All Chapters of ASHLEY or ASTRID: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

"My dad was a known playboy during his young age. He had a lot of mistresses. My mother was one of them, so you see... there was no possibility of getting married in their situation. She was a clever one though, she got pregnant with me, kept the pregnancy and then after she gave birth to me, she raised me for six months, making sure I'm big enough for my father to take care of me alone and then she simply went to meet my father again and demanded money in return for me. They did the DNA test and it was proven that I'm really my dad's biological child, so he paid ten million dollars to my mother and she left." "Why didn't they just get married?" Ashley asked in the middle of his explanation. "Oh, they both didn't want it. My dad wasn't really the type of man that feel enough having one woman. While my mother didn't want to be tied into a meaningless marriage. She rather be single and had her freedom and she rather chose the ten million dollars than stick around to take care of me,"

The next morning, Ashley went down to the first floor of the villa fully dressed in a burgundy formal midi dress. She saw the clothes were already prepared on the bed right after she came out of the bathroom after having a shower. Apparently, Ashton had a habit of choosing what type of clothes she should wear for the day. "Oh, my beautiful wife finally come down. Come here, honey. Let's have breakfast together," Ashton greeted her from across the dining table near the open kitchen space. Ashley approached him slowly and saw he was wearing a burgundy suit with a black shirt underneath to match her attire. His perfect strong jawline face with the trimmed beard emitted out his masculinity and his dark wavy hair was styled so stunningly that she stared at him for a while before she had a seat at the dining table. The man was eating elegantly while looking at his phone once in a while. When he sensed that she did not start eating yet, he gazed up at her. "What's wrong?" He asked, feeling

'Did he only act nice just to me?' Ashley murmured her confusion internally. Her eyes slowly went down to see the news on the tablet screen as Ashton showed it to her. "The photographer made a great job yesterday. This wedding photo was the one that I liked the most," he remarked. "But it didn't show our faces," Ashley responded. "I know. That's why it's a perfect photo to be used for our marriage announcement." "Why didn't you allow the press to publish our full-face or full front body photos?" Ashley was curious to know about it since she heard well enough what Ashton discussed with his PA previously. The man chuckled and shifted his eyes to her. "I'm a businessman, not a celebrity. But the paparazzi won't leave me alone if they know what I look like. I'd been there before facing that situation back then when my father died. The media published my photos without my permission and I'd been harassed publicly by a lot of paparazzi wanting to dig up my story. So, I made a rule with

"Where's Flora and her team?" Ashton replied with a stern face but with a solemn smile on his face, showing his sense of authority again."They're over there. Checking the measurement of the new female models we received today," Hillman turned his head around and pointed his index finger towards the top right corner of the studio space. There was a small stage there with about ten women on the platform. Each of them stood straight while Flora and her team were checking their body measurements.Ashley fixed her eyes on Flora's team and the models. She could see Flora shaking her head a bit and frowning before she split the models into two groups. Ashton went there and Ashley naturally followed him. She had a thought that he might pass her over to Flora before he leaves for his meeting."How many?" Ashton suddenly asked out of the blue and all the models standing on the platform turned their gazes on him directly."Hmm... just three for today, sir. But we had two who reached over sixty

"It's unfair..." he said slowly."Unfair? About what?" Ashley was confused. Her eyes looked forward again, waiting for him to respond."Hillman sent these to my email," he showed his phone to her and she saw all the pictures taken by the photographers at the Rose Academy while she tried on several clothes there."You were having fun while I'm working hard," he murmured and gently bit her right earlobe. Ashley instantly cringed her body backwards, falling onto his chest with his unexpected bite. He chuckled while releasing the bite then slowly embedded his face on her neck, doing what he would normally do, smelling her delicate fair skin there and kissing it a few times."You'll leave hickeys there if you do that," Ashley budged her neck away from him."Honey... we're inside a fashion company. How long do you think it would take for me to find a scarf to cover your neck later?" He asked her rhetorically. Certainly, he was not interested at all to hear her response and just simply conti