Chapter 289: Extra: One Million per Stretch Mark

Asher Keating gently patted her belly a few more times, and the little one inside began to kick up a storm, moving this way and that. Leah Sinclair let out a soft hiss of discomfort. Asher didn’t dare to touch her belly again. Once the baby settled down, he took Leah’s hand and led her toward the car.

Once they were in the car, Asher Keating asked, “Has he been acting up lately?”

“Hmph. He’s definitely a night owl. He’s up in the middle of the night, every night, just tumbling around in there.”

Leah Sinclair poked her own belly in annoyance. The little one, as if protesting his mother’s complaints, immediately did a somersault inside. Leah yelped, and Asher Keating quickly placed a hand on her stomach.

“Don’t kick your mother. Keep it up and I’ll deal with you when you’re out.”

The moment Asher Keating finished speaking, the baby did another huge somersault. Leah Sinclair quickly cooed, “No one’s going to punish you, no one at all. You’re such a good boy. Please stop rolling around.”

Her belly immediately grew still. Asher Keating frowned. ‘This little guy… he can already tell when we’re being nice or mean?’

Back home, Leah Sinclair said she wanted to take a bath, so Asher Keating went to run the water for her. As Leah was undressing and looking in the mirror, she suddenly cried out.

Asher Keating’s heart clenched. He had been in the other room, and now he rushed in. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Sob… I have stretch marks.”

Leah Sinclair’s eyes were already red-rimmed. She’d heard from Sheila Hughes that with stretch marks, you either get none at all or, once they start, they just keep coming. Sheila had started getting them at six months; she’d cried for so long that Ethan Shaw had been driven half-mad, practically ready to get on his knees and beg.

Leah had seen them herself. That was why, after learning Leah was pregnant, Sheila had insisted she diligently apply moisturizing oil to prevent them, a warning Leah had taken to heart.

After so long without any sign of them, Leah had thought she was in the clear. Who would have known that now, in her final month, one would come creeping onto her belly?

Asher Keating breathed a sigh of relief, a little amused. He kissed her. “So what if you have one?”

“It’s ugly.”

For some reason, Leah’s composure completely crumbled. Her emotions had been stable for the entire pregnancy, but now, staring at that single reddish-brown line, the tears began to fall.

The moment Asher Keating saw her cry, he started to panic. Leah wasn’t one to cry easily. Her tears made his heart ache. He immediately pulled her into his arms, covering her with kisses and sweet reassurances.

The baby in her womb seemed to sense Leah’s distress and began to shift restlessly.

Leah felt the movement and didn’t dare to keep crying. She began stroking her belly, gently soothing the baby. Watching her try to comfort their child while she herself was still sniffling made Asher’s heart twist. He knelt, tracing the line of the stretch mark with his finger before pressing his lips against it.

“Asher…”

Leah was startled by his action. Asher stood up, gently tilted her chin, and placed a tender, lingering kiss on her lips.

“It’s not the least bit ugly. Don’t be upset. If you really hate it, we can look into treatments after the baby is born. I seem to recall Sheila Hughes did something like that, right?”

Asher recalled Ethan Shaw mentioning it before. Sheila’s emotional breakdown over the same thing had been particularly intense, and Ethan had borne the full brunt of it, which was why Asher remembered the detail so clearly.

He successfully comforted her, and after her bath, Asher carried her to bed and began to dry her hair. When Leah picked up her phone, she froze, her voice full of disbelief. “Asher, why did you transfer me so much money?”

“That’s your compensation for emotional distress. For every stretch mark, I’ll give you a million.”

He paused, his hands still in her hair, and looked at her with a hint of uncertainty. “Will that… make you feel any better?”

Leah burst out laughing with a “pfft.” In truth, she’d only fallen apart the moment she saw it. Now that she’d vented, she felt a little embarrassed. Getting stretch marks wasn’t exactly unheard of, after all.

But Asher was always so attentive to her every feeling. He had spent all that time comforting her in the bathroom, and now he was doing this. It was so simple and direct, and it made Leah’s heart feel warm.

“Asher, you’re making this very difficult for me,” she teased. “A million per line… that’s a huge temptation.”

As she spoke, Leah straightened up, kneeling on the bed to poke him in the chest. Asher gazed at the woman before him, her eyes curving into happy crescents.

She had just come from her bath. Her cheeks were still flushed, her eyes glistening. The pregnancy had given her a new, distinct kind of allure.

He swallowed hard. For the past several months, Asher had been afraid of hurting Leah. Even though their doctor had said it was fine to be intimate in moderation after a certain point, he had held himself back. They had, at most, found other ways to find release.

But he always felt it wasn’t quite the same as truly having her. Grabbing the hand that was stoking the flames, Asher’s voice grew husky. “Don’t tease me. You were already tempting me in the bathroom for ages.”

Leah’s eyes went wide. “How was I tempting you? You were the one who wouldn’t leave the bathroom.”

‘This man, blaming me again.’ She had just been taking her bath, and he was the one who had insisted on staying to keep her company, afraid she’d be uncomfortable.

Asher, having held back for so long, squeezed her hand. “You started this fire. You put it out.”

Leah’s cheeks flushed, but when her hand brushed against him, she knew just how much he was holding back. She leaned in closer and kissed him.

Thus began her mission to put out the fire. Since she’d become pregnant, Asher had guided her in discovering many new things, each one enough to make Leah blush to the roots of her hair.

When it came to matters between a man and a woman, there were plenty of ways to find release.

As Leah Sinclair’s due date drew closer, Asher Keating arranged all his work in advance, ensuring he could be home for the weeks surrounding the delivery. Mabel Grant and Ruth Hughes had also made their preparations long ago.

One day, Alan Keating pushed open the door to Asher’s office. The sight of the massive pile of documents on the desk made his vision dim. He gritted his teeth. “How long this time?”

“A month, maybe,” Asher said with a smile, patting the stack of files.

“Leah is having the baby and then doing her month of postpartum confinement. Why do you need a whole month?”

“Brother, national regulations allow for up to 15 days of paternity leave. I’m *only* taking a month.”

Alan Keating was speechless. It was just like when Asher and Leah got married and went on their honeymoon—for an entire month, the couple had traveled all over.

And poor Alan had been pinned to his desk at the Keating Group, unable to escape. His life became a blur of signing documents, attending meetings, making this decision, giving that opinion.

He suddenly found himself missing the peaceful days of sipping tea at home while watching his daughter and wife play games. During that time, even his own troublemaking son, who was usually up to no good from dawn till dusk, had seemed pleasant to look at.

On the day Asher and Leah returned, Alan had stormed over to their villa with a stack of documents, planning all the while to throw the whole pile right back at his brother.

But the moment he stepped into the living room, Leah had greeted him with a beaming smile and a pile of tea. “Brother, here’s some green tea, this is black tea, and this is Pu’er…”

Alan looked at the mountain of tea, then glanced at his brother, who was watching him with an identical grin. He cleared his throat. “I’ll give you three more days. After that, you get your butt back to the office. I haven’t had a proper meal with your sister-in-law, Seth, or Tanya in days.”