CEO's Unwanted Wife

Chapter 10

"I'm trying to fix this, Bella," he finally whispered, the words almost torn from him."You can't," she shook her head sadly. "This... whatever it is... it's irreparable.""Why?" He shook his head slightly in confused frustration."Because everything you do now feels insincere and forced!" She hissed in sudden fury. "Every touch, every apology, every endearment... it's like you brushed up on the 'Bella Noble User Manual' and learned what makes me tick!""Firstly, it's Bella and secondly, I don't know what the hell you're talking about!" He practically shouted, shaking her slightly."The kisses for one," she itemised."What?""A year and a half of marriage, Brian and tonight was the first time you've ever kissed me," she pointed out. "You must have realised how much it hurt me to know that you despised me so much that you couldn't even bring yourself to kiss me.""That's not...""So of course tonight," she interrupted him; not at all interested in whatever it was he had to say. "After making me feel so special by finally doing me the honour of introducing me to your friends, this is when you decide to sweeten the pot with a few of your kisses! It probably struck you as a pretty effective way to keep the b***h muzzled and content, right?""You're misreading the entire situation, Bella.""Don't call me that! I am not your darling... I've never been your darling and I'm not going to be naive enough to fall for your so-called charms again!""What do you want from me?" He suddenly demanded in frustration, releasing her shoulders so abruptly that she stumbled and fell. He froze in horror, staring down at her with a look of such abject misery, contrition and despair on his face that she almost felt sorry for him. She sat up and stared into his distressed face."I want a divorce," she whispered and he sank down to his knees beside her, lifting a hand to caress the curve of her cheek."I'm sorry," he groaned. "I'm so sorry for more things than you could possibly imagine... but that's the one thing I can't give you.""Then we have nothing more to talk about," she pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the hand he offered to help her. She suddenly realised that they were both naked and sighed heavily."Please, just go back to your room, Brian," she pleaded and he hesitated, his eyes lingering on her face for a few long moments, before he turned abruptly and left.She woke up in the guest bedroom the following morning... alone. She was both saddened and relieved by that. A quick glance at the clock told her that it was well after ten in the morning and the gloom told her that it was probably raining. Bella was shocked that she had slept so late and rushed through her morning ablutions, while trying to ignore the ever-present queasiness. She gingerly made her way downstairs, feeling like someone with a hangover as she headed for the kitchen.Fortunately there were no food smells emanating from the room but when she walked in, it was to find Brian sitting at the breakfast bar and staring thoughtfully down at his full coffee mug. He looked up when she stepped into the room his eyes sweeping over her figure, taking in the worn old jeans, faded sweatshirt and battered little trainers."How are you feeling, ca... Bella?""Fine," she mumbled, getting herself a glass of orange juice before turning toward the breakfast bar and taking the seat opposite his on one of the quaint wooden chairs."Aren't you going to eat anything?" He asked softly and Bella grimaced, the thought of food making her stomach churn queasily."I'm fine." He swore softly."You're obviously not fine," he growled. "I don't know what you think starving yourself will achieve.""Oh for God's sake, I'm hardly starving myself, just skipping breakfast.""You look like you've skipped entirely too many meals recently," he shook his head and sent a scathing glare up and down her thin frame."If it'll get you off my back, I'll have some toast," she seethed before slamming her glass down. She used too much force and must have placed it right on the edge because the glass went tumbling down to the floor and shattered on impact, spilling the bright contents all over the pale blue tile of the floor. The jarring noise completely unravelled Bella and frayed her nerves to breaking point."Oh," her eyes flooded with tears as she realised whose fault it had been. "I'm sorry...""Bella," Brian was beside her in seconds, his hands on her shoulders and his face peering down into hers in concern. "Are you okay?""I'm fine," she whispered, shrugging out of his grip and he dropped his hands abruptly."Are you sure?" He demanded to know. "You're as white as a sheet...""Just a bit of a shock," she waved his concern aside. "It's raining ," she observed inanely, in a very weak attempt to change the subject and her eyes fixed on the dull greyness of the world outside."Yes," he stepped further away from her and knelt down to pick up the shards of glass from the floor. "It is." She started to get up but he looked up at her from where he was squatting at her feet and dropped a large hand on her thigh kept her from moving."The floor's slippery and covered in glass; let me clear it up before you get off the chair." She shrugged and silently watched as he efficiently went about cleaning up her mess."What are you doing today?" He asked casually, keeping his back to her as he discarded the glass and paper towels he had used to sop up the excess juice into the trash can."I need to do some shopping," she answered distractedly. "I was thinking of heading to the city for some stuff..." she intended to buy about a dozen different home pregnancy kits, a task which she had delayed for much too long."I'm running low on some things too..." he responded carelessly, turning around to face her. "I'll drive you." Bella came out of her daze with a wry smile."Wow. That was such a transparent lie that I'm almost embarrassed for you," he chuckled wryly in response to her dry wit and shrugged slightly."I know it wasn't up to scratch but give me a break, it's been an eventful twenty-four hours and I'm not in top form," he joked lightly even though his eyes were still sombrely engaged in running over her face and body in concern. "I don't want you to drive, Bella; you look a bit out of it. Do you think you're coming down with something?"Yes. Pregnancy."I'm fine but I do feel a bit out of sorts this morning, probably the whiskey in that Irish coffee I had with the ladies last night," right, she'd barely made her way through a quarter of one mug before realising that, if she was pregnant, drinking would probably not be such a great idea. Still, Brian didn't know how much she'd had, so it was a perfectly acceptable excuse. He seemed to fall for it and nodded his acceptance of her explanation."When would you like to leave?" Bella sighed softly; she really didn't want him trailing after her while she tried to figure out a way to buy home pregnancy tests without him noticing. Brian would never miss that."I really do have some stuff to take care of, Bella," he said seriously, seeming to read her mind. "I'll leave you in relative peace." She chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully, not missing how his eyes flared when her tongue darted out to soothe the sting of her teeth where she had accidentally bitten too hard."Okay... give me an hour to get ready," to shower, get dressed, throw up and such... He nodded.He was as good as his word and mostly left her alone to listlessly browse around the upmarket boutiques in the very high end shopping mall that he had driven her to. She had the first ten minutes away from him to buy the pregnancy kits, six of them, all different brands (who knew there were so many choices available?), just in case he changed his mind about leaving her alone but surprisingly he did nothing but constantly call or text her to be sure she was okay and didn't need him but that got rather tedious after the tenth text message in forty minutes and the fifth call in an hour and a half. In the end, she simply told him she was done shopping and he suggested they meet up and head to a restaurant for lunch.The upscale restaurant was obviously one Brian often patronised so, even though it was lunch time on a Saturday afternoon and the place was exceedingly popular, they were seated immediately. Bella watched the staff fawn all over him and bitterly wondered if he had brought any other women here. The suspicion was confirmed, when the waiter turned to her with a slight smirk."And what will the lady be ordering today?" He asked in that supercilious manner that servers in upmarket restaurants often had."Your Caesar salad, no dressing, toast and water," she ordered brusquely."And have you decided on a main course yet?" He asked with that annoying smirk."That would be it," she responded shortly, his smug attitude was really grating on her nerves."Bella," Brian leaned forward in concern. "You didn't have breakfast; you need to eat something more substantial than just salad.""I'm really not that hungry," she shrugged dismissively, handing the thick leather-bound menu back to the waiter. "Please just let it go.""If you're on some crazy diet...""I'm not on a diet!" She snapped. "Just, please, stop trying to manipulate every single aspect of my life!" His jaw clenched and his lips thinned in obvious anger but surprisingly enough he let it go before proceeding to order a staggering amount of food from the waiter. Once they were alone, he leaned back in his chair and stared at her thoughtfully."Seriously," he began after a long silence, which she had stubbornly refused to break. "What's going on with you?" She gaped at him, unable to believe the stupidity of that question and he lowered his eyes, apparently realising that himself."Aside from the obvious," he qualified. "And try to keep the sarcasm down to a minimum.""Well aside from the obvious fact that I'm unhappy with my life as it is right now," she shrugged. "I can't say that there's much going on with me.""You're lying to me," he sounded so incredulous at that fact that she actually laughed in genuine amusement. "Are you having an affair?""Back to that are we?" She was laughing even harder now. "Brian, not everybody stoops to infidelity when things aren't going right in their lives.""What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He sounded outrageously offended and leaned toward her, all affronted, bristling male."Oh come on, Brian, you know what it means!""No I don't, do enlighten me," he invited sarcastically."It means," she spoke with exaggerated and offensive slowness. "That I'm not the one who has been having the affairs. It means that I had the misguided notion that the sacred marriage vows we took were just that, sacred vows. It means that I'm not the one who deliberately set out to hurt and humiliate my spouse as publicly and as painfully as possible.""I admit that I did some things to deliberately hurt you... in a misguided attempt to punish you for a situation that wasn't your fault," he began carefully."How magnanimous of you to admit that," she interrupted sarcastically."You were misled into believing that I... loved you," he ignored her interruption. "I was misled into believing you were...""Your drinks," the waiter's smooth voice interrupted the first really meaningful exchange they'd had on the subject and Brian slanted him an annoyed look before gritting his teeth and waiting in fulminating silence for the man to finish. When the waiter finally left, Brian turned his gaze back on her."I thought you knew about your father's scheme, I thought you were fully on board with it," he admitted softly."What exactly is my father's 'scheme'?" She asked carefully, wary of being shot down again."He owned something that I desperately wanted and the only way he would let me have it was if I paid a huge amount of money for it and then married you.""I see," she dropped her gaze to the intricately folded napkin on the table in front of her and traced her fingers lightly over the folds. "So, in essence, you paid an exorbitant sum for this mysterious something you so desperately wanted, with me tossed in as your unwanted free gift?""I had no choice, to get what I wanted; I had to accept you as part of the deal... I thought..." his voice tapered off and he shrugged miserably."You flattered yourself into thinking that I was fully cognisant of this scheme and that I was so desperate to have you, I would have my daddy blackmail you into marrying me?" He nodded reluctantly. "Well you got what you wanted and since it's obvious that we're both miserable in this sham of a marriage why won't you give me that divorce?" She continued to probe, desperately hoping that he couldn't tell how much actually hearing this confession hurt her."It's a bit more complicated than that. I think your father knew that we would both eventually want out of this 'sham'," he spat out the word almost distastefully. "So he added a little clause into the contract."This was it... Bella braced herself for what she knew was coming."Clause?" She repeated the word faintly and Brian cleared his throat uncomfortably."Your father..." the waiter swooped in with great flair and began to offload a tray of food onto their table. Brian muffled a curse beneath his breath, while he waited with barely concealed impatience for the younger man to finish."Will there be anything else?""No!" he barked, keeping his voice low and menacing. The poor man gulped and beat a hasty retreat. Bella barely registered the interaction between the two men, her horrified gaze pinned onto the gastronomical feast Brian had ordered. Pastas, pies, fish, meat, vegetables all laid out in front of her revolting senses."Bella?" Brian's voice seemed to come from miles away. "What's wrong?""So much food," she said sickly, feeling in danger of losing the precious little she already had in her stomach."I thought we could share," he admitted."I told you I wasn't hungry," she flared weakly, angry that he expected her to fall victim to yet another one of his manipulations."It doesn't tempt you? Not even a little?" he lifted his fork and stuck it into the closest dish, some kind of cheese bake and lifted it toward her lips. Bella could feel her gorge rise and jerked her head back abruptly."No!" He lowered the fork and glared at her in outraged bewilderment."What the hell is going on with you? Are you on some insane hunger strike?" She laughed unsteadily."That's what prisoners do, isn't it? When they want to make a statement about the unjustness of their imprisonment, they go on a hunger strike," she laughed again, immediately aware of the edge of hysteria in her voice."You're not serious?" He seemed to think she was though and for some reason that both saddened and amused her."I'm not hungry," she maintained wearily. "It's really as simple as that... please finish what you were saying about that clause." He looked frustrated but seemed to recognise that she would not budge on the issue."Basically, we have an out..." he began slowly. "We give him a grandson and we can divorce without any repercussions." She'd thought she was ready for it but hearing him put it so bluntly took the wind clear out of her sails and it took her a couple of moments to recover from it."An out," she repeated hoarsely. "Every single time you touched me, every time that's all you ever thought about, wasn't it? Getting out?" She laughed bitterly. "And how diligently you worked towards your goal... so often and so very thoroughly.""Bella," he whispered his voice alive with misery. Nothing more, just that, just her name. It was as if he recognised that nothing he could possibly say at that moment would make any difference to the pain she was feeling."My God," she swiped at a few errant tears, furious with herself for allowing him to see them. "Every time you came you practically prayed for me to give you a son. That was the only thought in your mind, every single time... escape! At a time when most people can't even remember their own names, you were begging me to give you a son because life with me was so incredibly unbearable for you.""It wasn't you," he interrupted lamely. "It was the situation.""So this son you so desperately wanted," tried to keep her voice level, even while it cracked with strain. "You don't really want him, I take it? He's just a means to an end?""I've never thought about it," he admitted uncomfortably."I mean, surely you wouldn't want anything to do with a child spawned with a woman you despise and carrying the blood of a man you consider your enemy?""The child has never seemed real to me," he murmured with brutal honesty. "I had some vague idea that you would have him and I'd move back to Italy afterwards. I never thought beyond that.""With a father who felt nothing for him, a mother who didn't want to get pregnant and a megalomaniacal grandfather waiting in the wings, it's probably best that the last one didn't make it," she concluded heartbrokenly."Don't you ever say that," Brian suddenly snapped, one of his hands reaching out to enfold her tightly furled fists on the tabletop. "He would have been loved.""What makes you so sure of that? When you admit that you don't know how you would have felt about him?""I know you," he murmured huskily. "And you have a capacity for love that boggles the mind. Of course you would have loved that baby; it's the only way you know how to be.""How am I supposed to keep living with you now, Brian?" She asked him helplessly. "It was bad enough before but the thought of going home with you now is almost completely unbearable." His hand loosened its grip around hers and he reached up to stroke the side of her cheek tenderly."We'll get through this," he whispered and she flinched away from his touch. His eyes flickered with some strange emotion before his hand dropped back down to the table."I'm tired," she said quietly. "Take me back to the house." He nodded and summoned the waiter over to ask for the check. Bella's eyes dropped to the full table regretfully."Such a waste," she whispered half to herself but she was surprised when Brian overheard her and asked the waiter to deliver the food to the nearest homeless shelter.Nothing much else was said between them until they got home, where Bella excused herself under the pretext of being tired and closeted herself in her room for the rest of the afternoon.