Filed To Story: Finding the Secret Daddy for My Baby Novel
Felicia agreed to this with a nod.
When Anastasia left the office afterward, she did not notice the malicious gaze fixed on her.
Alice had never expected Anastasia and Felicia to get along so well, much less be on such friendly terms. She couldn’t put pressure on Anastasia now even if she wanted to, for Felicia would only nip it in the bud.
Alice knew that the only way for her to climb up the corporate ladder now was to have Felicia and Anastasia kicked out of Bourgeois. Otherwise, her career here would stagnate.
That afternoon, Anastasia and Felicia brought their assistants along with them to lunch. The whole affair was a lighthearted one as they exchanged funny anecdotes and enjoyed the reprieve from work.
Meanwhile, over at the luxurious villa, Hayley had already gotten a call from Bourgeois at 10.00AM telling her that her jewelry was ready to be collected. This was the moment that she had been waiting a whole month for, and now that she could finally gloat in Anastasia’s face, she was not going to let the chance go.
Harriet had been waiting for days to have a meal together with her grandson, and he finally returned to Presgrave Residence to fulfill her wish.
They were both seated at the dining table when she asked hesitantly, “Elliot, did Anastasia really mean it when she said she would never marry?”
“Relax, Grandma,” Elliot consoled. “Things change all the time.”
“I’ve been speaking to Nigel on the phone over the past few days. I was hoping that he could put more effort into pursuing Anastasia romantically, and I told him not to give up just yet.”
Elliot’s spoon halted mid-way to his mouth as he sighed and said, “Grandma, Nigel and I both like the same girl, and you should be encouraging me now that he’s backed off so that I can go on to pursue her.”
Harriet’s eyes lit up when she heard this. “What? Are you pursuing Anastasia now? Does she reciprocate your feelings?”
“I’m still working on making that happen, but don’t worry, Grandma. I promise I’ll marry her,” Elliot said solemnly. For some reason, he was confident that he would make her his wife.
When Harriet saw how determined her grandson was about this, she chuckled. “Well, I know you’ll give it your best shot. Don’t let me down, Elliot.”
“Got it.”
“By the way, do bring that little boy around here sometime soon. I want to take a look at him too,” Harriet added expectantly.
“Now isn’t the right time, but give me a month and I’ll bring him back here to visit you.”
“Very well,” she conceded. “Talk to Anastasia about this and have her come by house whenever she’s free.” She nodded slowly. Knowing that her grandson would take care of everything, she could afford to wait patiently.
At 2.30PM, Anastasia was drinking coffee in her office while tweaking some design sketches on the table when her extension line suddenly rang. She picked up the receiver and greeted, “Hello?”
“Anastasia, the customer has arrived. We have to go to Room 302 now.”
“Alright, I’m coming,” Anastasia said. She set her coffee aside and grabbed the relevant folder off her desk before getting up to leave her office.
Room 302 was the VIP guest lounge. After Anastasia and Felicia met each other in the middle of the hallway, they turned to make their way to the lounge. Felicia knocked on the door before entering, and when she saw the girl seated on the couch, she was stunned.
On the other hand, Anastasia fell in step behind her. When she saw the customer, her eyes widened in surprise as well, for the girl who was seated on the couch was not the same one who had placed orders for the necklaces the other day. Instead, it was Hayley.
“Good day, Miss Seymour,” Felicia greeted enthusiastically after a few seconds of hesitation, and she walked up to the girl with a friendly smile in place.
A million questions flooded Anastasia’s mind at that moment, but at the same time, she seemed to have unraveled a great mystery. As it turned out, Hayley had asked someone to place the order for two necklaces specifically designed by her. It would be of no surprise now if Hayley were to tell her that the necklaces were for Elliot and herself.
After taking a deep breath, Anastasia sat down next to Felicia and glanced at Hayley, only to meet the girl’s triumphant gaze as expected.
“Thank you for putting in such hard work to design these gorgeous his-and-hers necklaces, Anastasia. I’m very pleased with them,” Hayley said as she crossed her legs. “I’m sure Elliot would love them once he sets eyes on them too.”
Anastasia had nothing to say to her. Next to her on the couch, Felicia interjected politely, “We’re glad to hear that, Miss Seymour. You’re a really important client of ours, and we know that Anastasia has the impressive ability to create something special for you and your loved one.”
Hayley smirked as she eyed Anastasia viciously. “How about you personally give me your blessings, Miss Tillman? Just a few nice words for my boyfriend and me for sentiment’s sake.”
At that moment, Anastasia felt like all the air had been sucked out from her lungs, and she bit out icily, “I’m never one to give my blessings.”
“Oh, don’t be so frigid, Miss Tillman! Here, why don’t I help you start it off? You can never go wrong with wishing us everlasting happiness, that we would grow old together and have a family of our own—stuff like that!”
Felicia stepped in naturally and said soothingly, “In that case, on behalf of Miss Tillman and all the employees here, I wish you and President Presgrave all the happiness in life, and that the both of you will stick by each other through thick and thin. May you guys find wonderful companionship in one another.”
However, Hayley quirked her lips unhappily and pointed out, “I don’t want you to give me your blessings, Director Evans. It’s Miss Tillman’s I want.”
Felicia grew stiff in her seat, evidently flustered. Beside her, Anastasia knew how wicked Hayley could get. Since she didn’t want to humiliate Felicia, she said begrudgingly, “Hayley, for the sake of getting you to shut up about this, I wish you and Elliot all the happiness. There! Is that what you want to hear?”
Once she heard Anastasia’s words, Hayley’s smug smile widened. She was pleased to have the upper hand here, and she snorted as she drawled, “Seeing as you’ve given us your blessings, Miss Tillman, I will be ever so gracious and thank you for it. Elliot isn’t in the office now, so I’m going to need you to personally deliver these necklaces to him later and tell him that you designed these for the both of us.”
Hayley was dangling her relationship with Elliot in front of Anastasia on purpose now. However, the other woman didn’t shy away from agreeing to it as she said nonchalantly, “Sure, that won’t be a problem at all. I’ll personally drop these necklaces off at his office, and I’ll be sure to give him my blessings as well.”
Hayley was somewhat unsettled after hearing this, so she turned to address Felicia curtly, “Director Evans, could you give me a few moments alone with Miss Tillman?”
“Of course. Excuse me,” Felicia replied courteously and rose to leave, but not before giving Anastasia a worried look.
The door had only just fallen shut when Hayley glowered at Anastasia viciously and snapped, “If you’ve taken my warning to heart, you ought to know better than clinging to Elliot like gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. You wouldn’t want me to bring a certain gigolo around to see you, right?”
“Looks like you were the one who told that man where I was, and that was how he found me,” Anastasia deduced grimly instead of responding to Hayley’s threat. The man had even arranged for her to sleep with punters just to rake in some extra cash for him, which aggravated her to the point of wanting to throttle him.
Hayley nodded smugly. “Yes, I was the one who told him. Do you know how miserable he is right now? He’s completely broke, and he has neither family nor children of his own. He has nothing in this world to live for, so when he found out about his adorable and precious son, he was elated. I was the one who gave him money to stall him from coming after the both of you. Pretty charitable of me, right?” The smirk on her lips grew even more wicked as she said this.
The gigolo was but a fictional character anyway, and she could give him whatever tragic backstory she liked.
Hatred filled Anastasia’s eyes, and she dug her nails into her palms as she seethed, “Why must you go out of your way to put me through hell all those years ago, Hayley? I saw you as my own sister, but you stabbed me in the back and left me to bleed to death.”
Hayley snorted in disgust, and there was unmistakable resentment in her eyes. “You should have never been my best friend to begin with! You don’t know how invisible I felt next to you. You were beautiful, on the honor roll, and from a well-off family. When I finally summoned enough courage to confess my feelings to a boy I liked, he told me that he had a crush on you the entire time! Back then, my parents wouldn’t stop praising you either. You have no idea what it was like for me!”
Anastasia instantly regretted ever associating herself with Hayley during their school days. Some people in this world simply didn’t deserve kindness and friendship. Needless to say, Hayley was so twisted that her worldview was warped by her own bitterness.
There was only one thing for Anastasia to do when it came to dealing with people like Hayley—she had to stay away from her and hope that they would never run into each other ever again.
“I hate you, Anastasia, and I can’t stand to see you any better off than I am. I’d like to see you writhe in misery and become a shell of the person that you were. I finally got my wish five years ago,” Hayley went on to say. She reached for her tea, but just as she was bringing her cup to her lips, another cup of tea splashed onto her face and ruined her delicately-applied makeup.
She stood up abruptly and shrieked, “How dare you splash tea all over me, Anastasia?!”
“Oh, but I dare,” Anastasia drawled defiantly. She rose to her feet and eyed the other girl menacingly. “I could even kill you if I wanted to. If you so much as mess with me again, I’m going to tell Elliot about all the despicable things you’ve done. He might have slept with you, but that won’t be enough to make him put up with someone like you.”