His Not So Beautiful Wife (Book 1) novel Chapter 8

Elle stood near the jersey listening to its owner's worries.

Her hands were patting the cow's body to make it accustomed to her touch.

"She has not been eating properly and is lethargic to even walk. She was milking much more than her normal capacity since last few days but now she is not giving any."

Elle nodded as she placed her hand near the cow's face to find it's pulse.

"Has she calved recently?"

"Yes..she gave birth to a calf a few days back"

Finally, Elle measured her temperature and her doubts were confirmed.

96°F was much lower than its normal temperature of 101.5 .

She pulled an injection and filled it with the required medicine.

Gently placing her one hand on the cow she injected the medicine.

Slowly rubbing over the spot she turned to her owner.

"Will she be fine...I am really worried... that's why I called you from the city..."

"Don't worry she will recover in 2-3 days.

Due to calving and over milking her calcium levels have dropped and she is having milk fever. It's good you called me early before it reached the third stage.

I have injected her with a one-third heterogeneous mixture of calcium and it's substituted. She will be back to normal in a few days."

The owner sighed and thanked her as she smiled back at him.

Her phone rang and she excused herself

It was Ashton's driver and she wondered why he was calling her.

"Ma'am I am sorry to disturb you but Sir has forgotten his phone in your car.

He needs it urgently...can you tell me your location so that I can collect it?"

"I was on my way back..... don't worry I will give it to him"

"Are you sure Ma'am....or I can collect it...you don't need to."

"It's completely fine for me don't worry."

"Okay Ma'am thanks"

Elle made her way back to her car to see 34 missed calls on his phone.

It was locked off course and she decided to hurry back.

On her way back his phone kept on ringing non-stop and she thought maybe it was important.

Name Amanda showed on the screen and for a second her heart felt heavy and pained.

Why was she calling him?

Didn't she say he had rejected her?

Ignoring she kept driving and soon she reached his multi-storey office building.

As soon as she entered her self consciousness returned.

She just came from a place surrounded by cows to a place like this.

She looked down to find her shoes covered in mud ruining the shine of Italian tiles underneath.

Her jeans had patches of mud and her plain top was to plain for a place like this.

Placing the fringe behind her ear she slowly approached the reception office.

3 model like women and one man were sitting there.

They had phone placed near their ears and each one of them was speaking to someone else.

People looked like robots here and she felt like to be the only human here.

No one even speared her a look and she found this relaxing.

Finally, when one of them ended the call she started

"Excuse me!"

Her tiny scared voice failed to get the receptionists attention and she felt embarrassed looking around.

Again she tried but failed.

Finally, the boy sitting at the next reception table saw her struggles and asked her politely.

"Good evening miss Welcome to Lockwood industries..how may I help you?"

"Hi...actually I wanted to meet Ashton....can you please tell me where I can find him?"

He looked shocked for a second but soon covered up.

All those other receptionists stilled for a second as they stared at her.

One even managed to chuckle at her question.

Did I say something amusing?

"I am really sorry ma'am but  do you by any chance mean Sir Ashton Lockwood?"

"Yaa...who else?"

I questioned irritated by their stupid questions.

"And who may you be?"

"I am Elle"

She wanted to say her full name but refrained.

They didn't know who she was so she guesses her being married to Ashton was not a known thing.

"Miss Elle I am sorry but Sir is busy in a meeting right now. You can wait if you want to."

"No, it's really important!! I have to meet him now only....I have his phone with me ....see"

As she showed them his phone all of them looked closer to see if it really was.

One even managed to say something in others ear as they laughed together.

Unfortunately, Elle had heard it.

"I bet she is a thief!! Have you seen her clothes?"

Elle knew her t-shirt was 2 sizes bigger and her Jean washed out and faded but she didn't expect them to notice her to that extent.

The boy took hold of the phone from Elle and looked at it closely.

"It is definitely Sir Ashton's phone but I can't let you in. If you want I can hand it over to him?"

She didn't know if she could trust him as she looks lost and confused.

"I... don't know.... it's okay I guess I will wait"

He smiled back and she returned clutching his phone between her fingers.

She felt afraid of this unknown environment and looked around to see if she can find someone she knew.

To her surprise, Ashton's phone again rang in her hands and she looked down to see some "finance head floor 2" calling.

As soon as she pressed the green button the voice on the other side sounded urgent.

"Sir the audit trail has been found. The lost funds were traced back-"

"Sorry but this is Elle"

"Who Elle? Isn't this Sir Ashton's phone!!"

"It is but he forgot it...I am his wife speaking"

"Oh, I am really sorry Ma'am pardon my tone."

"No..no it's fine....can you tell me where Ashton would be ...I am sitting in the reception area waiting"

"No worries ma'am you can come up on 56th floor... Sir would be there. If anyone asks to take my name "Sam Montessori "

"Thank you so much, Sam....but where can I find the elevator?"

She asked confused as to where to find the directions.

"Just go straight and turn the second left. Take the golden elevator as only that one comes to this floor.

The elevators are according to even and odd floors."

"Oh thank you so much, Sam. I own you"

"Pleasure was all mine miss Lockwood. Take care"

She followed his directions to reach the golden elevator.

A guard stood in front of it giving her a questioning gaze.

"Sam  Montessori.....he is expecting me."

The guard analysed her from head to toe but still nodded.

She sighed in relief as the door was opened and she entered.

"Which floor ma'am?"

"56th"

And with this, the guard entered the number and the door closed.

Finally alone in the elevator, she sighed and looked back to see a big glass mirror overlooking the entire building.

Her eyes were jumping from tiny figures who were busy working on each floor.

Everyone had a task to complete except their tasks were not as simple as that of hers.

She for a second wondered why Ashton's name made them question her but this Sam's name did not.

Her brain could only muster up one reply which was that Ashton's name was too big coming from her lips for others to believe her.

He was no doubt the very owner of this million dollars business.

The very se man that has kissed her yesterday.

A feeling of proudness engulfed her as she placed her fingers on her lips and smiled to herself.

The door pinged and she immediately stood straight staring at the floor.

"He is cancelling this deal!! What does he think of himself that egoistic bas****!! Henry never behaved with me like this!!"

The man silenced as the other man called him and motioned for my presence in the elevator as well.

The man who shouted earlier looked at me and gave me a disgusted look.

She knew who they were talking about but decided to ignore and continue to stare at the people outside the mirror.

"Sir calm down it's fine

.. no one can offer him a better price than us..he will come back to us"

Soon they left and I enjoyed the silence again.

Finally reaching his floor the door opened.

She looked around to find this floor completely contrasting to other floors.

There was pin-drop silence here as she moved further.

To her welcome, she saw a few people standing in front of a door with looks of fear evident in their eyes.

"We are going to be fired!!"

"Oh please don't utter rubbish...we just mixed the presentations and that's it"

"He threw that file at the floor!!"