Chapter 2: My Baby’s Daddy

The room was bathed in a warm glow of the lights. The man who sat on the couch had flawless features, his handsome face thepainstaking artwork of the heavens. He wore a finely tailored suit that accentuated his strong silhouette. At present, ElliotPresgrave’s eyes turned icy as his grandmother’s steely voice reverberated in his mind. Elliot, you must take Anastasia Tillmanfor a wife. I will only have her and no one else as my granddaughter-in-law in the Presgrave Family. Right now, however, the onlyperson Elliot was thinking of was the woman whom he had ravished in the dark all those years ago. That fateful night, his drinkhad been laced and rendered him so intoxicated that the only thing he remembered was how the woman had hopelessly sobbedwhile she begged for mercy under him. When all was done, he had taken off his watch and pressed it into her hand, thereafterpassing out in the dimness of that room. Fast forward to five years later; he was still looking for her. It was just last week when helearned that she had sold off his watch at the secondhand market, but the news came too late, for his grandmother insisted thathe take some other woman for a wife. Just then, his phone rang once more. He picked it up and greeted brusquely, “What?”“Young Master Elliot, we have found the girl. Her name is Hayley Seymour, and she was the one who personally sold off thewatch.” “Send me her address, and I’ll pay her a visit,” Elliot ordered as an elated gleam flashed in his eyes. The mysterious girlfrom that night has finally been sighted! I have to find her, no matter what. I need to make it up to her for the things I’ve done thatnight. Meanwhile, Hayley was in the women’s boutique. She had taken over the boutique a little over a year ago, but thebusiness had been on a steady decline. Struggling to pay rent, she had tried to come up with ways to scrape together enoughmoney to tide over. At last, she decided to try to sell the watch she had in her possession, and much to her pleasant surprise, itfetched a whopping price of five hundred thousand. The watch hadn’t been hers, to begin with. Five years ago, the clubhousestaff had contacted her and told her that they had retrieved a watch from the private room, thereafter prompting her to collect itfrom their lost and found department. Upon arriving at the club and seeing that it was a designer men’s watch, she claimed it asher own without even a second of hesitation. Since then, the watch had been nestling in her closet until she decided to sell it offat the secondhand market last week. Leading up to the sale, she hadn’t expected that the watch would be worth much, but thatwas before she was offered an astonishing five hundred thousand for it. Hayley was glowing as she stared at the amount of

a men’s watch before her, then asked in a deep, rumbling voice, “Has this watch been in your possession all these years?”Hayley glanced at the watch and instantly felt the urge to shrink into herself. Blinking guiltily, she stammered, “Y-Yes, the watchis... mine.” “And you were the woman from the Abyss Club five years ago? The one who was in Room 808?” Elliot pressed,eyeing the girl in front of him intently as he thought with a start, Could she really be the girl from that night? The wheels inHayley’s mind began to turn furiously. Room 808 from five years ago... Wasn’t that the room where Erica and I set Anastasiaup? Why is this man asking me about that incident? Without dwelling too much on this, she answered straightforwardly, “Ofcourse, that was me.” “Keep this watch from now on, and don’t try to pawn it off again. I’ll make it up to you for what happenedthat night,” he said as he handed the watch to her. “I’m Elliot Presgrave. Remember my name, will you?” Hayley looked up at himin shock. Elliot Presgrave? As in, the heir to Presgrave Corporation, the leading conglomerate? “Y-You’re Elliot Presgrave?” sheasked, so overwhelmed she might collapse. The man next to Elliot handed her a name card and interjected, “Miss Seymour, thisis our young master’s name card. You may look for him if you need his help in any way.” She took the card with one shaky hand,and when she saw the shell-shocking name embossed onto the gold stationery, her heart nearly flew out of her chest. So the guywho slept with Anastasia five years ago was not the male escort we arranged for her, but this fine specimen who happens to bethe heir to the Presgraves’ family fortune? As realization dawned upon her, Hayley reached out and grabbed Elliot’s arm, then

experienced his first and only downfall in his lifetime. One of his rivals had spiked his drink in hopes of manipulating him intoruining his own reputation. Elliot had saved himself by darting into the private room, but just as the effect of the drug was at itspeak, a random woman scurried in and relieved him of his predicament. Since then, the fact that he had just ravished and takenaway a girl’s innocence had been weighing on his conscience. He was sure that she had been chaste up to that night, for whenhe woke up after the deed, he saw under the lights of the private room the traces of blood that stained the couch. As he thoughtabout the scattered mess in the private room that followed his misdeed, he stopped doubting Hayley’s identity and hisimpression of her. I have to take responsibility for what I’ve done to her. While this was happening, Anastasia was in herapartment somewhere abroad as she said on the phone, “Got it. Give me three days tops to return to the country and prepare forthe competition.” “Mommy, are we going back?” A small figure wandered over to her side. He wore a blue checkered shirt and apair of denim shorts. His features were delicately chiseled, albeit childish. He was only four or so, but there was unmistakablegrace and elegance to his movements. Anastasia smiled and nodded. “Would you like to go back with me?”