Chapter 28
ALEX
Alex groaned as he turned off his computer. It was nearly 10 pm and he was ready to clock out. The work day had taken way too long. His phone buzzed just as he got in the car to head home and he unlocked it with a tired sigh, hoping that it wasn’t more work mails. It wasn’t. Instead, he found a text from the last person he had expected to hear from.
Natalie: I think I made a mistake, Alex. I miss you more than you can even imagine. Can we meet up somewhere and talk? Mease!
He stared at his phone in disbelief with his heart twisting painfully. How dare she text him after all this time? She was engaged to fucking Cole Smith, and she was going to marry him on the same date they had always talked about getting married. It didn’t get more evil and insensitive than that. So what the fuck did she mean by she missed him? The only obvious explanation was that rumors of him and Ruby had reached her ears. He knew what Natalie was like. She wasn’t texting him because she actually missed him or wanted him back. She just didn’t want anyone else to have him if she didn’t. He clenched his phone tightly in his hand, he felt a stab of pain in his chest and sorrow filled his heart. She fucking broke him, she took everything from him. And now she had the gall to text him? But that wasn’t even the main issue. The worst thing was the fact that his first instinct was to text her back. His fingers hovered over his keypad, ready to fly across the screen and text back a reply. He wanted to ask her if she was okay. If something happened, and if she needed him. But he stopped himself. He was no longer the person who fulfilled that role. He wasn’t the person she had chosen. And he wouldn’t allow himself to be treated like a commodity, like a designer handbag that she didn’t want to see another woman carrying,
He was spaced out as he drove home, and he was still absentminded and angry as he walked into his bedroom. Ruby sat up in his bed as she saw him walk him, and he fraze, feeling guilty as hell all of a sudden. When Natalie texted him, for just at couple seconds, he had forgotten that he even got married Ruby smiled at him and his heart twisted painfully. She looked fucking beautiful sitting in his bed like that, the sheets bunched up around her waist and hr sexy silk nightgown on display: “Hey you’re home,” she said, smiling
He nodded and forced a smile on his own face. Ruby Smith.. he had married her for one reason; to throw it back in Cole and Natalie’s faces, and from the text he had gotten tonight, he knew that it was working. And it only made him want to apply even more pressure. A part of him wanted to keep her hidden and safe, safe from all the rumors and all the prying eyes and the pressures she would face as his wife, especially since his identity was now known to all. But he couldn’t. He didn’t marry her so that he could protect her. He had married her so that he could use her as a weapon against Cole and as a tool to get back what he wanted from his father. And that was what he intended to do.
His eyes roamed over her face. She was so damn beautiful, and she looked so innocent, But then again, she knew exactly what she was getting into when she had agreed to his terms. He had never made any false promises to her either.
He started to unbutton his shirt and paused when he felt her gaze on him. He looked up at her smiling face, still taken aback by how innocent she looked. She might have known what she was getting into, but it wasn’t like she had much of a choice. Her father hadn’t given her a choice, and he hadn’t either. He felt a bit bad for her. He could only assume that she underestimated how hard life would be as a Blackwood- as his wife. He sighed heavily and walked out of view to undress before walking into the shower. He pressed the water curtain button, obscuring himself from her view. The water poured down on top of him, and he leaned back against the wall.
If he hadn’t married Ruby, what would he have done? Would he have texted Natalie back? Would he be running to her right now? And if he did that, would it have even mattered? He had spent months missing and hating her, but still wanting her.
now. now that she had finally reached out, he wasn’t even in a position to reply to her.
And
He closed his eyes as memories filled his head. He had loved Natalie with all his heart. He never used to believe in marriage considering what his parents‘ marriage looked like. He didn’t even know a single happily married couple, it was all just a business deal and he wanted no part in that. But then, Natalie came along. She was merely one of the employees in his family’s company an first before she branched out into modelling, but she became everything to him. She was different, she saw life through different lenses, and she taught him how to enjoy the little things in life like he had never done before. And till now, he still didn’t know if all of it was a sham, it any of it was ever real.
His mood was ruined as he heavily on him. He had Ruby in his bed, but it was Natalie that was in his head. It should be his wife that he was focused on,
got out of the shower. He could barely even face his wife. His conscience was weighing down
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Chapter 28
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but all he could think about was if Natalie was okay. The way Ruby looked at him as he walked towards the bed in nothing but his boxers would have had him rock hard on any other day, but not tonight. Tonight, all it did was increase the guilt that he was feeling. The thought of using her made him feel filthy. He laid down on his side of the bed and grabbed the tablet. using it to close the curtains and turn off the main lights.
“I can’t get
over how impressive that is every single time.” Ruby said beside him.
He smiled tightly and turned onto his side to look at her, propping his head up on his elbow.
“How was your day?” she asked in that soft voice of hers.
He watched her smile. That smile of hers never wavered when she was with him. No matter what happened, no matter what he said to her, it rarely wavered. He didn’t think she’d dare try to make small talk with him again after how he had reprimanded her the last time, but here she was, doing it again. She acted like his viciousness didn’t affect her, like it merely amused her.
“Tiring. Yours?”
Her smile widened, and his heart wrenched. “I went to see my mom this afternoon. I don’t think I ever said this to you, but her new room is amazing, the new facility is perfect.”
“I’m glad to hear it, he nodded. “I’m flying in some physicians that might be able to help her. Apparently, Peter Clark’s wife convinced him to loan us one of the doctors his company employs. I don’t want to get your hopes up just yet, but I want you to know that I’ll do whatever I can to assist your mother’s recovery.”
The way that she smiled at him, the trust and hope in her eyes, it gutted him. When she married him, she had no choice. She was not in this for selfish reasons, she had married him to save her mother’s life. Could he really use someone with motivations that pure?
“Thank you,” she said, her eyes filled with genuine gratitude.
He nodded at her. “I’ll take you to see my grandfather soon, he’s in town now. By now he should’ve heard all the rumors about us, and he’ll have heard that you’ve been seen with my mother in various places, so he’ll know I’m serious about you and that none of the things in the papers are true. He adored you when you were little, so there’s a good chance he’ll be happy for us.”
Ruby nodded, her expression serious. He hated how mechanical everything felt, but their marriage wasn’t real in the conventional sense, and it would always remain like that. It was best that Ruby got used to it now.
