CEO's Unwanted Wife

Chapter 3

The air at breakfast the following morning was still thick with tension. The unobtrusive staff had set out the usual Sunday morning breakfast buffet on the sunny patio next to the pool before disappearing back into the woodwork. Brian didn't like distractions on Sunday mornings, so he preferred not to see the staff and usually, even though he insisted Bella have all meals with him for "appearances" sake, he ignored her in favour of his Sunday Times. That morning, despite the fact that he had the usual barrier of his newspaper up between him and the rest of the world, meaning her, she could all but feel his fury. Finally, after an unbearably tense half an hour, he balled the paper up between his fists and tossed it aside before glaring at her across the glass table.

"I want to know exactly where you were yesterday, Bella," he demanded fiercely.

"Why do you even care?" She asked tiredly. "You've certainly disappeared without explanation enough times for the both of us."

"We're not talking about me here," he pointed out.

"No but I think it's time we do talk about you, about your outrageous behaviour, about the other women and the blatant disregard for the fact that you're married!"

"I don't feel married!" He sounded almost defensive.

"No?" She retorted recklessly. "Well maybe I don't feel married either! Maybe I'm ready to be outrageous. Maybe I'm ready for other men and extra marital affairs too!"

"This had better not be your way of telling me that you were with another man last night, Bella," he warned ominously, his voice eerily calm. Bella recklessly ignored the warning in his voice and plunged on regardless.

"So what if that's exactly what I'm telling you?" She asked daringly. "What will you do about it? Make my life hell? Well surprise surprise... it's already hell! Do your worst!"

"What's his name?" He insisted in a lethally calm voice that sent an involuntary shudder down her spine. She suddenly recognised that she had pushed him too far but she knew that even if she backed down now, it wouldn't assuage his anger. "Bella, who the hell is he?"

Even though Bella knew that he would never physically harm her, she couldn't help but feel an instinctive frisson of fear. She knew that he had a tight leash on his temper but right now that leash seemed strained to breaking point.

"I... I was speaking hypothetically," she stuttered, abandoning all pretence of bravado and feeling unbelievably intimidated.

"I don't believe you," he bit out furiously.

"I wasn't with anybody, I just needed a break!"

"A break..." he repeated with flat contempt.

"Yes a break! A break from you and from this life... I don't want to be in this marriage anymore. I want out... I want away from you! Please.... I just want a divorce, Brian. Please."

"You'll get your divorce when I get my son," he reminded ruthlessly.

"That's so sick," she protested. "Why would you even want a child with a woman you despise?" He didn't respond, instead he sent an odd probing little look over her strained face.

"You honestly don't know, do you?" he breathed in disbelief and she blinked in confusion.

"Know what?" She asked blankly, distracted by the rapt look on his face. Again he didn't reply. "Know what?"

"Why did you marry me?" He asked suddenly.

"You know why..." she was outraged by the way he was rubbing salt in the wound unable to believe, even after a year and a half of similar treatment, that he could be so cruel.

"Humour me," he prompted and she exhaled shakily, before getting up with as much dignity as she could muster. She felt shaky and nauseous and couldn't stomach being around him anymore. She took an unsteady step away from the table, swaying so badly that he jumped up and clasped one large hand around her slender arm to steady her.

"Bella?" He sounded almost shaken.

"I'm fine," she shrugged off his hand. "I just got up too quickly. Now please excuse me, I have things to do!"

"Wait..." he said urgently. "I asked you a question."

"A stupid question that you already know the answer to," she retorted.

"Maybe I'd like to hear the answer again," he was being a total ass about this and not for the first time in her life, Bella felt like hitting him.

"Oh, God, why do you insist on doing this?" She groaned.

"You really loved me, didn't you?" He breathed in amazement and she shot him a haunted look before turning away.

"You may rest assured that whatever I felt for you a year ago is no longer an issue. I want a divorce, nothing you do or say can induce me to stay with you..." she insisted and he surprised her by nodding thoughtfully.

"Yes. I'm beginning to realise that," he acknowledged softly. There was nothing more to be said and she left the room with her head held high and her dignity intact.

She was a mass of nerves when she finally got to the bedroom and sank down on the bed, feeling quivery and still vaguely nauseous. She felt like she had just gone ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer but she also felt like he had actually listened to her and that she had made some headway. Feeling like she needed to speak to someone about what had just happened, she picked up the telephone receiver from its cradle on the nightstand but she was taken aback to hear ringing on the other end. Realising that Brian was on the extension downstairs she was about to put the phone down when the ringing stopped abruptly.

"Jackson Noble," her father's voice snapped into her ear and her eyes widened in shock. Brian and her father did not get along and she was surprised to realise that Brian had actually willingly called the older man. More than a little curious, she hesitated before replacing the receiver but that brief hesitation proved to be enough to keep her riveted to the phone.

"Your daughter wants a divorce," was his opening sally and Bella's fingers tightened around the phone.

"What are you talking about? Divorce is not an option and you know that!" Her father astounded her by responding.

"Yes," Brian's voice was dryer than the desert in summer. "I know that but it appears that she does not. You didn't tell her about our agreement?" What agreement?

"Of course not," Jackson Noble III scoffed contemptuously. "She would never have married you if I had... the little twit fancied herself in love with you!" Her father laughed harshly and Bella winced. Her free arm wrapped around her midriff as she tried to keep her nausea at bay. Brian did not react to her father's last statement.

"I thought she knew... that she'd gone into this marriage consenting to sell herself for the sake of your sadistic little contract. Daddy's good little girl to the very end!" He finally said after a long pause.

"Would it have changed your mind if you'd known you were marrying a naive little fool, who thought you epitomized her every dream come true?"

"And she has no idea what the terms of our agreement are?" Brian finally asked slowly.

"Well I assumed she would discover them from you eventually..."

"Are you telling me that she married me believing that I was in love with her?" He sounded humiliatingly incredulous that Bella would ever have believed him in love with her.

"Of course," her father snorted, she could practically hear the careless shrug in her words.

"And you just went ahead and let her believe that?"

"I know it was a ridiculous assumption on her part but it played right into our hands. It was like watching a sleepy kitten fall in love with a roaring lion," her father laughed, he actually laughed, after saying that. "But I doubt she would have married you otherwise."

"'Played into our hands'? There's no us here, Jackson. I had nothing to do with your obscene little scheme."

"Oh spare me your sanctimonious drivel, Brian..." her father scoffed. "It smacks of hypocrisy when you gained a hell of a lot out of this deal. And even if you'd known about Bella's expectations it would have made no difference to the eventual outcome. You know that as well as I do."

"She's your daughter!" Brian suddenly roared furiously. "That should have meant something to you."

"Of course it meant something to me... it meant that she could at last be of some use to me! Her role in my life is now quite vital. So you'd better keep her happy, get her pregnant and stop her prattling on about divorce. You know what you stand to lose if your marriage dissolves before I get what I want."

"I had a life before this ridiculous arrangement... and I would like to get back to it at some point," Brian finally intoned and Bella bit her lip hard to stop herself from crying out at the knowledge that her husband had always considered their marriage to be something outside of his real life! She had never met his family, all of whom lived in Italy. He visited them every second month for at least two weeks and never bothered asking her to join him. Of course he had never wanted them to meet her, not when she was just his "temporary" and unwanted wife.

"Well you know what it would take to get out and I'm amazed that it's taken you so long to accomplish that task." Brian remained silent.

"You know we had a setback, it's been difficult to recover from that!" He finally responded. Bella's brow furrowed and her sweaty hand tightened around the receiver which was practically welded to her ear. She tried to figure out what they were talking about... what was this goal that would set her free? It had something to do with a mutual business interest if the conversation was anything to go by. She would do anything to help Brian accomplish whatever he needed to if it meant she could get out sooner. And once she was free she would walk away from them both and never look back.

"Yes... that damned girl can't do anything right, can she?" Her father suddenly grated and Bella's head came up when she realised that they were talking about her. What on earth did... "The one thing you'd expect the woman to be able to do and she botched even that." Oh God! Bella finally realised what they had been referring to in such dry, legal terms and she nearly doubled over in pain.

"No-one was to blame for what happened," Brian shocked her by saying. "It was just one of those things..."

"Regardless," her father dismissed. "Sire a boy on the brat and be done with it. Surely the task shouldn't be too difficult for a strapping young man like you? After that, you're most welcome to obtain your divorce and live happily ever after with that Francesca woman of yours. The Love of your Life that's what the Press once called her, right?"

Francesca? Bella didn't know what to process first, the fact that this whole marriage had been about her being a broodmare for whatever sick goal they had in mind, or the fact that Brian had been/was in love with another woman. Both bits of information hurt so much that Bella felt like she had been physically assaulted. She'd always assumed that Brian's desire for a son was fuelled by his Italian male ego; the need to propagate his seed and all that. The thought that it was part of some kind of bargain that he had made with her father had never even crossed her mind! Even though she had hated the way he could never touch her without that ultimate goal in mind, she had always believed that it was something he wanted; a son to carry on his name and an heir to inherit his fortune. Instead the baby would only ever have been a way for him to gain his freedom and carry on his life with Francesca.

But what was supposed to happen to her and the baby once Brian had fulfilled his end of the bargain? Would he simply leave and forget about them? The one thing she had never doubted was that if Brian wanted a son, he would love the child. Now she wasn't even sure of that! Brian seemed to despise her so much she now knew that even though any baby they had would carry his name, it would ultimately be neglected and unloved by its father just like she had been by hers. She couldn't allow that to happen... this made her even more determined not to have a child.

As for her father's role in all this, she certainly knew why he wanted a grandson, absolutely no mystery there! He had always bemoaned his lack of male progeny to carry on his line and his business. Bella had never been good enough to inherit, he had always made that quite clear but she had never realised how far he would go to ensure a male heir. It was all so archaic... she was so wrapped up in her painful thoughts that it took her a while to register the low buzzing in her ear and realise that the two men had disconnected their call. She very carefully, as if it was the most fragile thing in the world, replaced the receiver in its cradle and sat quite still for a long time before suddenly exploding into action and dashing to the en-suite bathroom where she violently threw up the meagre portion she had had for breakfast.