Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 57: Bad Luck

"Anne, why didn’t you tell me this whole time?"

Jasmine realized Anne was crying silently, so she no longer questioned her and hugged her instead.

"I’m sorry, I had no idea... I just assumed. How stupid of me, I’m so sorry."

Jasmine thought about how hard it had been on Anne and her heart broke.

She should have been there for her... she never should have left her friend for so long.

Jasmine had thought she was the only one going through a hard time, hence she’d distanced herself from her past, from Anne, while she was abroad. She had no idea that Anne had it even worse.

She cried with her friend in this moment. In her heart, she replayed memories of the radiant youth Kristen used to be, and she felt her heart break even more.

He would be fine!

Jasmine believed it in her heart that he would be back to normal.

He had to be, for she knew he was the only reason her friend had to live.

After they’d let out their sorrow, both sat to talk.

"So you slept with that person once, and you have to get pregnant?" Jasmine asked, and Anne, whose eyes were already swollen, nodded.

The thought that Anne had to settle for something like this made Jasmine feel something twist in her heart.

"No, you can’t just have a child for a strange person you don’t even know. And the contract even said you’ll have nothing to do with your child after it’s born. What kind of a stupid contract is that? I know what you want, Anne, you want a family, you want to have a husband and a child and a happily ever after someday, not this. I won’t let you do this to yourself. I’ll go back to my family and I’ll take money from them, we can pay this person back and terminate the contract."

"No, Jass, after what they did to you... how can you even think of going back?"

Jasmine shook her head stubbornly. "I don’t care. What matters right now is you. Have you thought of how complicated this is? You’ll have to let your own child go to the person who contracted you. I can’t let you go through that."

"And I can’t let you go through putting yourself back in hell when you’ve finally escaped it. Jass, I’m going to feel terrible if you go back to your family because of me after what they did to you."

"But..."

"Please, Jass, don’t think about it anymore. I know if you go back to them and take that amount of money from them, they’ll tie you down with the debt of it. I can’t let you do that. And as for the contract... I’ve already decided not to think about it yet until I get Kristen back."

Jasmine wanted to argue more, but she knew Anne was right.

Going back to her family would be like going back to hell when she’d freed herself from it.

But that was the only way she knew to free Anne from her own hell.

She couldn’t even begin to imagine the pain of having to sell your own child after carrying it in your womb. It would break Anne.

Jasmine wanted to help, she wanted really badly to help, but she couldn’t find a way.

She could only let helplessness consume her as more tears filled her eyes.

"Damn it, I thought you were doing a lot better than I was. How could this have happened?" Jasmine ran her fingers through her hair, not caring that she was ruffling her smooth strands.

Anne sighed. "Kristen’s surgery will happen next week. And I’ve already paid the deposit."

Jasmine looked at Anne with a look of horror.

She had taken that person’s money. There was no going back now.

They could only hope and pray Kristen’s surgery emerged successful.

They could only hope and pray.

...

"Boss, I found what you asked me to look into."

A light-haired guy walked into the exquisite home office inside the Sterling family estate.

The space was flooded with natural light coming from the floor-to-ceiling windows which boasted of a lush garden view. This said garden was large enough it seemed to stretch far into the horizon, filled with plants and growing flowers. The design looked sleek with custom-made furniture in thick tones of grey and beige. The shelves were decorated with gold sculptures that came from high-end auctions, one piece costing tens of millions.

A glass shelf sat to the left, within which a row of awards and gold medals were kept on display. It would be quite hard to believe the tall shelf of awards was owned by one person alone.

On the walls, high-end paintings from well-known legendary artists were hung.

All in all, the whole space was futuristic and effortlessly high-end, befitting for the man currently standing in front of one of the paintings who turned around upon hearing someone enter.

The young guy who sauntered into the spacious home office had a peculiar hairstyle, and he was wearing a leather jacket beneath which one could see swirls of tattoos peeking out his neck. His hair was a light silver color which he occasionally flung away from his eyes.

His steps were wanton yet held a strange confidence, and he blew a gum bubble before swirling it between his teeth and chewing some more. He was the ultimate image of the bad guy everyone should steer clear from—one look and one could see danger oozing out of him.

Andrew lowered his head from the painting he’d been immersively staring at immediately the guy walked in.

"This woman you had me look into has quite the tragic life. You know I detest bad energy, Boss. I’d keep away from a woman like this who seems to attract nothing but bad luck," the guy said while scrolling on the information he just found on the iPad he held flat in his palm.

"As always, I don’t need your advice, Gavin. What did you find?"

Andrew spoke with a usual nonchalance, but in reality, he was waiting to hear whatever Gavin brought back, because he’d been thinking about it all morning.

Gavin sighed. "Boss, everyone says I give the best advice. How could you always dismiss me like this?"

"Chris is more than eager to take your place. If you keep babbling instead of reporting what I’ve assigned to you, I might do just that." Andrew spouted these words—a clear threat with a straight, harmless-looking face.

Gavin swallowed and chuckled. "Boss, don’t take my jokes too seriously. I was just about to start telling you all there is to know about this woman."

Without wasting any more time, Gavin began to recite everything he discovered.

"Annelise Thompson, twenty-three years old. Lives in an old apartment complex downtown with her younger brother..."

Andrew’s eyes flashed the minute Gavin mentioned the brother. That seemed to be the main highlight of this sudden investigation. Because it was the very thing she’d mentioned last night that had stuck with him—but more importantly, it was the pain in her voice as she’d mentioned this said brother.

She’d said she would have done anything to get this brother back.

Gavin continued to scroll through the information as he recited them out loud.

"Parents died in an accident, both siblings lived with their paternal uncle for a while. Some small businessman, a seemingly harmless relationship, but the two moved out a few years after for unknown reasons. Yada, yada, yada, all this is unnecessary information. Fast forward to almost a year later, this said brother suffers from a car accident as well. Very unfortunate thing to happen, mind you, Boss, this girl really seems to carry bad luck. This said woman worked several jobs from which she was fired and eventually managed to land a job at Sterling Enterprises. Good for her. Seems she didn’t run out of luck after all."

Gavin finally raised his head after he was done reading all this aloud.

"Boss, why were you so curious about this woman anyway? There doesn’t seem to be anything special about her other than the fact that she almost lost everyone in her life and..." He trailed off, realizing something.

"Boss, is this woman the same one in that office with you earlier?" Gavin asked, but Andrew’s face looked clouded that he didn’t seem to want to answer the question.

Gavin’s mouth fell open—it seemed it really is that woman.

Earlier, so early in the morning, his boss had called him with some strange phone number and instructed him to come to their company. He’d even had to pick off a door lock—him, someone many feared—had actually been made to dig up information about some woman.

He’d known Boss for almost fifteen years now, but he’d never seen him have any interest in a woman.

"Boss, your interest in this woman, does it have something to do with that silly game of heirs your grandfather imposed on you and your brothers?" Still no reply.

Gavin was frustrated. Yes, everything he’d discovered about the woman was indeed quite pitiful, but the Boss wasn’t someone who felt sympathy for others. So why had he suddenly fallen quiet? Gavin opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could do so, Andrew suddenly rushed out and left the home office.

"Boss, where are you going?"

Gavin called after him but ended up getting no reply once again.

Seriously, what a strange reaction.

Just who was that woman?