Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 219: Blind

Whatever it was that had suddenly begun to take root in her heart after hearing Andrew address her as his wife, Anne quickly snuffed it out before it would settle in her mind.

That trace of warmth that fluttered in her chest, that feeling of sweetness that bloomed in her heart the moment he had uttered those words. Anne pushed them backwards.

It was true that her emotions became a bit exaggerated because of pregnancy, just like how a mere feeling of tiredness had suddenly seemed to take away the desire to even leave her bed, and just like how the feelings she had for Andrew slowly began to birth a sadness whenever she thought about the fact that in his eyes, she was just a pass time, a body to take pleasure from. Whether it was happiness or pain she felt it ten times more. That was why she didn’t want her heart to feel elation immediately she heard what he called her.

Anne clenched her fingers into the pillows and held in her rampant emotions even as more words floated into her ears.

Every word he said was spoken in his signature low tone, holding the quiet fury of a coming storm.

Anne could hear Linda’s quivering voice which sounded like that of a drenched chicken, quacking repeatedly.

"Master...this...it was just girl talk, I swear I meant no harm to mistress by saying that."

Linda seemed to try to wriggle her way out of the situation by playing it down even though she knew Andrew wasn’t that gullible, however in the state of nervousness, she uttered the first thing that slipped out of her mouth in her own defense.

"And you felt you had the freedom to speak about this Manor’s mistress when you’re nothing but a temporary employee, you blatantly disrespected my wife and you expect to just be forgiven?"

"No master... please, I meant no disrespect. I...I will go apologize to mistress right now."

Linda realized immediately Andrew mentioned the words ’His Wife’ that she had been completely mistaken. The debate, the assumptions, if he disliked her, he would never refer to her as his wife.

Just the fury in his tone was enough to make her realize she had allowed her assumption push her into a pit of boiling lava. The woman she had underestimated and thought would soon lose her marriage might have after all won the favor of the master, and that only meant one thing for Linda. Trouble.

Her big mouth had tossed her into trouble and in the moment she couldn’t think of anything else to save herself but to attempt to humble herself and apologize to Anne.

"Apologies from insignificant people mean absolute nothing. I don’t want you even breathing in the same air she does." The man’s eyes were bottomless yet cold and unfeeling. In this moment, being under such a gaze from a man who evidently cared nothing for anything or anyone, Linda suddenly found herself realizing something.

This man was arrogant, a maid like her meant nothing in his eyes, and she had assumed someone like Anne would mean nothing as well since everyone knew she was also from a humble background, she had been wrong.

Everyone else was insignificant in his eyes, but not Anne...not the woman he had married.

Linda couldn’t hold back tears of regret from rushing through her eyes, she knew what was about to happen. Truth was, her words even though she knew Andrew might not care about Anne she hadn’t thought at all that he would come around and even overhear her.

One single moment of recklessly talking had brought her here.

Andrew moved his eyes to settle the on the door of Anne’s bedroom, the fury in his eyes seemed to soften significantly.

This manor without her was nothing but empty. In the past Andrew remembered he used to drown in the darkness of every wall inside the manor, his heart was dark and he had made the entire house dark, it was his safe space which was why he never really stayed for long at the Sterling estate except for whenever his grandfather called him home.

The Manor’s darkness slowly ate at him even without him realizing it until light stepped into his life. She gave him the feeling of having something to look forward to. She gave him feelings he had never been able to understand in the past. Would anyone even dare to put her down and he would stand by and let them?

"And for any member of the staff who think they can speak as they want to my wife, listen carefully, every single one of you is hired to worship the ground she walks on, none of you should even dare look her in the eye, am I making myself perfectly clear?"

"Yes master."

"Ye...yes master." There were only a few of the household staff present at this very moment, the ones there obediently acquiesced to his command, it was only after a while that Linda also answered, suddenly seeing a faint light of hope as she bowed all the way down to her waist.

He...he would let her off this once.

She was so relieved but that momentary relief was dashed in the next second.

"Not you." His chilled voice dropped in her direction, "Butler Jones, see her to the head of security. She will be paid her severance and escorted from the manor immediately, her services are no longer required."

Linda’s heart suddenly sank to the very bottom. He wasn’t showing her mercy nor had he intended to let her off. His warning had been for the others and he didn’t even deem her fit enough to be given another chance. She had only said a few words and he had dismissed her without a second thought.

Miserably realizing that she had just lost her job and would be thrown into the shark’s tank in the form of the reality outside the comfortable walls of the Sterling family’s employment, Linda could only feel complete and utter dejection.

There were no protests, no one could utter a word to defend Linda, she had brought it upon herself and they wouldn’t even defend her if they could, they couldn’t afford to attract the ire of their master. Not even Linda could voice out a single protest at the man’s verdict.

Butler Jones moved forward to carry out Andrew’s command, calmly escorting the seemingly soulless Linda out of the manor without any hints of sympathy in his eyes at all as he also heard every word she said about the mistress.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that the old master himself had approved of Anne, he’d seen something in her that drew him to her and made him find her worthy of his grandson, furthermore no one knew how difficult it was to live with master Andrew or how much Anne had also endured his cold nature before he slowly warmed up to her. Someone else coming out to say bad words about her was just outrageous and if they had been in Anne’s shoes they most likely would have fled out of Andrew’s life to escape his harshness.

Andrew didn’t move for a long time, he stood for quite a while in the hallway, his shoulders still set with residual anger, to Razia who still stood calmly aside, he didn’t look like a cold hearted man who had just ruthlessly fired an employee, but like a man who had just defended what was extremely precious to him. Razia’s eyes suddenly lit up with realization.

It wasn’t that there had been no warmth of love in the marriage all along, it was them who had been blind to it. They had looked for the kind of loud shows of affection other couples in love would usually display, but this relationship was evidently nothing like other normal marriages, yet the level of depth of feeling she could suddenly perceive from the master was more than anything she had felt from another spouse. It was something fresh, yet warm and quiet, subtle in it’s own way yet unbelievably fiery.

All the household staff had indeed been blind. This man adored his wife immensely, and it could be clearly seen in this very moment.

As he began to walk, Razia tacitly began to push in the food cart behind him.

Andrew had just stepped into Anne’s room when he halted in his tracks as he immediately spotted Anne standing right at the door as if she had just been about to go out herself.

Her eyes seemed to glimmer with hints of tears and all of a sudden it felt like someone had grabbed his heart in a very tight fist squeezing it painfully.

Had she heard everything that maid had said, was she sad because of it?

"Stop crying damnit! I already threw her out!" His voice came out somewhat hard and somewhat soft, a little bit reprimanding and yet a little bit consoling.