Chapter 52: A Free Man

Chapter 52: A Free Man
Giselle stayed in the villa that Tanner had moved her into, and the days quickly passed. Giselle started to get bugged staying at home and doing nothing, she wanted to work, make a name for herself, have enough money to live without the financial help of Tanner.
That was her dream, but her doctor had strictly given her the warning to refrain herself from exerting any kind of stress as she was too anemic right now “How are you doing, Gi?”
“I am bored out of my mind, but there is nothing I can do about it, doctor’s orders you see” Giselle’s belly was getting bigger with each passing day and her happiness of being able to care for those little lives growing in her, was boundless.
“Hold the line, there is someone that wants to talk to you” Giselle knit her brows in confusion ‘Who could he possibly be referring to that wants to speak to her?’
“Hello, my dear” Giselle burst into tears hearing his familiar voice. The voice that gave her strength when she was down, the voice that told her ‘It is ok to cry and it is not a sign of weakness’, the voice of the man that held her hand when she took her first step, he was out, and it was a bloody pleasure for Giselle to hear his voice!
“Father!!” That was all that Giselle could utter as she cried her heart out. Tears fell from her eyes freely as she realized that her father must be a free man now!
“I heard that I have you to thank for, sweetheart” Mr. Smith teased her playfully trying to make his daughter smile, but his attempt only made her cry harder. “Sweetheart, stop crying! I am all fine and it is all thanks to you that I am out as a free man and not a criminal!”
“I am so, so, so, sorry father. I should have trusted you and believed you when you said that you never did something like this! I lived with you for years and I failed to support you when you needed it the most. I am sorry daddy” Sorry was not enough to fill the hurt she must have given him when she chose to doubt him.
“Tanner told me everything and I could not have been happier than having you as my daughter, thank you my dear” Giselle could hear the pain and relief in his voice, and it tore at her! “Tanner also told me that you have a beautiful surprise waiting for us there. We are flying out in two days sweetheart.”
Giselle could not have been happier.
When Annalise and Mr. Smith came inside the house that Giselle was renting, they looked between her and the house she was renting, they felt guilty that their daughter, who was always pampered, was living a bare minimum life. Giselle noticed something and stopped at the door of her house.
Halfway through, looking at her parents, “Mom... dad, what is wrong? Why is it that you guys are not looking happy to see me?
Annalise frowned and stared at Giselle for a few seconds, before sighing heavily, “Giselle, you are pregnant with twins…It is one thing to be pregnant but being pregnant with twins meaning twice the expenses and twice the effort that you need to put in in the future. Even if you want to get married in the future, do you think any man would be willing to raise your kids?”
Giselle was taken aback, then smiled, hugged her gently, and said with a smile “Mom, I know you are worried for me, but we can never avoid the emergence of difficulties. We can only find ways to solve them. Now, raising these two children is not difficult for me. They are my babies, my treasure. I love them. No matter how painful and tired I feel, I will raise them.”
At that very moment, she was more satisfied than ever. Annalise gently pulled away from Giselle, looked down at her lower abdomen with worry in her eyes “You should quit your job. In the coming months, I will take care of you until you give birth to our two little muffins.”
Giselle could not help but roll her eyes “I don’t need to resign mother, I just need to be more mindful about my health. It is not visible, so I can still go to work by concealing my pregnancy.” Giselle shook her head without thinking and smiled to comfort her.
Now the family’s financial resources depend on her. She still owes Tanner for the money he lent her, and she also needed to earn money to make sure that her babies would live a happy life. However, she did not say this to her parents, and did not want to put pressure on Annalise, otherwise she might sneak out to do hard work.
Annalise did not understand why her daughter wanted to work when she was told by the doctor not to strain herself, but she did not want her to worry too much, so she frowned and asked, “Then why don’t you work for two months and go on maternity leave?”
“Yeah, I know! I just got a job and there is no way that I can go on leave so soon after just getting the job” Giselle snorted, thinking about how she would have to wear thick clothes if she continued to go to the office, post two months.
Annalise had no choice but to look at her helplessly and distressed, “Just take care of yourself, if not for your sake, at least for the sake of your babies!”
“Wait!” Giselle remembered how she wanted to go shopping for her babies, she hugged her mother’s arm, looked up at her and gave her a toothy smile. “Anyway, I won’t go in to work in the afternoon, let’s go to a shopping mall and stroll around.”
It just so happened that Giselle wanted to buy some baby products and moreover she had to buy two at a time and not knowing if it was a boy or a girl, she had to buy clothes for boy and girl just in case her babies turned out to be a boy and girl.
Thinking about it, she smiled in her heart again, full of expectations “Okay.” Annalise nodded, looking fondly at her daughter who seemed to be having a contended smile on her lips.
…
At work the next day, Giselle wore a large dress and put on a thin windbreaker. When standing in front of the full-length mirror, she was very grateful that they did not have a strict dress code in her new company, otherwise it would have been miserable and inconvenient for her.

Giselle’s PoV (Clarissa Miller)
Yesterday I went to the mall with the intention of buying stuff for my babies, but instead of doing baby shopping, I ended up buying stuff for myself. I bought a lot of clothes that I could use to cover my pregnancy as long as I could. All of my new clothes were loose – fitting.
After finishing packing, I drove my black Volkswagen to the company “Miss Miller, these are the details that you requested yesterday for today’s twelve PM meeting, and...” she gave me a once over “did you change your clothing style recently?”
I looked down at myself “Is it that obvious?”
“Yeaah... I mean, your clothes have been getting looser each day” she shrugged her shoulders placing the file on my table.
I was startled, and I deliberately put an expression of dissatisfaction on my face, “Are you complimenting me or demeaning me? Now, I will give you another chance to choose, otherwise…the gift I brought will not be yours.”
“It is a compliment... definitely a compliment…it’s DEFINITELY a COMPLIMENT” As soon as she heard that there was a gift involved, she laughed and changed her attitude!
I snorted proudly, put the boxes from my bag on the table, and then smiled and distributed them one by one “Manager Miller, Mr. Han wants to see you in his office.” Mr. Han’s assistant Lin Mao poked her head from outside the door.
“Okay, I will go over immediately.” I responded, and then looked at everyone, “Please clean up, and turn around and put the work of the past few days in my office.” After speaking, I went out.
I took a deep breath as I reached the President’s Office, I knocked on the door and went in, “Mr. Han, are you looking for me?”
“Well, I know that things have been a little slow around here, but that is about to change in a few weeks' time. I will be requiring your assistance with a project that has come our way. I saw in your resume that you had experience in budgeting and cost, so this project is yours.” Mr. Han mentioned it nonchalantly and it left me flabbergasted.
I nodded my head in agreement, “Thank you, Mr. Han and I promise to work diligently and give it my 200%!”
“That’s good, has the money issue been resolved?” Mr. Han asked again. I had made the mistake of asking him for an advance salary to cover my expenses!
“It has been resolved.” I frowned, “I was told that you are looking for me… Is there anything wrong?”
President Han took a sip from the cup, turned his head and looked at the more magnificent building opposite the window and said: “Calibre Investment is going to open a branch in Canada. The announcement is going to be organized during a press conference in the coming month.”
“…” To say that I was startled, would be an understatement! ‘Did I hear that right?’ I knew that Calibre Investment has co – operated with our company, and it is located in Canada, but hearing that, made it all the more real for me. I did not want to have anything to do with Colton anymore, so my heart naturally sank after hearing the news.
“What are your plans?” Mr. Han looked at her, “Of course, we try to strive for more cooperation opportunities. After all, Calibre Investment is the largest investment company in Canada. The headquarters value them very much, so we must seize the opportunity.”
My heart sank to the pit of my stomach, the very man I ran away from is going to appear before me? No, thank you! My expression was slightly confused and entangled, “But, Mr. Han, I am just a business analyst I am not good at facing clients as you must also be aware.” I tried my best to refuse even though I had already refused him!
Putting aside Colton’s arrival, it is also very inconvenient for me to come to the office to attend their meetings considering my pregnancy.
“I know you are not familiar, but your eloquence is very good, and it can be of great help.” As a shrewd businessman, Han always had his own way of training his employees. "It is not difficult work, Miss Miller, and your efforts will not be in vain. This will also give you an opportunity to show that you are willing to put in that extra effort for the growth of the company. You will also be given extra bonus.”
“…” I no longer knew how to refute Mr. Han, what reason should I give that he would be convinced to let me off this particular project. Mr. Han is a scheming man, and he probably knows that I am short of money, so he wanted to hit me on my weak point, which is money as of now.
If I had not been pregnant, I would have happily accepted it without giving it a second thought, but I could not take the risk of hurting my babies anymore and put my health as my priority!
“I will think about it, Mr. Han. When will the executives from Calibre Investment arrive?” Even though I had decided that I would not be working on it, I still asked him about their arrival only because I did not want to face Colton!
Mr. Han thought for a while and said, “They will be arriving on the fourteenth of next month.”
“Thank you, I got it.” I said a little prayer in my heart that Colton wouldn’t come here in person.

Colton’s PoV
New York, in the office of the president of Calibre Investment “Colton, here’s your coffee.” Wanda walked into my office with a freshly brewed coffee, but I did not look up at her
I kept looking down at the documents, only responding to her with a soft ‘hmm’, and at that very moment, the phone next to me happened to ring. Both of us subconsciously turned our heads and looked over at my phone.
Colton saw the name displayed, picked up the phone, and glanced at the Wanda hoping that she would get the hint, but she was standing there like a novice. Iraised my brow “Wanda, is there anything else?”
Wanda smiled obediently and shook her head in denial, then turned and left. After the door was closed, I answered the call, and said in a low voice, “Yes, Jeff?”
“We are not able to find anything about her whereabouts, Mr. Black.” Jeff’s voice came from the phone, with a very clean voice.
My heart immediately sank, and I felt a frown forming on my face, “What do you mean you are not able to find her whereabouts? Have you checked at her mother’s place? Tanner Knight’s place?”
“I have looked for her at all the places that you mentioned, Mr. Black, I even looked in flight records, train stations, bus stations, but seems to have disappeared into thin air!” Jeff cursed out, and then asked playfully “How sure are you that she is pregnant with your child that you are going to this extent?”
“It doesn’t matter how sure I am, I just want you to check thoroughly once again. Don’t leave anything! Look up the CCTV footage of places near airport, bur terminal, and train terminals. Also, trace Tanner Knight’s activity, this might give some clues” Jeff was silent. “Do you understand, Jeff?”
"Yes, Mr. Black, I will get right on top of it!” Jeff disconnected my call. I could not help but think about my ex – wife ‘She doesn’t have the means to disappear off the face of earth without a trace, which means that someone is helping her, and the only person who has that power is Tanner!