My Devil Husband's Regrets

Chapter 2

The maid outfit looked just right on Adrianna's tall body. The bright pink color made Adrianna's pale white skin look even more radiant. Together with the clothes, Adrianna fully became part of the servants in Theodoric's house.

“Can you cook?” asked Gwen which made Adrianna immediately turn to her.

“I can cook some food. But I'm better at baking,” Adrianna replied with a sweet smile on her face.

“Today Mr. Theodoric is having a party and we'll be working harder than usual,” Gwen said. “And Mr. Theodoric asked me to assign you to help the chefs.”

Adrianna frowned at Gwen's words. Memories of a dozen years ago filled Adrianna's mind. Back then, when the Adams family still worked as maids in the house, Adrianna often saw Theodoric cooking with his mother.

“Of course, I will do my job well,” Adrianna said in the end.

()

It seemed like the party at Theodoric's house that night was a celebration of Theodoric's company's business success. From some of the people who were working with him, Adrianna could tell that Theodoric had successfully made company acquisitions so that now his company was even stronger.

“Where's Adrianna?”

The voice was not as strange as before, so when Theodoric came into the kitchen where Adrianna was helping the chefs, she immediately turned to Theodoric.

“What is it, Mr. Theodoric?”

“Someone wants to see you.”

Adrianna's brow furrowed deeply at Theodoric's words. However, she had no choice but to follow Theodoric who walked ahead of her. With her maid outfit looking a little dirty, Adrianna finally walked behind Theodoric's tall body.

“Mr. and Mrs. Smith, this is Adrianna Harper, Julian Harper's first daughter.”

Adrianna recognized the intimate-looking couple at the table. They were Brian and Marie Smith, a wealthy married couple who had been good friends of her parents. And they were the same people who were partly to blame for the downfall of her father's company.

“Adrianna, you look different,” Mrs. Smith said with a meaningful smile. “Do you like your current job?”

Adrianna desperately refrained from showing an exasperated face in front of Marry Smith. Her smile slowly grew, and Adrianna nodded in response to the older woman's question.

“I really enjoy my work, Mrs. Smith,” Adrianna replied.

“Theodoric has been very kind to hire you here,” said Brian Smith who was sitting next to his wife.

Theodoric, who had been listening to the conversation between Adrianna and the married couple, secretly smiled with satisfaction. His purpose in bringing Adrianna to see the Smiths was to make her realize that she was now nothing more than a maid who had no pride whatsoever.

“I'm just trying to repay the Harper Family for their kindness to my family,” Theodoric replied with a sly smile.

“Kindness?” Brian Smith chuckled sarcastically. “What they did to you was torture.” His gaze flicked to Adrianna as he said that sentence.

Adrianna bit her lip again, not even caring about her injured lip that she had bitten too many times. No one would care about what she did, not until Adrianna noticed Theodore's gaze that had never left her since earlier.

“I'll still pay it back,” Theodore muttered.

“But Adrianna is very beautiful, isn't she? Her body is so perfect that I think she could work as a slut."

Mrs. Smith's words made Adrianna choke and the blood from her lips spurted out a little. Adrianna quickly wiped her lips, and smiled awkwardly in response to Mrs. Smith's words. When she glanced at Theodore, he gave her a frivolous smile.

“Ah, yes. I agree with you, Mrs. Smith. Looks like I'll have to think of a suitable place for my maid to work,” Theodore replied with a small chuckle, the man patronizing her.

Adrianna had done everything to keep her body from overreacting to the insults she was getting from Theodore and the Smiths. She was sure her hands were already red as she gripped them tightly, and her lips were definitely torn apart after Adrianna always tried to hold back her emotions by biting her inner lips.

That night, on Adrianna's first day working as a maid for Theodore Adams, he destroyed her once sky-high self-esteem.

()

“Your cooking is rubbish.”

That was the first sentence Adrianna heard when she returned to the kitchen, joining the famous chefs brought in by Theodore to prepare dinner.

“You poured in too much salt, and now you're leaving your work behind, giving my team a hard time.” The pot-bellied man chastised her in a fierce voice. “Get out. You don't deserve to work in this kitchen.”

“But Mr. Theodore asked me to work here. I don't want to make him angry,” Adrianna retorted. “I will improve my work, sir. I'll do it in earnest.”

It seemed that the big man was not too patient with Adrianna. Because after hearing Adrianna's words, the man threw a glass filled with hot tea right at Adrianna causing her to squeal in surprise, as well as pain.

“I don't want to hear your excuses! You're messing up my work and I have every right to throw you out of here!” the big man shouted, causing several people to stare curiously at him and Adrianna.

Adrianna could only look down as some of the guests began to gather around to see the commotion the head chef had created. Not for a second did Adrianna dare to look up, or reply to the head chef who was still yelling at her for making the mistake of pouring too much salt into her food.

“What's going on?”

Just as Adrianna felt the head chef's anger mounting, Theodoric's voice was heard breaking up the crowd. It seemed Theodoric was annoyed that the head chef was scolding Adrianna out in the open and causing some of his guests to be disturbed.

“What's going on, Steve? Why are you yelling in front of her?” Theodoric asked the man named Steve, and Adrianna foolishly hoped that Theodoric would defend her this time.

“Mr. Theodoric, I respect you as my boss. But when someone you've assigned to help in the kitchen is destroying my teamwork, I won't stand for it,” Steve said, glancing sarcastically at Adrianna.

“I... I just made a small mistake.” really, Adrianna's answer was a bombshell in itself.

“A small mistake?” Theodoric walked up to Adrianna with both hands tucked into his pockets. “Do you think making my favorite chef angry is a small mistake, Adrianna?”

As Theodoric stepped closer, Adrianna took a step back. The sharp, intimidating glare that Theodoric gave her managed to frighten Adrianna.

“I'm sorry,” Adrianna whispered as she had no room to move now that Theodoric's large body was wrapped around her.

“Aren't you familiar with this incident, Adrianna?” Theodoric whispered, right next to Adrianna's ear. “Seventeen years ago, when I had just graduated high school and you had your eleventh birthday party, don't you remember it?”

Adrianna's body trembled even more violently. Her memory was forcibly brought back to the night of her horrible birthday. The night Adrianna realized that Theodoric Adams, who had always taught her to play basketball, had turned into a cold-hearted man who would never speak to her again.

“Your parents told me this, in front of all your honored guests.” Theodoric moved his face away from Adrianna, and looked at his guests who had begun to gather out of curiosity. “Forgive me, honorable ladies and gentlemen. This lowly servant of mine has never learned manners and so he dares to create a mess. I apologize for interrupting your dinner."

And that sentence, was the exact same sentence that his mother, Monetta Harper, had spoken to the then eighteen-year-old Theodoric Adams.

()