Chapter 15 Kneeling to Pour Wine

Annie didn't expect Carl to lie and suddenly felt a bit at a loss. Brandon had OCD and had said that she couldn't have any relationship with anyone else.
She wanted to explain something to Brandon, but their relationship was already over, and she felt there was no need for an explanation.
When she hesitated, Brandon suddenly nodded towards her chin. "Since you're so pure, let her pour the wine."
Carl saw that Brandon gave Annie a chance and quickly handed the wine back to her. "Go ahead."
Annie thought Brandon would be angry, but he showed no emotion at all and changed his mind by letting her pour the wine.
This confused Annie, but under Carl's urging, she took the bottle again and bent down to pour him some wine.
Before the wine could be poured out of the bottle, though, it was covered by his hand with distinct knuckles on top of the cup.
He raised those indifferent eyes like mist while coldly staring at her. "Kneel down when pouring."
Now Carl could be one hundred per cent sure that Brandon was deliberately targeting Annie. But he couldn't understand why? Did they know each other?
Upon hearing these three words from him, Annie found it hard to believe - kneel down when pouring?
Yes, indeed, they were once lovers before, but she wasn't his servant who could just follow orders blindly!
Annie stood up straight again, facing Brandon, saying: "Mr Ross, I don't know what I did wrong; if you find me annoying, then I'll leave now without disturbing you."
After speaking this sentence out loud,she put down the bottle on the table, picked up her bag, and turned around, readying herself to leave.
But Carl grabbed hold of her arm tightly, saying: "Don't act so foolishly even if Mr Ross doesn't like you, you can't offend him."
He still had to talk about the project, and he didn't want to lose the city's western block because of Annie. He coaxed her with sweet words, but when Annie insisted on leaving, his eyes suddenly turned cold.
He lowered his voice and threatened her in a tone that only she could hear: "Don't forget your good sister."
Annie immediately calmed down. She did indeed want to leave here by taking advantage of Brandon's attack, but she never thought Carl would threaten her for the sake of their project and use Fiona as leverage against her. This made Annie very angry.
But in order not to implicate Fiona, she turned around again, picked up the wine glass and knelt in front of Brandon once more.
When she knelt down this time, Sophia laughed happily while Benjamin frowned slightly. The look of heartache on Carl's face disappeared instantly while others just watched like they were watching a show.
Only Brandon leaned back against the sofa like a king holding life-or-death power over everything else, looking down at her from above.
Annie remembered hundreds of days and nights spent together intimately with him before feeling it was all worthless now.
She thought she could leave gracefully but eventually had to put aside her dignity to please him after all. Perhaps this is what class difference means - being his lover for five years meant being trampled underfoot by him.
Fortunately, she was going to die soon anyway; it would be over soon enough, within just a few months' time.
As Annie poured out the wine while kneeling, Brandon extended his slender fingers and took hold of the cup.
Just when Annie thought he was going drink directly from it, he suddenly lifted up the cup towards her head, pouring slowly downwards.
The red wine slid down along strands of hair onto pale face, thin neck area, then onto thin long dress...
Until it finally dripped onto the backside hand, which caused Annie to slowly raise her eyes in disbelief and look at Brandon.
He then used those cold frosty eyes to glance at her contemptuously. "Despicable."
His voice was so cold that it made Annie tremble all over. She clenched her fists and bit down on her lower lip, staring at Brandon without blinking as if she wanted to stare a hole through him.
Brandon didn't care, though; he picked up his handkerchief, wiped the fingers that had touched hers when receiving the wine earlier and threw it away before getting up and leaving directly.
Half of the bodyguards in the room saw him leave and quickly followed suit.