Filed to story: The Alpha and His Nanny Luna (Tiffany & Asher) Book PDF Free
I was silent for a moment as I chose my words carefully, feeling Asher’s cold gaze boring a hole through my head. Finally, I spoke. “Ethan is a kind and compassionate man who goes out of his way on a regular basis to donate his time to disadvantaged people. Anyone would applaud their brother for being so generous and down to earth, but not you. Are you jealous that people like him or something? Is that what it is?”
Now, it was Asher who fell silent. He turned back to face the window again as an attempt to hide his anger, but I could see his shoulders trembling with rage as he stood in front of me.
“Maybe you should consider being compassionate for once, and then people will like you,” I said, lowering my voice as I tried to quell my anger.
Asher scoffed again. “Compassion for disadvantaged people is a waste of time, and you’re a prime example of that.”
I took a step back, feeling tears well up in my eyes. “Once again,” I said, taking another step back toward the door, “you feel the need to reduce me to a charity case. Don’t forget that you’re seemingly incapable of even sleeping without me — which, after the way you’ve spoken to me today, is not happening tonight.”
I turned around, swinging the study door open.
My body froze as I heard the next string of words that came out of Asher’s mouth.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
…
It seemed that I did, indeed, have no choice but to sleep with Asher that night. I made sure to stuff two pillows between us, and the following morning, I got up quickly to start my day without so much as looking in Asher’s direction. I was relieved a little while later when he left for work without a word.
“Is daddy still mad about Uncle Ethan?” Ella asked, looking up from her breakfast of toast and sunny side up eggs to stare wistfully at the door.
“No,” I lied. “He’s just tired.”
“Oh.”
I watched as Ella poked at her eggs with her fork for a bit before pushing the plate away and hopping off of her chair.
“Ella,” I said, peering over the table at her plate, “you hardly ate your breakfast.”
Ella shrugged. Instead of answering, she merely said, “Can I watch some TV?”
I sighed, standing, and reluctantly nodded. Ella skipped off toward the living room; as I cleaned up her half-eaten meal, I heard the TV click on. It sounded like the news… And there was a familiar voice coming from the television.
“I really cannot stress how much Mr. Sterling’s kind donation will mean to these children,” Sophia’s voice said. “This generosity will help see that the children are fed throughout the winter.”
I paused as I scraped the half-eaten eggs off of the plate, as did Amy, Lily, and Selina.
“Are they talking about our Mr. Sterling?” Lily asked.
Selina said something in response, but her voice faded away as I found myself walking toward the living room as if in a trance. Indeed, Sophia, the director of the orphanage, was standing on screen being interviewed by a man in a suit. At the bottom of the screen was text that read, “WERECORP CEO DONATES HEFTY SUM TO LOCAL ORPHANAGE”.
My eyes widened as Asher’s picture appeared on the screen.
Tiffany
My trance with the TV was broken by the sound of Selina’s voice coming from beside me.
“Interesting,” she said, wiping her hands on her apron. “That’s more than I expected.”
I turned to face her, still surprised by Asher’s sudden act of generosity. “He doesn’t do things like this often, does he?” I asked.
Selina shrugged. “Every so often. It’s usually once a year or so these past few years, but it’s never made public, and it’s rarely this much. I wonder what changed to make him donate such a large amount and for him to allow it to be televised.”
“And to an orphanage, no less,” Lily chimed in from behind me.
Shrugging again, Selina turned around and started to head back to the kitchen. I followed her, still curious about the situation. “You said it’s been happening just for the past few years?” I asked.
“Listen, I don’t know all of the specifics,” Selina replied curtly. She had her back turned to me as she scrubbed so hard at the stovetop with a damp sponge that it was making the metal racks on the inside of the oven rattle. “If you’re really all that interested, you can look online. I’m sure there are some websites that will tell you everything.”
Maybe Selina was right. I was still intrigued, so I turned on my heel and picked up my phone off of the coffee table. The interview with Sophia ended on the TV while I was in the kitchen, so now Ella was flipping absentmindedly through the channels as she searched for cartoons. I searched WereCorp’s most recent public relations campaigns, and lo and behold: there was a list of articles with vague information on Asher’s donations over the past few years. It seemed, starting just four years prior, that WereCorp was trying to improve their public image.
“See? My daddy is so nice,” Ella said suddenly from behind me. I hadn’t realized it, but she must have grown bored of flipping through the television channels and was now hanging over the back of the couch, watching as I scrolled through my phone.
“Hey!” I yelled playfully, tossing down my phone and grabbing her, pulling her onto my lap and beginning to tickle her. “It’s not very nice to look over people’s shoulders!”
The room became filled with the sweet sounds of the little girl’s giggles, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling in my mind that Asher’s newfound “compassion” was all just an act.
…
Asher didn’t return home until much later that night. I was laying in my own bed; I wondered if he was coming back to the penthouse at all, and if he did, I wondered if he wouldn’t want to sleep together after our argument. Eventually, however, I heard the sound of footsteps outside my door, followed by a series of quiet knocks.
I didn’t answer before he opened the door and came in. He was already in his pajamas, and stormed over to the other side of the bed without a word. I could tell that he was still mad at me.
“I saw an interesting interview on the television today,” I said, glancing up from my sketchbook to look at Asher as he sat on the edge of the bed. “Something about a billionaire CEO donating a hefty sum of money to a local orphanage.”
“What about it?” Asher asked. His tone of voice was cold and indifferent.
I shrugged. “Nothing, really. I just think it’s interesting that just yesterday you thought that compassion was pointless, and now…”
“Compassion and philanthropy are two different things,” Asher interrupted. “I have to do certain things sometimes to uphold the image of my company.”
