Chapter 7 Enjoying Life

Madeline lay curled-up in the guest room, in shock. Her tears were flowing freely down her cheeks.

She dreaded to think of the kind of misery the future held for her. If Blake ever learned that she had had a one night stand with her cousin, he would surely kill her. What was more, she might also implicate the Luo family, and Rory.

Her heart was filled with fear. What was she to do?

Would she have to beg Bryan to hold his tongue?

Or did he not remember her at all?

She prayed that he had already forgotten that night. That absurd, stupid night!

Her hand was throbbing painfully. She had shredded her nails during the struggle and her fingers were covered in blood. The metallic smell made her sick.

A knock on the door made her shiver. She held her breath. What if Blake had suddenly woken up and was looking for her?

She couldn't hear a thing. Maybe she had imagined it?

She forced herself to leave the bed and slowly opened the door. There was no one outside. It had indeed been a hallucination.

A shiny silver ray caught her eye.

Something was on the ground.

It was a plate with several pieces of bread and a glass of milk.

Only when she saw the food did she become aware of the sharp pang of hunger she had been feeling for some time.

The next morning, Blake was woken up by a violent headache. He rubbed his temples and sat up laboriously.

What happened yesterday? Why couldn't he remember?

Sweating and shivering, he splashed some cold water on his face, which had the effect of sobering him up. The memories came rushing in.

Had he slept with that woman?

He felt vaguely disgusted with himself. How could he sleep with such a disgusting creature?

A white silk sheet on the ground caught his attention.

Anne must have had prepared it for him. But what were those dark red spots?

Could it be blood? Had she been a virgin?

Madeline got up early in the morning to help Anne cook breakfast.

"Ma'am, this is not what you need to do. Please leave them to me. You could rest outside,"

Anne tried to persuade her again.

"Anne, it's okay. I'm used to it. I just use it as a mean to exercise," Madeline gave her wan but sincere smile.

"You are the hostess. If you want to exercise, you can go to the fitness room. If Mr. Blake hears what you have done, he will blame me."

Madeline thought bitterly to herself, 'he is only too anxious to give me a hard time!'

But she put on a brave face and gently answered, "No, he won't."

"Ma'am, please. I beg you. If he gets angry, we can't stand it. Besides, the breakfast will be ready soon. You'd better go into the dining room and wait,"

Anne sounded desperate.

As the breakfast was indeed almost ready, Madeline complied and left the kitchen. She didn't want to cause unnecessary distress to Anne.

The breakfast was sumptuous, a beautiful mix of Chinese, Western and Korean cuisines.

When Bryan went downstairs and saw her, he thought for a second that his eyes were deceiving him. He hadn't expected her to get up and prepare breakfast. Moreover, he didn't see the damages that she had withstood the previous night.

"Good morning, Bryan!" Madeline greeted him with a warm smile.

"Good morning," Bryan's voice was barely louder than a whisper.

"Thank you for last night!" Madeline said after some hesitation.

Feigning to be absorbed in his newspaper, Bryan didn't even raise his head. He just gave a curt nod as a courtesy.

"Who let you sit here?" As soon as she made to sit on the chair, a fierce scream destroyed the quiet peacefulness of the room.

Blake had come downstairs and was glaring threateningly at Madeline.

She stood up at once like she had been electrocuted and shrieked, "You have woken up!"

"If I hadn't, were you going to eat by yourself and leave your husband to starve?" snarled Blake, sitting himself opposite to Bryan.

"I..." Madeline couldn't find a good answer. She had had no intention of waking him up.

Blake looked around the room and directly addressed his servants, "From now on, there is no Mrs. Li in this house. There is only one more servant here. If I see someone treat her as a hostess here again, I will immediately let them get out of the Li family."

"Yes, sir!" The servants' answer had been immediate and unanimous. They did not dare disrespect him.

He threw a look of pure disdain at Madeline and said lazily, "your place is not here."

Madeline nodded, "Okay, I see."

That would be the best. She really didn't want to be the Mrs. of the Li family.

On the first day of their marriage, she was demoted from being Mrs. Li to the lowest servant of the Li family.

She stood aside in a reverent pose, and she and Anne watched the two men enjoy their breakfast.

Bryan didn't say a word from beginning to end. His face was impenetrable. Not even the slightest frown could betray what he was thinking about.

Once their breakfast finished, they left the servants to clean the table.

As expected, Bryan immediately went to work. Blake, lazy and entitled as ever, went out to entertain himself, presumably in a place where the wine flew freely and the women were plentiful.

For the first couple of days, the servants were polite to Madeline and didn't dare order her around casually.

However, Blake's dreadful attitude toward her emboldened them to treat her a little worse every day.

"Hey! We don't have any seasonings left. Go to the supermarket and buy some," Liam barked at Madeline.

"Okay, give me the list," Madeline meekly answered.

"Liam, what are you doing? This is your job. How can you let others do it for you?"

Anne was the only one still kind to her.

Liam raised her eyebrows and sneered, "How can't I let her do it? Mr. Blake has said that she is just a servant. Since she is a servant, she should work. I'm doing this for her sake. If Mr. Blake comes back and sees her mucking about, he will definitely punish her again."

"Liam, you are getting more and more unreasonable," Anne snapped back, her cheeks flushed with anger.

"It's okay, Anne. She's right." Madeline softly pressed Anne's hand and gave her a reassuring shake of the head.

"How can you say that and smile?" Madeline's sad and defeated smile broke Anne's heart.

Madeline put on a coat. It was the first time she was going out since her marriage.

She was a caged bird, desperate to see the sky again.

She rode a scooter for two hours, the villa was far from the city. She felt happiness fill her heart, a feeling she had almost forgotten could exist.

She was humming on her bike, savoring this rare moment of freedom.

Kent walked into the office, smiling broadly. "Boss, good news."

Bryan asked nonchalantly, without even bothering to look up, "Blossom Company went bankrupt?"

"How did you know? I thought it was firsthand and want to give you a surprise." Kent was disappointed.

"It's common sense for a good businessman to know the current situation of his competitors all the time," Bryan calmly replied.

"Yes, yes. To know one's own strength and the enemy's is the sure way to victory. Boss, you have managed another successful case." Kent adorned his praise with a smile.

Putting down the documents he was holding, Bryan looked at Kent and asked, "How's the purchase going?"

"Boss, don't you trust me? In fact, this is the surprise I give you."

Kent triumphantly put a document in front of Bryan.

"Acquisition contract!"

Bryan nodded appreciatively. "Good job!"

"But I heard that the boss of Blossom Company had a heart attack this morning and died," Kent added.

"Okay." Bryan sounded indifferent, almost bored.

"Boss, don't you feel sorry for him?" Kent asked tentatively. Surely, even a competitor's death was a sad occasion.

Bryan stood up and picked up his coat. "Business is like a battlefield. If I were defeated, I might have died more miserably."

Kent followed him. Looking at his handsome but ruthless boss, he felt ashamed of his own weakness.

"Sir, the general manager of the Luo Group, Rory Fu wants to see you."