HIS BILLIONAIRE PROXY BRIDE

CH.12

A grumpy husband

"Maria will show you to your room. I have

to work. See you in the evening."

Bryce said, and walked away to

another part of the house, leaving her

standing alone like a lost sheep. Elise

sank into one of the comfortable

armchairs in the large living room,

feeling sorry for herself. It was clear that

Bryce did not want her here. The

television in the room was off, and since

she did not have anything to do, Elise was

about to stand up to pick up the remote

from the table and turn it on when a maid,

from the looks of her, walked into the room.

"Welcome, mistress." "The woman said,

courtesy. "I'll take you to your room so

that you can rest, have a bath, and have a

change of clothes."

"That would be nice, thank you. I'm tired

and really need to get out of these clothes.

By the way, it's Elise and not Mistress."

Maria, who looked to be about fifteen

years older than Elise looked at her as

though she was crazy and led the way up

a grand staircase a big and scary

bedroom, which apparently was her own.

This is your room ma'am. The clothes

which Mr. Ralph asked me to get for you

are in the closet over there. I'll go and

serve your food so that you can eat once

you're done freshening up." Maria said

and exited the room leaving Elise to her

devices.

"Thanks," Elise muttered to the closed

door and then sank into the soft

king-sized bed gratefully. She was so tired

that she could go to sleep right there and

then on the bed and in the fancy dress

that she wore, but she got up and slowly

pulled off the dress so that she was now

dressed in only her bra and panties. Then

she went to the closet to see what sort of

clothes were in there, not that it really

mattered as long as she could get

something to change into before she could

go get some clothes for herself.

As she opened the closet, she could not

resist the gasp that escaped her lips. First of all, the closet was the largest she had seen all her life, even larger than those

some celebrities proudly displayed on

social media, and it was fully stocked with

expensive-looking clothes...all of which

were not her style from what she could

see.

She selected a comfortable looking cloth

that she did not look too fabulous to be

worn at home and placed it on the bed

before walking into the bathroom. It was

also larger than regular bathrooms, but

then, everything in this house was larger

than regular ones. Although she was

hungry, Elise ran the bath, making the

water as hot as she could stand it, and

then added a liquid soap that smelt so

good and soaked in the bath for over 30

minutes until the water began to get Cold,

after which she got out of the bath and

dried herself with a large pink towel that

she found in the bathroom. It seemed that

her coming had been prepared for, or at

least they had prepared for a female's

coming. She grabbed a smaller white

towel on her way out and began to use it

to dry her hair while stepping into the

room. Since she was rubbing vigorously at her hair, she did not realize that anyone was in the room with her until she heard

Bryce's deep baritone voice

"You certainly took your time in there." He

said.

Elise jumped about a foot high and

whirled to face him, her cheeks going red

at the fact that she was undressed. Thank heavens that she had even opted to use

the towel and not just march out of the

bathroom naked.

"You scared the hell out of me. What on

earth are you doing in here?" Elise asked,

resisting the urge to grab a piece of

clothing to cover herself up and making a

mental note to always lock the door from

now henceforth.

"Actually, I own the house, so can go

anywhere I want to in it at any time.

please."

"Well, I will not have you barge into my

room at your will. What if I was naked?"

"Trust me, you have nothing I wish to see,

or haven't seen in different sizes and

shapes uncountable times before."

Bryce mocked, glancing over her body

dismissively as though it were a bag of

cement. Elise who thought herself to be

quite sexy, and had been told so numerous

times, found this quite insulting but did

not comment on it further, as she had no

wish to be insulted.

"Why are you here?" She asked again

instead, still drying her hair with the pink

towel. Her dryer was back in her tiny

apartment miles away, so she just had to

make do with what was available.

"I brought you those to sign," Bryce,"

said, indicating a number of

officials looking documents that were on a table in her room. The documents had not been there when she first came into the room, so she knew he just brought them in.

"What are they?"

"Christ! Must you always ask dumb

questions? You'll know what they are

when you go over to sign them, wont

you."

"You don't have to call me dumb.

Explaining what they are would not kill

you. Besides, I'm looking at them and still

don't know what they are supposed to be."

Elise said, deliberately goading him. She

had not even bothered to glance at the

documents for more than two seconds

before claiming she did not know what

they were.

"They re prenuptial agreements. Your

parents already agreed to them before the

wedding. You are to sign them." Bryce

told her, his tone brooking no argument

"Sure. Whatever." Elise said, picking up

the pen he had dropped beside the papers and signing everything that needed to be

signed without even reading them going through

"You didn't go see through any of them,"

Bryce said in surprise.

"What's the point? I don't care about your

money, neither do I have stuff that you

would be interested in. Now that that is

done, do you mind leaving the room so

that I can put on something?"

"Sure," Bryce said shortly, picked up

the papers, and walked out of the room,

leaving her to her devices.

Once she put on the cloth that she had set

aside, Elise walked out of her room in

search of the kitchen, which happened to

be downstairs. Maria, who was with the

cook, was surprised to see her.

"Madam. I didn't know that you were

ready to eat yet. You should have just

rung the bell and I would have come up

with your food."

"Nonsense." Elise scoffed and walked to

one of the refrigerators that was in a

corner and opened it. The fridge was

stocked full with different food items as

expected. Elise took an apple out of it and bit into it before making herself

comfortable on a stool in the kitchen. Both

women looked at her aghast but did not

say anything.

"I'll just eat here if you both don't mind,"

Carol told them. They hurriedly assured

her that they did not mind, but she could

see that they were uncomfortable with her presence in the kitchen, so after she wasdone eating her apple, she went out, and

went to sit in the dining room, where

Bryce was already eating. He took one

look at her and resumed eating his food

without saying anything.

"Your house is nice and really big"

"Thanks."

"I feel like I could get lost in it"

"Hmm-hm."

"Did you buy it or you built it?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just making

conversation." Elise said, wondering what

his problem was.

"Well don't."

"Anyway, I need to know more about this

situation we find ourselves in," Elise said.

There was no point in calling it a

marriage. Her dear husband clearly could

not even stand her presence, She

wondered how he would cope with her for a year and six months.

"You would have known all about it if you

had had a look at those papers you signed.

Do you expect me to start to spell it all out

for you? I don't have the time for that."

"Are you always this grumpy?" Elise

asked him, but he did not answer, which

was just as well because Maria came in

with her food at that moment.

"Thanks," Elise said as the dish was

placed in front of her. It smelled good and

tasted good, but Elise found that she did

not have much of an appetite. The gravity

of what she had done was only just really

beginning to get to her. Right from the

onset, she rarely ever had many friends,

but now, it would even be worse because

she did not know a single soul in New York.

What on earth was she going to do with

herself while she was here? To worsen the

situation, she did not even have a job.

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed suddenly,

Coins startling Bryce, whose spoon clattered

onto his place as he raised his head to

look at her shocked face.

"What is the matter? Is the food not to

your liking?"

"My job! I didn't give then the mandatory

notice. "

"Don't worry about it. I've already got it

covered."

"What do you mean you've got it covered

already? Besides, how on earth would I

even begin to find another job? Oh no, this

is such a mess!" Elise moaned, dropping

her spoon and placing her face in her

hands.

You're right about the fact that this is a

mess, but about the job thing, I don't see

why you should bother yourself. I'm sure

your monthly allowance is ten times what

you re earning at that rundown bakery."

Bryce told her, resuming eating his

food.

"Allowance?"

"I thought that was the reason you agreed

to get married to me. Anyway, since you

either can't read or are just too lazy to do

so, you can find out what your new

income is from your parents."

Elise did not understand any of what he

was saying, and she knew that he would

not explain anything to her even if she

asked, so she made a mental note to ask

her mom about it. Surely, he did not mean

that he was going to pay her for being

married to him in addition to offsetting

her father's debt, did he?

Bryce finished eating his food and

dropped his cutlery, then got up and bid

her goodnight, before disappearing out of

the dining room. Elise sighed and forced

herself to finish up her food despite her

lack of appetite. It would not help her

condition for her to starve herself.

Once she was done eating, she retired to

her room to go and rest. It was going to be

a really long one and a half year. She did

not see Bryce again for the rest of the

day, which was just as well as far as she

was concerned.

She did not see him all through the next

day, which was a Sunday either so she did

not know how he spent his day. As for her,

she spent most of it sleeping and in the

evening, she went into the garden to sit

under a tree and just enjoyed the

ambience. The garden was large, and

there were different ornamental plants

there, including roses and lavender that

gave the atmosphere a nice scent. Elise

who was a sucker for natural settings felt

like she could just sit there forever. The

place was perfect for thinking and

resting, so she did just that. She still did

not know what to do with herself now that

she was here, but she did not let it bother

her more than was necessary. She would

figure things out soon enough, she

decided. With this thought on her mind,

she went to sleep.