Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 270: Here With You

Her tears soaked the front of his white dress shirt and as he recalled everything the driver had told him of what he saw when he had gone to pick Anne up from work, his fingers tightened into a fist but Andrew controlled the rage bubbling inside him when he felt her tremble lightly in his arms.

At the time he received the call, he had been in a scheduled meeting with a few of the company’s executives, however the meeting itself ended at the very moment he heard his wife had been in danger.

Her tiny sobs had ceased completely and as her breathing settled back to normal, his did too because with every second he heard her breathing break and felt her body tremble in the residue of fear that had built up inside her, his body tensed up inside and a destructive urge began to well up inside him.

He gently drew her back from his embrace and peered down into her face, her cheeks damp and wet with tears causing something to tightly constrict in his chest, he moved his hands up to her face wiping off the dampness of her cheeks while tilting her face upwards so she could look up into his eyes.

"I won’t let this happen to you again." He muttered assuringly as he caressed her face, on the outside he was comforting her because he hated seeing her so frightened and on the inside he was calming his own anger but the moment his gaze landed on the harsh red finger marks around her neck, he stilled for a moment and the fury he was keeping controlled seeped through him at once.

He further tilted her chin upwards, his eyes blazing as he got a better view of the marks.

A dangerous look flashed through his dark eyes, his jaw clenching in barely controlled fury.

Anne was already in a fragile state, so Andrew didn’t want the murderous intent that suddenly came over him seep through, he would hate to frighten her more when he was trying to reassure and ease her fear, so keeping his voice low and levelled he asked,

"Did you see the bastard who did this to you?"

Anne shook her head but then after thinking for a few seconds nodded, then realizing something she parted her lips to speak,

"I didn’t see him, his face was covered but I think I can recognize him if I see him again."

Andrew nodded in understanding, "That’s good enough."

He took his eyes away from the red marks around her neck because the more he looked at it, the more annoyed he felt so much so there was a nagging itch on his fists and he wanted to rain all the rage into whoever it was that had dared to harbor the thought of touching a single hair on her head.

Leaning downwards, Andrew effortlessly picked her up walking over to the bed and placed her down in a sitting position then he sat down next to her as he asked,

"Have you had something to eat?"

Anne shook her head then replied, "I’m not really hungry."

"You still need to have something to eat, even just a little." He said before picking his phone out of his pocket and made a call,

"Tell the kitchens to make dinner..." He began instructing, "Yes, the dishes I gave them last time."

He hung up the call afterwards and when he looked at Anne, his gaze fell on the mark around her neck again, it made him instinctively grit his teeth and look away. He stayed next to her because he knew she was still shaken until one of the staff came to announce that dinner was ready.

He picked her up at the moment she was about to stand up, without any explanations he carried her downstairs to the dining room. She didn’t ask him to put her down like she usually would, instead she stayed quietly in his arms, her arms tightly holding onto him. The way she delicately curled in his arms made him feel good at how perfectly she fit in his arms at the same time, he felt a small ache in his heart at how extremely fragile she felt.

Instead of settling her in another seat at the dining table, he made her sit on his lap not caring how the maids who came in to serve dinner looked wide eyed and shocked to see him holding Anne so intimately. Even when Anne tried to curl away from where he placed her on his lap he didn’t let her leave. He was determined to personally feed her every bite of food she would eat here tonight.

He saw the surprise in her eyes when she noticed every dish in the table was her favorite. She looked at him with that same surprise but he gave her a mysterious smile before proceeding to feed her, keeping track of what she seemed to like most among the dishes and fed her more of that, in the end she didn’t eat much but she ate enough to keep him at ease.

After she had eaten, he left her alone in the living room for a while to go make some important calls, by the time he returned to her side several of the maids were gathered around her, all of them seemingly showing sympathy and reassurance to her, what happened to her must have spread across the whole manor by now, he didn’t know what sort of relationship she had developed with the household staff but he wasn’t opposed to it if it made her happy.

When he returned to the living room, their faces turned pale as if a demon had entered the room and they quickly began scurrying away, the staff weren’t his concern, his wife was. He picked her up again and took her back upstairs, he didn’t like how awfully quiet she was being, she was barely saying a word.

When he entered her room, he placed her down gently on the bed, his phone rang urgently breaking through the silence of her feminine bedroom that always carried her scent, when Andrew glanced down and saw who was calling, he started turning to leave but Anne hastily grabbed his hand, when he gazed down at her she suddenly let go, he didn’t like the slight look of regret in her eyes when she seemed to realize that she had instinctively held him back from leaving so he caught her hand back in his before she could fully pull away.

"I’ll be right back."

He could see in her eyes that she didn’t want to be alone, she was still shaken and he didn’t plan to leave her side for too long.

He saw as relief rushed back into her eyes at his reassurance and she nodded, only then did he release her hand and went out of the room.

Within that short amount of time he had left he took and made a lot of calls, he definitely wouldn’t let this pass, and before this night was over he would find who had done this to his wife.

He later returned to her room with something he had gone downstairs to get from the butler to ease the bruise around her neck.

He found Anne sitting on the bed with her back against the headboard, her knees were pulled up close to her chest and she was hugging her knees.

It was a fragile looking self protective position that made an ache surface in his chest along with a sharp guilt that tugged hard at his chest.

He should have taken protective measures to keep her safe, how could he not have seen that there was someone out there trying to hurt her.

She uncurled herself from that position when she saw him return, keeping her eyes on him as he walked over to her side.

Quietly, he sat by the edge of the bed facing her, taking the tube of ointment he had gotten from the butler and squeezed it onto his finger, when he reached to apply it on her neck she jolted a little, pulling back her eyes widening and he saw fear in them, it was an instinctive move her body had made to protect itself, most likely from the trauma of what had just happened to her today.

It made that painful tug in his chest grow even tighter.

"I... I’m sorry, I was just..." She seemed to have realized that her body had reacted even without her wanting to.

"It’s okay." He spoke softly, he wanted the edge around her to settle, her body and mind was traumatized and it would take a little bit of time for her to get over it. He looked deep in her eyes, making sure she would see that he was dead serious when he said he wouldn’t let any harm come to her again,

"I’m here with you, no one can hurt you, okay?"

He heard her release a soft exhale, then nodded.

He slowly began to reach forward to apply the ointment to her neck as he said gently, "Relax, can you do that for me?"

She nodded again and he felt the edge flee from her entire being, carefully he applied the ointment around the bruises on her neck.

If he could inflict pain to the person who had done this to her, in this very moment he would leave much more than a bruise around his neck, if he didn’t lose control and snap the bastard’s neck altogether.

Andrew was never good at taking care of other people, these gentle things he was doing for Anne was him learning how to care for someone else because deep in his heart, he wanted to take care of her not just in this very moment but for every other moment as long as there was still breath in him.

For her, he would learn everything he would need to know to give her a comfortable and happy life. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

When he finished applying the ointment he grabbed both her hands in his.

"As much as I’d like to do that, I can’t read your mind Annelise, so if there’s anything you want, anything at all, you can tell me, understood?" He said, waiting patiently for her answer.

Whatever gaps remained between them, he wanted to bridge those gaps. Maybe he couldn’t do them at once, but he would if he had to do them one after the other.

This hint of his feelings for her with the gifts he had left her was one step towards that.

She nodded again.

"Words Annelise, I want you to be able to tell me anything that comes your mind."

Hesitating for two seconds, she finally replied with a single, "Okay."

"Good, now is there anything you want?"

"There is." She answered immediately and a rush of expectation surged through him. It was as if he was eagerly waiting to do anything she would ever ask of him.

He noticed how she was twisting her fingers together as if finding it difficult to ask, but she knew now that he wanted her to openly say her mind, so he waited patiently when she was ready to ask.

"Can you..." She halted slightly, looking a bit nervous before she added,

"Can you please stay with me tonight?"

His mouth tilted upwards, "I never planned to leave Annelise, come here."

He opened his arms to her beckoning her over...