Best baker in NYC

After a while, Mr. Ross, Noah, Sasha, and Carl were all back in the hall. Meanwhile, Anne was in the restroom retouching her face with some makeup, she didn't want to go back to the party with wet puffy eyes. She applied a little powder on her face and added some lip gloss to her red lips to make them shine more. She looked so beautiful and she felt confident, thanks to Carl for making her feel positive.

It was already 10 pm and the party was almost over. The emcee did a good job of keeping all the guests entertained while Mr. Ross was away. Everything happened so fast and no one, not even Michael Ross noticed that Mr. Ross's life was in danger.

Carl tried his best to make sure that Mr. Ross had a great party without any police interference in midst of the celebration, that was why he wanted their operation to be an undercover mission. The audience would've freaked out if Mr. Ross was walking around the hall with police officers all armed at his birthday party. Mr. Ross didn't want that attention, he wanted to celebrate his birthday party like a normal person.

Angelo and Mr. Ross's manager, now ex-manager were arrested. It turns out that the manager betrayed Mr. Ross because he was greedy for more money and Angelo promised him a lot of money.

Presently, Mr. Ross was giving a 'thank you' speech to his well-wishers. Some were standing while some were sitting.

Meanwhile, Carl had been searching for Anne inside the hall with his eyes. After a few minutes, Anne came out from one of the doors that led to the hall. As soon as Carl saw Anne from a distance, he smiled. He was just about to stand up from his sit when Noah halted him.

"SIT BACK DOWN" Noah counted his words in a commanding tone.

Carl sighed sitting down back on his sit. "Noah, what's with this bullying?" Carl whispered with gritted teeth.

"Anastasia isn't running, learn to control yourself whenever you see her okay?" Noah said

Sasha who was pretending not to hear their conversation was boiling inside. She saw how Carl was smiling like an idiot, staring at Anne.

However, Anne was smiling, listening to Mr. Ross's speech, looking beautiful as always.

The audience clapped at Mr. Ross's 'thank you' speech and Mr. Ross added. "I'm grateful for having a hardworking son, who is also my next of kin Michael Ross, the new CEO of stone's perfume company." He said it out loud with a proud smile, staring at Michael who was also smiling back at his father.

Mr. Ross just declared that Michael would be the one to succeed him. Even though Michael Ross wasn't Mr. Ross's biological son, Michael always made sure to put a smile on his father's face and worked tirelessly to please him.

Those who were expecting Mr. Ross's next of kin to be Angelo were quite surprised because it wasn't a secret that Angelo was the true son of Mr. Ross while Michael was adopted.

"I also wanna thank prosecutor Carl McAlester and his team members for making me feel ALIVE and making this birthday party a memorable one" Mr. Ross winked at Carl and Carl chuckled as he clapped along with the audience.

"...and in case you all are wondering why the cake tasted so good, it was because it was baked by the best baker in New York City, Anastasia Robyn Stewart," Mr. Ross said searching for Anne with his eyes. Meanwhile, Anne felt her heart almost stop as she heard her name.

"Oh! there she is," Mr. Ross pointed at Anne as soon as he saw her.

The audience turned in Anne's direction and applauded with sweet smiles on their faces. They were genuinely happy because they all loved her cake.

Anne chuckled softly to hide her nervousness as everyone was staring at her clapping. She looked so cute as she blushed. She was also hearing some comments about her saying 'she's beautiful, wow her cake tastes so good'. Those positive comments Anne smile hard, her eyes locked with Carl's eyes amid the crowd and it caused the both of them to chuckle softly.

Mr. Ross lifted a glass of champagne to raise a toast and round off the birthday party. It was one of the best birthday parties the well-wishers had seen in a long time.

Still in the hall, almost everyone had left, it was just the cleaners putting things in order and arranging the hall.

Noah was talking to Anne, hyping how good her cake was and Anne was laughing at his silly jokes. He gave Anne his card in case they might do business together since she delivers pastries.

Most of the well-wishers at the birthday party also gave Anne their business card contact so they could employ her to bake pastries for them. Anne felt so happy and lucky to be the one who baked Mr. Ross's birthday cake. She was a hundred percent sure that she'll get a lot of new customers and that means more money.

"How did you learn how to bake so perfectly? I've never tasted a cake as delicious as yours" Noah praised Anne. Anne's cake has a unique taste that'll make you want more so it was worth hyping.

Anne chuckled. "My mom was a baker, she taught me everything I know," Anne said.

"She taught you well..." Noah said.

"Oh, would you look at the time," he said, looking at his wristwatch. The time was almost 11 o'clock in the night "I gotta go... goodnight Anastasia" he said to Anne.

"Yeah, Goodnight" she replied and Noah left.

"Anastasia, can I have a word with you?" Mr. Ross said to Anne walking in her direction.

"Anastasia, I wanna apologize to you again for my son's childish behavior. He tried to take advantage of you. I feel so embarrassed for having that idiot as my son"

"Mr. Ross, it's all in the past now. Carl rescued me before Angelo could do anything to me and good thing he's now in jail" Anne said.

"I'm glad Carl came to your rescue," Mr. Ross said.

Anne smiled and her eyes met with Carl who was talking with Sasha. She wondered what they were talking about and it also seemed like they were having a serious conversation.

Seeing them together made Anne lose her focus on Mr. Ross. She knows for a fact that Sasha doesn't like her, only God knows why and she hoped that Sasha wasn't badmouthing her to Carl. That thought in her head made her curious about what carl and Sasha were talking about.

Mr. Ross noticed that Anne's mind was somewhere else, he saw that she was staring at something or someone behind him. Mr. Ross turned his head and saw Carl and Sasha standing a bit far from them.

Mr. Ross looked back at Anne and smiled. "You two are practically meant for each other," He said.

"Uh… wh.." Anne was speechless looking at Mr. Ross with wide eyes. She couldn't find the right words to use so she ended up stuttering meaningless words that made Mr. Ross laugh.

"There's no need to deny you don't have feelings for Carl and believe me, that man is crazy about you. The way he stares at you proves it" Mr. Ross said to Anne.

He figured that Carl and Anne had feelings for each other and Angelo must've used his old tricks to dance with Anne. Mr. Ross has observed the chemistry between Anne and Carl since they came to the birthday party and besides, the way Anne was staring at Carl and Sasha shows that she was interested in their conversation. Perhaps she was even jealous.

Meanwhile, Sasha was glaring at Carl with her arms crossed. She looked like an evil judge in a courtroom ready to sentence anyone to death.

"What you're asking me is huge and I can't do that even if there was a gun at my head," Sasha said to Carl.

"Is that so?" Carl said with squinted eyes. "How can you be like this?"

"That's because I didn't do anything wrong. You asking me to apologize to Anne is ridiculous. I can't do that no matter what... Besides, have you asked Anastasia how she got to be in the same room with Angelo?" She said with raised brows.

"The woman you came with ignored you and romantically danced with Angelo. Doesn't that ring a bell? And let's not forget how slutty her dress is"

"That's her dress and not her character!" carl snapped.

"Prosecutor Carl, what has that woman done to you? Why can't you…"

"…Sasha stop. I no longer wanna hear anything you have to say. All I want is for you to apologize to Anne. PERIOD!" Carl demanded.

Sasha walked closer to Carl's face with her head high "I am not going to apologize to her. Deal with it" Sasha counted her words.

"Excuse me?" Carl said.

"You heard me, I didn't stutter," she said.

Carl scoffed "fine it's cool, I'm not going to force you to do what you don't want... But since you can't respect the woman I love and care about, then I see no reason why we should remain friends," he said and turned to leave.

"Wait! Uhm prosecutor Carl" Sasha called and Carl stood still, backing her with a smirk on his face.

"Do you mean that? Do you want to end our friendship just because I'm not apologizing to Anne?" Sasha said and Carl turned to face her. Sasha's shoulders dropped, she was upset, she had the feeling that Anne has completely brainwashed Carl. She couldn't help but feel frustrated and hate Anne even more.

"Yes! The only way we can keep being friends is for you to apologize to Anne but if you're still stubborn to do so then it's fine" Carl said.

..

"I watched Carl McAlester grow up to become the man he is now and trust me, he is one of the most kindhearted humans. Although, he can be a bit stubborn especially when it comes to getting something he wants" Mr. Ross chuckled.

"I see" Anne replied with a smile. To her surprise, she saw Sasha walking in her direction.

"Mr. Ross, can I borrow Anastasia for a moment?" Sasha said to Mr. Ross with a fake smile as soon as she got to where they were standing.

"Sure no problem, I'll leave you two to talk," Mr. Ross said and left.

If Anne was a timid woman, she would've felt intimidated by Sasha's cold looks and death stares. It was written all over Sasha that she hates Anne. However, Anne questioned herself in her head if everything was okay because she was surprised at why Sasha wanted to talk to her all of a sudden after talking to Carl.