Ch. 896..900: Powerful Papa with Triplet Babies Chapter 896-900
Chapter 896
Ashlynn tied the necktie on and said, “I can be your assistant, but no one in the office can know who I am and you can’t give me any privilege.”
Corentin lifted her chin. “Any other woman would kill for me to make them an exception and you the only one who doesn’t want me to. I like it though.” He pinched her on the thigh.
She hid her legs under the blanket and muttered, “I’m not going today. I’m tired. I want to rest.”
“If you can go to work today, I would begin to doubt my ‘ capability‘“, he said evilly, before getting up to leave.
After resting for a day, Ashlynn went to the office for an interview. There were multiple rounds of interviews and they were all challenging as she could only rely on her own ability.
She first headed to the human resources department, before going to the secretarial department. The person who interviewed her was Corentin’s secretary, Evan Payne, who was going to be her direct supervisor.
“The human resource department sent over three resumes including yours and we’ve decided to offer you this job. You’ve been an assistant before in Luton, so I hope you won’t disappoint me,” Evan said while flipping through her resume.
“I will work hard,” Ashlynn said.
He set the resume down and studied Ashlynn. “The Lloyd Group is an empire and plenty of people could only dream of working here, so consider yourself lucky. Your probation lasts for one month and you will need to satisfy Mr. Lloyd, so remember to always be careful and sharp by his side.”
“I understand.” She felt no pressure in pleasing Corentin.
“One last thing. Do not do anything in front of Mr. Lloyd that is not related to work.”
Ashlynn instantly understood his hidden message, ‘Do not dream of seducing Corentin‘.
She could understand why Evan would remind her of this, as she assumed that someone must have tried in the past and ended up facing horrible consequences.
“Mr. Payne, may I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Have you been Core – Mr. Lloyd’s secretary for years?”
“It’s been eight years.”
“How is he in person?”
Evan felt that she was asking too many questions and wondered if she was concerned that Corentin was hard to please. “Don’t worry. So long as you perform your duties as you are told, Mr. Lloyd is rather forgiving. This document contains all his habits and things to look out for. Memorize these and you are good to go.”
She accepted the file and realized there was a list of pages. She glanced through it, realizing that while the habits Corentin favored matched his character, the things he disliked were a complete opposite of what she knew about Salvatore.
For example, it was stated that Corentin did not smoke, but she had never seen Salvatore without a cigarette between his lips.
Indeed, ever since she had met Salvatore after he became Corentin, she had never seen him smoking, nor had she smelled smoke on him even when they kissed.
“You can go through those later. Let me take you to Mr. Lloyd’s office to familiarize yourself with the environment.” Evan stood up.
Once she stepped into the office, she was bewildered to find that Corentin’s office was extremely spacious and that every detail of the interior gave a proud and authoritative impression.
‘I guess that’s what is expected of someone with his status!‘ She thought.
“We usually work here unless there’s an official meeting. This is the shelf for documents and here’s the wine freezer. You will have to memorize what’s where,” Evan explained while Ashlynn listened.
She was filled with doubt of whether Salvatore was capable of running such a gigantic enterprise when he used to be a common thug who had never had the need to manage anything at all.
She had done her research and Corentin was supposed to be an excellent student who knew multiple languages, whereas Salvatore had merely graduated from third year of secondary school.
Just then, the door was pushed open and Corentin walked in.
“Mr. Lloyd.” Evan walked over. “This is the new assistant we hired. Her name is Ashlynn Thompson. She will be responsible for what the previous assistant did.”
Corentin glanced at Ashlynn, before looking away and walking to his desk.
“Mr. Lloyd, if this is all, we will leave now.”
“Go ahead.”
Evan and Ashlynn were about to step out of the office when they heard noises and turned around to fill a pile of documents on the desk falling onto the ground.
Corentin remained standing and focused on the document in his hand as though he had not noticed it.
Evan shot Ashlynn a look and she approached the desk wordlessly to gather the documents, while Evan walked out of the office.
She picked up all the documents and set them down, when Corentin said, “They weren’t placed there.”
She glanced at the spot where she set the documents down and said confidently, “Mr. Lloyd, I’ve been paying attention to the spots where documents, laptops and pens are placed here since I came in. I don’t think it’s wrong.”
He reached one hand out to grab her by the chin to lift it until their eyes met. “Are you second– guessing my command?”
Ashlynn knew that he was teasing her and said, “You dropped out from secondary school, so what’s wrong about second–guessing you? Can you even speak French?”
“I can.”
“Say something, then.”
He leaned closer to her ears and whispered, “Va te faire foutre.”
She pursed her lips with a dark expression.
Chapter 897
“If that is all, I’m getting back to work now.” Ashlynn stepped back and turned to leave.
Corentin studied the way she tried to be professional and was amused.
It was the right decision to let her work in the Lloyd Group.
He was never afraid of being exposed of his true identity, since he no longer felt like he was Salvatore.
When his phone on the desk started to ring, he glanced at it and answered.
“Come home for dinner tonight,” Cory said.
“Alright.”
By the time Ashlynn got off work, Corentin was no longer in his office and she was surprised that he would leave ahead of time.
Since her supervisor was gone and it was time to go home, she had no other reasons to stay and stepped out of the building to head toward the subway station.
Corentin’s driver sent her to work and stopped in a distance away from the building as she did not want others to see her getting out of Corentin’s car.
Not far away from the building entrance, instead of the car that sent her, she spotted Corentin’s black Bintley.
It was parked silently by the road and knowing that Corentin was waiting for her, she walked over. A bodyguard opened the door and she went inside.
Corentin closed the file in his hand.
‘He sure puts up a good act,‘ she thought.
She was impressed to say the least. As Salvatore, he could never sit still unless he was playing poker with a cigarette between his lips, and she was amazed by how fitting it seemed to see him working as the CEO of a company.
Salvatore’s life had transformed into a play. He had become extremely good at acting to keep others from noticing anything odd, but it did not mean that he was actually eligible for the role.
“Someone will see us.” The car drove into traffic and
Ashlynn tried telling him that she did not want to leave in his car. “I will get back on my own next time. Besides, you have other drivers, don’t you?”
“I would have dragged you along on my way to the parking lot if I wasn’t being considerate.”
She was instantly rendered speechless as she could tell that he had parked the car on the street instead for her sake.
“How was today?” He asked.
“Pretty good. I’ve never worked in such a big company before.” She stared outside the window.
A long arm reached over her shoulders to pull her closer, before Corentin devoured her lips.
“Umph!” Ashlynn did not resist and tolerated it. Once he let go, she panted and said, “You…you only have the guts to act against your ‘character‘ in private.”
“I am Corentin Lloyd.”
She froze and stared at his expression, unable to tell what was real for a moment.
“Don’t forget that you own half of the, Lloyd Group now,” he reminded.
Remembering that she was already married to Corentin, she glanced at the partition that separated the driver
”from the backseat. She knew by heart that the partition was not meant to block the words they shared away, even if the others noticed anything, no one would dare to cross someone as powerful as Corentin by telling others about it.
“If the real Corentin returns one day, am I supposed to be his wife? You are acting dangerously and you are going to drag me down into your mess,” she said.
“Don’t worry. He will never come back.’
Sensing the confidence in his voice, she asked, “Is he dead?”
“You don’t need to know about that. Just relax and be Mrs. Lloyd.”
She did not try asking any more questions. If Corentin refused to talk, there was no way she could get any clue from him or she might not be able to draw a conclusion as she wished to.
The car arrived at the mansion and after Ashlynn got out, she noticed that Corentin remained inside the car.
Chapter 898
“I’m going to the old man’s place for dinner. I’ll come home after that.” She nodded.
As soon as Corentin arrived at the Lloyd family’s chateau, he noticed another car parked in the distance.
With his jacket in hand, he proceeded into the mansion, expressionlessly and heard people conversing.
Meredith was sitting by the coffee table with Cory and the two were chatting.
Her eyes lit up when she saw Corentin, but as a high- born lady, she had her pride and had not forgotten about the humiliation Corentin brought her.
“You are great at arriving at precisely the time you are needed, aren’t you?” Cory said sharply. “It’s so hard to get you here to keep me company. It’s a good thing I have Meredith here.”
Corentin tossed his jacket onto the couch and sat down, before pulling at his necktie. “You know that I’m busy.”
“Be that as it may, you can’t neglect those who are important to you,” Cory said.
Corentin read between Cory’s words and suppressed his frustration, before deciding to play along. “You should have mentioned that Meredith was here. I would have come earlier.”
He had given Meredith an excuse to join the conversation and naturally, Meredith took the hint as she did not come all the way to throw a tantrum. “I’m here to keep Uncle
Cory company. I didn’t know that you were coming. You must be hungry, right? Uncle Cory, let’s start dinner.”
Satisfied with the harmonious atmosphere, Cory got up and said, “Let’s go, then. If I starve you, Meredith is going to be upset with me.”
After dinner, Corentin stayed back to chat with Cory for a while, mostly about the operation of the firm. Corentin was responsive at first and slowly became quiet. With Meredith next to them, Cory knew better than to lose his temper and said, “You should send Meredith back!”
“I thought that she drove here?” Corentin said.
Cory’s expression darkened at how stubborn Corentin was.
Not wanting to stay another moment, Corentin got up and said, “I’ll send you back.”
Meredith got up as well. “Sure! We’ll take our leaves now, Uncle Cory.”
“Sure. Say hello to your grandpa for me. I will go visit them in a few days.”
“I’ll tell him that.”
Meredith went into the Bintley and since Corentin remained silent, she had to take the initiative to start a conversation. “Are you mad about what happened two days ago? I know that guys have their pride, but so do I! I was trying to be nice when I asked Ashlynn to join my birthday party and she gave me such a cheap gift to embarrass me in front of all my friends.”
“I will send you another gift later,” he said.
Her lips curled into a satisfied smile as she leaned over to him and wrapped her arms around his. “Alright. I can forgive you for not being at my birthday party, but you still need to buy me a gift. I like whatever you give me.”
By the time Corentin returned home, Ashlynn had already fallen asleep.
He buried his face in the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply as though he was addicted to her scent.
She hummed in her sleep, before turning around. Corentin pressed his body closer, but soon heard a bark and sensed something moving underneath the blanket.
Before lifting the blanket, he had already guessed what it was. He grabbed hold of the little dog with a dark expression. “You let it sleep on the bed?”
Ashlynn jolted awake and saw her struggling puppy in Corentin’s hand. “I don’t know when it crawled up to the bed. I’ll put it outside the room right now.”
She grabbed her dog and hurried out of bed, before shushing it outside the room. When she went back into the room, she panicked slightly at the expression on his face and said, “Should I call for the maid to change the sheets?“
Chapter 899
“What do you think?”
Ashlynn immediately called for the maids to change the sheets. Once they were done, she crawled back into bed and Corentin dragged her closer.
“If I see it on the bed again, I’ll cook it alive.”
“You can’t bully the weak,” she said.
“You are weak?” He pinned her down and refused to let her get up.
“If I wasn’t weak, you would have been dead by now,” she said resentfully, not knowing the weight of her words and how it reminded Corentin was how Salvatore was sent into prison.
It was because of the betrayal of his most beloved.
Realizing that she had said the wrong thing, she changed the subject. “I’m going back to sleep…’
“Will you betray me again?” He asked.
If there was a chance, Ashlynn would not hesitate to announce his true identity to everyone.
“Ashlynn, if you try to betray me again, don’t blame me for not showing you mercy.” He planted a kiss on her cheek, and her heart sank.
She knew that he was not joking and she had seen the cruelty he was capable of in the past. Her life was hanging by a thread with every moment she spent with him and she could be dead at any moment.
The next day, she arrived at work and heard her colleagues gossiping.
“Say, when is Mr. Lloyd marrying Meredith Hilton?”
“The internet said that it’s happening soon.”
“True. They were literally seen hugging each other. They love each other so much and the two come from equally powerful families. They are such a perfect match. I’m so jealous!”
Ashlynn spotted a few colleagues gossiping with their phones in hand, with news regarding Corentin and Meredith on their screens.
She sat down and unlocked her phone curiously, before seeing the headline title, [Meredith Hilton and the Heir of Lloyd Group: An Approaching Wedding?]
She opened the post and saw a photo of Meredith in Corentin’s arms under the street light. The car parked next to them was blurred, but she could tell that it was Corentin’s Bintley.
The photo was dated the night before and Ashlynn realized that Corentin was home late not simply because he went to have dinner with Cory.
Her landline phone rang and she immediately set her personal phone down to answer.
“Coffee,” Evan said.
“Alright.”
She hung up and noticed that it was not time for Corentin to have his coffee, but since he had ordered it, she had no other options but to make it.
Instead of instant coffee, he only took espresso made from freshly grinded coffee beans with no sugar, enough to kill.
bitter
Ashlynn was amazed by how far he was willing to go to appear like Corentin, but was not surprised, since
Salvatore had always been cruel to others and himself, when it was necessary.
After making the coffee, she brought it to the CEO office.
She knocked and went inside to find Corentin sitting behind his desk. He was not working and was staring at her intently, as though he had been waiting for her.
Ashlynn set the coffee down where he could reach. “Your coffee, Mr. Lloyd.”
“Don’t you have anything to ask me about?” He asked.
She knew that he did not simply want coffee and could, guess what he wanted. “I have no right to mind your business.”
“You can ask about it as my wife, or do you not care?” He leaned back against his chair and narrowed his eyes coldly.
“Should I care? You are the almighty heir of the Lloyd Group now. You can do whatever you want.”
He grabbed her and dragged her over until she fell, their bodies pressed against one another’s.
Chapter 900
“Do you want me to strip you naked right here?”
Startled, she knew that Salvatore was completely capable of such a thing. “Don’t make me hate you.”
“Don’t worry. No matter how many women I have out there, you are the one and only Mrs. Lloyd,” he grinned devilishly.
“Whatever.” She shoved his hand away. “I’m busy. Let me go.”
“Your only job is to please me.” He refused to let go and did not feel like going back to his work either.
Just then, his phone rang.
Ashlynn glanced at the display on the phone. “I’ll let you answer that. I’m leaving.”
She got up and left.
Corentin stared at the closed door and leaned back against his chair, before resting his legs on his office desk with a dark expression. “I’m busy.”
“Have you seen the photo circulating the internet? I’m so angry. I don’t even know who took those! How dare they invade someone else’s privacy? I’m going to send them all a lawyer’s letter.”
“We have a team of capable lawyers here in Lloyd Group, should I ask them to do it?”
“It’s fine. I will handle it! I will just give them a warning so that they won’t spread rumors again,” Meredith said
“Sure.” He hung up and tossed his phone away.
‘Meredith Hilton. That b*tch. How dare she scheme against me?‘ He thought. ‘If I have already taken over the Lloyd Group completely, I would have given her to my alligators! I have to say that being Corentin is just so depressing. I have to control my temper and act all mysterious and calm. If this happened in the past, I would have beaten Meredith to death as soon as I saw those photos!‘
Anne had gone to work for the past two days, as she felt like losing her mind after staying in the mansion for too long.
Most importantly, she had to find a way to get rid of the child inside of her.
She sat in the office chair with her phone in hand and happened upon the headline about the heir of the Lloyd Group and a certain lady of a powerful family.
She opened the photo attached to the news and noticed that it was not Ashlynn.
As the head of Archduke Group and heir to the Lloyd Group, both Anthony and Corentin could not seem to steer clear from relationships with other women.
Anne wondered how Ashlynn felt at the moment, but did not call her, knowing that Ashlynn could take care of herself, while Anne could hardly resolve the crisis ahead of her.
She could sense that her mind was wandering more and more frequently, it was becoming hard to focus or memorize things and it had come to affect her work.
She would spend most of her time daydreaming, or lay on her desk to nap. However, she wanted nothing less than to see Anthony as she could get extremely frustrated and irritated by the increasing urge to get rid of her child.
“Mama!” The door to the office was pushed open and the triplets stumbled their ways inside cheerfully like three little penguins.
Startled, Anne stood from her chair abruptly. “Who sent you here? No, you can’t come here…”
“Mama?” They muttered with confusion.
She gaped at the triplets‘ faces, before turning to leave the office.
‘I don’t want to see them. I’m so afraid…‘ She thought.
She did not know what she was afraid of, but she felt pathetic and did not want her children to see her like that.
Anne darted out of the building until she was next to the, road and stood to watch the traffic dazedly as tears scrolled down her cheeks.
Determined to get rid of the child in Anthony’s absence, she caught a taxi and said, “Take me to the nearest hospital.”