Chapter 7

Belle's POV

I continued to look at Gabrielle as she stood at the door, a basket of fruits in her hands. I didn't know if telling her to come in would sit well with her, after all, this was her cousin's house. She must have been here thousands of times.

"Gabrielle." I called again but she only rolled her eyes at me and entered into the house.

"I forgot Christian was married." She started but turned around suddenly to look at me. "Oh but it is quite easy to forget, isn't it?"

I sighed. The last thing I wanted after receiving Christian's wrath this morning was another drama.

"Make yourself comfortable, Gabrielle." I said to her and was about to walk out when she called.

"You haven't even apologized. To me. For walking out and allowing me to deal with whatever it was Christian was going through alone. You walked out and now you're back as if nothing happened." She said shaking her head and going back to the business of arranging the fruits she got inside the fridge.

I watched what she was doing and was surprised that she came here to stock Christian's fridge, OUR fridge, with fruits while I was here.

"I could do that you know." I said to her, sounding like a jealous lover. She turned with a perplexed look on her face, as if she had not heard me correctly.

"Do what?" She asked and I pointed at the exercise she was doing. 

"I'm his wife and it's very weird that you are getting him fruits while I'm here." I added.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes again and turned back to the fridge.

"Christian is a very picky eater. Even his mother doesn't quite understand the kind and manner of fruits he eats. What makes you think you can, because you managed to be married to him?" She asked as she continued her routine.

I shook my head and smiled within me. One part of me wanted to suddenly engage her in a little conversational fight and I gave in to that impulse.

"Why does it look like you are jealous that I'm back into Christian's life, Gabrielle? Are you worried about something?" I asked her.

Gabrielle turned in a carefree manner to size me up from my head to my feet.

"What in God's name do you mean now Belle?" She asked.

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't know, you tell me." I said. "So far you have been the one on my neck the most. Are you worried that Christian will begin to care little about you now that I'm back?" I surprised myself by asking even if I knew it was a stupid question.

"Christian doesn't care about you Mi lady." She said, mocking me. Whatever the reason is that he decided to marry you, I do not know. But care?" She asked, shaking her head. "I don't think so."

I steadied myself. So that she didn't have to see that I was nervous she might know what I and Christian had arranged or if Christian had told her about it already.

"The maids do not fix his fruits and neither does any other member of the family. So whether I am mad at him or not, I shouldn't let him starve, considering that he doesn't eat without them." She said picking up the basket when she was done and calling on the attention of the cleaners to dispose of it.

"If you think your husband trusts you enough, you can tell him you would like to be buying his fruits. It would give me the chance to focus on other things." She added.

She turned to walk away and suddenly stopped to look at me.

"Bernard?" She asked. "How is he?"

I wasn't surprised that she was asking of him. The both of them had clicked the first time he came to visit me in Arizona. I used to think they shared something but Bernard was quick to let me know that she was too much for him.

I nodded my head at her, to confirm that the person she sought after was fine and healthy.

"Bernard is doing very well, Gabrielle. Thanks for asking."

She nodded her head and without saying another word, walked out the same way she had come in.

I quickly went over the fridge to examine the fruits she had gotten. I still couldn't figure out how different they were from other ones but I planned to let Christian know when he returned that I would be picking his fruits from now on.

I was his wife, contract or not. It was my responsibility to make sure he ate healthily, I thought to myself.

I didn't know where the pang of jealousy was coming from. Bernard had warned me not to feel anything for Christian, but I was sure that his warning would fall on deaf ears.

As usual.

I watched Christian walk into the house later in the evening without giving me any form of acknowledgement. He was bound to make my marriage with him suffocating and what I planned to do about it was still beyond me.

After a while of freshening up, he came out of his room, looking hot as hell in a pair of joggers and white t-shirt.

I had forgotten how handsome he tended to be when he wasn't entirely on suits. I used to love him on casual wears in the past.

I quickly shrugged the thought out of my head before he could notice that I was secretly drooling over him.

"The maids prepared dinner." I said to him when he sat at the table. "I've asked them to go back to their quarters, I'll be doing the rest."

He nodded with a sullen look on his face.

I served him his dishes and sat across the table to give him room to eat.

"Anything? Belle?" He called when he must have noticed my eyes heavily on him.

"I will be doing your cooking from today henceforth." I said to him, boldly waiting for whatever comment he had in store.

He nodded again.

"Feel free to make yourself useful." He replied, taking his eyes off me and concentrating on his dinner.

"Also, the house. I will love to redecorate, to my own taste. You can always go back to this when the marriage ends." I added, trying to keep my voice neutral just like his.

He took a while to consider the statement while eating his dinner. When he must have been done, he nodded again.

"Sure." He said. It's never too hard to redecorate. Do as you wish."

I nodded again, a little happy that I could change the manly decorated living room into a more friendly and comfy home. I wouldn't want anyone who came into our house to wonder why it was decorated as if only a man lived here.

"The family will be going on a vacation soon." He said. I jerked my head towards him.

"What?" I asked, panic in my chest.

"A vacation, Belle. We would be going on a vacation. We usually do every year. So prepare and wait for the date." He said.

"You know I can't deal with a family gathering right now, Christian." I uttered to him.

"Why not?" He asked to my greatest surprise.

"Why not?" I asked, bewildered.

"Yes, Why not? Are you scared of my family? Do they trouble you? Remind you of something?" He asked.

I stared in shock at what was coming out of his mouth.

"You always talk as if the both of us have nothing to hide from them. Too much time with them and they'll be able to smell that this marriage is only a charade." I retorted.

I watched his face as he winced at the word.

"Keeping a secret should not be too difficult as you are making it out to be, Belle." He said to me.

I looked at him again, hands folded below my chest.

"And the pretense? You think they won't be able to know that you are somehow pretending to tolerate me?" I insisted.

"Let me worry about my pretense, Belle. You worry about how to keep your mouth shut." He said, rising to take his dishes to the sink. I was surprised when he began to rinse them but quickly remembered that Christian was a neat man, who didn't mind cleaning up after himself considering his billionaire status.

After rinsing, he went over to the fridge and opened it. I watched as he stared in surprise at the contents and turned to me for explaination.

"Your cousin was here." I said after shaking my head when words refused to come out of his mouth.

"Gabrielle came over?" He asked and I confirmed. I didn't miss the little smile that tugged on the side of his lips when I nodded my head. He was glad Gabrielle wasn't too mad to come over and perform her responsibilities to him.

"I think i should pick your fruits from now on." I said without thinking and he frowned.

"You are not supposed to do anything here, Belle. You keep forgetting that this is a marriage of contract. You don't have rights as my wife." Christian thundered.

"Well that's the problem." I said banging the kitchen counter to his dismay.

"What the hell is the problem now?" He asked.

"How are we supposed to convince your family that nothing is fishy when I'm only allowed to be a decoration wife?" I asked not giving him a chance to answer, I continued. "Gabrielle is already suspecting that something is wrong with you, with us. What do you think she might harbor in her thoughts if she continues to pick your fruits?"

"Anybody can pick fruits, Belle. You are making it sound too extreme." He defended.

I sighed at his comment, putting my hands in the air to signal my distress.

"What exactly do you want from me, Belle?" He asked turning away from the fridge to look at me.

"What I want from you? I want you to care Christian!" I screamed at him. "You took me out of my home and best friend, out of my life and you brought me here only to treat me like trash? It's annoying, it's suffocating." I said choking on my tears but he only stared.

"Your family is too much. You are too much. I wasn't expecting that they would have roses and flowers for me on my return, but a little bit of protection and care from you would actually be enough to soothe the ache in my chest." I added with an emotional voice.

"I didn't ask you to sign a contract to soothe your aches." He replied harshly. "You are also gaining something from this arrangement. Why should I also attach emotional companionship to your gain?" He asked 

I opened my mouth in surprise.

"We having an agreement, doesn't mean you should be hard and rude. It doesn't mean you shouldn't show care for me. Showing care doesn't make you less of a man."

"I don't owe you anything, young lady, the faster you realize that, the better it would be for you, for me and every other person involved." He shouted.

I shook my head as the realization of what he had become began to hit me. I didn't expect that he could change so much up to the point that nothing moved him anymore.

"You're an animal." I heard myself say and regretted it immediately as he charged forward towards me. He held my shoulders and had it against the wall.

"An animal?" He asked, anger in his voice. He bent his head down a little, so that his lips was just a tiny bit away from mine.

"Are you sure Belle?" He asked again, leaning closer, his lips now inches away from mine.

"Do you want me to show you what animals are capable of?"