Billionaire's Exhibit Wife

Chapter 7- Her Home

Who was that?... Why would she be with a man this late into the night?... Just who does she hang out with at this ungodly hour?

"Young Master," Frederick worriedly called out upon taking note of Zane’s troubling features.

"Yes, Frederick." Zane managed to keep his cool despite the series of unanswered questions that ran through his rationing.

"Do I prepare your bath?" the butler questioned. Even though that was their daily routine, he sensed a shift in his master's demeanour, which always influenced his regimen.

Work, bathe, eat, rest, then repeat.

Zane was a simple man when it wasn’t high ended parties, nightclubs, and orgies.

However... Tonight was different. Tonight, he had not followed his simple routine to take a bath before his rest, nor among his other common acts of seeking an escort.

Tonight, he was a curious, perhaps even a jealous man.

"Flowers Fredrick," Zane mustered, surprising both himself and his butler. "Just get me flowers."

Frederick offered a brief brow jerk before turning heels to peel off a few selects of lilies, irises, and peonies in the garden without question.

This was new. He must’ve thought. But what exactly was his young master thinking?

There, the problem lies. Zane wasn’t exactly thinking... At least, not of himself.

The male’s voice echoed tauntingly through his mind, Elora’s heartfelt giggles being the least of his worries... As what happens next when such a man who’s able to make her laugh that way is beside her as the night grows older?

"I certainly would," Zane admitted.

"Did you say something, young Master?" Frederick silently made his appearance, in his hand, a hefty basket containing the freshly plucked root of different species of flowers as demanded.

But why had he frivolously added the chocolates?... Now it seemed like a romantic gesture.

Zane yanked at the basket, grasping its straw handle in his palm. He slid into the car after carefully setting it on the passenger seat.

Being the stalker he was, he had her personal and contact info, including the damning address. He zoomed out of his garage and followed the directions he'd rerouted on the GPS to the not so familiar area.

‘This was her home’, Zane thought both questionably and revoltingly once parked, motionless, as he gaped at the shattered windows that decorated a few rooms. Cracked paints that had been peeled off in various places and left with a cream white taint.

'There has to be a mistake'

Car alarms went off at a distance, possibly indicating a recent break-in as most of the cars he now viewed either had a flat tyre, at least two missing tyres or broken crystals. All of which added to the eeriness of the night.

He knew a lot about her, but not enough, it seemed.

Zane took note of the ragged man tumbled across the street on the pavement, holding an almost faded street sign that read ‘Spare some change’

"Wow," Zane unconsciously uttered... 'This is the neighbourhood my future wife lives in.'

He regretted not doing enough research as this fact just might taint his image. The company's stocks could possibly be better off without having to marry a partial hobo... Certainly, it would.

Zane cautiously grabbed the basket and shut the car doors. He then pressed the lock button, causing his car to alert whomever was within the vicinity of his presence.

Assuming his suffocating perfume wasn't enough to do so.

He could easily get robbed, Zane accessed. Especially being fitted in the latest designer wears and a vehicle to match the rich asshole’s description.

"Spare some change, good sir," the dark skinned, shabby grey haired, presumably homeless man pleaded.

Zane saw as he needily approached him, more like a crawl, and the thought of being touched by that

"I beg of you, sir," he inched closer to the petrified Zane that initially intended to ignore his needs. "I am really hungry... so hungry."

Zane scoffed, a look of disdain prominent on his visage as he reached out for his wallet and threw whatever he could before a filthy hand be laid on him.

The old geezer now crawled in a different direction. To where he purposefully aimed his money at.

As though throwing a stick to a dog for it to go fetch.

The air, once set foot into the appalling building, grew humid... musty... evident that the establishment itself harboured its own branded aroma.

Zane cautiously took his steps on the floorboards that threatened to give in at any moment. A pile of wood on the side and a hole, in which a family of cockroaches went in and out as they pleased on the other.

The stairs were a much better fit to the airless elevator that possibly had a dog or human pee at a corner. Even though the stairs were just as tainted with vomit to the walls and blood?

He ignored it’s surroundings as best as he could and the tattered people therein. Some oogling him as he walked by with a hand in his pocket and the other bearing the basket of flowers, a gold Rolex exposed so brazenly in which a few unsurprisingly eyed.

‘Perhaps I should turn back’, Zane contemplated, gradually increasing his pace upon noticing a few motion by the corner of his eye.

No matter, he had already arrived at his destination.

And the thought of her being with someone else on the other side of this closed door now fully dawned on him.

Though the mood wouldn’t be set in these repulsive conditions, they at least had privacy. And their vivid imagination could take them to the moon for all he knows.

He banged at the door, confident that neither Elora nor the person she is with would claim it was unheard. And mostly out of fear for his safety, as a few vagrants now, in a zombie like manner, migrated towards him.

Impatiently waiting as he loosened his collar. The oppressive ventilation caused him to feel suffocated and dampness on his forehead.

The longer it took, the more anxious he grew... What exactly was he thinking driving miles away from his home to this awful neighbourhood just to bring her flowers and chocolate?

"Coming!" the voice hollered from afar, muffled by the shut obstacle.

Zane gulped. A new sensation now washing over him as the hinges turned downwards and a whiff of her faint earthy scent hit him along with a welcoming smile.

Does she smile like that with everyone? He pondered silently as he watched said smile fade upon resting her eyes on him.

Zane was at a loss of words. Now that he is here, he wasn’t exactly sure of his next move.

He countlessly pictured himself barging in to restrict the affair if it had been someone else to welcome him, but being her, his muscles suddenly stiffened... His heart raced... His insides felt warm and giddy.

'Why would I be nervous? What was this silly little crush?'

His entire system shut down, exposed to nothing but the scornful look she replenised him with.

However, his eyes were able to drift to her uncovered knee, robed with solely a brown baggy hoodie on her.

He'd found what to say.

"Do you always walk around half naked?" Zane rebuked, his eyes now restlessly searching behind her for any sign of a... hopefully queer man.

"Oh it’s you" Elora replied just as bitterly, her hand automatically shutting the doors on him.

Zane managed to stick his feet out in the nick of time, preventing the disrespectful slam to his face.

"You’re begging to be robbed in all that fanciness" Elora prophecied as she now had her back facing him, rummaging her hand through her hair.

Similarly, just as unkempt to those he’d witnessed outside.

Zane hesitantly stepped into her humble abode. His eyes no longer roamed about for the stranger he aimed to kick out, but at the stained sofa that was stationed at a dim corner of the room... The headlamp that repeatedly blinked every few seconds... The rusted pipes which ought to be their safe source of water.

How everything was cooped up in a tiny space seemed like sorcery to him. What more. This was called a home... Her home?

He’d had a glimpse of her world and now, more or less, understood why she freaked out so much over the ruined dress.

Elora could see the disappointment he harboured in his eyes. Her lifestyle-

"Wasn’t what you expected, huh?" she said, bringing Zane back to his trance."The last thing I need is your pity, "

"Nothing like what I expected" Zane gave his honest truth. A lie would easily be discerned if he said he wasn’t the least bit sad for her.

“Why have you come?” she finally posed the question, most likely tired of beating around the bush or seeing his face.

“And don’t tell me the reason for your visit was solely to bring flowers” she regarded the basket unappreciatively. "And chocolates?" she frowned.

"You can’t be seen with another man till after our wedding" Zane revealed his hint of jealousy. However, considering their arrangements, Elora brushed it off as another one of his conditions for her.

"it’s a dangerous neighbourhood. I am a girl... Need I say more?" she justified.

"I’ll hire bodyguards."

"It isn’t enough that I have a contract lorded over my head, but I’m to be monitored as well?"... "No, thank you," she dismissed his ‘thoughtful’ gesture.

"Then I’ll stay in his stead" Zane uttered without a thought.

Of course, he just didn't want anyone near her. 'At least, not till after the wedding', or so he told himself.

Elora tilted her head to the side, trying to vision a poise and arrogant man amongst the lowest of the lows.

People feeding through trash cans and leftovers, no sense of security or assurance that one would live to see the day of tomorrow.

Now, having him here for the following days would simply be an insult.

Especially one walking around in a finely pressed tailored suit, and-

A burst of laughter now echoed through the room, filling his lobes with the self intended mockery in which it held.

"Nice one" she inserted mid laugh.

“If anything, your stay here would attract more danger” she added upon perceiving she was the only one in tears."Why would you even want to spend the night here?" she posed.

"I have to see you get through to the wedding da,y" Zane explained, aware that she'd lived through just fine without him all these years. "That and I actually care -"

"Hold that thought" Elora instructed. Her full attentio swiftly deviated from Zane's babbles to the person who now knocked on her door.

"Hope old man Jenkins didn't give you much troubl.e" Elora almost immediately began as soon as the person came to view.

He had a short stubble of beard and a low cut. In each hand were two white plastics anyone would immediately assume was food.

"He did" the guy uttered with a reciprocated smile, leading them both to chuckle simultaneously.

'That giggle again. I wonder what other sorts of knocking he's done', Zane thought invidiously. 'No wonder she didn't bother asking who it was when I knocked, and wore a grin upon opening the doors... Just look at he, simply throwing herself at him.'

"Hahaha" he awkwardly re-announced his presence. "That homeless guy at the front ste, I assume" he joined in, being chattier than he normally would and unaware of the discomfort it brought.

"I threw some cash at the floors and watched him crawl towards it" he ended with a belittling chuckle, expecting them to find it just as funny as he did.

"Who is that?" a rather tense air now filled the room as the two men glared at the other.

"No one" Elora abruptly uttered, drawing nearer to Zane's stead once more as she tried concealing the basket that had been set aside on the counter.

'No one?' Zane repeated.

"Just one of those extremely kind donors who wishes to renew this infrastructure" Elora couldn't come up with a better lie on the spot. She looked at Zane, a plea for his cooperation hidden behind those captivating jade eyes.

"Yes" Zane 'played along'. "This area and home is no different from a pig style. I'm amazed this is my fiancée's manner of living." his eyes roamed about the cracked ceiling despite the quick elbow nudge Elora offered."Hell, a pig would disagree to dwell in here."

"Fiancée?"

"Zane Lowe," he introduced "CEO of Lowe Industries... And her fiance," declaring, almost too proudly.