A LOVE ARRANGEMENT

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Rook Hayes

POV

I wake with Sofia in my arms. My wife... I never get tired of saying it. I remember meeting Sofia for the first time. She just had this light to her. She was sweet, innocent and this wonder to her. At first I found her a little annoying but then she brought a lightness to my world.

My once dark world suddenly had a brightness no one could dampen.

Sofia had lost that spark in her when she started dating Theodore Rhodes, he wasn’t worth her time, he tried to break her spirit. He tried to take all her light and turn her into a soulless person. But Sofia got her spark back in the five years we’ve been married. She is an amazing wife and mother to our son.

I’d give my life to make this woman happy, she was my whole world. I’d promised a young Sofia I would marry her when we were older and I kept my promise. I try to give her everything, so she was left not wanting anything.

Sofia was curled into my chest like she belongs there because she does. Her blonde hair is spread across my shoulder, light against the dark sheets, her breathing slow and even for the first time since yesterday. Only then do I let myself breathe properly. I should have been there... She shouldn’t have been alone...

I couldn’t believe he slipped past security.

Theo showing up after hours had been a mistake.

For him...

I was going to make him pay for it. He would never do something like that again. He was foolish enough to think he could get my wife back after everything he did to her.

I tighten my arm around her just slightly, careful not to wake her. Five years ago, she wouldn’t have let anyone hold her like this. Five years ago, she slept in her own bedroom, tension wound tight in her body, as if rest was something she didn’t deserve. She didn’t believe herself loveable... That’s how much he’d hurt her.

I’d kept my distance from Sofia the first for months, when we started getting close to another, I worried she wouldn’t be able to love me, after everything that happened with Theodore.

Having Sofia in my life was more than enough, I promised her she’d get her revenge on Theodore for that he did to her. That family were a group of parasites to bled her dry and threw her away when he got his mistress pregnant.

Thanks to Andrea’s influence Sofia came out of her shell. She met a genuine friend. Someone who wouldn’t lie to her. Someone who felt the same pain Sofia did.

Andrea and Archer had become good friends to the both of us. Their son and Our son were the best of friends. We’ve had to set up a video call every night so they could say goodnight to one another. We vacation together, visit often.

“Hurt my friend and they wouldn’t be able to find your body...” Andrea told me.

And I believed her.

I promised not only Sofia but myself, that I’d protect her, I’d give her time and space to heal before we started anything. To the end I’d kept my promise.

Receiving love from Sofia was something I was hoping for but didn’t expect to receive, Sofia loving me was one of the greatest gifts I could have received, just having her by my side was good enough.

Almost immediately she bonded with my parents, my parents gave her the love she craved after her mother died, she never knew her father the paternal love my father gave her was beyond her expectation. I would watch the way she laughed with my father over breakfast, or how fiercely she defended employees who didn’t have a voice yet. I didn’t expect to wake up one morning and realize I would love her even more than I did five years ago or that I’d already been in love with her when we were kids, at first I thought I was just keeping a promise, but then she started dating Theodore, and I could still feel the way my heart broke when I saw them together.

I glance toward the framed photo on the nightstand a picture we took in Greece last year, Sofia sitting on my lap while Jamie stood in front of us pants gone. The boy was a wild child, he was nothing like Sofia or me. I was quiet and reserved as a child. Sofia was cute and bright as a child.

Nothing like me.

I shift slightly as Sofia stirs, my arm was going numb. I had the day off today. I’d planned to go with her to the office today. But before that I’d meet with my assistant. I was going to put into place a few counter measures to ensure the Rhodes family was busy for the next for weeks.

I remember the day I encountered her on the streets, soaked and standing there in her own little world. She didn’t know it then that she’d been a survivor. she’d survived the worst and I would make sure she never had to go through something like that again. I would handle any obstacle thrown at her, making sure she was safe.

I’d protect our family.

Her...

James... Our son.

I smile despite myself.

Two years old and already stubborn, most of the time he got his way thanks to me and my parents. Sofia tries, she really does, but when I look at James I see myself and Sofia. I can’t bare to hurt him or dampen his spirit, he is half of the woman I love and Every part of me doesn’t want to hurt any piece of her.

James has her eyes and my patience God help us both. I remember the first time he wrapped his tiny fingers around mine, the way Sofia cried quietly while pretending she wasn’t. James has brought so much joy to the both of us. There are times I need to pinch myself because it feels like a dream.

My life has changed so much after having Sofia and James with me.

The late nights. First words. Sofia humming softly while rocking him to sleep, while being unaware of me watching them from the doorway. I loved my family with every single fibre of my being. I’d do anything to protect their happiness.

Our love story isn’t one for the books, it started with understanding and the quietness we both craved. We fell in love slowly, carefully, like two people who understood what it meant to lose everything.

Sofia shifts again, her brow furrowing even in sleep. I brush my thumb over her temple, grounding her. She’ll have to get up soon. She was normally up before even I wake up. But yesterdays encounter must have rattled her.

Theo thinks this is about revenge that I’m using her but he’s wrong.

This is about a choice.

I chose Sofia the moment I made that promise to her. I chose her the moment I stepped out of that car and saved her from the rain. I chose her when I put my name behind hers. I chose her when I watched her take my father’s company and make it stronger than it had ever been.

And I’ll keep choosing her until I take my dying breath...

No matter who tries to take her from me. Sofia will always be my first and only choice.

Her eyes flutter open.

“Rook?” she murmurs, still half-asleep.

“I’m here,” I say quietly pulling her closer to me and kissing the top of her head.

She relaxes instantly. “James still asleep?” she asks softly.

“Yes, you know not even an earthquake could wake up your son...” I tease.

She chuckles softly. “He’s only ever my son when he’s done something wrong...”

I smile kissing her forehead... “It’s how it should be...” I close my eyes.

I think back on Theodore Rhodes, no one touches my wife and get’s away with it. Theodore will be a warning to the rest of the world.

That Sofia Hayes is untouchable.