Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 30: Who Is She?

When Anne replied, she didn’t miss the secret smirks on the other staff members’ faces.

It was evident Clara was oblivious to their expressions.

Hearing Anne’s reply, Clara nodded understandingly.

Anne gave that specific reply knowing that she was outnumbered here. This little stunt to make her uncomfortable and distressed at the workplace hadn’t just been played by Rebecca—all the other members of the staff were in on it as well. Even if she defended herself a hundred times, they would all work together to counter her words.

She’d studied and understood how they all acted like the same pack, always working together with such camaraderie, but they obviously hated her presence here.

"The world is what it is today because people have forgotten what it’s like to give forgiveness genuinely. We’re human, and we make mistakes. This time, I don’t agree with you, Anne. You were in the wrong," Clara spoke calmly.

Rebecca raised her chin triumphantly. Since Clara was facing Anne directly, she couldn’t see the taunting look on Rebecca’s face.

All the others also watched keenly, secretly awaiting to hear Clara berate Anne more.

Clara liked to be fair, so she definitely wouldn’t leave Anne at Rebecca’s mercy to do as she wished, since Anne was the one who refused to take an honest, remorse-filled apology.

It only meant Anne was the one who caused trouble.

"Becky, you decided to wear your Koline dress today, right? If I remember correctly, that dress costs around $3,800, doesn’t it?" Clara’s soft, calm voice could be heard in the room clearly.

Excitement instantly showed on Rebecca’s face.

"As expected, you know the best fashion brands on sight. I’m glad you recognize that this dress costs a lot. But it’s all ruined now. What do I do?"

Some of the staff instantly whipped out their phones to continue discussing.

Lukas: [I think Clara is going to make Anne pay for the dress. Serves her

right!]

Kendra: [My bubble tea wasn’t wasted after all. This should humble the new girl so much. She should know her place after this.]

Jessica: [Now this is exactly what I want to happen. If I know Clara well enough, the new girl will definitely pay for the dress.]

"You decided to wear this dress to work? This is definitely unlike you, Becky." Clara’s next words took Rebecca by surprise. She looked stunned as she looked at Clara sharply.

"What?"

"You heard me clearly. You bought this dress for the company anniversary celebration two months from now. Why would you suddenly wear the dress today?" Clara looked at Rebecca steadily, watching the woman struggle to form words.

Everyone expected Clara’s next words to instruct Anne to pay for the dress. Why was she suddenly questioning Rebecca?

"I... the dress..." After fumbling for words for a while because she hadn’t expected to be questioned like this, Rebecca quickly replied, "I just wanted to look extra good today. I’m going on a date with my boyfriend after work, that’s why I wore the dress today."

When Rebecca realized she’d come up with a solid excuse, she raised her chin confidently.

"Clara, I’m the victim here. Why am I being questioned?"

The truth was, Rebecca had indeed worn this dress deliberately. The initial plan had been to pick on the new girl. Naturally, they all assumed she wouldn’t retaliate, in which case Rebecca had kept a small razor in her bag which she would have used to slash a small portion of her dress and frame it on Anne. Of course, the others would be here to support her as witnesses, but it worked out quite well too with Anne retaliating and pouring tea over her.

"That’s right, Clara. Becky is the victim here," Kendra spoke up.

They all couldn’t seem to understand why Clara seemed to be veering off script.

"Victim?" Clara asked with an upwards tilt of her lips. "Of course, the victim here is the person being bullied." She then looked Rebecca in the eye.

"I remember you crying to Jessica less than a month ago that your boyfriend dumped you. Don’t tell me you’ve gotten into another relationship again so fast?"

Rebecca was caught off guard. She had no idea Clara knew she was single now after her boyfriend dumped her.

"O... of course I found another boyfriend."

Clara smiled, shaking her head. "No, you didn’t. Let me remind you, Becky, that I absolutely hate liars." The smile suddenly fell from Clara’s face, replaced with a look of coldness. Clara might be an easygoing person, but she was also a strict superior. When she got serious, none of the employees would be able to talk casually in front of her.

"Clara, I..."

"How many times have I warned you all to stop bullying new members of our team? You all swear your loyalty to this team, yet we always end up losing to team B. Do you know why...?"

Clara’s strict eyes trailed over all the other employees, who felt like chickens stripped of their covering feathers.

"None of you is truly dedicated to bringing our team to greater heights. You all fill your time with building stupid plans to harm every new employee we bring into our team. There’s no way we’ll ever achieve progress when all of you are here destroying every chance of that. Can’t you even give someone a chance to prove their talents? I’m so disappointed... in all of you!"

No one could say a word. They all kept their heads lowered, realizing they’d definitely been figured out by Clara.

Rebecca, however, didn’t show the same frightened expression that could be seen on the others’ faces.

She looked annoyed as she gritted, "But my dress is ruined. This bitch did it."

Clara folded her arms. "Would you like me to replay the CCTV footage so we can all find out why your dress really got ruined? Coincidentally, I was watching everything from inside my office. To think I was merely doing a routine check but somehow witnessed what you did. You should be ashamed of your actions, Becky."

Rebecca looked like she couldn’t accept what was happening, but she had no way of fighting against Clara.

"Anne, from this moment on, if any one of them tries to cause you any sort of disturbance in this office, don’t hesitate to come to me, okay?"

Anne couldn’t find the words to reply to Clara, so she just nodded slowly.

It felt as if a pair of invisible wings had shown behind Clara. She indeed was a really kind-hearted person.

In this type of situation, in another case, the innocent party would have been bullied and the superior would have been brainwashed. But Clara was a very astute woman.

Under her leadership, no one would be treated unfairly. Anne made it a mission to work twice as hard.

After another round of scolding the employees, Clara went back to her office, leaving the employees shamefaced due to her words.

They indeed never did anything to help the department. They only played pranks all day. If they worked half as hard as team B, they would also be enjoying so many benefits from the company.

Thinking this, the employees could no longer pay attention to Anne. They instead focused on their work.

When the whole debacle was over, Anne rushed to the restroom to try to clean off some of the stain from her shirt. Though she was wearing black, it still left a visible stain.

At the entrance of the restroom, she happened to bump into Rebecca, who was on her way rushing out. The latter’s eyes were red-rimmed and swollen like someone who’d been crying. When she saw Anne, she seemed to panic a little, then lowered her head, hiding her face before she rushed past.

Why did she look like someone who just cried their eyes out?

Anne frowned slightly but didn’t dwell on the thought. But before she could proceed, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She fished it out and answered immediately upon seeing that the call was from Doctor Steve.

"Hello, Doctor Steve. Have you been able to reach the special doctor?"

Anne had been hoping and praying. Doctor Steve had told her that there was a certain doctor who was known to emerge successful in every surgery he performed.

This said doctor broke a world record of 378 successful surgeries in his career without a single failure. He was said to be extremely skillful.

Anne knew getting the help of this doctor would cost every last penny she just received from the contract terms and more, but Anne was willing to give every last penny and even more.

"Miss Thompson, we are in luck. Doctor Reynolds is in town. Though his schedule is maxed out, we’ve been able to secure a surgery appointment for Kristen. Two weeks from now, he’ll come in and perform Kristen’s surgery. Let’s pray and hope for the best."

Anne closed her eyes and sighed in relief. Gratitude flooded through her, but she knew the battle wasn’t over yet. It definitely wasn’t.

"Thank you so much, Doctor Steve."

When the call ended, Anne opened up her bank app.

On the balance, a set of numbers were written.

$2,000,000.00

Anne had never seen so many zeros in her bank balance before, but despite the huge amount she currently had in her possession—something she’d gotten from selling her own body—she knew it might not be enough.

"Please, please, let my brother be back to normal." She hoped fervently.

========

"Mr. Sterling is in his office, sir." A young secretary led the handsome man into Director Sterling’s office. She couldn’t take her eyes off the handsome face in front of her.

Working at Sterling Enterprises, she was immune to good looks. That was because of the unbelievable good looks of the three Sterling sons, which she got to behold on a daily basis. It had been a long time since she last felt her heart flutter upon seeing a handsome man.

The young secretary couldn’t help but hesitate to look at the tall, athletic-looking man who had gold-framed glasses sitting on his handsome face, giving him the look of a studious hunk as he strode into the director’s office.

The room containing two handsome men felt like paradise.

Director Andrew Sterling, sitting behind his desk, looked like a coldly divine being, while the man visiting looked like a friendly university hunk who would dominate the hearts of girls. Their looks were complete opposites. The secretary sighed dreamily but suddenly snapped out of her daze when Andrew’s chilling gaze lifted to settle on her.

"You may go," he said coldly, and she hurriedly nodded and made her escape from the office.

Turning his attention back to his computer, where he was going through a list of proposals, Andrew asked his friend, who had suddenly invaded his office, roaming around touching every shiny thing his hand landed on,

"What brings you here?"

Shawn’s attention returned to his purpose for coming.

"Butler Jones told me you managed to sleep a few days ago, so as your doctor, I came for a consultation to see if we’ll find a solution to your incurable insomnia."

Hearing his sleep mentioned, Andrew’s hands, which were on the keyboard, halted. Though he didn’t raise his gaze, his face visibly began to turn redder and redder by the second. He tightened his fist as if struggling to push out a vanished thought he’d been reminded about.

Shawn naturally caught these occurrences. His mouth fell open in disbelief.

"Am I seeing things?" the young doctor exclaimed as he sat himself opposite the desk, staring intently at Andrew’s face, where he instantly shot out of his seat and turned his back to Shawn as if to hide his expression.

Shawn looked from Andrew’s clenched fist up to his reddened ears, and a realization seemed to settle in him.

A few days ago, when he’d been at the Black Thorn Manor, Butler Jones had clearly mentioned something about a woman coming. Andrew’s reaction then had been different from his usual self.

And counting from the time Butler Jones said Andrew had gotten to finally sleep, it was clearly that same night.

So that meant...

Amazement showed on Shawn’s face.

"Who on earth is this girl?" he asked incredulously.