Always Been Yours (Tessa and Nicholas) novel Chapter 9

Over at Sawyer Group, Nicholas was still in the meeting when he got a call from Andrew. As soon as he heard that Gregory had gone missing, he stood up abruptly and walked out of the conference room with a steely expression, announcing through gritted teeth, “Dismissed!”

There was no hiding his anger and hostility. The sheer incompetency! What’s the use of keeping the staff if they can’t even keep an eye on a toddler?!

He looked more mutinous than he had seconds ago as he boarded his car. Just as he was about to rush back to the manor, his phone rang with an intrusive trill.

It was an unknown number, Nicholas noted, but he was in such a daze that he mispressed and answered the call instead of rejecting it.

As soon as the call was put through, an awkward female voice filled the other line, stammering, “H-Hello, President Sawyer. It’s me, Tessa, the violinist who performed at Young Master Gregory’s birthday banquet the other day. Do you still remember?”

She heard no response, but what she did hear was her heart thumping wildly in her chest. She wasn’t so presumptuous as to think Nicholas would still remember her after their brief meeting on the yacht, but then again, that wasn’t her priority at the moment.

Clearing her throat, she explained promptly, “President Sawyer, Gregory has come to the orchestra building to look for me all on his own. I was concerned that you might be looking for him, so I figured I’d give you a call. If it’s not too much trouble, could you please come and bring the little one home?”

Nicholas’ gaze darkened ominously at this as he said icily, “I see. I’ll be over right now. Thank you.” Then, he hung up the phone decisively and gave his assistant a call, snapping irritably, “Find every bit of information you can on a woman called Tessa Reinhart right now—her childhood, her accomplishments in school, every single detail there is to know about her!”

Keeping his phone, he stepped on the accelerator and sped over to the Heavenly Chorus Orchestra company building.

…

At the speed he was driving, Nicholas managed to get to the building in record time, having taken a mere hour to complete the otherwise two-hour drive there.

When he stormed through the main entrance of the orchestra building, anyone could see how stormy his face was.

At the sight of him, Tessa straightened up and greeted him stiffly and awkwardly, “P-President Sawyer!”

Trevor, on the other hand, looked rattled as he kept quiet, not daring to so much as let out a breath.

In stark contrast to their uneasy demeanors, Gregory was happily seated down, his little legs dangling over the edge of the chair as he looked entirely relaxed.

The vein near Nicholas’ temple was throbbing dangerously, and his voice sounded somewhat disembodied, as if it came from the depths of hell, as he demanded darkly, “Gregory. Sawyer. I don’t know where you keep all that audacity, but how dare you run away from home!”

Tessa and Trevor jumped at the thunderous volume of his voice.

Trevor had no idea what was going on at the moment, but he went along with her bluff as he muttered hesitantly, “O-Oh, yes, that’s right, Young Master Gregory—our Tessa still has plenty of work lined up for her today, and she won’t be able to keep you company.”

Disappointed to hear this, Gregory lowered his head sadly as he mumbled, “Oh, okay…” However, he had not completely given up. He bit down on his bottom lip, then stared at Tessa with bright eyes as he asked softly, “Then maybe we can have lunch together, pretty lady. What do you say?”

“Well…” Tessa was working up to another rejection, but when she saw how piteous the little guy looked, she couldn’t bring herself to say no to him. Then, she caught sight of Nicholas’ dangerously stormy face and thought, There’s no way he’d agree to this. As such, she sighed and said firmly, “I don’t think that’s going to work out, Sweetheart.”

Upon hearing this, Gregory sniveled, and his eyes turned red as tears glistened in them. His shell-pink lips quivered, and it looked like he was about to cry at any given moment.

Tessa’s heart twisted at this, and she quickly shot Nicholas a pleading look, hoping that he could intervene and calm Gregory.

Nicholas seemed equally distressed as he pinched the space between his brows, caving into his child’s tantrum. “Then do you promise to go home with me right after lunc