His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 103
[MIA]
I didn’t see Alex after that night for the next two days. He wasn’t at the house at all, not even for dinner. I tried not looking so
disappointed by that, and must’ve not been doing a good job because Lana had frowned and told me he does go away for
business for days sometimes.
That worried me more. His business usually involved guns and bloodshed.
had to control myself because he was my abductor. He was forcing me to stay here and us getting physical? That was just
convenience. It was my s t u p d attraction to his looks and his lifestyle, not him. Worry had no place here, especially not if one
day I was going to escape this place and never look back. Hopefully.
In the two days that passed, I had chalked out what could be his room at the end of the same hallway as me, because when I
‘wandered’ there, Lana had sneered and asked me to stay away.
I also found the library and turns out I was allowed there all along, because it contained only books- fiction and non-fiction.
Nothing about the case files
or the fire.
I still hadn’t been able to locate Alex’s library, if there even was one.
On the third day, when I was brought down for lunch, Alex was downstairs, lounging on the couch, an iPad in his hand.
“Y-You’re here,” I couldn’t hide the surprise in my voice.
That got him to look up and at me, his trademark smirk finding its way on his face. “Missed me, cupcake?”
“No.” I cross my hands in front of my chest. “It’s just that you’re my only interaction in a day. Lana is... robotic.” I could sense the
lady frown at me. “And Greg was on a leave since you weren’t here.”
“Greg?” His eyebrows c o c k up. “Who the f u c k is that?”
“Your chef?” I give him an obvious look.

He didn’t look like it rang any bells.
“Greg? Blonde hair? Has a daughter? Your head chef? Makes you dinner every night?”
“And why do you know so much about my employee?” Alex looked unamused.
I shrug sheepishly. “I bake in the kitchen while he cooks. We...talk.”
“Do you?” He asked, his disinterest peeking. “What is it that you talk about?” He hissed at the word talk as if it was a crime.
Just... about his daughter, you know.” My voice turns more and more into a whisper by the passing second, “I like kids.”
“You are forbidden from talking to him.”
“Huh?”
“You need a hearing check, cupcake?” He quipped, “I said, you are forbidden from talking to him.”
My mouth hung. “You- you can’t do that!”
14:51 Tue, 18 Jun T
Chapter 103.
“What did I tell you on your first day here? Who does your life belong to?”
“Y-You,” I reply, protesting, “But you don’t get to dictate my friendships!”
“If you want your friends to be alive, stop making unauthorised friends. Or I will kill him, and anyone else you decide to befriend.”
I stare at him, his words striking a nerve. Him killing my friends. His possible involvement in Alina’s death consumes me, and the
sudden shame of sleeping with him overcomes. I slept with my best friend’s potential murderer. I slept with a murderer period.
Jenny...
“Are you crying because I denied you a friend?” His voice snaps me out of my thoughts, and I notice I didn’t realise how teary my
eyes had gotten.
I sniff, drinking away my tears. “No.”

“Then why are you crying?” He stands up, watching me with a twitch in his eyes.
Because I slept with you and I think you murdered my best friend. “Because I miss grass,” I answer with the most logical lie I
could find.
“You what now?”
“I miss grass,” I repeat, louder. “It’s going to be three weeks since I’m here. There’s only so many books I can read or TV shows I
can watch. I- I want to walk on grass and feel the fresh air. This air conditioning is suffocating.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah, okay. What you’re saying is understandable. I can take you to... touch grass, I guess.”
I gulp. “You- you can?”
He doesn’t answer me, and instead, he looks at Lana. “Ask Dom to clear Gate 6A.”
“But Sir-” Lana shuts up when Alex glares at her, and she nods and disappears.
I stare at the man in front of me. “You’re really taking me outside?”
“Just to the garden. Don’t get too excited.”
“I-Why?”
“Do you want to touch your grass or not?” His question shuts me right up.
keep quiet when he leads me to the other side of the house, and then opens the said transparent long windows to reveal the
garden.
It was huge, with the green grass was promised, interspersed with flowers. Dandelions and daisies, I could recognise, and there
were some tulips too.
I couldn’t see an exit to the outer world yet, a way to leave this kingdom he had made, but at some point this garden ended and
on the other side was freedom, and that thought was reassuring.

My toes curled as soon as they touched the bare grass, the cold hair hitting my face. I didn’t realise how much I had missed this
in the past weeks until now. It really was as if I could breathe again.
“I-I love the grass,” I tell him. “I played soccer as a kid.”
“You?” He eyes me suspiciously from behind, still standing in the house.
14:51 Tue, 18 Jun
Chapter 103
“Yes, me.” I rolled my eyes. “And I would have you know, I was quite good at it. I led my team.”
“Led your team where? To failure?” He deadpanned.
“Ha-ha.” I mock laughed. “Did Alex King make a joke? Albeit a fifth grade one, but a joke?!” I pretended to be shocked. “He’s
human? Alex is a human?”
He smiles, the most genuine smile I had ever seen him smile so far. Not lopsided, not a smirk, not smug. Just a smile.
It was contagious, and I smiled right back. “You know, some might consider it unfair that you know everything about me and I
know little to nothing.”
“Then it’s a good thing that ‘some’ are not here to comment.”
Ipout. “Still. Give me something. I want to know about you,”
He sighs, giving in. “What do you want to know?”
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