No Strings Attached

Chapter 67

The mention of children sent Clara into a towering rage. With a sudden burst of force, she shoved lan away She stumbled backward, her face a twisted mask of bitter cold and Irony. “Mr. Hayes, you’ve got the wrong gal. Your sweetheart’s upstairs. Go make babies with her. I’d rather die than bear your child.” She spun around and marched off toward the back garden.

The whole situation was absurd and ludicrous. Were he and Heidi in cahoots to torment her? One wanted a surrogate, and the other pressed for offspring.

“lan, you spineless jerk! Whoever you have children with is none of my business.” Clara thought to herself.

Seated alone by the pond, she licked her wounds in silence, replaying the tumultuous history between her and lan.

As she cursed lan and lobbed pebbles into the water, Heidi’s voice crept up from behind. “Ms. Clara, lan sent me to check on you. Are you alright?”

Clara snapped without a hint of courtesy, “Buzz off!”

sweetly. “Ms. Clara, I know this is hard to swallow, but think

that?

the Hayes family heir. You might not marry into the Hayes, but if your child stays with the Hayes, that’s

spoke, she reached out to tug at Clara’s clothes. Just as Clara was about to shove her away, she realized Heidi had positioned herself by the pond’s edge. One push, and Heidi would tumble

Heidi’s ploy, an attempt to provoke her, to have Clara push her into the pond.

Heidi, could anyone stoop lower

her place at the pond’s brink. Noticing someone approaching, she cried out, “Ms. Heidi, there’s nothing between me with Mr. Hayes, stop it! I can’t swim–Ah!”

a splash, and Clara

flabbergasted. The script had gone off the rails, hijacked by Clara

That’s when the cries for help broke out,

into the murky depths. The pond, a relic of the old Hicks