Chapter 10Ian felt a strange prickle of pride as she stared on in awe, almost drooling. He ignored Yu Zhen’s pointed glare and led the way inside, several men in black following them in. He could almost physically feel her itch to wander off on her own, Ian none too gently verbally shoved her to walk away. Like a woman under a spell, she immediately wandered to the gardens. Ian on the other hand branched for the mini-bar. He wasn’t seeking to get drunk, he just needed the slight tang of good wine to face his grandfather’s onslaught of questions when he’d meet him.“Why are you letting her stay here? This is your place!”, Yu Zhen questioned accusingly. He liked Ashley, but that didn’t eliminate the main probability that she wasn’t using Ian for her own selfish reasons. He couldn’t imagine what possibly moved Ian to let her stay in this house out of all the houses she could have stayed at instead. Ian sat on the barstool and picked a bottle. Yu Zhen folded his arms and raised an eyeb
Chapter 11“Oh my darling, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to break the news in such an insensitive way”, Chloe was immediately horrified as Ashley started sobbing into her bent hand.“No No, it’s- it’s not how you- how you broke the news I’m just really weak emotionally right now”, Ashley stuttered through her tears. A knock sounded on the door of the room.Both Ashley and Chloe’s attention were zeroed in on it. Chloe furrowed her brows even more as she saw the full-view of the room in Ashley’s run to the door. Was Ashley with Rita? That was the only thing that would explain the grandeur of the room. “Who is it?”, Ashley said in a phony composed voice, trying desperately to make sure she didn’t look like she just had a mini-breakdown.“I’m ze butler madam”, a prim voice said in an accent that sounded heavily french. It would be the biggest cliche of all time if he happened to have a mustache and balding white head. She opened the door and lo and behold, he had balding white hair. Thankf
Chapter 12"So let me get this shit straight", Chloe started, swallowing the bite of her Risotto, “You found the slimy bitches in bed together, then you and Ian had a fucking heart to heart, then you eloped and got married in Vegas, and you have to stay married for a year?”, Chloe ended, clearing her throat and looking at Ashley like she was crazy.“Yes, that’s exactly it.” Ashley groaned and flopped on the table. Chloe rolled her eyes at her best friend’s dramatics.“Well first things first, I think Rita’s definitely to be investigated, second things second, I can’t blame her, you and Ian? Power couple of the decade!”, Chloe whispered excitedly. Ashley raised her head and directed a powerful glower at her. Power couple? What power did she hold? Especially inside the ‘relationship’. It was a clear case of power imbalance with all the power tipped to Ian’s side.“No, I’m going to avoid him as much as I can”, Ashley nodded resolutely. “Fuck no you aren’t. This is a love story waiting t
Chapter 13Three weeks laterIan and Ashley had settled into a very easy routine. It consisted of not seeing or speaking to each other in any capacity. Ashley didn’t know what she was hoping for when she was younger but she was sure this was not the kind of marriage. In her imaginations, the first three weeks of her marriage were not spent wondering if she could break free from the shackles. Even work had lost its flair.Even though he was a scoundrel that cheated without giving her any form of closure, Richard still had his positives. Generally at this time she would have received a nice check up text. It was already 12pm and it was so jarring for the first few days. If he wanted to hurt her, he was doing a damn good job with it. She received a call from Amelia about three days after the whole cheating debacle. The entire call was just Amelia using roundabout ways to say she had stolen yet another man from under her. Ashley nearsmashed her phone in. Rita had been hired for a Vegas j
Chapter 14Ashley was deeply focused in the book she was reading; it was about an adopted princess in the throes of palace betrayal.The princess was about to discover the biggest backstabber in her court when a baritone voice pierced through her consciousness.It took all her concentration not to topple over on the hammock as she was startled. This bastard!"Well, any one that has eyes would know I'm reading, dear husband", Ashley taunted. She saw Ian's eyes narrow the way it always did when he was about to yell at her in that stupidly sexy way he always did.However, he just pinched the bridge of his nose and counted to three. "You can't be here", he said, his voice tight."On the contrary, husband. Seeing as you made me stay in this house, I can be anywhere I want in it", Ashley said airily, swaying lightly on the hammock. She felt oddly open in front of him. A tank top wasn't the best armor to meet her annoying husband."Well it's not like you rejected it. You still can't be here
Chapter 15Ashley closed the book and sighed wistfully. It was a book that definitely deserved at least ten rereads, as it clawed out emotions from her, emotions she hid deep down so she wouldn’t break into pieces.“Was it that good?”, Ian asked her from the hammock, raising an eyebrow.“Yes, it was”, She answered simply. She needed to stare at a wall and contemplate her existence after such a story.“Good enough to make you cry six times?”, Ian asked again, this time his words were laced with mockery. Ashley felt the bristling need to defend herself. “Yes it is. And what? I’m not allowed to cry anymore? You want to ban tears now?”, She asked acidically. Ian raised his hands in placation, he hated when people cried in front of him and she did that six times, he wasn’t in the wrong to tease a little. It was probably past midnight at this point. He should have been in bed to get at least two hours of sleep before work, but as it was, he would be sleep deprived yet again because of his
Chapter 16“You are both adults, why do you squabble?”, Louis exclaimed, his clean starched suit looking tense on his shoulders. Ashley and Ian opened their mouths at the same time to argue again when Louis raised a hand.“Please young masters”, he shook his head.He collected – Snatched if Ashley had anything to say about it – the licked pancakes from Ashley and the untouched perfect pancakes and called on one of the housekeepers to dispose of them. Ashley looked on in mourning. She always felt really horrible about wasting food. She should have just let the temperamental child have it.Ian had a mighty frown on his face from being hushed in front of the leech. He was a tycoon, he was a young prodigy, he did not deserve the verbal equivalent of getting his ass beaten in front of a hillbilly.Louis distributed brand new proper pancakes into two new plates. “Enjoy young masters”, he seemed to plead.“Why do I make all this money if I have to eat pancakes I don’t even want?”, Ian asked
Chapter 17Ashley drove to work in her Chevrolet with a better mood than she had in three weeks. She bopped her head to an MKTO song as she drove over to her designated parking spot. There was a crumpled wad of paper in her passenger seat where Rita had forced her to write a list of pros and cons about staying married to Ian. “I'm in over my head, I’m out of my mind, thinking I was born in the wrong time!”, she belted out, turning into the university. Her new house being five minutes away was such a beautiful thing.The only pros about her marriage were the fact that she would be Rita’s sister-in-law, she could have all the luxury she wanted – live five minutes from work – and she could form connections with the rich to sponsor her important projects. However, the cons filled the page and overflowed to the back, all of which were just her nuances about Ian himself.She and Ian could only start working on it in three months time, so instead of a whole year, they could split in six mon