My Boss is my Husband

Chapter 2

I did not sleep well.

The bed was too big. The room was too quiet. And my brain would not stop talking to itself.

I kept thinking about the contract. I kept thinking about Xwein's face when he said "I look at you." I kept thinking about my mother's text message.

"God bless you, my daughter."

She thought I did something good. She thought I found a miracle.

She did not know I sold myself to a man who does not smile.

I gave up on sleep at 5:47 AM. I walked to the window. The sun was not up yet. The garden below was huge. Green grass. Flowers I could not name.

It looked like a picture from a magazine. But it did not feel like home.

I took a shower. The water was hot and strong. My old apartment had weak water that took ten minutes to get warm. This water was hot in three seconds.

I put on my old jeans and my old shirt. Then I looked at myself in the mirror.

Same face. Same eyes. Same Frix.

But everything was different now. I was someone's wife. I was Mrs. Smith.

The thought made my stomach hurt.

---

I walked downstairs at 6:30 AM.

The house was still dark. Still quiet. The marble floor was cold under my bare feet.

I found the kitchen. It was giant. White counters. Silver appliances. Everything looked brand new. Like no one ever cooked here.

I opened the refrigerator. Almost empty. A few bottles of water. Some cheese. Some grapes. No eggs. No bread. No milk.

A man like Xwein does not cook. He probably eats in restaurants. Or maybe he does not eat at all.

I found coffee in a cabinet. The expensive kind. I found a coffee maker on the counter. The fancy kind with buttons I did not understand.

I pressed a few buttons. Nothing happened.

"Having trouble?"

I jumped. Xwein was standing in the kitchen doorway.

He was wearing a black bathrobe. His hair was wet. He looked like he just got out of the shower. I had never seen him like this before. At work, he was always perfect. Now he looked… human.

"I can't use your coffee machine," I said.

He walked over to me. He stood very close. His arm reached past me. He pressed two buttons. The machine made a noise.

"Wait thirty seconds," he said. Then he stepped back.

"Thank you."

He opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of water.

"You're up early," he said.

"I couldn't sleep."

"New places are hard."

"Is that why you were up too? Your hair is wet. You already showered."

He looked at me for a second. Then he said, "I don't sleep much."

The coffee machine beeped. Dark liquid came out.

"Yours," he said.

I took the cup. "Thank you."

He nodded toward the table. "Sit."

I sat down. He sat across from me.

"We need to talk about rules," he said.

---

"First," he said. "You don't go into my room. Ever. My room is mine. Yours is yours."

"Fine."

"Second. You don't bring anyone to this house without my permission. No friends. No family. No one."

"Not even my mother?"

"Not even your mother."

"That's hard. She's going to want to see where I live."

"Tell her you live in an apartment. But she does not come here."

I wanted to argue. But I remembered the contract. I remembered the two hundred thousand dollars.

"Fine," I said.

"Third. You wear the ring."

He reached into his bathrobe pocket. He pulled out a small black box. He slid it across the table.

I opened it. Inside was a ring. Gold band. One diamond in the middle. Simple. Pretty.

"It was my mother's," he said quietly.

I looked up at him. "Your mother's?"

"She died ten years ago. She would have wanted someone to wear it."

"Xwein… this is too much. I'm just a contract wife."

"You're my wife. To the world, you're my wife. So you wear my mother's ring. You don't take it off. Not for showers. Not for sleep. Not for anything."

"Okay. I'll wear it."

"Fourth rule. We eat dinner together every night. Seven o'clock. In the dining room."

"Why?"

"Because married couples eat together. And my house staff will report to the board if we don't act like a real married couple."

"House staff?"

"I have a cleaner. Her name is Marta. She sees everything. She reports to the board. So we act like a real married couple when she is here."

I put my head in my hands. "This is crazy."

"This is business."

"Fifth rule. You keep your job. Same desk. Same hours. Same pay."

"I'm your wife now."

"At work, you're still my employee. You still call me 'sir.' You still bring me coffee."

"Sixth rule. If someone asks about our marriage, you say we fell in love slowly. You say I asked you out six months ago. You say we kept it secret because of work."

"That's a lot of lies."

"That's one lie with many small lies inside it."

"Seventh rule. You don't ask me about my past. You don't ask me about my family. You don't ask me about my business. If I want you to know something, I will tell you."

"So I just live in your house, wear your ring, eat your food, and know nothing about you?"

"Yes."

"That's not a marriage. That's a prison."

He stood up. "Call it whatever you want. The contract is signed. The debt is paid. You are here for one year. Make it easy or make it hard. I don't care."

He walked out of the kitchen.

I sat alone at the big white table. My coffee was getting cold.

---

At 10 AM, Xwein came downstairs in his suit.

He looked like a different person. The bathrobe version was almost soft. The suit version was hard. Sharp. Untouchable.

"We leave in ten minutes," he said.

"Leave for where?"

"Work. You're my assistant."

I had forgotten about work. My old life. My tiny desk outside his big office.

"Where are your nice clothes?" he asked.

"This is my nice clothes."

He looked at my old jeans. My old shirt. "No. Go upstairs. Open the closet in your room."

"There's nothing in my closet."

"Now there is."

I ran upstairs. I opened the closet door. My mouth fell open.

The closet was full. Dresses. Shirts. Pants. Skirts. Shoes. All in my size. All new. All expensive.

I picked a simple black dress. Not too short. Not too tight. I put it on.

I looked at myself in the mirror. I did not look like Frix anymore. I looked like someone else. Someone rich. Someone important.

I walked back downstairs. Xwein was waiting by the front door.

He looked at me. His eyes moved from my face to my feet and back to my face.

"Good," he said.

That was all. One word. But for some reason, that one word made my face feel warm.

---

The car was the same black car from last night.

The driver opened the door. "Mrs. Smith."

I did not correct him this time.

Xwein got in on the other side. We sat far apart. No one talked.

The car stopped at the office building. The same building I had walked into every day for two years. But today was different. Today, I got out of a black car with the CEO. Today, I was wearing a ring on my finger. Today, everyone was looking.

The building lobby was full of people. All of them turned their heads when we walked in.

Xwein walked next to me. Close. He put his hand on the small of my back.

I froze.

"Smile," he whispered in my ear.

I smiled. It felt fake. But I smiled.

People whispered as we walked to the elevator.

"Is that his assistant?"

"Did you see the ring?"

The elevator doors closed. Xwein took his hand off my back.

"You can stop smiling now," he said.

I stopped. "What was that?"

"The first test. There are eyes everywhere. We have to look real."

The elevator opened on the fiftieth floor. My tiny desk was still there. Same old computer. Same old chair.

"Go to work," Xwein said. "Bring me coffee at 12:15. Black. No sugar."

"Yes, sir."

He walked into his office and closed the door.

I sat down at my tiny desk. My ring felt heavy on my finger. Everything felt wrong.

But I opened my computer. I started typing emails. I did my job.

Because that was the deal. That was always the deal.

---

That night, dinner was at 7 PM.

The dining room was big. A long table with twenty chairs. But only two chairs had plates.

Xwein sat at the head of the table. I sat to his right.

Marta brought out soup. Then chicken. Then vegetables. Then cake. Everything was good. Everything was quiet.

We ate without talking. The only sounds were forks on plates.

"This is weird," I said finally.

"What is?"

"Eating in silence. Every night for a year."

"We're not normal people."

"I know. I'm a poor girl who married her boss for money. And you're a rich man who married his assistant to keep his company."

He looked at me for a long time. Then he picked up his fork.

We finished eating in silence.

---

After dinner, I went to my room.

I took off the ring and looked at it. His mother's ring. Why did he give it to me? Why give something so personal to a stranger?

I put the ring back on. I lay on the bed.

My phone buzzed. My mother: "When can I see you? I miss you."

I wanted to tell her the truth. But I could not.

So I wrote: "Soon, Mama. I love you."

She wrote: "I love you too, my daughter."

I put the phone down. I stared at the ceiling.

Three hundred sixty-four days left.

I closed my eyes. And somewhere in the house, I heard footsteps. Slow. Heavy. Walking past my door. Stopping. Waiting. Then walking away.

I did not know if it was Xwein. But something told me it was.

I pulled the blanket up to my chin.

And I did not sleep again until the sun came up.

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