Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 269: Safe

Slowly, she felt her lungs contracting, desperate for air, but she couldn’t take in a single breath. She struggled to claw the fingers around her neck, struggled by kicking her feet desperately but the person clutching her throat didn’t budge.

Her chest felt too tight, so tight it felt like it would burst, that was when she realized...this could be her final moment.

The eyes of this strange man trying to kill her looked brutal, there was no sympathy, no warmth, just brutality to take a life.

Her eyes began to roll backwards against her control, she could already see the endless darkness and within that deep darkness, a harsh beeping sound suddenly filled her ears. It was a surprise she could still hear anything, but that sound came closer and closer, along with it came a blinding light that engulfed her entirely.

In the next second, the grip around her neck released her making her fall to the ground weakly merely supported by her hands propped against the floor, and followed by that were heavy retreating footsteps as the man whose presence was shadowing her disappeared.

Anne felt a sudden rush of air pull through her as her chest subconsciously rose and she inhaled a sharp gasping breath which choked her throat making her cough profusely.

She heaved several times but her lungs still felt like she wasn’t taking in enough breath, her chest hurt badly and she felt like collapsing completely.

"Mistress, mistress are you alright?" A familiar voice of Andrew’s chauffeur reached her ear as the man quickly ran to her supporting her off the floor.

"I’ll get you to the hospital, we need to report this to the police."

Anne staggered when he helped her to her feet then managed to steady herself. The driver helped her sit in the car, the older man still feeling heavily anxious.

If he had arrived just a minute later...

That person, whoever he was seemed to have disappeared like the wind itself leaving behind not a single trace. The driver immediately got out his phone and called Andrew.

At this moment, several of the company’s security guards rushed into the parking lot. Since things like these didn’t usually happen, the security team had gotten somewhat relaxed over the years.

Though the company’s safety policy required them to constantly keep a eye on every corner of the company except for private areas like offices and restrooms, the guards had taken their eyes off the screen for a moment, by the time one of them noticed the abnormal situation in the parking lot where a woman was currently being strangled, it could have been too late if the car hadn’t arrived honking loudly while blaring the lights, the dangerous person whoever they might be had backed out immediately, releasing the woman who could have lost her life.

The parking lot was usually deserted because it housed the vehicles of all the higher ranking executives in the company, hence there couldn’t have been anyone around to witness something so life threatening.

Who would be so daring to try to commit murder in SE? Judging by how swiftly he had been able to escape the premises, he must have been a stalker or a dangerous serial killer.

"Miss, are you alright?" The head security guard peeked by the car’s open door to ask Anne whose breathing had just barely managed to stabilize.

"I’m fine..." She managed with a tight husk to her voice.

"Don’t worry ma’am, we’ll make sure to find out who he is, for that we will have to involve the police, please do give your cooperation so we can catch the culprit."

The driver hushly spoke to the security men, discussing with them in hushed tones, in the end they seemed to respectfully step aside, and the driver shut the car door gently before rushing around the car to sit in the driver’s seat.

"I don’t need to go to the hospital Mr Byron, you can take me home." Anne’s voice came out extremely small, the sudden sense of panic that had engulfed her in that extremely dangerous situation was still making her feel a bit scared that she didn’t want to go anywhere else, She just wanted to go home.

"But mistress..."

"Please Mr Byron, there’s nothing wrong with me, I’m just a bit shaken and need a bit of rest."

The driver still wanted to protest, he was worried about the mistress not just for her own sake but because of the child she was carrying, but the man didn’t want to force Anne to do something she didn’t want to, hence he had no choice but to agree to take her home, since she was his superior, her words were like an order.

"Alright mistress." The driver changed his route and drove towards the manor instead.

When they arrived at the manor, the driver stepped out to open Anne’s door and when she alighted from the car, she swayed slightly as if she would fall but grasped the door to steady herself.

"Mistress..."

She gave the man a grateful smile before softly muttering that she was fine then he watched her go inside.

Butler Jones as usual greeted her upon her return, the man’s demeanor bright as he saw her. Anne’s presence always made the silent manor a home because immediately she was around, there would be sounds and lively chatter even though it was between her and all the household staff, however butler Jones sensed something strange about Anne, her smile was weak and her voice was a bit low when she replied to him.

"Is everything alright mistress?" Butler Jones asked with concern in his eyes.

She nodded and made to go upstairs, even when some of the staff greeted her with so much enthusiasm she replied lightly, though she stopped to have a short talk with them, it was evident she was forcing herself.

As the butler noticed this, he came forward and dismissed the imperceptive staff who couldn’t see that she looked extremely exhausted to allow Anne go upstairs to rest.

It was only a few minutes later that the driver came in to speak to butler Jones about what had happened.

"Mistress insisted on coming home, I have called and informed master about it already." The driver informed.

Butler Jones was completely astounded to hear about what happened, he had sensed that something was wrong but he never once thought it would be something this extremely serious.

Butler Jones looked up where Anne had just disappeared, a deeply thoughtful look on his face.

Who could have done that to her?

When Anne entered the bathroom, she took a bath stubbornly avoiding the thought of what happened earlier, whenever the mere recollection of it threatened to enter her mind, her heart would panic and she would feel her whole body begin to tremble, it was a very frightening experience that she decided to shut down the very thought.

When she was done with her bath, she accidentally sighted herself in the mirror and a jarring red mark around her neck greeted her. She gasped softly, suddenly feeling like she was being taken back into that very moment, the very moment she had thought she would lose her life.

A sudden race of panic surged into her, her breathing became hurried her body subconsciously taking in more air as if fearing she would suddenly lose the ability to breathe. Anne clutched her fingers tightly around the marble sink, struggling to regulate her breathing. It took a long while but she finally managed to convince her body that she could breathe now.

At that time, she really had thought that she would...

A bang suddenly sounded coming from her bedroom, someone had pushed her door open with enough force that it slammed against the wall.

Wondering who would rush into her room like that, Anne curiously moved forward but stopped short when she was at the bathroom door, no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t open the bathroom door.

She felt extremely frightened, reminded of the life threatening danger she had experienced a while ago, her hands halted round the doorknob, her heart pounding.

What if he came back to finish what he started.

In this moment, Anne had no rational thoughts that would tell her that she was in the manor and that person couldn’t come for her here to try to harm her.

Her chest became tight, she was breathing but it seemed like there wasn’t enough air in her lungs, the images of the moment she avoided recalling began to flash back into her head and she couldn’t suppress it.

She suddenly couldn’t breathe, she closed her eyes tightly, the frantic footsteps she could hear in her bedroom felt like the echo of that person’s shoes when he had suddenly appeared before strangling her and Anne shut her ears. The sound of her beating heart became so loud it was deafening until another voice seeped through.

"Annelise, where are you?"

Her frantic breathing suddenly stopped, she realized her face was all wet with streaks of tears, hearing that voice in her room made all the fear slowly begin to dissipate in the air and her eyes slowly opened.

A... Andrew?

Warily she moved her hand to the doorknob again and slowly opened the bathroom door.

Andrew turned in her direction at the exact same time she opened the door and a heavy, shaky breath released out of her.

Relief poured into her so heavily that when she saw him taking long strides to come to her, she rushed to him instead and without thinking hugged him, throwing her arms around his waist and burying her head into his chest, a soft shaky breath began to escape her mouth in tiny sobs.

All she knew in this moment was that the broad, firm body she held onto was safe.

She coiled more into him when his arms immediately wrapped around her body as well, firmly at first before gently beginning to stroke her hair and back.

His aura which had been radiating an intense fury suddenly seemed to settle and his touch became gentler.

"Don’t cry, you’re safe, I’ll never let anyone hurt you." He held her tighter and slowly, her shaky breathing began to settle...

A/N: Thank you so much for being patient with the single Chapter updates these days! I’ll continue updating the usual two Chapters a day soon.