Breakfast together

"Sir, this is a call from Madame."

Arthur stared at the document in front of him as he replied, "Say I'm busy."

The maid was a little hesitant. "I already told her, but she wants to wait."

Arthur's hand stopped and he looked up. The maid knew that her boss didn't want to accept a rebuttal, otherwise; then no. It was just that this madam kept on calling even though she already said that her master was busy. As a result, the maid was overwhelmed and could not do anything, and was forced to meet the boss.

The maid nervously waited for Arthur to say something, but then the man just sighed.

"Tell her I'll call her back."

"Yes, sir."

With that, the maid left his study.

Arthur's previous full concentration on the work he was doing was now gone. His head rested on the work chair, his hands tightly intertwined with each other.

He more or less knew what his stepmother wanted by calling him this late night. It must be because he refused all calls from Livy's aunt that the old woman turned to his stepmother for help.

They were both very cunning women.

Even though Livy was directly chosen by him, no one knew about this. Even his stepmother. But as expected, his in-laws was a greedy person as well, using the words in-laws and conspiring with his stepmother to extract Arthur's treasure through Livy.

Arthur had anticipated this before the wedding. All of Livy's background has been investigated, about how she was tortured at her aunt's house, made into a maid and her freedom was curtailed. He purposely took this momentum, to see if his stepmother would act and it ended up as he expected.

Arthur closed his eyes. He still has to work tomorrow morning and now he couldn't sleep. He felt that if he closed his eyes even a little, someone would plot something when he was careless and bring him down like in the past.

Now that Livy was by his side, there would be many enemies who would use her to take him down. He had to protect this innocent girl and didn't want anyone to hurt Livy again, let alone her aunt. Especially with this marriage, he knew that she had been used as a golden opportunity for Camile to become rich instantly.

He picked up the phone and called someone, "Clear my schedule for next Sunday. I want to take five days off."

***

The next few days, Livy was in a nervous state of mind.

Even though she was confident in her test, she was still afraid that the results would not be what she wanted. With this thought, she grew more and more uncomfortable and could only pray for her luck. If she didn't pass, it would be a shame.

What will Arthur's response be?

She couldn't imagine it. If she didn't pass the test, Arthur would be very disappointed. He had helped her to find a lot of good material, to hear her didn't pass, this must be a heavy blow.

The door suddenly opened and someone entered.

Livy's heart almost jumped from its place before she saw that it was Arthur. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was still seven in the morning. How could Arthur be out of the room? Is he in need of something?

Livy stood up. "You're awake? What do you need here?"

His hands were behind his back as he walked slowly like a supervisor. "The maid said you weren't in the room."

She grimaced, she had forgotten that all her movements would be reported to Arthur.

"I just wanted to be here," she said quietly.

Arthur noticed the change in Livy's expression because of his words. He had said that on purpose to let Livy know that she was being watched. He wanted to see her reaction.

He saw the laptop which was on. "I heard the test results will be out today."

"Ah, yes. It actually came out at ten. I was just looking around while I waited." Livy also stared at the laptop screen, almost wanting to turn it off, before Arthur's voice stopped her.

"Have you had breakfast?"

"Err ... no."

Arthur sat on the sofa, Livy didn't know what to do when he picked up the small bell and pressed it.

Shortly after, there was a knock on the door and two maids entered. "Is there anything you need, sir?"

"Bring breakfast here."

"Yes." The maids backed away and left.

Livy watched all this with a furrowed brow. She remembered the maid saying that Arthur rarely took breakfast. On her first day here, the man had deliberately accompanied her to breakfast. Then did he now want to have breakfast in this room?

Arthur didn't say anything at all. As usual he gave off a cold and untouchable aura, so she didn't say anything either.

There was another knock on the door, then it swung wide open as the food trolley was ushered in by two maids. The maids put some food on the table. Almost all of them were her favorite foods that the chef had asked about the other day. At that time she just mentioned all her favorite foods on a whim. Now all the food was on the table, her saliva almost fell.

"You have breakfast first." Arthur took the wine that was poured into the cup and drank it gracefully.

"Shall we have breakfast here?"

Hearing the word 'we', Arthur stared at Livy in silence for a while and nodded.

Livy sat right next to Arthur on the long sofa. Seeing the maid pouring the wine in his glass again, she asked, "Have you eaten anything before?"

"Not yet," Arthur answered lightly.

"Then you can't drink this before filling your stomach with food."

Livy snatched the cup in Arthur's hand. This took Arthur by surprise and the two maids had the same expression. Arthur was an undeniable person, if something didn't go his way, he wouldn't get angry on the spot, instead he would fire the person who denied it without mercy.

Seeing Livy boldly snatching Arthur's glass, the two maids were nervous.

Drinking wine in the morning was a ritual Arthur used to do, even Evander or anyone else couldn't stop him.

Livy said, "I'm sorry, but it's really not good for your stomach. You could get sick."

Arthur looked at her, but at that moment Livy was preparing the plates and putting some food down. So she didn't know what the maids were afraid of and didn't know that Arthur was looking at her too. When she handed the plate to him, he didn't take it.

"Didn't anyone tell you that it's not good to drink wine before eating?"

"..."

"Consuming it on an empty stomach is dangerous because a rapid increase in blood alcohol can increase the toxic effect of alcohol on the brain. You will get drunk quickly. In addition, alcohol can also irritate the lining of your stomach, especially if you have stomach acid. So it would be better to drink milk on an empty stomach. Did you know?"

Still no response from Arthur, he felt his hand being touched and a plate placed there, he then chuckled.

The maids who saw him laughed in complete surprise. His master never laughed, even smiled. So what do they see?

"Why are you laughing?" Livy was confused. "Was what I said wrong?"

Arthur stretched out his free hand and ruffled her hair. "You are so smart."

Her face blushed rapidly and her heart skipped a beat.

"I-I, I ..."

"You eat too," Arthur cut her off, then looked at the maids. "Bring milk for us."

"Better warm soy milk," added Livy.

"Follow her orders," Arthur said to the maids.

Livy blushed.

The maids quickly went out.

After the milk came and was served on the table, Arthur asked them to wait outside so that Livy would be comfortable to eat.

Arthur didn't eat much food. He avoided meat and only ate fish stewed with spices, as well as vegetables cooked in olive oil, but he finished a glass of soy milk in one gulp.

Seeing Arthur finished eating, Livy hastily chewed her food so that she choked. As she coughed loudly, he gave her some water.

"Don't eat in a hurry," he said.

"You have done?" Livy finished drinking the water and saw Arthur standing.

"Mn."

Livy lowered her head in disappointment.

Arthur said, "I will give you a gift if you pass the test. Write down what you want and I will grant it."

"Huh?"

"My assistant will call you later. I have to get ready to go to work now." Arthur walked out before Livy could stop him.

Spooning her food again, her face flushed even more. Not because Arthur was going to give her a present, but because today she had breakfast alone with him and it felt different from eating together before.

Livy didn't know what had happened. Hearing Arthur's soft and smooth voice, she felt extremely nervous. The voice pierced the recesses of her heart and made her tremble.

Even she could still feel his hands clapping in her hair.

She felt more and more nervous.

***

"Livy, you passed the test! Congrats, Honeyyy!" Sarah shouted excitedly on the phone that Livy had to put her phone away.

"Yeah, I've seen it."

"You'll be my underclassman now. We'll see each other very rarely," Sarah said sadly. "But can we go play after class is over? We haven't been out together in a long time, have we?"

Sarah was the same age as Livy, but because Livy didn't go to college for two years, she was far behind Sarah.

"Alright, Senior. I'm under your tutelage at the moment." Livy teased her.

"What the hell? Don't call me that!"

Livy laughed loudly.

"By the way, you're not going to be getting that fancy car to pick you up again, are you? If you are, it's going to be hard for us to play after college."

"Ah?"

Livy remembered that during the scholarship test at that time, Arthur had deliberately picked her up because he wanted to ask about the test.

"I did have a driver, but Arthur said I could take the bus if I wanted to."

"Tsk, you've become a rich woman now. I'm so envious!"

Livy laughed knowing Sarah was joking. "I'm not rich. It's all Arthur's wealth."

"Hey, is he really that rich? How rich is he? Come on, tell me!!!"

Livy glanced at the maid who was cleaning her study and said, "It's not good to talk about it on the phone. We'll meet, if I have time after I teach private lessons, ok?"

"Damn, you're still teaching private lessons?"

"Of course." Livy smiled, then sighed, "Anyway I'll call you later. I have to call my aunt."

When Sarah hung up, Livy looked up her aunt's phone number, removed it from the blacklist and made a call.

"Hello, Auntie."

The person across her snorted. "You still remember calling your aunt, huh? Didn't you block my number? It's obvious how you want to end our family relationship!"

Livy rolled her eyes. "Auntie, I didn't block you, my number was blocked by the mobile operator."

"Do you think I believe?"

"If I blocked you, why am I calling you now? My number hasn't been filled in for a long time and the operator blocked it thinking it's an unused number. I just asked Arthur to reopen it for me."

"Really? Are you speaking truth this time?"

Camile said in a suspicious tone, she didn't seem to fully believe Livy.

"Yeah."

"Not because Arthur told you that I contacted his mother?"

"... What do you mean?"

Her aunt contacted her mother-in-law? What for? Was it just because she couldn't contact Livy that she wanted to threaten her through her mother-in-law?

"You were so bold with me after kicking me out of your house, now you're asking what I mean? Of course there's no other way to contact you than through your mother-in-law, right?"

Livy sighed. "I already said the reason. I didn't kick you out anyway, I was out at the time."

"Alright, just tell those damn maids, at least let me in after I came all the way there. Don't make me look like a beggar. You understand?"

"Yes, Auntie."

But only Livy knew that it was just words on her lips, she didn't promise there would be another time she would accept her aunt to ruin her life again.

... to be continued ...