Chapter 481 You’re Not My Dad
After a few struggles, Angie felt as though her head would explode and her subconscious took over soon after the vodka’s after-effects hit her.
She flailed her arms around like a madman inside the steadily moving vehicle and even violently ripped Elijah’s shirt open while he was driving. After leaving a few blood streaks on his lean torso, she began to spew gibberish uncontrollably.
“Why did you eat my cookie, you nincompoop?”
“Give me back my head!”
“Where’s my head?” Angie suddenly bawled. “Where’s my head?”
On the other hand, Elijah felt utterly speechless and frustrated. However, she gradually began sobbing aggrievedly for a long time, and it seemed rather genuine. It was no exaggeration to say that she looked like a weeping beauty when she raised her head again.
With that, she sniffled and smeared her nose against the back of her hand. She hesitated for a few seconds, but she still wiped her snotty hand on the man’s suit jacket.
“Angie Grant!”
Elijah’s face turned beyond grim upon realizing what she had done, and his face was all bunched up. However, before he could hit the roof, the young girl fell asleep with her head slumped aside.
Later, the car arrived at the manor. As Elijah killed the engine, Mrs. Robins, who had heard the noise, immediately opened the main door and found him slamming the car door shut.
His hair was slightly ruffled, and his white dress shirt had been ripped apart, revealing half of his torso. He even removed the suit jacket he wore in frustration while he headed out and chucked it to the ground.
Mrs. Robins bent over to pick up the jacket, having no clue what had happened. “Mr. Grant…”
Elijah looked back at her in response and ordered with a complicated gaze while waving his hand, “Just throw it away.”
What a shame it was to throw away such fine fabric. However, judging from Elijah’s mood, Mrs. Robins knew it wasn’t a good time to speak up despite her hesitation. By the time she came back from throwing the jacket away, he had already carried Angie out of the car.
With that, he strode steadily upstairs. He suddenly stopped upon reaching the staircase on the second floor, for he felt a warm and wet sensation trickling down his back. His face gradually turned grim while his pupils shook.
“Mr. Grant…” What was happening before Mrs. Robin’s eyes had rendered her stupefied.
“D-Drive slowly… I get seasick… Blergh—”
At last, Elijah’s last bit of reasoning turned to dust following Angie’s mumble, and after putting her in bed, he soaked in the bathtub for a solid two hours.
When he came out, the maid named Tanya happened to come out from Angie’s room with a tray in her hand. Tanya turned the other way hurriedly upon seeing Elijah, and she was obviously in a panic. As a result, the glass of water on the tray tipped and smashed onto the floor.
“Why are you running away?”
Elijah frowned and reflexively lifted his snow-white bathrobe in self-doubt. He gave it a sniff, and the furrow on his brow eased a little after he was sure he didn’t smell of vomit.
Meanwhile, Tanya squatted down in two shakes to pick up the glass shards as she mumbled, “Miss Angie refuses to take the hangover pill or go to sleep no matter what after her shower. She hasn’t stopped fussing, and I came out to get a new glass of water after seeing that it had turned cold.”
Tanya’s face was flushed, but since she had been squatting all this while, Elijah didn’t notice it. After cleaning up all the glass shards, she brought a new glass of warm water to Angie’s room. However, who would have thought that she would witness a salacious scene?! She backed up and bumped her back on the doorframe in a shock, causing the glass to tip and spin a couple of times before smashing onto the floor once again.
While Tanya was fetching a new glass of water, Elijah had gone in to check on Angie. Meanwhile, she had changed into a nightgown with Tanya’s help. The alcohol was burning inside her right then, and in her drunken stupor, she felt a foreign yet cooling sensation on her forehead. Instinctively, she grabbed it and brought it to where her body felt warmest.
“Hot,” she muttered with a hint of grievance.
Elijah’s expression changed as he watched Angie bring his hand down to her fair chest, which rose and fell following her erratic breathing beneath the thin silk garment. Five years was enough to change the once tanned and scrawny girl into the mature maiden that Angie was now.
His gaze darkened upon that, and he was looking somewhat grim.
While he attempted to pull his hand out of her grip, her indignant ‘I’m already an adult’ during Courtney’s wedding popped into his head.
Meanwhile, Angie whimpered like a child who had been robbed of their precious treasure after the cold sensation was gone. “You’re not my dad. I don’t have a dad.”
Her dull, hoarse voice reverberated in Elijah’s ear continuously.
“Why do you have to adopt me? Must we be father and daughter?”
Warm tears streamed down Angie’s face as she whined, staining her light gray sheets with circles of teardrops.
Chaos surged within Elijah as he looked at Angie. I shouldn’t have come, he thought, and he quickly got up following that. However, a force tugged at his fingers as he took a step and he fell backward before landing on the edge of the bed.
The next second, a head of hair brushed against his shoulder. A pair of soft and warm lips accompanied by a faint alcoholic scent inched toward him.
It was a déjà vu moment for Elijah, but what was more appalling to him was that an indescribable—but certainly not repulsive—sensation was pouring out of him.
However, he forced himself to stay sane as he warned coldly, “Angie.”
Despite his evasion, Angie’s approaching lips brushed past his ears and her head landed on his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him in passing, causing the top half of his bathrobe to loosen and expose half of his torso. Now, the only thing separating their beating hearts was Angie’s thin silk garment.
Right at that moment, the impenetrable defense he thought he had within him wavered. It only happened for a moment nonetheless, for he heard a drinking glass shatter the next second. This saved him from his nearly collapsing reasoning.
The sound awoke Angie a little as well, and she looked toward the door with narrowed eyes to find a lean figure curled up not far away. However, sleep was creeping up on her as she mumbled under her breath, “Water.”
With that, Elijah settled her back in bed, and by the time he turned back to Tanya, his fathomless gaze was overflowing with great displeasure. “Tell Mrs. Robins to bring another glass of water.”
Tanya scurried away in fear upon hearing that, but it also seemed as though she had received amnesty.
Mrs. Robins entered moments later, and Elijah left Angie’s room after giving a couple of orders. Meanwhile, his phone kept ringing, but he hung up on all of them in a vexed manner. As such, Lilian had no choice but to text him, ‘President Grant, the guys at Manhattan have been waiting for your video conference for a long time to discuss the funds for the project.’
With that, he went to his study. Fatigue was written all over his face when he sat down at his desk. After a moment’s exhaustion, he reluctantly connected the video conference. However, he suddenly called off the meeting midway and postponed it to a later date.
After disconnecting it, he lit a cigarette in the dark. As the intense smell of tobacco dispersed, the uneasiness beneath his fathomless gaze was also gradually tucked away.
Tanya had been in constant fear after she returned to her room. It was her turn to be on duty that day, but thanks to her uneasy pacing, she woke Marianne up by accident, who had finally fallen asleep.
Marianne opened her bleary eyes at that and rolled over in exasperation as she snapped, “Go outside if you don’t want to sleep. Don’t you think you’re being a bother by pacing around the room like this?”
As she drifted back to sleep later on, she thought she heard the door opening and closing as well as the sound of footsteps drifting away.
