Chapter 130
"Where is the dress damaged? Show me."
William finally let her go after kissing her enough, remembering the actual business at hand.
Ava's cheeks were flushed, her emotions still not recovered from that kiss.
"It's in the gift box."
She took a moment to compose herself, then went to open the huge gift box and handed the dress to William.
William saw the line of black text at the waist, narrowed his eyes, and immediately took out his phone to call James.
A clear ringtone sounded right outside the door. Ava felt embarrassed for a moment—she had just given James another live show. How mortifying.
A few seconds later, James pushed the door open.
"Mr. Morgan, there's a document that needs your signature."
William took the document and placed it on the desk.
"That's not urgent. Go to the security room first and check the surveillance footage from the past twenty-four hours to see who's been in my office."
After speaking, William gave additional instructions, "You can skip the times when I was here. Start checking from after I left work last night."
Seeing William's stern face, James knew something had happened to make him particularly angry, so he hurried off to handle it.
Only the two of them were left in the office.
Ava went to the lounge to take off the black dress and change back into her own clothes.
When she came out of the office, William was absorbed in reading the document James had just brought.
Ava really didn't want to disturb him, but she had a question that needed to be raised.
"I don't have anything to wear tonight."
William raised an eyebrow and closed the document. He really didn't want her wearing clothes Michael had sent anymore. Just thinking about the way Michael looked at Ava made him uncomfortable all over. Those fake, ill-intentioned eyes, like a wolf in sheep's clothing.
He wanted to throw that dress in the trash right now.
"Ava, have you forgotten about the walk-in closet at home? Every quarter, I have people send over the latest styles. I remember there are quite a few formal dresses in there."
Ava had very low material desires and rarely touched the things he sent. Many of the bags and clothes were still in their original packaging. She quietly said, "Ok."
William stood up from his seat and pulled her toward the door.
"Where are we going?"
She asked.
"Home to get clothes, and grab some lunch while we're at it."
The two of them openly held hands as they walked to the underground parking garage. This time, William didn't call James—he drove himself. Ava got into his passenger seat.
William skillfully steered with one hand.
"Call Lily and have her prepare lunch; otherwise, what are we going to eat when we get there?"
Usually, when Lily was home alone, she'd just cook something simple for a quick lunch.
Ava said, "Ok," took out her phone, and called Lily. After telling her what they wanted for lunch, she hung up and saw herself in the mirror—her makeup was all smudged from crying, and he hadn't even reminded her, yet still paraded her around like this.
Hearing that the young couple was coming home for lunch, Lily efficiently whipped up four dishes and a soup. They walked in smelling the delicious food.
Seeing the young couple enter hand in hand, Lily's face lit up with a smile.
Howard had called her this morning, asking her to find out if the young couple had been using contraception all along. She hadn't dared answer—when cleaning the house before, she'd seen many torn condom wrappers. But there hadn't been any recently. Could the young couple have already started trying for a baby?
She didn't dare ask about this matter.
The dishes on the table were exquisite, and Ava ate quite a bit. After eating at so many restaurants, Lily's home cooking still suited her taste best.
After the meal, the two went upstairs.
William went back to the walk-in closet to change his shirt. The other side of the closet held Ava's clothes and bags, taking up a full two-thirds of the entire space.
William glanced at those bright colors and sighed inwardly. Before her, all this space had been his alone. Now, without realizing it, he'd given up two-thirds of it, and those clothes and bags were all things he'd actively bought for her.
In TV dramas, women usually got happy when receiving these pretty clothes and designer bags. His wife seemed to have no interest in these things at all, showing no emotional response to anything he did.
Ava removed her makeup in the bathroom and came to the walk-in closet to find him staring blankly at a room full of clothes.
There was a section specifically for the latest formal dresses. If William hadn't reminded her, she wouldn't have noticed—she'd just thought they were ordinary dresses.
"Ava, come here."
William beckoned to her.
Ava obediently walked over, letting him lead her to the section with the formal dresses.
He picked out a white silk dress and held it up against her.
"This one is somewhat similar in style to the one that was ruined. Use it as a substitute for now. If you really liked that ruined one, I'll have someone make another."
Ava fell silent. It wasn't that she felt bad about a dress—she felt bad that his thoughtfulness had been pointlessly destroyed. He had specially custom-made it for her, and before she'd even tried it on, the dress was ruined. Who wouldn't feel bad about that?
She wanted to say, "I like whatever style you give me," but then thought that might be too mushy. With his straightforward personality, he'd probably laugh at her.
Ava made an agreeable sound and swallowed back the words on the tip of her tongue.
"Try it on."
William stood to the side with his hands in his pockets, casually watching her with no intention of leaving.
Ava held the dress, hesitated for a moment, then took off her sundress, leaving only her underwear. She reached for the dress on the fitting bench, but just as her hand touched the fabric, he grasped her forearm.
He controlled his strength to avoid hurting her, gently pulling her to his side. They stood in front of the mirror together. William's eyes looked her up and down.
"Ava, you seem to have gained some weight recently. Your belly looks a bit rounder, and your breasts have developed again, too."
Ava's heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively placed her hand on her lower abdomen.
"Have, have I?"
William looked at her belly and nodded. "Yes."
Ava felt somewhat nervous, turning her head with her fox-like eyes to look at him, complex emotions in their depths.
William suddenly laughed.
"Why are you looking at me like that? I'm not complaining about you being fat. With your thin arms and thin legs, you could gain another ten or twenty pounds, and it'd be fine."
Ava didn't want to continue this topic. She took a step forward, away from the mirror, and continued reaching for the dress to put on.
Something embarrassing happened—the dress could be put on, but the zipper got stuck at the waist, and even if the zipper could be pulled up, the dress would be tightly wrapped around her lower abdomen.
Her previously flat belly now clearly protruded a bit, especially noticeable from the side.
This time, William actually laughed out loud, with a hint of schadenfreude.
"It's okay."
He was comforting her. "I'll have the designer send over a ready-made dress, but we'll need to take new measurements."
Ava was too embarrassed to speak. If she weren't mistaken, the ruined dress probably wouldn't fit either, since he'd custom-made it according to her previous measurements.
Now her waistline had really grown quite a bit. The two little ones were growing pretty well.
William took a soft measuring tape from the drawer to re-measure her three sizes.
The result: the hips had grown 1 inch, the waist had grown 2 inches, and the bust had grown over 1 inch.
After measuring, William noted down the data and praised her with satisfaction.
"Not bad, you've finally gained some weight."
His tone was like someone whose carefully raised pig had finally fattened up a bit, and he hoped it would get even fatter.
Ava was lucky she knew she was pregnant. If she'd gained weight under normal circumstances and heard him say these things, she'd have been furious.