Even if I wanted to marry him, how would he react and what would happen if I told him?
I had 7 days left now before the boss came back again for his answer and time was ticking by without pause. That reminded me that I also never got around to telling Hayden about this father’s abrupt visit to his bedroom to see me earlier in the day. If Hayden found out the boss’s visit this morning, he didn’t mention it to me. I wondered if he already knew and if he did, what did he think about it?
I can’t read his expressionless face at all. What he was feeling or thinking, I had absolutely no idea.
"Do you want to marry me?" Hayden asked again, rephrasing his questions as if helping me to better understand him.
That wasn’t the reason why I didn’t reply to his question. I understood him perfectly, I just didn’t know how to reply. I had no idea what to say and my throat and lips suddenly felt as dry as the desert. I could feel Hayden’s intense gaze staring at me and that only made me panic even more.
"Do you...want to marry me?" I asked him the same question that he had asked me.
However, unlike Hayden’s cold tone and emotionless tone, my voice shook terribly as I said those words. I realized that I wasn’t hesitant about it but I was extremely scared to hear his answer.
"Does it matter?" Hayden replied without even pausing to think.
"Excuse me?" I asked in shock.
What does that even mean? Of course...it matters...
"I’m asking if my answer will influence yours," he explained casually.
Well, I wasn’t sure about that...
"It shouldn’t. You shouldn’t let my answer influence yours. Whether or not I want to marry you has nothing to do with what you want," Hayden stated casually.
We might as well have been discussing the weather for all that’s worth. Hayden was either cold, emotionless or casual like this topic didn’t hold much importance to him.
"That may be true but..." I began but didn’t know where to land with my words.
It wasn’t exactly true, right? I finished my sentence off in my mind.
"I told him that I didn’t know...and then he got mad..." I replied as I tried to keep my voice from cracking.
Hayden listened intently to me with an unreadable expression in his eyes. Seeing that he was eager to hear more, I continued on with the story all the way until the end. Hayden really could read me like a book.
Every time that I tried to evade the more embarrassing parts of the story such as when the boss threw my contraceptive pills down on the bed in front of me, Hayden could detect with high accuracy that I was trying to skip the part.
In the end, I ended up telling Hayden everything. The storytelling session left me feeling tired and uncertain about how I should be feeling about all this. Hayden was a devoted listener although he was impatient most of the time. Throughout my story, Hayden looked thoughtful, and I wished that I could tell what he was thinking.
"That old man..." Hayden muttered underneath his breath after my story came to a close.
"Hayden...?" I called his name questioningly when I sense his mood darkening.
"The boss is tricking you. He’s the most calculating of us all," Hayden said in summary.
"Right..." I murmured although I wasn’t entirely sure what he was getting at.
"And Harvey? He didn’t tell you anything when you spoke to him earlier?" Hayden asked.
"Huh? Not...particularly..." I replied. He did give me some advice, but he didn’t really disclose any information that seemed to be outstandingly important.
Hayden sighed as he closed his eyes and suddenly, he looked very tired. Hayden leaned back on the sofa and tipped his face up towards the ceiling.
"Listen well, Malissa. Why do you think Harvey was chosen as the boss’s heir?" Hayden asked with his eyes still closed.
"Umm..." I made a thoughtful sound.
"Because he was simply born first. He’s my father’s first child," Hayden replied to his own question calmly.
"I see. So, he wasn’t really chosen...?" I asked in a small voice.
--To be continued...