Chapter 9 A Bossy Boy

The black-clad bodyguard, unused to being completely ignored, gritted his teeth and scoffed, "Humph! You are asking for this."

Then he got out of the car and appeared before Alice in a flash.

Shocked, Alice's eyes opened widely. Before she could even realize what was happening, the man raised his hand and struck the nape of her neck. Alice felt an intense pain in the neck and lost consciousness afterward.

The next day

A soft breeze made the white curtains flutter.

The room was in a mess with clothes scattered all over the floor.

Lying on the king-sized bed was a woman with her face slightly buried in the fluffy pillow. Her gorgeous face looked breathtaking as the soft morning light shone on it.

She had long eyelashes, and her beautiful face had just the right amount of baby fat. Her fair skin had two discernible traces of red fingerprints etched on it.

"Hmm..." Alice mumbled. Her eyelids fluttered, slowly letting the light in with a squint, and her brain kicked back into gear.

Embracing the thin blanket, she sat up and looked around at her surroundings. She noticed the unusual furnishings in the room, and her blurry vision gradually became as clear as day.

She tried recalling the events from yesterday. The man in a black suit had knocked her out and abducted her after.

Where was this place?

Alice frowned and tried to get out of bed.

But her legs couldn't move, like something warm and heavy was holding them down.

"Dear, why are you up so early?" A fair hand peeked out from under the covers and pressed against her chest.

Her brain froze for a few seconds. She then snapped out of her reverie, shook off the hand, and curled her legs toward the bed's edge. With one quick tug of the blanket, she exposed the other person's body.

"Ouch! Dear, why are you acting so rough today?" A little fair-skinned boy swathed in the blanket fell on the floor with a light thud. He gently rubbed his buttocks and got up, groaning.

"How can it be a child?" Holding onto the thin blanket, Alice was frightened out of her wits.

"Then who are you expecting? My cold-faced father? Don't even waste your time fantasizing about it. Just serve me." The boy stood up and climbed up to the bed, his handsome little face shedding a healthy glow. With nose and forehead scrunched up, his gaze swept over the stunned woman in front of him.

"Who are you anyway?" Alice rubbed between her eyebrows. How did she end up sharing a bed with a kid she didn't know?

Sorting through the jumbled information in her mind, it took her a while to develop a solid understanding of the situation. Then her eyes widened as she asked skeptically, "Are you the one who was interested in hiring me yesterday?"

"That's right!" The little boy only stood as tall as her waist, but his aura of respectability was relatively higher than hers. "My name is Hiram Lan, and you may call me Hiram. Starting today, you will be my mother. I will call you Mommy, and your role is to take care of me. You'll love and nurture me until I grow up. Does that make sense to you?"

He was from the Lan family, and from what he could recall, he grew up with only his father and grandmother. The word "mother" was a taboo in the Lan family.

The little boy never asked the reason why nobody had spoken about his mother.

Alice felt a headache. How could he hire someone like her to be his mother?

"What's with that face? Don't you want to do it?" Dejected, Hiram made a wry face. His charming face revealed some unspeakable dignity and coldness.

"What is going on with you? Last night, you hugged me in your arms, and you even called me babe. You wouldn't let me leave your side no matter what. Now that you're awake, how come you're turning your back on me?"

Alice vaguely recalled having a dream last night-she had given birth to her baby, who was taken away from her right after delivery. She desperately grasped the baby and held it in her arms. She wouldn't let go no matter how much others wanted to separate them.

Wasn't all of that a dream? Was she sleeping with the little guy in front of her?

"How can you hire anyone to be your mom? Your mother will be unhappy and upset." She rubbed her pulsating temples and softened down her tone to show compassion to the boy.

"I grew up without a biological mother." Hiram spoke calmly, gazing at her.

He thought of the instance last night when she pulled him into her arms. Many servants could not break up their embrace.

There was a certain warmth in her hug that made him feel secure.

If having a mother felt like that, it wasn't bad at all.

'He has no mother?'

When Alice heard what he said, she hesitated and sensed extreme anguish in her heart.

"Every child has a mother who will love you more than anyone else in the world." Alice instinctively raised her hand to caress the boy's soft, rosy face, her heart feeling a sweet bitterness deep within.

Her child would have grown up to this age by now.

There was nothing she could do but breathe a heavy sigh. She wondered why she suddenly thought of her child.

Besides, she wouldn't have any chance of seeing her baby again in this lifetime. Even if she did, it would be impossible for her to know it was her baby.

"Oh, okay," Hiram answered with indifference, feeling her delicate fingertips lightly touching his face.

She had hands gentler than his father's, and they smelled good.

"Then I will leave. Be good and listen to what your father has to say." Alice readily pulled back her hand and got up. She needed to find a job and couldn't waste her time accompanying a kid.

"Are you still leaving? Don't you get what I'm saying? I'm going to hire you as my mom, and here's the first three months' pay!" With an icy expression, Hiram drew out a check from inside the bedside table's drawer and flung it in front of Alice.

"But..." It startled Alice when she saw that the check was real.

All the while, she had thought that his plans of hiring her as his mother were a mere childish outburst, but she didn't expect him to be serious.

After all, the little boy sitting across her seemed to be only five years of age at most.

Hiram candidly snapped his fingers, and a secretary wearing business attire appeared, carrying a paper, pen, and other things. She carefully set them down in front of Alice.

"That is the contract stating that I'm hiring you to be my mother. Please sign the document if you don't have a problem with it. I suggest you sign it right away. I need to attend my classes, and I don't have time to waste on you."

'Wow, he is so mature!'

With mixed emotions, Alice picked up the contract and sifted through it. The terms were so comprehensive that she couldn't find any errors.

"Miss Luo, you have nothing to worry about. Hiram keeps his word. I assure you there won't be any problem."

Alice took the pen and affixed her signature on the document with the affirmation of the secretary's sweet voice. However, a sense of unreality within her heart was growing stronger.

When he saw the secretary secure the signed contract inside her portfolio, Hiram raised his eyebrows, and his tightly-pursed lips lifted slightly.

He inherited the technique from his uncaring father. In that brief moment, an ignorant Alice failed to notice it.