Chapter 5 My breath caught , but I forced myself to act completely normal . As I settled into the armchair across from him , I even managed a playful tone : " What are you doing with my recipe book ? Don't mind getting your hands dirty ? " When Alex first brought me into this arrangement , I could barely cook . I mean , I could make stuff that filled you up , but it wasn't exactly fine dining . I was just some country girl with nothing going for me . No education , not particularly smart , couldn't even sing or dance to entertain people . All I had was a face that turned heads . But that wasn't nearly enough . The other girls who got picked around the same time all said I'd definitely be the first one kicked to the curb . རྟ་ འ་ ཆ་ ཇ་ ད བ ་ I couldn't go back to barely scraping by , so I had to get creative . I needed Alex to see I had more to offer than just looks . Lucky for me , I had some natural talent in the kitchen . Any dish I wanted to learn , I could nail it after just one or two tries . This recipe book had been through hell and back . Covered in grease stains and sauce splatters that had long lost their original colors . Once I'd really mastered cooking , Alex kept telling me to throw the damn thing away . I refused . To me , this book represented my whole journey . It meant everything . So I hid it , and he hadn't found it for years . Thinking about all this , I felt the knot in my chest loosen . Whether Alex had seen what I'd written or not , I had my story ready . " What do these notes on the last two pages mean ? " Of course Alex wouldn't let me deflect . He flipped to the back and pointed at my writing . I put on my most embarrassed expression : " A friend recommended this novel to me . The heroine dies because she gets too obsessed with love , and the author made her story so tragic . I got emotional while reading and just ... wrote down some thoughts . " In Alex's mind , I was neither particularly bright nor good at lying . So he usually believed everything I said . But this time , he wasn't ready to drop it : " Which novel ? I want to check it out . " I froze for a few seconds , then smiled . I pulled up my phone and found some reincarnation romance I'd read before . I even helpfully found the chapter that had made me cry and showed it to Alex . Just as I expected , he scrolled through a few pages and handed both my phone and the notebook back . Then he said quietly: " It's late . Go get ready for bed . " The next day , I deliberately slept in a bit . After Alex left for work , I asked the maid who'd cleaned yesterday . " Mr. Winters called around noon looking for some missing paperwork . He had me search everywhere . When I was cleaning your bedroom , I found that notebook under the bed . I mentioned it when I called him back , and he told me to leave it in his study . " The maid glanced at me nervously : " Ma'am , did I mess up ? " In this house , only the head butler knew the real nature of my relationship with Alex . The other staff were hired from out of state , and they'd been calling me " Mrs. Winters " since day one . I'd never paid attention to this detail before . But now that Victoria was back , I had to be careful about everything : " No , it's okay . I was just curious . Oh , and when you get a chance , let the others know they shouldn't call me Mrs. Winters and I aren't married . " Discover our latest featured short drama reel. Watch now and enjoy the story!