Ch. 216..220: Love Slave to the Mafia Boss's Passion Chapter 216-220

Chapter 216: Proud Mum

"Umm…excuse me, can you get Little Hayden his ball toy? It’s in my room, I think if you ask one of the maids, she should be able to get it for you…" I requested with a pleading voice.

"Sure…" one of the guards replied emotionlessly after a short pause.

I continued sketching and soon after, Little Hayden had a red little ball to play with in the grass. Now only if he had someone to play around with him, the day would be so perfect for the little guy. I glanced over at the stern-looking guards and shook my head softly to myself as I gave up on the idea. I don’t think any of them would be willing to play ball with my little puppy.

Sorry, Little Hayden, you’re going to have to play by yourself for today.

Right now, I found it a great idea to have the guards with me. Not because I felt like I was in any real danger, but it was useful to have them help keep an eye on Little Hayden as he played around in the grass to make sure that he didn’t wander off while I was busy sketching or working on my artwork.

The sketches of the various flowers that I’ve drawn up to this point seemed decent enough. However, there wasn’t anything new or outstanding about that. I’ve sketched many flowers before up to this point and I wasn’t sure if it was adding any new range to my skill as an artist. A depressed sigh left my lips as I stared down at the sketchbook while I wondered what I should do next.

My eyes rove around the scenery, trying to find something that was worth sketching. Something new, a little more complex or something that I wasn’t used to sketching. I’ve done a lot of sketches and paintings of trees and flowers before so that was out of the question. I could use some practice on sketching people, I thought as my eyes fell on the bodyguard standing nearby.

His facial hair would make the sketch more challenging in terms of texture and tone.

I sighed again and shook my head to myself. There was no way that he would just sit and let me sketch him. Plus, the guards are supposed to be working right now. My eyes wandered and then stopped at the little furball sitting very close to my feet. What about…

"Little Hayden…would you like to be my model for today?" I asked cheerfully.

Little Hayden, who by now had figured out that that was his name, turned and looked up at my face. I laughed a little and he immediately began wagging his tail enthusiastically. It was clear that he was happy about everything that was going on in his life right now. I had almost no experience sketching animals, especially very furry ones like Little Hayden so he would be the perfect subject.

New and challenging. Perfect.

Now, I just need to figure out how to make him pose and stay relatively still. Before when he was laying on his favorite spot on the grass, he was quite calm and stayed quite still. That might work but how do I get him to lay down there again?

I looked down at the active and energetic puppy that was running around in the grass and suddenly, I started feeling hopeless. What if I put him on a chair or something? Maybe that would work…

"Excuse me, can someone get me a chair or a stool? I want to sketch Little Hayden so…" I requested with a smile.

"Sure…" one of the guards replied curtly with a nod.

Soon after, the chair arrived, and I carried Little Hayden up and seated him on the chair. He looked confused at first but then his optimism returned in full stream, and he was all smiles again. His eyes sparkled as he looked at me. He sat down and because there wasn’t a lot of space on the chair, he was sort of forced to stay in place.

I sat down on the grass close by and just like magic, Little Hayden looked straight at me. I sketched him while he sat and watched what I was doing.

Knowing that he probably wont stay like that forever or he would die of boredom sometime soon, I concentrated on sketching a little faster than usual. It was a challenge to capture the soft texture of the puppy’s fur on paper and also the expression in his eyes. This clearly was an area that I needed to practice and improve upon.

After I was quite satisfied with the sketching session for the day, I decided to wrap up. I thanked Little Hayden for his help and placed him back down on the grass. The final mission before we go back in is to get him to pee.

"Little Hayden, it’s time for you to go to the toilet. Anywhere on the grass is fine…" I said encouragingly.

The little corgi gave me a confused look before walking away. Clearly, that didn’t work out the way that I had expected. Is it normal that he hasn’t peed since we came out here? Was he too dehydrated to go to the toilet? Should I feed him some water first?

I watched as Little Hayden walked leisurely around as I tried to give him some space. He began sniffing the grass here and there. It wasn’t like I was in a hurry to get back inside. I decided to wait for him as he seemed to search for the right spot to attend to his business. Suddenly, Little Hayden started peeing onto the grass.

"Wow…finally!" I exclaimed in joy as I clapped my hands together.

My reaction drew suspicious stares from the guards, and I realized that I must have acted strangely. They probably think that I’m weird. However, I couldn’t care less. Little Hayden had completed his mission of going to the toilet outside for the first time ever! I felt so proud of his little achievement. This must be what it felt like to be a proud mum.

 

Chapter 217: My Haydens

"Welcome back home!" I greeted Hayden happily.

I waved a hand at him while my other arm was busy holding Little Hayden. Hayden looked at me with a brief look of surprise before his eyes narrowed suspiciously at me and then at the puppy in my arm. I had decided to surprise Hayden a little for a change by waiting for him right at the steps to the main door of the mansion.

"Why are you standing out here?" he asked.

"Waiting for you to come back, obviously," I replied.

"Hmm…" he murmured.

Maybe it’s just my own imagination or the light playing tricks, but I thought Hayden looked a little happy just now.

"Little Hayden say, ’welcome back’ too, Hayden," I talked to the puppy in a sweet cooing voice.

"Why are you talking to the dog? He probably doesn’t understand a thing," Hayden muttered darkly.

"I think he does understand somethings…" I countered stubbornly.

"Let’s go inside. You don’t need to wait for me outside," Hayden said a little sternly as he walked past me into the mansion.

I smiled a little to myself before following him back inside. In my mind, I had already decided to wait for him outside again tomorrow because I was more than half convinced that he seemed a little happy about it.

"Isn’t that, right?" I whispered softly into Little Hayden’s large and pointy ear.

Hayden immediately seated himself at the dining table while the maids worked to serve the food. Little Hayden seemed excited about the food and began sniffing and twitching his nose rapidly. Hayden, on the other hand, seemed tired and detached. That only made me wonder what went wrong for him today.

"I guess work was busy?" I asked softly as I sat down in the chair opposite him.

Little Hayden’s eyes widened at the food on the table as he sat on my lap like a cute little plush toy.

"Work is boring as always," Hayden muttered.

In other words, he doesn’t want to talk about it. Sometimes I wished that Luka would drop by, then perhaps I’d have a solid chance of learning about what was going on outside. It was evident that asking Hayden about it wouldn’t get me any answers and I’d probably get scolded.

Thanks to Luka’s advice and my own learning curve, I’m getting a little better at managing Hayden so that we could some how coexist. For instance, I now knew that changing the topic of the conversation is the most appropriate course of action.

I placed Little Hayden on the chair next to mine and he gave me a confused little look as I walked away. After grabbing my sketchbook, I returned to the dining table.

"The weather was so perfect today, so I took Little Hayden outside and worked on some sketches in the garden. Two birds with one stone. I sketched many flowers and I also tried sketching Little Hayden. See?" I said cheerfully as I opened my sketched book and placed it on the table in front of Hayden.

Hayden looked down at my sketchbook and he seemed to show some interest. It was quite surprising how Hayden seemed keenly interested in my art and my career. I wasn’t sure if he was being super supportive, but he did pay attention to it.

"The sketches of…Little Hayden…looks funny," Hayden said, clearly having difficulties calling the puppy’s name.

Let’s see if he will get used to it eventually.

"It’s a new challenge for me. I’ve had very limited experience sketching and painting furry things. Human hair is different from fur so I’m really getting good practice by using Little Hayden as my model," I explained excitedly.

Hayden just nodded at my words as he reached out a hand and began turning the pages of my sketchbook to see the other sketches. He seemed thoughtful as he looked at my drawings and I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. Little Hayden looked at us with his round brown eyes. I smiled and patted the soft fur on his head lightly.

Suddenly, Hayden’s phone started ringing. He quickly picked it up as if he was expecting a call before standing up from his seat and exiting the room. I stared after him curiously. It wasn’t exactly usual for Hayden to walk out to take a call but the again it wasn’t usual for Hayden to get a call at this hour either. Work must be busy. I hoped that everything was alright.

Since the phone call was taking a while, I placed Little Hayden down so that he could walk about and also start on his own meal. Having some spare time on my hand, I decided to rummage through the large brown box filled with things that Hayden had bought for Little Hayden. I bet there are many toys in here that Hayden can use to play with the puppy. Maybe this ball and this rope?

Is this supposed to be used for tug of war?

I was still going through the box looking for dog toys when the door to the room opened and closed firmly. Looking up, I saw Hayden entered the room casually.

"Hayden! Come here for a second," I called out to him and beckoned him over with a wave of my hand.

**woof woof**

I looked down to see Little Hayden sitting right by my side with his little tail wagging joyfully. His brown eyes stared up at me as he panted from excitement.

"I told you that the name would be a problem. You’ll call me and he’ll turn up too," Hayden complained as he came to my side.

He stared down at the dog before crouching down next to me. He was right but I liked the name, so I didn’t want to change it. I knew that everyone found it weird but Hayden gave me this dog, so I wanted to name the dog after him…a little.

"I don’t know…I guess I don’t really want to change it. He knows his name already too…" I murmured a little sadly.

Hayden just sighed at me before he dropped the topic. Little Hayden looked up at Hayden curiously before snuggling next to his lap.

 

Chapter 218: A Turning Point

"He really likes you…" I said with a smile.

Time for Little Hayden to earn some favor points so that he can keep his name and also his life. Hayden looked down at the puppy and sighed again. I wondered if he regretted getting the little thing and prayed that that wasn’t so.

"What did you want to show me?" Hayden asked.

"You bought dog toys, right? I was with Little Hayden earlier in the garden, but I was too busy working on my sketches, so he had to play all alone…" I mumbled.

"And?" Hayden urged to me to get to my point.

Well…

"I was just thinking that it’ll be nice if you could…you know…play with him a little outside. Of course, when you have the time like on the weekends…" I suggested hesitantly as I reached out a hand to stroke Little Hayden for some courage.

Hayden looked at me with an incredulous expression like I had asked for something quite crazy. Did I just ask for something that crazy? I started to doubt myself for a moment. Hayden stared at me for a moment longer before his gaze fell to the furry ball nuzzling close to his leg.

"Let’s take him out to the gardens when I’m home for the day," Hayden finally replied in resignation.

"Thank you. I’m sure that Little Hayden will be so happy to play with you. Right, Little Hayden?" I said as I smiled at Hayden.

"I don’t really care if it makes him happy or not…" Hayden muttered.

Swiftly, his arm was around my back, and he had pulled me into a hug. My eyes widened in slight shock at his sudden embrace while I could feel his warm breath against my ear.

"Thank you, Hayden…" I whispered as I enjoyed the warmth of his hug.

…

A week past by not without incident. Little Hayden grew up fast and had adjusted to his life in the mansion. Despite Hayden’s disapproval, I managed to keep Little Hayden’s name. I honestly found it funny and quite convenient that both of them would respond to my call. Little Hayden behaved very well when he was with me but the same couldn’t be said when he was around Hayden.

They were like two boys playing together. Sometimes they would get along and other times not really.

Overall, I found the dynamic between the two extremely entertaining. Regardless of Hayden’s initial doubt about keeping Little Hayden, it was undeniable now that those two had developed a bond and our lives were more adventurous with Little Hayden around.

"He bit my shoe. Have you seen this?" Hayden asked as he thrusted his shoe towards me.

"I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm…" I mumbled before trying to laugh it off.

Hayden rolled his eyes at me in annoyance, and I was thankful that Little Hayden was now taking a walk outside with one of the maids. Otherwise, who knows what would happen…

"Are you going out today? You’re so dressed up…" I inquired.

Hayden was dressed a in very smart looking suit today and I couldn’t help but wonder where he was going.

"I have a follow up interview today," he replied curtly.

"I see. Well, have a nice day," I replied.

…

I’ve been working on exploring various techniques for the past week but haven’t decided on where to focus my efforts. Being stuck here was making it a little bit difficult to find inspiration. Usually, I would head to the museums and art exhibitions to look for some inspiration but that wasn’t a viable option right now.

Working on some sketches and paintings helped to pass the time but I knew that I wasn’t making enough progress professionally.

My career at the art school had all but ended by now. Of course, I didn’t expect that they would put my classes on hold until I could get back to teaching. It was unfortunate but because I was stuck here, the school had other teachers take over my classes and all my students were transferred to new mentors and teachers. Honestly, it hurt to see my efforts all go to waste.

It was sad that I couldn’t finish what I started. Telling Hayden that would just lead to useless fights, though. In the end, I kept it all to myself.

Although I was in contact with my friends over some group chats that we shared, I couldn’t meet them or tell them what was going on. It was for their own safety and my own peace of mind. I didn’t want to involve anyone in my troubles or my life with the mafia. From the chats, it was clear that my peers were making some progress in becoming professional artists.

Some decided to go directly into teaching while others have started applying their talents to the corporate word such as joining advertising agencies or design agencies.

As for me, today will probably be another day or painting alone in the studio with Little Hayden playing with some random toy at my feet. Admittingly, it wasn’t a bad life, but I wasn’t sure how much longer I could go on with this. If my grandmother is looking down on me right now, would she feel proud of what I’m doing with my life?

Probably not.

In a week’s time I’ve sketched and painted many paintings, all without any focus. I painted flowers, landscape of the garden outside, Little Hayden, and a portrait of a model that I found online. I closed my eyes and put down my paint brush because it was clear that I could no longer concentrate on the painting in front of me.

My thoughts were a mess and I felt very insecure about my future and the lack of progress that I was making.

How am I supposed to make a living like this? How much longer will I be stuck here?

Suddenly, my phone started beeping and vibrating. Little Hayden paused in his playing and looked up at me, his eyes twitching from side to side as he listened to the sound of my phone beeping. I grabbed my phone and peered at the screen. For some reason, I had received multiple email notifications.

 

Chapter 219: Full of Surprises

It was so unusual for me to receive so many emails like this all at once. Were these spam emails? I frowned as I pressed on the notification to open my mailbox to check. I gasped in shock when I found out that the emails were notifications for form submission on my website. It can’t be, there’s so many.

My first reaction was that someone must have started spamming or abusing the form on my website by filling it with nonsense.

"Come along, Little Hayden," I called out to the puppy for him to follow me out of the art studio.

I decided to quickly check the form submission on the website on my computer just to be sure. If someone was spamming it, then I must report it. I sat down in front of the computer and pulled up the backend of my website to check on the submission form responses.

There were so many of them and they were all sent from different people? My eyes narrowed as I focused on scanning the headings of the form submissions. There were almost twenty of them and the notification bell on the side of the screen showed that more submissions were coming in. I clicked to open one of the submissions to see its content.

To my utmost surprise, I found that the submission didn’t seem to be a spam. The fields were filled out correctly with adequate details and this potential client seemed to be requesting for a portrait commission.

I closed that submission and opened another one. This one seemed legit enough as well. All fields were filled out properly. Surprisingly, this client was also requesting for a portrait.

"Aha…" I mumbled as I opened another submission.

I ended up going through all the forms that were submitted on my website. There were close to fifty forms submitted and I spent almost two hours just flicking my eyes over the text. The most surprising thing was that the forms seemed to be real requests from potential clients with contact information for me to contact them back to discuss the commission request in more detail.

The next most surprising thing was that all the submissions were requesting for a portrait of some kind whether it be a sketch or a painting.

It was a good thing that my website was gaining traction and getting attention, but I felt a little uncomfortable not knowing where all of this was coming from. Since all the requests were for portraits, it made me wonder if or how my portrait work caught their attention.

I haven’t done that many portraits and none of them seemed noteworthy except for the portrait of my grandmother that I displayed at the exhibition before. However, that didn’t create a hype or anything at that time and I didn’t think that the hype now was related to that painting at all. The timing just wasn’t right.

While I sat there in front of the computer with my brows knitted together in deep thought, someone knocked on the door. It’s either Auntie or a maid. They’re probably here to set up the dinner table and also help me feed Little Hayden. Time flew by so fast, and another day was coming to an end. It was already early in the evening.

"Come in…" I shouted just loud enough for the person on the other side of the door to hear.

The door opened and maids wheeled in a trolley of food, plates, and utensils. Following after them was Auntie who had Little Hayden’s dish in her hand. Upon seeing and probably smelling the food that Auntie held in her hand, Little Hayden bounded over to her on his short chubby legs. No wonder he was growing up so fast, that puppy truly had an appetite.

"I think he’s hungry…" I said before flashing a smile at Auntie.

"Haha…this little guy is always hungry," Auntie replied with a laugh.

We stood side by side as he watched Little Hayden gobble up his food at lightning speed. I could already foresee the future state of this puppy and it had a big fat belly. I better make sure that he gets enough exercise by getting Hayden to play with him outdoors. The maids were busily setting up the table for dinner and I hoped that Hayden would be back soon.

"Oh, have you seen the magazine?" Auntie asked.

"What magazine?" I asked back, cluelessly.

"Hayden didn’t tell you about it? Wait here, I’ll go grab it very quickly. You have to see this!" Auntie said excitedly as she hurried out of the door.

I cocked my head to the side as I watched her abrupt exit. I wondered why she was so excited about a magazine and was Hayden supposed to tell me something?

After a very short while, a very breathless Auntie came back into the room. Her shortness of breath told me that she had rushed there and back in a hurry. She held a magazine in her hand as she approached me.

"Here. You need to take a look at this!" Auntie cried out loudly as she shoved the magazine that she was holding into my hands.

I looked at her in confusion before my eyes shifted to the cover of the magazine that I now held in my hand. My mouth fell open in amazement and surprise at what I was seeing. How did this end up on here? Why didn’t Hayden tell me anything about it before? My hand shook as I continued to stare at the cover of the magazine.

"Why is this here?" I asked in a breathless whisper.

"I thought Hayden told you about it already. I knew he would be featured in this magazine and that he’ll be on the front cover. I’m so proud of him so I had this magazine ordered in advance. Do you want one or a few? I ordered a bunch of them and I’m giving them out to all the staff!" Auntie announced proudly.

That’s not exactly the point…

Sure, it’s a big deal and all that with Hayden being acknowledged as the top influential businessman and it’s a big deal that he’s on the cover of a magazine but I was sure that it wasn’t his first time. But that’s besides the point entirely.

"Why is my sketch of him here?" I muttered in pure shock.

 

Chapter 220: His Calculating Plans

All I could do was blink rapidly to make sure that I wasn’t just seeing things. No matter what I did, I couldn’t take my eyes off the picture on the front cover of the magazine or calm the racing beat of my heart.

I stared down at the magazine in my hand while Auntie chatted away proudly about Hayden’s achievements. However, her words were lost to me as my mind zoned in to focus on the picture that was printed on the magazine cover. Hayden stared back at me from the sketch that I had drawn of him. It felt like forever had passed since I last saw this drawing.

Back then when our contract was coming to an end, I drew a picture of Hayden as a farewell gift for him. Back then, I honestly thought that we would never see each other again and I never thought that I would see this drawing again either. But how did my drawing end up on the cover of this magazine.

My eyes narrowed as I suspected that the rapid inflow of commission requests definitely had something to do with the fact that my drawing was featured on the magazine all along with the appropriate credit for the artist. Yes, that artist was me.

I wondered when Hayden would make it back; I need to get to the bottom of this and I bet my life that Hayden had a hand in this.

"I’ve already read his interview over a couple of times. You should read it too, Malissa," Auntie suggested excitedly.

From how she was acting, I wouldn’t be surprised if she could go on and on about Hayden for days. I thought that Hayden was an amazing person in his own slightly twisted way, but Auntie surely was overreacting. I flipped through the pages to the pages that contained Hayden’s interview.

My drawing was featured again inside the magazine along with Hayden’s interview and some photos of him looking smart and formal in his business look.

Seeing this side of him reminded me that Hayden and Torex had a legitimate side as well. Due to the size and prominence of the Torex conglomerate, he was usually in the spotlight as the key family member. I doubted that Hayden liked that though.

I took a seat at the sofa with the magazine still in my hand as I started reading Hayden’s interview. Overall, it was usual, and nothing was unexpected. I bet he had someone write out his interview script because it probably had to comply with some PR regulations or policies of the Torex group. The final part of his interview caught my attention.

’The Torex group has started efforts to support fresh talents across various fields of art as a way to give back to society on top of other usual CSR efforts...’

The interview went on to mention the drawing of Hayden and included compliments to the artist and the importance of recognizing and support new and aspiring artists. The interview concluded with Hayden encouraging others to do the same.

Just when I finished reading through the pages of his interview in the magazine, the door opened, and Hayden strode in with such perfect timing. My eyes were immediately drawn to him, and I shot out of my seat.

"What is this?" I asked as I waved the magazine that I had in my hand around.

Hayden didn’t look surprised at all as he stared down at me with a look of complete disinterest.

"What is what?" he asked lazily.

"This magazine. Why is my drawing on the front cover?" I asked as I tried to shove the magazine in his face.

"Stop it, Malissa. Why are you overreacting?" Hayden murmured as he pushed the magazine out of his face.

He walked past me to the dining table like he couldn’t care what I had to say. He was asking me why I was overreacting but isn’t this a big deal. Why was he acting like it was nothing?

"Hayden!" I called after him.

I hurried to the dining table and took my usual seat opposite him. This conversation is far from over and I’m not going to just let him blow me off and ignore me.

Hayden began eating with a cold expression on his face. He didn’t look tired, he just looked plain bored as he picked at the food with his fork.

"You know, my website is now flooded with commission requests for portraits. There are so many requests that I can’t even read it all let alone respond to them. I don’t know what to do…" I reported with mixed feelings.

Sure, I was happy that people were interested in my work and service but with this many customer requests, I truly didn’t know how to proceed. I’ve never received this much attention for my work before, and I wasn’t sure how to face my potential clients. Most of all, I was nervous about everything. What if my work doesn’t live up to their expectations? What price should I charge for my work?

Will I be able to finish the commissioned work on time?

So far, I had no idea how many portraits I could completely in a week or in a month. This was all getting out of hand that I didn’t dare take any action.

"Isn’t that a good problem to have?" Hayden replied with a shrug.

"It might be a good problem to have but it’s still a problem. What have you done?" I shot back.

He should have told me. Was this part the ’plan’ that he mentioned before? I could recall that day when we laid in bed together and he was telling me about his plan to increase my work’s value by ten folds. I recalled all his strict encouragement for me to create a website and all that. Was this all for this?

"Did you put my drawing of you on the front page to get me customers?" I asked to confirm the conclusion that I have reached.

"Not really. I just thought it would look more interesting and artistic than having a real photo of me on the cover. The editors agreed and so there we have it," Hayden replied casually.