Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 245: A Little Sweet

"Schedule a meeting for Monday with Simon Ashton about the partnership, he might think himself smart enough to fool our company into giving him forty percent profit, but he hasn’t negotiated with me yet. He’s getting at most twenty percent and nothing more..." Andrew strolled along the hallway in the manor, speaking on the phone with someone when he suddenly stopped in realization of something.

The manor felt weirdly quiet today for some reason.

Usually at this time of the day, the household staff would be seen going to and fro along the hallways but today it felt somewhat still.

Despite thinking about this, Andrew didn’t dwell on it. He was about to say something else into the phone when another realization made him halt.

Anne...

He hadn’t seen her all morning, was it because he had skipped breakfast earlier or was it because she was avoiding him?

Was she trying to keep a distance from him again?

The thought sparked a surge of indignation within him, he had just turned around with the aim to head to her room when a meek looking maid popped out of a corner as if she had been pushed out by someone.

Andrew narrowed his eyes suspiciously but said nothing about it.

The maid looked like someone who had suddenly been made to come face to face with a lion.

"M-master." She greeted with a shaky voice.

"What is it?" Andrew queried impatiently.

"Nothing master... it’s just that, a while ago right around these hallways I saw...I saw..." The maid was stuttering, jumbling her words as if thinking while speaking which made Andrew frown.

He didn’t have time for this.

He had barely just been appointed CEO and there was already a heavy workload on him, that was why he hadn’t gone downstairs for breakfast when the maids had summoned him earlier that morning.

Even on a rest day he had so much to get done that he couldn’t ignore, he had a lot of meetings, virtual ones and in person ones. He had known becoming CEO would add to his workload and it wasn’t anything he would complain about, one could say working was something he enjoyed doing, it was what he knew how to do best and a maid suddenly appearing out of nowhere to ramble about nothing was quick to annoy him,

"If you have nothing to say..." The words had just rumbled out of his mouth when the maid quickly exclaimed.

"A rat!" She looked like she had suddenly gotten an idea and blurted this out, "I saw a rat earlier master, it was very big and it ran in that direction!"

"A rat." Andrew said blandly. "There is no rat in this manor." He muttered dismissively before walking away no longer paying attention to whatever the maid was going to say next.

Unbelievable!

The maids would never come in front of him if there wasn’t anything important going on, something seemed fishy in the manor today but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what.

"Mr Sterling, is there anything else you need me to do?" He heard Cynthia’s voice in his ear through the earbuds and realized he was still on a call.

"No, that’s all." Just as he was about to hang up the call he heard her ask again,

"Should I contact pest control for the rat problem?"

A trace of annoyance flashed in his eyes as he gritted, "Since when did you become my household assistant?"

Naturally the sarcasm in his words weren’t lost on her, she quickly realized the rat or no rat thing was none of her business and apologized before hanging up the call.

Seriously, something was wrong with the people around him today.

As he was walking, another maid suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Master, there is a..." Before the maid could say anything ridiculous to irritate him this time he asked instead.

"Where is my wife?"

The maid stiffened, a look one could call evasive flashed past her eyes, it was obvious she was trying to hide something.

"I... don’t know where the mistress is right now, but I could...I could go find her." The maid offered with her eyes lighting up as if she’d managed to hide whatever it is she had wanted to hide.

It made Andrew certain something was wrong in the manor.

"Nevermind, I’ll find her myself."

He turned on his heels and headed downstairs, but the maid.

"Master, you won’t find mistress that way. She is not in the kitchen!" He heard the panicked voice of the maid call from behind him but it didn’t stop him from walking forward.

In the kitchen? So that was where she was.

Whatever these maids were doing, he had a feeling Anne had something to do with it.

As he reached downstairs he headed towards the kitchen where he could hear loud voices and laughter coming from that direction. Not the polite, muffled kind of laughter but full unburdened peals of it. The laughter sounded like several women at once making him frown, wondering if Anne invited people over. But he didn’t think she would do that, so who was she talking and laughing with?

The sounds coming from the kitchen were so foreign in the sterile silence of the manor that it made him curious to see just what was going on.

As he moved closer to the kitchen, the voices became clearer.

"...I swear I’ve never met anyone who always looks like his face was sculpted in ice. He was always so serious, it’s as if the whole world owes him so much money he became grumpy about it."

Laughter followed again from a group of people who found what was said hilarious.

He knew that voice. It was Anne...was she talking about him?

If he remembered correctly, she had said that to him once before hadn’t she?

Andrew strode up to the entrance of the kitchen and saw a cluster of all the household staff resting around the kitchen island, and cabinets and Anne was in the middle of it all with her back turned to him, she was like a performer making impressions while they all laughed.

What the hell was going on here?

Anne was dressed in a soft gray casual lounge wear set, a fitted tank top with thin straps that flattered her torso, and a pair of shorts which showed her lean long legs whose skin was smooth, fair and unblemished. The top hugged her stomach which was still completely flat one wouldn’t be able to tell she was currently pregnant.

The sight of her looking so relaxed and at home made something tickle Andrew’s chest warmly.

Seeing her like this in his house, she suddenly truly felt like his wife.

"Mistress, mistress please do the face again." A younger maid pleaded and the others echoed along,

"Yes mistress, you make his face so accurately."

There was a brief dramatic silence at first before Anne suddenly slammed her palm down on the surface of the kitchen island, making her face so dramatically cold the maids gathered around her giggled as she yelled,

"Get out!"

Her voice lowered an octave, dramatically imitating a cold measured tone.

He seemed to recognize the demeanor she was trying to replicate and his brows furrowed lightly.

Was he being mocked right now? He was being made into a parody by his damn wife.

Something tight suddenly coiled in his chest but melted again so quickly as she suddenly laughed along with the maids.

The sound of her laugh, like soft bells clinking together echoing sweetly. It suddenly acted like a warm embrace wrapped around his chest, there was no trace of anger in him even if he wanted to be annoyed.

On a normal day he would walk in there and freeze the damn laughter in the maid’s throats, but stopping their laughter would stop hers as well, and he didn’t want her laughter to stop.

After a wave of laughter, Anne continued her play of imitating him.

She buried her hands inside the pockets of her shorts making an arrogant face.

"Haven’t you heard the name Andrew Sterling before? I am king, I am the lord of everything I see. Do you actually think you’re significant enough to breathe the same air as I do?"

The maids giggled again before one of them had the actual audacity to say,

"Master is always so cold and he doesn’t say much, I never knew he was so haughty too."

Andrew didn’t focus on listening or noticing which of the maids had made that statement when Anne went on to say,

"He isn’t just haughty, he is snobby, grumpy, self important and so arrogant." Anne ranted non stop, "When I first met him, I would have summoned lightning strikes on him if I could."

The maid’s giggles had died down now, that was because they sensed something which Anne who had been speaking repeatedly had not.

"If he is so terrible, you must really dislike him." A deep voice asked and Anne who was so engrossed in chattering didn’t seem to notice that it was a male voice who asked this time, or that the voice came from behind her while the maid’s eyes had widened.

"Oh don’t be silly. I don’t dislike him at all. He might be arrogant, he might be cold hearted sometimes but then he’s a little bit sweet, a little bit warm and really lovable."

At this moment, one of the maids whose laughter had very much indeed frozen in her throat was shaking so much a spoon fell from her hand. The sound got Anne’s attention and she realized something weird with their expressions, they weren’t looking at her but at something behind her, or someone...

Realization suddenly struck Anne and she froze like someone who had icicles in their veins.

That voice just now...

Before even turning to look, she felt his firm unmistakable presence behind her.

Shit! Since when had he come in?