Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 241: Replace The Past

Anne shook off the thoughts a second later.

What was she even thinking? She was letting Emma’s words sink into her brain influencing her thoughts.

She wouldn’t need to go that far to get his forgiveness. Anne thought.

"Alright enough, all of you don’t need to put ideas in her head." Razia cut off the noisy maids. "Mrs Sterling, just an apology will do, but you’d have to set the tone first. For example do something special for him, then apologize that is going to work for sure."

At this moment, butler Jones suddenly entered the living room making all the staff panic and get on their feet, standing in a straight line respectfully as they were supposed to.

The time had gotten late and they had all gathered chatting away with the mistress, it was against the rules so they were sure that butler Jones would scold them. However the butler didn’t seem to bother about them, instead he kept an old book in front of Anne keeping it open at a certain page on the table in front of her.

Anne had been ready to defend the maids if butler Jones were to scold them about the rules again but him keeping the book in front of her made her quite surprised.

Anne looked down and found it to be a page filled with ingredients to a recipe. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

She picked it up and read it, it seemed to be the recipe for a cake or cookies.

She glanced up at the butler questioningly to which he went on to say,

"Years ago this was master’s favorite snack, but he hasn’t had it in years. Back then, even as a child he only ate it because it was his mother’s favorite but when his mother was no longer..." Butler Jones seemed to stop himself, his eyes looking like someone who had misspoken keeping secrets that made Anne feel curious wanting to know.

"If you make this for master and he tastes it again then maybe you might touch a warm place in the master’s heart."

Actually, butler Jones knew warmth had long deserted Andrew. But lately it was evident to the eye that he cared about Anne but there were still some reservations. Others might not see it but the butler knew those reservations had been born from the trauma of his past.

For ordinary people it was easy to fall in love, easy to say words of love to another, but for a man who had experienced the most painful type of rejection, the rejection of one’s own parents, even if that person seemed like they feared absolutely nothing in the world, somewhere inside there would still be that fear of rejection.

This type of person would much rather stay in the comfortable, a place where they neither shared their feelings nor let it show too much, even if love eventually came their way they would either run from it or hold it yet not fully grasping it, not fully letting it out that they cared, that vulnerability would be too heavy for them to step into, because they had been rejected once, they could be rejected again.

If Anne was going to teach the master how to love again, the butler wanted to slowly introduce her to Andrew’s past, perhaps that way she could heal his internal wounds.

"You said master doesn’t like eating this anymore, what if he gets angry at mistress for giving it to him now? If she should apologize to him, I’d suggest she does something safe so she won’t annoy master even more." Razia stepped up to say to the butler after hearing what he’d said and the other staff agreed with her.

The goal was to appease the master not to make him angrier, one would only stop eating something because they no longer liked it, so Anne making his favorite childhood snack which he no longer liked might just annoy him even more.

Butler Jones was aware that what he suggested had two sides and risks.

When master stopped eating that particular snack, his mother had long left and he had realized that she would never be coming back, so he eliminated everything related to her in his life. However butler Jones knew because he had seen the young man grow up, everything he let go of wasn’t because he now despised his mother, everything he let go of was because he had felt unworthy.

For a child that young, neither receiving love from it’s mother or father he would think; If I were better, would they have loved me, if I were stronger would they have loved me? If I were perfect, would they have loved me?

Andrew had gone on to be the very best at everything he did in life, be it academics and the business world.

If others didn’t see it, the butler saw that little boy screaming deep within.

Mom, look at me. I’m stronger now, wealthier now, do you regret not caring for me, do you regret walking away and abandoning me?

The cry of that little child, whose young face turned strong and cold when he realized the love and affection he longed for he would never get, butler Jones could still hear it till this day.

Andrew had worked really hard to become CEO of SE, even if he told others it was to gain power, butler Jones knew... It was for that woman to someday see the son she’d left behind on the TV screen, having risen to the highest peak. To make her hurt, to make her feel pain and regret.

With the weight of such a heavy past still on his heart, it would affect his future.

"I still think you should make these cookies mistress. It’ll remind master of his childhood but it’ll be different now, he’s no longer in the past but the present. I believe master will forgive you if you do that."

Bad memories could be replaced with sweet ones, bitterness would be replaced with sweetness, it was what butler Jones hoped would happen.

"But mistress..." Razia seemed adamantly against what the butler had suggested. Some bitter memories should be left and forgotten in the past, bringing them to the present would re-awaken hate, and Razia feared that hate would be poured on Anne. She knew the history of the Sterling family and how Andrew had hated his mother for a long time and anything associated with her and she feared a sleeping beast within the master would be awakened if that part of his memory was touched.

"Can you tell me what happened with his mother?" Anne asked butler Jones hopefully.

Her knowledge was the general knowledge others had about the Sterling family. It was known that all three Sterling sons came from different mothers and in the past, she hadn’t tried to pry because she had continued to hold onto the fact that their marriage was fake, but now even if that didn’t change, she wanted to know Andrew more.

Behind his unpredictable temper she had seen someone deeply wounded, and the butler mentioning Andrew’s past made her curious to see how deep Andrew’s wounds go.

Anne thought the butler wouldn’t want to share that story, she was ready to tell the butler that it was fine I he didn’t want to speak about it, but instead he gave the staff at the side a look that they seemed to quickly understand and began filing out of the room leaving Anne and the butler alone.

Razia left last and quite hesitantly looking as if she wanted to warn Anne about something but in the end the butler’s gaze silenced her and she left as well.

Butler Jones sat down across from Anne and narrated the whole story in the way he had witnessed it in a calm voice to Anne.

As he spoke, Anne finally seemed to understand why elder Sterling had made that request of her the other day,

’Please make him happy, fill the empty spots in his life...’

Anne felt her eyes sting with tears.

For her, she’d had a beautiful childhood. She had lost her parents, but her parents had been forced to leave her, for him...his parents had been there but chose to let him go, how painful it must have been. How broken he must have been, and to hide all that pain behind anger was the only thing he could do.

"You can help master heal his past by replacing the bad memories with something good of the present. That’s why I suggested you make these cookies as a start, they’re his earliest memories which turned bitter."

There was silence in the room, butler Jones could see the empathy in Anne’s eyes and thought quietly,

If only the master had met someone like you sooner.

"Alright, I’ll do it." Anne suddenly agreed and butler Jones looked taken aback, he stared at her with hints of surprise before a smile slowly showed on his face, giving his usually strict face some warmth.

It was true, old master indeed hadn’t chosen wrong.