He Moved His Assistant Home

The Tibetan mastiff by the door, emboldened by its mistress, snarled at me a few times.

Lily rolled her eyes.

"And who the hell are you? Rob isn't someone you can just demand to see."

She sized me up with a sneer.

"What is property management even doing, letting someone dressed like a street vendor into this neighborhood?"

My skin is highly sensitive — regular fabrics break me out in rashes within minutes. Rob had specially ordered custom-made clothes from Italian mills just for me. Never in a million years did I think I'd be looked down on for not wearing designer labels.

I almost laughed. After all these years, this was the first time I'd ever been blocked from seeing Rob.

I reached for my phone to call him and give him a piece of my mind — only to realize, to my horror, that the battery had died.

So I just held out my hand and coldly demanded Lily hand over her phone.

"If you set him back on something important, you know what happens."

Lily flinched at my glare. In that split second, I snatched the phone from her.

I dialed the number I knew by heart. Just as I was about to tear into him, Rob's low, tender laugh cut me off.

"Two minutes without a reply and you're already calling? Miss me that much? I'm in a meeting. I'll be home when it's done."

I gripped the phone tighter, my voice stuck in my throat. That kind of intimate tone — if I didn't know I was holding Lily's phone, I'd have thought it was meant for me.

The next second, Lily snatched the phone back triumphantly and cooed into it in a syrupy voice.

"Then hurry back. I want you to cook for me!"

She even put it on speaker.

Hearing the two of them flirt back and forth, I barely held back my fury.

"Rob Balmer. You get back here. Now."

Rob paused, a note of confusion in his voice.

"Lily? Is someone else there with you?"

Lily shot me a dirty look.

"Just some crazy woman. I'll get rid of her in a minute."

Rob said casually, "Yeah. Don't make a scene. We've got a bid coming up — bad press right now wouldn't look good."

Hearing his indifferent tone, I felt like I'd been doused in ice water. He'd flown out to see me just last month — and now, he couldn't even recognize my voice.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. My voice rose.

"Rob! What about me? What about your child?!"

The air went cold. When Rob spoke again, his voice was laced with frost.

"You've got some nerve, running a con like this on me."

His tone turned to ice.

"That kid is definitely not mine. Lily, get rid of her however you see fit."

He still hadn't recognized my voice.