Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 82: Wounded Animal

Sasha was shaking so frantically she couldn’t speak. How had she reached here?

She’d been sent on several tasks before and never failed, how had she failed on this one?

Her trembling gaze raised to Anne and she met a pair of sharp brown eyes. In that moment, she soon realized where she’d gone wrong.

She’d underestimated her opponent. She had thought this would be an easy kill. She didn’t know that her opponent had a hidden card beneath her sleeve.

Just a few moments ago she was very confident no evidence would be found, but it turned out that master Andrew actually had such a thing in his room. She was done for, completely done for!

She needed to get help from her Mistress, she needed...

Her thoughts were suddenly halted when the fierce-looking grey-haired guy stalked to her.

He clicked his tongue, looking down at her with disgust in his eyes and a twisted evil glint.

"You and I are going to have a little conversation and you’re going to obediently accept the punishment for having the guts to enter my master’s personal space. I hate people who offend him. I guess today is my lucky day, now I have a prey to torment on my master’s behalf."

The more the man spoke in his eerie-sounding voice, the more frightened Sasha became.

Gavin reveled at the fear he saw in the maid’s eyes. It wasn’t every day his boss called him to deal with someone, so whenever that day came, he enjoyed it to the fullest.

"Master... master! I only did it for you..." Sasha began frantically as she crawled towards Andrew. "I did it to help you, master. This woman wants nothing but money, she’s here because she’s greedy for the Sterling family wealth. I only did it so her plans against the Sterling family won’t succeed and... arghh!" Before she could reach where Andrew stood, a loud painful shriek echoed across.

Several of the maids stepped back in horror hearing the sound of bones crunching.

The grey-haired man had mercilessly stepped on Sasha’s fingers before she could grab onto master Andrew.

"Do you think my boss needs help from the likes of you? And whether or not the woman is after his money, how is that any concern of yours? If she managed to enter the Sterling estate, that’s only because master let her. If she manages to trap him and squander his money, it’ll only be because my master let her. So who are you to interfere with that?"

Gavin was evidently trying to curry favor. Judging from the rarity of this situation, he’d come to a conclusion that his master seemed to have a special soft spot for that woman named Anne. That had never happened before, so now that it did, he would have to get on her good sides.

Sasha wailed like a dying pig. She could no longer feel all five of her fingers; she could only feel a searing pain. Even if she wanted to ask for help from her mistress right now, she couldn’t.

Andrew, who had been quiet this whole time, finally spoke up.

"I need the entire estate cleared out of all cleaning staff by tomorrow morning."

Hearing Andrew’s verdict, everyone’s eyes widened in fear. They should all be cleared out? They were losing their jobs!

They all fell to their knees to ask for mercy.

Who would want to lose their job at a place like Sterling estate? With the enticing benefits they were given and the high pay, all the staff immediately began to regret following along with Sasha’s accusation. But they couldn’t dare open their mouth to ask for mercy—the man’s aura was too powerful, too cold, it froze their bones.

"The Sterling estate works with professional staff who would never harass a guest based on mere accusations. By sunrise tomorrow, none of you should remain within the walls of this estate." His voice firm and authoritative.

The staff members immediately realized their mistakes. Many of them had followed along with Sasha because they believed they would be rewarded for catching a thief, but this was the reward they ended up with—losing their jobs.

No amount of pleas could take back what they’d done. They could only shake and be grateful for the fact that they wouldn’t be severely punished like Sasha was.

Gavin grabbed Sasha, hauling her up.

"Let’s go have that lengthy conversation before I throw you to the authorities." He smirked sinisterly.

"Wait!" Anne suddenly called, making Gavin come to a stop.

She walked up to Sasha, her features drawn as she asked, "Who sent you?"

Sasha’s reddened eyes raised sharply to meet Anne’s.

"I won’t punish you, I just need you to tell me who put you up to this. You couldn’t have framed me for no reason. I don’t know you, so you couldn’t possibly have a grudge against me. So tell me, who sent you?"

Anne noticed Sasha’s eyes dart nervously. It was certain she was hiding something underneath.

"No one sent me, I just hated you the moment I saw you," she suddenly said with a crooked smirk on her tear-streaked face.

Anne narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She couldn’t believe that was the truth.

Gavin dragged her away after that, while Anne stood contemplatively, when Donald’s enthusiastic voice came from behind her.

"I can’t believe you did all this! How did you learn to dissemble a PC like that? When the ring was found in your bag, I must admit I feared you wouldn’t be able to prove yourself right, but you did it. You really did it!" The youth beamed brightly, raising his hand up for a high five.

Chuckling slightly, she indulged him, slapping her palm to his.

He leaned down towards her with glimmering eyes to ask, "Tell me, what other surprises do you have hidden within you? Tell me about all your hidden talents."

Before Anne could reply to the bright youth, a large body suddenly passed between them both, tearing them apart like a barrier that came to create distance between them. That tall barrier grabbed her wrist, dragging her along.

"Time for you to go." She heard his cold voice as he dragged her away. She didn’t even have enough time to say anything to Donald before this giant tornado of a man dragged her away.

She could barely keep up with his long strides as he took her along, stopping outside where a black SUV was parked. He opened the passenger door, then wordlessly stepped aside, indicating she get in.

Anne stared up at his cold face for a while before hesitantly stepping inside the car and he closed the door. A driver hurriedly entered the driver’s seat after bowing to Andrew.

The man stepped back and dug his hands into his pockets, seemingly waiting to see the car drive away.

"Thank you," Anne quickly uttered to him before the driver would start the car.

He merely raised a brow to her with a questioning look on his face.

"For helping me earlier," she clarified.

"I don’t take gratitude. If you’re indebted to me, pay it back." She couldn’t believe the coldness of this man, he couldn’t even take something as warm as a thank you without bursting her bubble.

Anne wanted to ask how he wanted her to pay back, but the car started and the driver began to move.

For some reason, she couldn’t help but link his words to a certain masked person.

’I don’t do favors, only debts.’

Why did these two people always feel similar in her head?

They were obviously different people. One seems to be shrouded in a world of darkness, hidden behind a mask that would make one mistake him for a monster, but she’d come to know that he could be quite warm. And the other had a stormy temper and had always seemed to hate her right from the start, but somehow whenever she looked in his eyes, what she saw amidst his rage was the gaze of a guarded, wounded animal who would growl fiercely at people because it believed they would cause him harm. His rage, his unpredictable temper always made her see that in his eyes.

These two people can’t possibly be the same person. They were very different, yet similar in a strange way.

They could not be the same person.

As the car almost made a turn, Anne looked back at the spot the man had been standing earlier to see an empty space—he was gone.

.....

"Anne, you’re shaking," Jasmine said, gazing at her worriedly as they entered the hospital.

Anne shook her head smilingly. "I’m fine."

Jasmine didn’t believe a word of it at all. She grabbed hold of her friend’s hand and held on tightly, translating her support through that gesture as they proceeded into the special operating room within the hospital.

It was said that the neurosurgeon invited today was very elusive, but he had once been named the hands that can pull a man back from the dead itself.

He worked miracles, and Doctor Steve had said Kristen desperately needed that at this point—a miracle.

Anne was directed to the nurse’s counter on that floor to fill out some forms before the surgery would start. But just as she reached the place described to her, Anne stopped in her tracks seeing a set of familiar people standing at that particular counter.

"Yes, yes, he’s my nephew, I’m his legal guardian..." the man at the counter was saying to the nurses stationed there.

Her uncle and his wife were currently standing at the counter.

What were they doing here, and how did they know that today was Kristen’s scheduled surgery?

Thinking about how they had kicked her out without giving her any help when she’d asked them for it, a wave of anger rushed through her that made her hurry to the counter, only to hear her uncle saying,

"Yes, we’re very certain about this decision. He can be taken off life support and put to rest now. The poor boy already suffered enough. As for the money paid for the surgery, that doctor earlier told us we can get refunds if we pay twenty percent for the wasted paperwork. The rest of the money can be wired directly back to me. We’ll make sure to use it to give our nephew a proper burial." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Anne felt her blood run cold.

He wanted to take Kristen off life support? How dare he...?