Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 77: Proof

The first thing Andrew saw upon coming down the stairs was his little brother’s hand gently resting on Anne’s arm. There was a reassuring look in the young man’s eyes that held gentleness.

Andrew suddenly stopped in his tracks, something hot slowly trailing through his veins. It churned in an annoyingly burning temperature into a rage that wanted to burst forth if he wasn’t painstakingly controlling it.

He hadn’t come down for dinner because he had a very important conference call that he couldn’t miss, and it was set at a later time in the day due to the time difference with the company’s partners in Switzerland.

He’d only just ended the call when a maid had knocked at his door with an urgency that annoyed him.

"What?" He’d snapped in the maid’s face, who quivered in fear, lowering her head before answering hastily.

"That... something of yours has been stolen, and we’ve caught the thief."

His brows pulled together.

"What was stolen?"

The maid raised her head to meet his gaze, but upon seeing his darkened eyes, she shrunk.

"I... don’t... I don’t know."

Andrew hated his personal belongings being touched by others. What belonged to him was his alone. Hence, hearing that something of his had been taken, he didn’t bother to ask what it was. He immediately left his room, asking the maid,

"Where?"

She shakily pointed downstairs, and he walked past her, uncaring about the evident fear in her eyes as he strode down the stairs. He didn’t expect to see something that would make him feel so unnerved.

Anne’s soft brown eyes, however, met his in the air. Despite the fact that Donald was standing in front of her, her gaze met his.

For some reason, that seemed to appease something within him, and he continued down the stairs, then fully noticed the unusual situation downstairs.

Half the maids were gathered around Anne and Donald, one especially staring at Anne with a fierce accusation in her eyes.

"What the fuck was stolen for you to be making such a fuss?" Donald asked infuriatedly.

"Master Andrew is here as well, so I’ll speak the truth of what I saw," the maid Sasha began to speak.

"Before dinner, this woman came into Master Andrew’s room while I was cleaning. I saw her holding some flowers, and she even asked me for a vase. I saw her placing the flowers in the vase while I was about to leave the room. At that time, I noticed the way she was looking around. It made me suspicious, so I peeked through the door when she thought I already left. She went to the master’s shelf and took something. I couldn’t see it properly, but I can say for sure it’s made of gold, and it’s probably really expensive. I’m sure she plans to sell it for a huge amount of money."

Hearing this, most of the maids gasped, all eyes turning to Anne with a mix of disgust and anger at her guts for daring to take something at the Sterling estate.

Sasha continued, "I didn’t want to talk about it in front of Old Master because I know he needs to sleep after taking his night medicines, according to the doctor. So I waited for him to retire first so Master Andrew can deal with her the way he sees fit. Also, it can be proven if you check inside her bag. What she stole is in there."

Donald heard all this with displeasure in his eyes.

"Sasha, who do you think you’re accusing of stealing? You—"

He suddenly trailed off when Anne moved away from him, walking towards the maid currently holding her bag. The latter had been the one to snatch her bag out of her grip.

Anne, without any explanations, snatched her bag right back from the maid, who tried to hold onto it tightly, but the force Anne used in snatching it from her was one she couldn’t fight against.

Looking through the bag, Anne checked for anything out of place. It didn’t take long to see something sparkling at the bottom.

Anne went stiff.

So it was true, that maid did plant something in her bag.

Digging her hand in, Anne pulled out the object in her palm.

"Don’t think you can hide it now that you’ve been caught. You stole something in master’s room and it’s inside your bag," Sasha spat, seeing Anne’s action of taking back her bag.

At that moment, they all saw Anne hold something small in her palm. It was a shiny gold ring clearly belonging to a man. It had a large ruby pendant that shone in the light.

"See that? I knew she stole something!" Sasha couldn’t help but yell enthusiastically.

This girl was actually stupider than she thought. She actually brought it out herself, proving herself guilty in front of everyone.

It seems she would be very easy to take care of without any trouble. Sasha smirked secretly.

Judging by the look of the ring, it looked extremely valuable. Like something that would cost thousands of dollars.

Donald looked stunned upon seeing his brother’s ring in Anne’s hand. It had been in her bag. He knew what that ring meant for his brother—it wasn’t just its monetary value but something sentimental as well. Even he wouldn’t dare lay a hand on it because of how sensitive his brother became about it. In the past, he would never take it off. He’d only begun to keep the ring on display quite recently.

Donald didn’t know how the ring got in Anne’s bag, but he trusted her. Something inside him just chose to trust her because he just knew inside that she wasn’t the kind of person to do something like stealing what didn’t belong to her. But what he was more afraid of was his brother.

He glanced nervously at his silent brother.

Anne suddenly walked up to Andrew, presenting the ring to him.

The man who’d been standing there calmly taking everything in didn’t say a word. He watched her calmly as she held out the ring to him in her hand.

"I didn’t steal this. All I did was put the flowers in the vase. I know it’s hard to believe because it was found in my bag, but I didn’t steal it. I’m being framed, though I don’t know why, and I don’t have any evidence to defend myself. I’m just hoping that you believe me."

Anne said the words, looking up at him with an earnest gaze in her eyes.

She knew it was impossible he’d believe her. Why should he?

She knew he had no reason to trust her, especially when the evidence pointed to her.

But this was all she could do. Fighting and arguing would do nothing to solve things. Anne knew from the experience of living with her uncle. Whenever her cousins had the intentions to torture her, no words she could say to defend herself would save her.

When someone had bad intentions for you and they go through the trouble of planting evidence against you, it was pointless to argue with them. This was the only method she could come up with.

If Andrew would believe her...

If he would trust her.

But so far, this man had only ever gotten angry at her using any excuse he could find to punish her. Would he trust her?

"Why should I believe in you when all evidence points at you?" The words that came out of his mouth shattered whatever hope she’d held onto.