CHAAPTER TWENTY TWO
A week passed, and Mia still hadn’t given her answer to Alex while he waited patiently.
He had not bugged her after their conversation about the marriage, and true to his words had accompanied her to the doctor for the regular checkup.
It surprised Mia and somehow irritated her as well, she wasn’t used to this side of him and it was more confusing.
Her relationship with Mark was now a little better than before.
They were not avoiding each other, at least, and that is the first step.
The more she thought about the marriage, the more she found his reasoning logical.
For their own benefits and egos, they couldn’t ruin the life of their child, who had absolutely no mistake in this.
Yes, she would be ready to do anything for her child to provide her or him with a secured future, but what about her?
What about her wishes? Didn’t she have a right to find a person who loved her and valued her?
What was she going to do in this fake, loveless marriage?
All her life until now, she lived for her children at the orphanage, and now she had to do the same, she was only living for others and not for herself.
She had to kill her desires and her wishes in order to give them a better tomorrow, and she will have to continue doing that now for her own kid.
What was her life? Was it even her own?
She had therefore decided that she was going to visit the orphanage today to have some change in her life and also to distract herself.
She only hoped that she could talk to Chloe about it and come up with a solution.
George had too much on his hands, he was too busy to even have his breakfast, lunch, or dinner peacefully.
He lived only for the company.
Though he never complained because he had no idea it was going to be this tough while signing up to work with Alex Ian, sometimes he felt like leaving it all and going far away to live his life without any work pressure.
The intercom buzzed, and George was called in by his boss.
Alex had come to work this one day because of an emergency.
He took a deep breath and moved towards his cabin.
“Yes sir.” He reported it to Alex, who was busy looking at something on his laptop.
“George, have you terminated the contract?” Alex asked without looking at him, and he never even wasted his time by looking at him and waiting for his reply.
“I’m on it, sir.” George replied and waited for the next question to be thrown at him.
“What about the media?” George smiled to himself, knowing this was going to be the next question.
“I’ve handled them so far, but Ella Kate has sent an invite to her party that is held tomorrow.”
This was something he was hesitating to inform because, even after denying the invitation, she was adamant on getting a ‘yes’ from him.
“I even denied it, but she threatened me instead, saying she’d make me lose my job.” Alex looked at George, and seeing the coldness in his eyes, George knew no one could snatch his job except the devil himself.
“Tear it or throw it, I don’t care, but that name shouldn’t be heard in this company again.” Alex ordered, and George nodded at once, following his instructions.
“And if she creates another problem, then all you have to do is call for a press conference. Be rest assured, I’ll make sure she never shows up in front of me ever again.” George shuddered at his tone, and felt pity for Ella, but she kinda deserved it too.
“You may leave.” Alex instructed.
Soon after George left, Alex was back to thinking about Mia.
He had waited for her answer patiently because he knew, in the end, it was going to be positive.
That wasn’t a problem.
What was more important was announcing their marriage to the media.
He wasn’t going to conduct a grand wedding to invite all his business associates, in fact, it was going to be private with only Mark, Mia’s friend and Mrs. August , that is, if she wanted to be a part of it.
The media and the world will come to know about it when he will inform them, and that was it.
He also knew that if they would come to know about Mia’s condition, they would come up with the story that he was marrying her because she was pregnant or that she was trapping him for his money by pretending to be pregnant.
He had weighed all the possibilities, and it was only sensible to not reveal her identity as of now.
For that, he had to make sure that there was no evidence, like photographs of their marriage, and that the marriage would take place in a more private place with higher security.
Sighing, he concentrated back on his work because those matters could be dealt with back at his mansion.
Mia reached the orphanage along with Rachel, but was disappointed when she found out that Chole wasn’t around.
Upon asking, she was informed that she had recently found a job, which made her suspicious.
“Mia, when are you going to come back and live with us like old times?” She looked beside her, and found Richard looking at her with his innocent eyes.
“I don’t know, baby, I miss you all too.” She pouted, but Richard was already scrunching up his face, and Mia thought that he felt bad.
“I’m not a baby, Lena is.” He argued and pointed at Lena, who was busy colouring. She heard him and looked up, frowning at him.This belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.
“I don’t like you, Richard.” She stuck out her tongue and went back to colouring.
Richard glared at her or tried to glare at her, but she was unaffected.
“I don’t like you either.” He said it loudly and looked away in anger, crossing his little arms.
Mia looked at the duo with amusement.
“Richard, Lena, what was that?” She asked after a moment, and both of them peeked at each other before going back to ignoring each other.
Mia shook her head and chuckled to herself.
“Okay, so now that the two of you are fighting, I might as well give all the hugs and kisses to her.” She mentioned the names of the kids in her orphanage. She deliberately slowed down when she found the two of them looking at her in horror.
“Noooo! We are not fighting.”
“I want hugs and kisses too.” Both of them yelled at the same time, and Mia grinned before opening her arms for them.
Richard hugged her softly as he was sitting beside her, but as Lena ran to them, Mia felt worried about her baby.
“Stupid, don’t run, you will hurt the baby.” Richard called out to Lena, who was ready to crash into Mia.
Lena slowed down and stared at her belly mysteriously.
Mia was surprised at how mature Richard was acting, and she didn’t even know how he had come to know about this.
Lena was still inspecting her belly, and as she came forward and touched it lightly with her tiny hand, she looked up at Mia.
“You have a baby in here?” Her question and the innocence on her face made Mia say, ‘Awwwn’.
“Yes, she does. Or else, how do you think her belly has grown so big?” Richard slightly hit her forehead, to which Lena glared at him and hit him back on his arm, but it didn’t affect him at all.
“Okay, no hitting each other, and Richard, how do you know about this?” She turned to look at him, and he smiled rather sheepishly.
“I asked Chloe the other day after I saw your big belly.” He informed her, and she smiled.
Lena stretched out her arms towards Mia, asking her to pick her up, but Richard gestured for her not to do that.
“Mia, I want to hug you too, please.” She whined, and Richard shook his head as he stood up and picked Lena up in his arms.
She flapped her arms and legs, not wanting to be picked up by him, but he ignored it and placed her beside Mia.
“Lena, stop irritating Richard, he’s only helping you.” Mia said sternly, but Lena just frowned more and clung to her.
“He annoys me more, he calls me smally, short, and teases me every time he’s bad.” She complained, and Mia looked at Richard only to find him staring at Lena with a sad smile.
“Richard?” She called out his attention, as he focused his attention back to her.
“I’ll go play with the rest of the kids.” Saying so, he dashed out of there and Lena snuggled more into Mia while she thought of the matter.
Something was definitely up with Richard and he wasn’t sharing it with anyone.
Chloe was happy with her decision of working with Mark, because he had nowhere made her feel uncomfortable or sad at any time.
Sure, it was only her fourth day at his company but she never felt left out.
“Chloe, come in.” She heard his voice through the intercom and stood up to go inside.
“Yes sir?” She looked at him, as he flipped through some papers.
She never thought she would see him in this version, being all serious and professional because he is always joking around when he is not working.
“Ms. Chloe?” He called, as she was brought out of her trance when Mark called her a little loudly.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you sir.” She apologised, and a frustrated look appeared on his face.
“Please stop daydreaming, Ms. Chloe. I won’t be repeating the same things for you twice.” He said rather harshly, and she looked down because she knew it was her fault.
“I’m sorry sir.” She said in a low voice, and Mark sighed, closing his eyes.
It had been a rough morning for him. He had woken up with a headache and even now it seemed to worsen.
He massaged his temples and Chloe noticed it, but kept quiet.
She realised he must be having a headache, so she immediately went out and got him the medicine she always kept in her bag.
“If you don’t mind sir, please take this medicine. You’ll feel better.” She placed the tablet on his desk, and stepped back. Mark looked at the medicine and then at Chloe.
“I’ll leave you alone for now sir, I hope you feel better soon.” With that, she left his cabin before he could say anything else.
Sighing, the first thing he did was take the medicine given to him, and then relaxed in his chair. He now has to think of how he is going to apologise to her.