Chapter 5

"Charlotte! Are you okay?" Cole cried out and rushed to help her get up from the floor.

"What have you done to her? Do you want to harm my baby?" Cole yelled at Annabel.

However, Charlotte's cry of pain made him turn his attention to her.

"You are bleeding, let me take you to the hospital," Cole said and faced Annabel.

"If anything happens to my baby, I will kill you"

Charlotte pulled out her smirk at Annabel without Cole seeing her.

"Oh Cole, please take me to Dr Pat. I am dying here" she cried.

Cole nodded his head, carried her into his arms, and rushed downstairs.

Nana and Scarlett were in the living room when Cole carried Charlotte to the living room.

"What happened to her?" Scarlett asked and rushed towards them.

"Who did this to her?" She asked as soon as she saw the spot of blood on her clothes.

Nana also moved toward Cole to know what was going on.

"Cole, what happened to her?" Nana asked, visibly panicking.

"Nana, Annabel wants to kill my baby. She is jealous of me. It's not my fault that she can't have her baby" Charlotte cried.

Scowling her face to indicate the pain she was going through.

"Annabel did what?" Nana asked. Even though she does not like Charlotte, she can't stand Annabel harming her only great-grandchild.

"Nana Annabel must be punished for this. How wicked of her to push a pregnant woman. Did she want the baby to die?"

Scarlett shouted and held Charlotte.

"Where is Annabel? Anna…"

Annabel appeared at the staircase before Nana could finish calling her name.

"Why did you do this terrible thing? Cole, take Charlotte to the hospital first before I pronounce my punishment on her" Nana said angrily.

Instantly, Cole led Charlotte out of the living room and hurried into his car before driving her to the hospital.

Back in the living room, Scarlett grabbed Annabel in annoyance to hit her, but Nana intervened.

"Stop Scarlett before you incur my wrath. How dare you abuse Annabel before my presence?" Nana yelled.

"Nana, how could you still support her after what she had done? Do you wish she killed my grandchild" Scarlett yelled out.

"If you don't keep quiet, I will send Charlotte out of my home" Nana yelled back.

Scarlett kept quiet instantly, she knew how brutal Nana's punishment could be. So she controlled her anger so that Annable would be punished instead.

"And you Annabel, just pray that nothing happens to that baby because if anything happens to the only heir of Yates, you will be dead as well. And mind you, I won't allow what you did to slide, but I won't say anything until Cole returns." Nana said and moved toward her room.

"Annabel must be punished, Nana If not she will do more harm to Charlotte and her baby" Scarlett yelled in fury.

Nana looked at Scarlett and continued walking to her room without utterly a word.

"Don't think you are exonerated from your fault. If Nana did not give you deserving punishment then I will make sure that you pay for your sins." Scarlett spat. She shoved her out of her way and quickly went to her room.

Annabel had known Charlotte as a great actress, but she never expected that she would put the life of her baby in danger just to hurt her.

Thinking of that compelled her to stay far away from Charlotte and conceal her pregnancy from everyone.

Charlotte would harm her if she found out about her pregnancy. So that night she went into Cole's study and began to search for her grandfather's wine formula which she foolishly gave to him, on the night of her wedding.

Annabel came from a family of winemakers. Her great-grandfather owns the best wine in the whole of Sun City. The business was doing well until her grandfather took over the company.

Then Annabel's mother had no interest in her father's business, but Annabel was drawn into winemaking. She followed her grandfather to cultivate and nurture their grape farm, she also watched him go through the whole process of wine-making.

From planting to harvesting down to crushing and Fermenting the grapes Annabels was part of it all. She was also involved in the Clarification and bottling of her grandfather's wine.

Most importantly she was the one who formulated the recent formula that made her grandfather's wine the household name. However, she did not achieve this alone, it was the combination of her formula and that of her grandfather that made this possible.

Unfortunately, her grandfather died just when the first production of their new wine hit the market.

The company was handed over to her mother who knew nothing about the business and because she was still fifteen and was considered a minor, her mother never believed that she knew anything about winemaking.

After the launch of its finest wine, Luttos Fresh Wine became an international name, however, after the sale of that batch, her mother was not able to produce anything like that again.

Annabel tried helping out, but her mother never believed in her formula. Instead, she followed the outdated formula, Her great-grandfather had used and she produced the worst wine ever in the market.

This brought great loss to her family and also to their many investors who lost their money in the process.

Three years later, Gradually, Lutto's Fresh Wine crumbled and the company collapsed leaving her mother in great debt. When she couldn't bear the burden again, Annanbel's mother had a stroke because of high blood pressure.

When she saw that she could not survive the stroke, she sent a message to Nana, who happened to be one of her father's trusted friends and business associates.

Annabel remembers that night that Nana came into their cottage at the vineyard

"I will give you the vineyard and the cottage, in exchange, you will allow my daughter to be part of your family," Annabel's mother said.