to do something, anything to make it better.

He always had the foreign urge to soothe her if something made her uncomfortable, even his own damn words, but years of not associating with emotions had left him... clueless. He had no clue what to say to make her feel better so his lips remained sealed and his expression remained the same.

"If there are going to be any changes to our original contract, I’d like to add a term to it as well, otherwise I won’t marry you." Anne finally said making him understand exactly what she wanted in the first place.

Perhaps it was the gnawing regret of his own words, he conceded without thinking too deeply.

"You may add whatever terms you wish."

It came as a surprise to Anne that he agreed so quickly. He’d allow her to add terms to the contract?

"I may add whatever terms I want?" Anne asked again to be certain.

Was he bipolar? Such an instant switch in moods, he’d criticized her one second and the next he was giving into her demands.

Did he need this fake marriage so badly?

Anne stared at the man without blinking for a while, feeling her mood slowly rise as he nodded in agreement.

"Satisfied?" He asked, eyes searching hers with a strange keenness.

Robotically she nodded without saying anything and he finally looked away about to pick up the documents he was working on earlier before raising his gaze to her again,

"Anything else?"

She shook her head before asking with a softer voice.

"I can add any terms?"

Her constantly asking didn’t raise any suspicion to him.

"Yes." He replied absentmindedly until he saw her lips raise in a smile from the corner of his eyes, his gaze instantly snapped back to her direction. Though the tears still glistened in her eyes they didn’t seem to be tears of pain anymore. Relief instantly washed into him clearing away that guilt biting his chest earlier.

He stared at her in a daze for a moment until she stood up to leave without further saying anything. She walked out of his office looking like her mood had gotten a lot better.

Without realizing it, his own lips raised in a smile.

Was she that easy to please?

She only wanted to add her own terms to the contract, it wasn’t anything he would refuse. She should have said that a lot earlier. The thought of her not wanting to marry him had made him say something harsh, and that had nothing to do with his self confidence, but just... specifically her rejecting him. The thought that she disliked him enough to not want to have anything to do with him.

It seemed there was something in the world capable of making him feel bitter and even spout something so petty. But, thinking about it now...

What other term could she add into the contract anyway?

For him to pay her more? No, that wasn’t her.

Someone else would ask for more money but not her, if he knew her already what she would possibly add could be...