When Charlotte saw her ex-husband, she was filled with so much hate. He had the guts to show up here, to her engagement party after what he had done to her. And to make it worse, he brought Valerie. She flipped her intricately styled hair and turned away, focusing instead on walking back to her seat with Xavier. Jonah was still there, staring at them but so were the rest of the guests. She felt so irritated, unable to do anything while he watched her. “Why did you invite him?” She asked Xavier. “Invite who?” “Jonah,” she hissed. Even saying his name made her sick. “He’s my nephew,” he answered like that was supposed to make everything make sense at once. “And my ex-husband. If he’s here, people will talk.” “Do you still like him?” Xavier asked drily. “What? Of course not,” she snapped. Why would he ask her that? “Then why do you care if he’s here or not? Just ignore him and he’ll leave with the others.” How could she ignore him when he was glaring at her? When she could fee
Xavier and Charlotte left shortly before the party officially ended. When she got home, all she wanted to do was sleep. It was two hours past midnight when they made it back home and go say she was tired would be an understatement. She took off her clothes and showered quickly, before returning to the room she had converted into a sleeping room. When she lay down on the bed though, sleep refused to come. There was no sound coming from anywhere else. It was just what she had been afraid of. It was way too silent and lonely. She wondered what Xavier was doing in his side of the house. Did he have some extra work he had to do? Was he even in the house? Had he gone to sleep immediately they got home? She wondered if he was thinking about her like she was, thinking about the night they just had. She doubted he replayed their kiss over and over in his head like she did. She didn’t think that thoughts of her kept him up at night. He probably had a whole history of women he had done more w
If Charlotte thought her side of the house was big before, then coming to the main house made her rethink her opinion. It wasn’t the first time she had ever been in the main house, yet it looked way bigger than she remembered. It was truly a mansion in every sense of the word. There were so many rooms she saw while they passed that at some point, she could not longer keep counting. “How many people live here?” She asked the maid when a few minutes later, they still hadn’t reached the appointment room, wherever that was. “Just Mr Roman most of the time,” she answered. “Then what does he need all this rooms for?” She asked a little too loudly. The maid gave her a look. Ugh, she hoped the woman did not think she was complaining because she didn’t live with her husband but somewhere else. She wondered what the woman thought about their relationship. She was almost tempted to ask her if Xavier had ever had such a relationship before, but thought better of it. Whenever she got a phone,
“You finally decided to show up,” Xavier said, with that stupid smile on his face. “What?” Her blood boiled. How could one person be this annoying? “You…I’ve been knocking and ringing the doorbell yet you…” Charlotte began, unable to piece her words together because of how angry she was. She wanted to say more, but when her movement was reduced because of a hand holding her back. She suddenly remembered the unfamiliar bodyguard holding her and turned pale. “You were saying?” Xavier asked, obviously taunting her when he noticed her reaction to Carlos, his bodyguard. The huge man was scowling down at her and his tight grip on her did not loosen. Charlottes shivered as she stayed in place, afraid to annoy this scary man. Xavier laughed. If only she knew how soft he was on the inside, she wouldn’t be so scared of him. But he wouldn’t tell her now. He was enjoying himself too much. She turned sharply to him when his laughter reverberated the room. He saw the flash of anger in her e
Charlotte swallowed. All her plans to appear very bold and confident before this man quickly flew out of the window when she saw the fourth paper she was supposed to go through and sign. Fortunately, he was nice enough to ask the scary looking bodyguard to give them some privacy, but then she still felt boxed in several minutes after the man left them. Carlos wasn’t the problem, Xavier was. The way he was watching her with a glint that was almost easy to miss told her he was acting ignorant on purpose. Of course he knew what he was doing. He was the one that had included that point there. The first papers were just general stuff that she had no problems with, some of which they had already started practicing. For example, the fact that they would live on different sides of the house, she would have to follow him for every occasion, act like his wife by holding hands and kissing in public, would have a stipulated amount she would be paid each month which can be increased if he so p
“What do you say?” Xavier asked her, inching even closer to her. She swallowed. How could she just suddenly change her mind and tell him what she really felt when some moments ago she had been so adamantly against it. “I…” she began, but bit her lip halfway through the sentence. “What, Char,” he prodded. Why did everything that came out of his mouth turn her on, even her name. “I agree,” she whispered. “You agree to what, Char?” He asked. “When and where?” Here! Now! Everything! “We’ll see how it goes,” she said. When he saw the expression on her face, he smiled and relaxed back in his chair. “Go through the rest and tell me what you don’t like before signing,” he said. She did as he asked, but soon she discovered she couldn’t concentrate on any other thing about from item fifty-two. “Must I sign them all now?” She asked. “You need more time to think about them?” “Yeah.” He shrugged. “Sure. Take your time. Our wedding is in two weeks, so just make sure you do it anytime
The fashion show was everything Charlotte thought it would be. It was beautiful and she had so much fun simply watching the models strut down the aisle in the most ridiculous outfits. When her eyes weren’t focused on the super thin models, she found a few people staring at them, or rather at Xavier. He didn’t look like he noticed, with his entire attention focused on his phone during the show. At some point when she was talking to him, she felt a few flashes at the side of her face and groaned when she realized someone had just taken a picture of them. “Let’s get out of here,” she said, standing up and taking his hand. He smiled as he followed her lead, obviously not impressed by the place from the start. As they left, more shutters clicked violently now, trying take as many photos as they could sneak since they were leaving. Charlotte couldn’t begin to imagine the several captions they were attaching to the unsolicited photos. She had to get a phone, soon. “Where do we go now?
“Uh, sorry?” Charlotte responded, fighting back a chuckle. “What else did you want to say?” “You find this funny?” He asked in disbelief, but his voice sounded just as amused. “Did you have anything else to say or not?” Pause. “Never mind. You ruined it now,” he said and she rolled her eyes. He was just being a baby. He probably had nothing to say and was just talking because he didn’t like the fact that she had dismissed him. Did he really want her to beg him? “Alright then. May I end the call now?” She asked cheekily. There was no smart response to her question. All she could hear was muffled breathing and then out of nowhere, the high-pitched voice of a woman laughing. Right after she heard the woman’s voice, he ended the call. Charlotte still held the phone to her ear, frozen and unable to put it down. A part of her had initially thought he was flirting with her but then immediately the other woman spoke he ended the call. What was that about? And why did the thought that