After leaving the hospital, Calla stood by the roadside and tried to flag down a cab.However, a black Bentley shot out from behind and came to a sudden halt beside her.Alarmed, Calla jumped backward. Immediately after that, she saw Mercer coming down from the backseat of the car.She wanted to flee, but he grabbed her shoulder before she could."How dare you trick me?" Mercer fumed."I… wouldn't dare to, of course! My stomach stopped hurting, so I…" Calla attempted to stammer out an explanation.Out of nowhere, Mercer fixed his gaze on her and declared, "Let's get married!"Calla stared at him in disbelief.What was going on? That wasn't how she envisioned things playing out between them. Shouldn't he be tossing a check or a debit card to her and instructing her to deal with the pregnancy herself?"Married? Don't joke like that. I might actually believe you," Calla said. She firmly believed he was kidding around and didn't mean what he said.Plenty of women would kill to ma

Calla frowned at Mercer's words. He was asking her to make the tough decision. The worst part of this was that if she refused to marry him, she wouldn't be able to give birth to the child. She would end up being the reason why the baby had to die.Although Calla cared about maintaining her dignity and self-respect, her child's life was at stake, so she had to compromise.She looked up and saw that the courthouse was already in view. Thus, she turned to Mercer and said, "I disagree with the fourth and fifth terms. I want to retain custody of the child. Also, since I'm working at your company, I won't be able to have a single day of peace if people find out I'm your wife."She was willingly sacrificing her dignity and love life to give birth to this child. Naturally, she couldn't let him seize custody of the child from her.They didn't have feelings for each other, so how could they act like a married couple? Surely others would see right through them!Taking in Calla's determined e

"Huh? Mom, about that… Because of his job, he has to go on business trips quite often. He's leaving on a business trip tomorrow morning, actually. It'll take at least a week or two before he returns." Calla hurriedly came up with an excuse."Is he always going to be away on a business trip? How are you two going to have any alone time then?" Carol remarked worriedly."He gets an additional allowance for each business trip he goes on. He needs to earn more money to support the baby and me, so he doesn't have a choice," Calla quickly said."That's true. In that case, once Mercer comes back, you must bring him over for a meal," Carol declared before heading to her room, still studying the marriage license.Once the door shut behind her, Calla finally exhaled in relief.She had finally gotten over this hurdle! As for the next one two weeks later, she would cross that bridge when she came to it.Calla went back to her room. As soon as she closed the door, Zoey, who was doing her homew

Calla's eyes flickered in thought. Instead of pulling her phone away, she pretended to still be on a call. "Darling, rich food makes me feel queasy right now. Let's eat something simpler. Oh, okay. Of course. Let's talk more over lunch later. See you later, darling!"Done with the act, she put her phone down. But when she looked up, she immediately froze!She was dumbstruck. Why had Mercer suddenly showed up at the office? He was staring at her in silence too.Knowing that he must've heard what she said just now, she hastily lowered her head. She dared not meet his gaze.Some of her colleagues were sniggering in secret while others kept their gazes down. Derek hurriedly tried to smooth things over."Calla, you shouldn't be making personal calls during working hours!" Derek chided."I'm sorry, Mr. Connaught," Calla stood up and said shakily.She glanced at Mercer, only to find that his expression remained neutral. She couldn't tell what he was feeling."Mr. Garland, I'm sure you

After noticing that Calla hadn't touched any of the food yet, Mercer looked at her puzzledly and asked, "Why aren't you eating?""Oh, right. I'll start eating now."Calla quickly nodded and ate a bite of salad.Nevertheless, the salads did nothing to ease her hunger. She wanted meat! She wasn't some kind of fairy that survived on sunshine and morning dew!Despite knowing that the wealthy usually had strict rules of etiquette to follow, Calla couldn't resist asking, "Do you usually prefer a vegetarian diet?"Mercer frowned. "Weren't you the one who said that rich food made you queasy, so you wanted something simple?""I…" Calla faltered. She'd only made that up to convince her prying colleagues! Why did he take her seriously?Just then, her phone started ringing. When she took it out and saw Harlan's name on the screen, she frowned for a moment. Then, she turned to Mercer and said with a smile, "I'll step out to take a phone call."She had only just taken a step when Mercer's vo