Secret Marriage: The CEO's Pampered Wife

"What did you say?!"

"Nothing!"

The little boy immediately shook his head and said to Georgia Thorne with a grin, "Hello, Ms. Thorne. My name is Hannah Gardner. My mom wants me to learn to paint, so my name comes from the word ’painting’!"

"Hello!" Georgia Thorne quite liked children, and Hannah Gardner was especially cute.

The whole reason Georgia Thorne had fled with Chloe Gardner to this old town was to hide from Elliot Sheridan.

She’d turned off her phone as soon as she boarded the train.

It seemed Chloe Gardner rarely got to see her son, so Hannah was incredibly clingy. Wherever Chloe went, he followed like a little shadow.

Chloe also had a grandmother. The old woman was getting on in years, but she was still hale and hearty. When Chloe was living in Portmire, it was mostly Miss Gardner who took care of Hannah.

After spending the whole morning on the train, Georgia felt she couldn’t just sit around by evening, so she went to help Chloe cook in the kitchen.

"Just wait outside. I’ll be quick!" Chloe pushed her out of the kitchen.

Chloe’s home was modest, filled with old-fashioned things. After dinner, Chloe’s grandmother asked Georgia a few questions.

It was all about how Chloe was doing out in the world. "Chloe is doing very well," Georgia said.

"That girl Chloe must be having a tough time. Working so hard every day, and still sending money to me and Hannah. Our living expenses here aren’t high. I’ve told her so many times, but she keeps sending so much... Oh, honestly..."

Georgia could tell the old woman doted on Chloe. Yet, as far as she knew, Chloe was supposedly studying in Portmire, but it seemed her grandmother didn’t know that.

Everyone has their own burdens to bear. If there were things Chloe didn’t want to talk about, then Georgia wouldn’t pry.

Sometime after nine, Georgia felt tired and went to sleep in Hannah’s room.

Hannah seemed rather shy. With his ears turning red, he said timidly, "Ms. Thorne, you’re the first person besides my mom to ever sleep in my bed!"

Georgia let out a laugh. "Go get some sleep!"

"Ms. Thorne, this is for you!" Hannah pulled a rosy red apple from behind his back and offered it to her.

She froze for a moment, then remembered it was Christmas Day, a day she had just let slip by. "No, thank you. I don’t want it, you should have it!"

"It’s okay! The kids at school gave me too many apples. Ms. Thorne, you can just help me with them!" Hannah shoved the apple into Georgia’s hand, then dashed out, calling for his mom.

Georgia looked down at the apple in her hand and couldn’t help but smile.

The next morning, Georgia was woken by the sounds of Chloe and her son arguing.

She hastily threw on some clothes and went out to find Chloe with a fierce look on her face, while Hannah’s eyes were red, on the verge of tears.

"I don’t want to go to school!" Hannah saw Georgia and immediately hid behind her.

"You’re going whether you want to or not!"

"I’m not going to school!"

...

After listening to the mother-son standoff for a while, with neither side willing to compromise, Georgia finally understood why Chloe had said children were little devils.

Chloe had a fiery temper, and Hannah was just as stubborn. Neither was willing to back down.

Left with no choice, Georgia finally spoke up. "I’ve come all this way to visit, Hannah. How about you spend the day with me and we can go exploring, okay?"

Hannah nodded. He looked up, met Chloe’s gaze, and shrank further behind Georgia, clearly afraid his mother would say no.

"Chloe, he’s just a little kid. It’s not a big deal if he misses one day of school."

With Georgia acting as a mediator, the two of them finally called a truce.

After breakfast, Hannah was eager to go out and play.

Chloe’s house was about a ten-minute walk from the center of town.

In truth, Chloe and Hannah’s relationship could mend as quickly as it frayed. They had been angry before leaving the house, but now mother and son were thick as thieves.

There weren’t many tourists in the old town, probably because it wasn’t the weekend.

The old town wasn’t large. A walk around the riverbank took only an hour or two.

Hannah chattered away, introducing her to all the local trinkets. He said, rather smugly, "Ms. Thorne, that grasshopper the man was weaving just now? I can do that too!"

"That’s amazing!"

Hannah beamed with pride. Just as he was about to say "Of course!", Chloe chimed in, "You only learned after taking apart forty or fifty of them, and yours are still so ugly. How can you have the nerve to say you know how to do it!"

Chloe was merciless. Hannah’s little face flushed bright red. ’She’s not my real mom!’

They strolled around, tried the local snacks, and soaked in the scenery and local culture. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, this was a pretty good way to live.

That night, just as Georgia was about to go to sleep, Hannah came into her room. "Ms. Thorne, can I sleep with you tonight?"

Georgia was a little taken aback. She’d never slept with a child before. "Where’s your mom?"

At the mention of his mother, Hannah’s face fell. He huffed irritably, "She went on a date!"

Georgia more or less understood. Children never liked it when a stranger suddenly appeared in their lives.

Georgia scooted over in the bed, letting Hannah climb up. She then turned off the light for them to sleep.

Hannah couldn’t sleep. "Ms. Thorne, are you asleep?"

"No. Is something wrong?"

"..." Hannah was quiet for a moment, then asked, "Ms. Thorne, have you ever met my dad?"

In all the time she had known Chloe, Georgia had never heard her mention the child’s father’s name. She said softly, "No. Do you miss your dad?"

"Like hell I miss him!" Hannah said, though he clearly didn’t mean it. After a long pause, he spoke again. "Ms. Thorne, can I borrow your phone?"

"I want to call my dad."

Georgia found it hard to refuse a child. She took her phone from under the pillow, turned it on, and handed it to him.

Hannah didn’t know how to use the phone. "Ms. Thorne, can you make the call for me?"

Hannah recited a string of numbers, and Georgia dialed them. The call was answered almost immediately.

Georgia passed the phone to Hannah. He held it carefully and spoke into it, "Hello, are you my dad?"

Pfft...

The person on the other end probably thought it was a wrong number. Hannah’s face fell with disappointment. He handed the phone back to her, then rolled over in his blankets to sleep.

Georgia guessed that the scumbag who’d been with Chloe probably didn’t even know he had a son tucked away in this little town.

Depressed, Hannah fell asleep not long after.

With her back to him, Georgia scrolled through her phone. There were a lot of messages.

There were messages from Selena Sheridan, Nancy Hughes, colleagues from work, and... him.

Most of them were from him.

"Where are you?"

"Georgia, stop messing around. Come out now!"

...

"Georgia Thorne, so you’re just a coward. You have the guts to sleep with me, but not the guts to face up to it!"

Reading that last message, Georgia almost coughed up blood. She gripped her phone tighter. The text had arrived a little over ten minutes ago.

The thought had barely crossed her mind when a call came in from Elliot Sheridan. In a panic, Georgia mashed the power button.

She couldn’t get back to sleep for the first half of the night.

Georgia lay awake past one in the morning. She quietly turned her phone back on and glanced at Elliot’s message.

This time, he’d replied with just two words: "Very good!"

Georgia’s right eyelid kept twitching, and it didn’t stop until the next morning.

Chloe took Hannah to school. While Georgia was still lazing in bed, wrapped in her blankets, she heard Chloe’s grandmother calling from outside.

"Thorne, someone’s here for you!"

Miss Gardner was still spry, but she walked very slowly. By the time she ambled into the room, Georgia had already thrown on a jacket.

"Who is it?" ’Who could possibly be looking for her here, in a place where she knew no one?’

"He didn’t give me his name, just said he was looking for you. A rather handsome young man!" Miss Gardner said slowly.

’A rather handsome young man?’

Georgia’s eyelid gave a violent twitch. She turned and went out, but her first reaction upon seeing the travel-worn man was to retreat back into the room and lock the door.

Panic seized her chest, her heart hammering wildly. ’How did he get here?!’

’Almost no one knew I was here.’

’Chloe doesn’t even know Elliot, so there’s no way she could have told him!’

’And yet he managed to find this exact spot!’

Elliot Sheridan looked exhausted, but the moment he saw Georgia Thorne, his gaze sharpened. ’So she really is here.’

Miss Gardner, unaware of the situation, heard the man call out Georgia Thorne’s name and assumed they knew each other.

The old woman wasn’t particularly guarded, so she had let Elliot Sheridan in.

"Young man, what’s all this about?" Miss Gardner asked.

"Ma’am, my name is Elliot Sheridan, and that’s my wife, Georgia Thorne. I made a mistake and made her angry, so she ran off to this place to hide from me!"

Georgia leaned against the door, listening to Elliot explain the situation to Miss Gardner with an impeccably polite attitude.

"Oh, a lover’s quarrel! Once a couple is married, you should live your lives peacefully. Don’t bicker all the time, you’ll argue all the love away!" Miss Gardner deliberately raised her voice so that both Elliot and Georgia inside the room could hear. "I’m just an old woman, so I won’t meddle in you young folks’ affairs. You two talk it out!"

"Ma’am, he’s not my husband! He’s a liar! Make him leave!" Georgia shouted through the door.

But Miss Gardner was inclined to believe Elliot. He looked like a promising young man, not the type to lie.

After Miss Gardner left, Elliot reached out and knocked on the door. "Georgia Thorne, come out!"

Georgia had locked the door from the inside when she came in, so she wasn’t afraid he could get in. She plopped down on the bed angrily.

Whatever Elliot said outside, she just pretended she couldn’t hear him.

A little while later, Chloe returned from taking her son to school. She apparently didn’t recognize Elliot. "Who are you?"

"I’m Elliot Sheridan. Georgia Thorne’s husband."

Georgia: "..."