Chapter 42"Remember, you love me, and so you have to smile around me, no matter how hard it is", Ashley instructed him seriously as she put on her mask and dusted off the crumbs from her dress.Ian was sure it wouldn’t be hard, she performed even better than his drugs, so much that he hadn’t had to use them. He was as prone to smile around her as a baby around their favorite person.Ian also dusted off crumbs from his shirt as she had deigned to feed him somewhere along the line when his stomach betrayed him with a growl."Do you not know how to eat? Or feed?", Ian rolled his eyes as the crumbs seemed to have gotten everywhere."Don't blame me, you nearly bit my hand like seven times", she bit back. Ian held back a mischievous grin as he had indeed tried to bite her hand. It was a thing of impulse, her hand was right there, he was overwhelmed with the urge to bite it, and so he tried.Later in his life, Ian would come to learn about a little something called cute aggression .“I don

"She's a popular actress though", Ashley observed in confusion. She was so popular that she was supposed to marry Ian. She was clearly considered elite material too. She had been engaged to both of the youngest Hills men. She was by all means elegant enough to get in."This is a gathering of real elites, entertainers are silly clowns compared to the people allowed in here", Ian said imperiously.Ashley blinked, she wouldn't have even smelled the venue in her life if she wasn't married to Ian. Ian saw the wheels turning around in her head and felt the urge to laugh. His grandfather had invited her on the basis of her giving that one great lecture that he has been obsessed with. Her title as Ian's wife only helped the invite get to her quicker."You're a tiny elite too", he simply said.Ashley grinned. "Thanks to my husband.""No, there was a "Professor Toma" golden plaque somewhere in his living room", Ian conceded. He had done quite a bit of damage that he needed to reverse. The fi

Eventually, Ian, Ashley and Yu Zhen eventually had to come down from the gallery to their designated seat, but only because the host of the event would be coming upn to the stage-like platform any minute.Gentle classical music played from the live band at the right side of the hall.Like an annoying joke, their table was adjacent to Mark and his family. Ian, Ashley, Rita, Hillary and Yu Zhen all sat down on their round table. Brand new plaques showed the seating arrangement."Give that child to me", Hillary said the moment she saw them. Ian raised an eyebrow. What child? Was she talking about Ashley? He wasn't delivering Ashley to anyone."You see the names mother, we're not disobeying grandfather", he said simply, sitting down at the round table on the seat beside his mother."But I haven't even spent any time with her", Hillary complained softly."I'll steal her for you mom, Ian can't gatekeep, she was mine first", Rita assured her mother as she sat next to Ashley – who obviously

He had gotten into painting many years ago. Ever since he turned sixteen, he had become permanently stressed. Most of the issues he had at present originated from that bleak period in his life. Mark was brought into the family at that period and it was jarring seeing a boy your age being thrust into one’s life just like that.His father had ordered him to get along with the boy and then he disappeared again, like he was wont to do. Ian had just decided to pick up his brush, as Hills, they had gotten teachers for almost every conceivable thing, so painting came easier to him than it had when he first started. He released a single painting at a period he was particularly in anguish and it had circulated so much that he knew exposing that he had done it would mean his mother would have made him give up heading the corporation in the future to pursue life as an artist.Ian had seen many people’s reaction to his works, they had fueled his vanity greatly. None ever came close to his grandf

Two months laterAshley reluctantly opened her eyes to the morning light, cold and alone on the bed and the realization of Ian's absence hit her with an unexpected wave of frustration. The bed that was always radiating of shared warmth, felt cold and unwelcoming. A silent resentment crept into the edges of her thoughts.Gazing at the bed, she couldn't help but notice the vacant side where Ian's sleepy adorableness had been a comforting presence. The sheets, now untangled and void of his warmth, seemed to mirror the plane of her thoughts.A sigh escaped her lips, carrying a mix of longing and irritation. The room, once a haven of shared dreams, echoed with the absence of the laughter and whispered banter that usually accompanied their mornings.As Ashley swung her legs over the side of the bed, a sense of discontent lingered in the air. As she navigated the morning alone, Ashley couldn't shake the yearning for the body heat and sleepy adorableness that had become an integral part of h