In Love, Never Say Never (Ashton Fuller and Scarlett Stovall) novel Chapter 1312

“Thank you,” Summer replied politely, then went on to say, “Are you Daddy’s secretary too? Where’s Ms. Collins?”

Thora’s face fell, her expression souring significantly.

It must have been humiliating for the president of a highly-regarded listed company to be mistaken for a lowly employee such as Stella by a kid, even if it had been merely an innocent mistake.

Who would have thought that my baby would learn to defend her mother at such a young age? Way to go, Summer!

Internally snickering, I cleared my throat and pulled Summer even closer to me. “I’m sorry, kids these days don’t know what they’re talking about,” I explained sarcastically. “You won’t take her words to heart, right, Ms. Ziegler?”

Thora quickly regained her composure and steeled her expression once more, haughtily throwing her hair over her shoulder as if nothing had happened. “Of course not,” she sniffed. “It was just a joke, after all. These things happen with kids all the time.”

I’d expected nothing less from a woman who built her career up from the ground all by herself. She’d mastered the method of getting close to people by first exchanging niceties with them before making her advances aggressively. After failing to appeal to Ashton’s daughter, she had likely decided to steal him away through brute force instead.

Clearly, her interest in Ashton was born out of calculation rather than a pure crush if she didn’t even have the patience to deal with a child.

Ding!

I’d planned on picking apart even more of her puzzling confidence, but the elevator had arrived at our floor. I couldn’t act too much like a bully in front of Summer either, so I took a deep breath and led her out of the elevator.

Ashton and Thora followed closely behind us.

I’d barely taken a few steps before pausing, turning around, and walking up to Ashton. Leaning in close to him just like how I’d done a thousand times before, I reached my arms around his neck and fiddled with his collar, making sure that Thora was watching every single move. After that, I grabbed his tie in an elegant motion, straightening it before stepping back to admire my handiwork. “That’s more like it,” I smiled to myself in satisfaction.

Glancing up at Ashton innocently, I told him, “Remember to take some time out of your schedule to accompany the kids for dinner, okay? Our arms are always open for you.”