Milli didn't answer directly because it wasn't the question she thought he would ask. Moreover, she was not prepared to answer such questions.
Before coming, she had already formed answers for each possible question that he may ask. But never did she imagine that he will ask her that type of question. She sighed and looked around in order to avoid his gaze.
"Answer me immediately and don't dare to avoid the question", Jace thought that if he didn't speak with her with authority, she will never tell him the truth.
"Yes, I'm his illegitimate daughter. So, what? Is it my fault? I know you are my boss and I owe you respect, but it doesn't give you the right to blame me and I will not allow you to insult me. I won't lower myself and beg you to keep me as your assistant only because I'm an illegitimate child. I have my pride too, just like you", she said with full confidence in herself.
"Are you done? Sorry for calling you an illegitimate child, but couldn't you be less harsh with your words? Moreover, I never said I blamed you and that I was going to replace you. Is it because my tone was too judging?" Jace said apologetically.
Milli lowered her head in guilt and regret and shook her head in denial. The problem was that she hated the fact of being the daughter of that man. No! Illegitimate daughter, just because he didn't marry her mother.
"Milli, I can see in your eyes that you don't love your father. How can you hate someone as benevolent as him?" Jace stated the untold truth. '*Scoff* him? Benevolent? Rubbish!' she thought
"Jorge Adams, my biological father, was a great military officer and died 2 years ago on the battlefield. Many people took him as their role model, as an example, as their pride but they never knew his real face", she started.
"My mother and he were dating happily for 3 years until he decided to join the military. On his first mission, he traveled to the northern part of the country leaving behind my pregnant Mom", she added calmly.
"After his return, the time he spent with Mom reduced as he had been promoted to a higher post. After my birth, things got worse. He started bringing random girls at home and bedding them in their rooms. And he also started smoking", she still continued with the same tone but with a hint of anger in it.
"I know you may say that smoking is quite normal nowadays but in our family, it is considered a taboo. Three years later, he started beating my Mom and me using baseless excuses", she said with a breath so as to calm herself.
"And when my Mom will ask him if they were going to get married one day. He always replied by saying that he was not yet stable and that very soon we shall be a complete family", she went on not knowing that the anger in her eyes was getting clearer in seconds.
"But when the news of the marriage between my father and another woman got displayed on the television, my Mom lost all hope and moved out of the house. After his marriage, he stopped looking after us and let the people around him acknowledge us as illegitimate. I had to temporarily stop school because of poverty", she continued while gritting her teeth tightly.
"So how can I be called an illegitimate child when I'm his first child? And I even had a brother but he died in a fire accident caused by our stepbrother. That man let him go free even after knowing that my brother was his son", she said as she started crying with anger and sadness.
"See, I don't want to continue thinking about it. I just...Now that you know everything, do you still think that he was a good person? That he deserves that title? How do you think I feel when I see that even after his death people still worship him thou he mistreated us? My junior brother died when he was still young!!" she ended but sobbed even more.
The death of her junior brother was a very awful memory from her past. He was her strength. She stopped school early only to gain money for him to study but he died without even starting his life.
Such a poor fate. At a point in time she even wanted to end her own life but to whom will she leave her mother? Life is merciless indeed but was it to everyone.
Fate had been so biased by taking away her strength and leaving that old geezer and his sinful son to live a prosperous life.
* * *
At Hamilton's mansion,
"Butler Green, is my daughter back already?" Tyler asked because he did not see his daughter coming back home last night. He knew that she must be with Jason.
"No sir. She isn't back yet. We received a call from Willow's mansion informing us that the young miss will be returning home in the afternoon", the butler replied.
"Call back and tell them that I said I want to see my daughter back home in an hour", after receiving the order, the butler left.
Tyler was casually sitting in the garden sipping his favorite tea. If news of his daughter staying in the home of a man before marriage got leaked out, he would not be able to bear the consequences.
It was such a careless act coming from them. He will have to reprimand his daughter and his future son-in-law. But thinking of their son-in-law, they still had to make the wedding preparations.
He thought that as the couple was too busy to choose a wedding date, he will do them a favor by choosing it on their behalf. He then made an appointment to meet with the inlaws.
What he did not know was that he was not doing them a favor by choosing it for them. Instead, it was their will to delay it. Wait, no! It wasn't theirs but Amber's own.
The little girl wanted to experience dating as she never had a boyfriend. She had the intention to enjoy it fully but out of nowhere came her father with the marriage thing.