His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 10
SOFIA
When I came to my room, the intention was to switch on my series while reading more about Wales, the company I was going to
work at from Monday. A little research beforehand was always good. But I was distracted, thinking about my interaction with
Arthur Geller. I hadn’t told Gabriel about it, and I wasn’t sure if I should. I wasn’t sure if he would care:
Twenty minutes in, my reverie was interrupted by knocks on my room’s door.
And not the soft kind. Not Luna’s kind.
There was loud banging on the door with an angry fist, and if I hadn’t rushed to open the door, I’m sure it would have broken
down
On the other side, there stood my husband. He wasn’t wearing a coat, just his white shirt tucked into black formal pants. He
looked mad. He looked so mad, that I almost got scared.
But when his eyes met mine, they softened. Uninvited, he stepped into my room and shut the door behind him.
“Where did the touch you?”
“What?”
He grit his teeth, as if controlling his anger. “Where did Arthur Geller touch you?”
I blinked.
“Freckles. He paused. “Can you answer?”
“What?” I asked again, dumbfounded as if I had lost my ability to speak. “He- He didn’t.”
Gabriel relaxed. “He didn’t?”
“No. He.. He just held my wrist to stop me when I was calling your
“He held your wrist? Something darkened in his eyes.

“Yes, I agreed in a small voice.
“Show me.” He replied as if constantly putting effort in keeping his voice calm.
Gabriel confused me. Sometimes, he was the most cold hearted person I knew, who couldn’t care enough about if I lived on
died. And other times, he left his work to come check on me after he got to know that one of his clients paid me an unsolicited
visit
Nonetheless, I just raised my left hand, and he held it in between both of his. His eyes remained fixed at me and I shivered when
his thumb slightly traced my wrist. He didn’t stop, aware of the effect his little touch had on me.
“Are you okay?” His voice was gentle, eyes flicking from my hand to me.
It was almost as if he actually cared.
I nodded.
“Okay”
“Okay?”
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“Okay”
He left my hand and stepped away from me so quickly, as if coming close to me was a mistake. “Arthur Geller is my client. He’s
an important client.”
“Oh.” I replied quick. “I was rude to him. I- I scowled. I asked him to not touch me. I’m sorry if that causes issues for you ”
“What? No. Sofial”
“What?”

“The reason I am telling you he is an important client is to tell you that that’s the only reason I associate with a prck like him.” He
seemed offended. “I had heard rumours about him, his behaviour, but I never bothered to stop working with him. because of it,
because I couldn’t care less about what he did outside his business... until now.”
I stared at him, just blinking.
Gabriel swallowed, his jaw clenching. “He’ll pay for misbehaving with you.”
“No, Gabriel, it wasn’t that serious. I’m okay. If you do that, you’ll lose him as a client.”
“And?”
“And? Your grandfather will not like that.”
“Sofia, let’s get one thing straight here.” He replied, his words slow as if emphasising on each one, “You’re my responsibility And
no man gets away with coming to my house and touching my wife without her consent. Are we clear?”
“And what if he has my consent?”
Gabriel blinked, looking black as if he hadn’t heard, mt correctly “What?”
“I guess what I’m asking is since our marriage isn’t real, are we sleeping with other people?”
He kept looking at me without replying.
It felt embarrassing even talking about this. I shifted my weight to my other foot. “I- I noticed you don’t sleep at home some of the
nights. I was wondering if you’re with someone else: 1-1 don’t mind, but I would just like to know where we stand on that..
He didn’t reply.
There was no clause about this in the contract you made me sign. I added nervously.
The silence between us was heavy, and the more it continued, the more humiliating it felt. I was talking to Gabriel about sex.
Correction, I was talking to him about having sex with another man.
“Freckles,” He took a deep breath, “I was out at night with work. I was not out sleeping with other women.”

“Oh. Okay I nodded, That’s good. Great. I mean, the work part Not the not sleeping with other women part. Or both. I- That’s
good.”
He almost cracked a smile.
Almost.
“I’ve got work to do,” He said.
“Yeah, of course,” I nodded. He was a busy man. He took out time from his schedule to check on me. “Thank you
for
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checking on me.”
“Next time, a man shows up at the door that you don’t know, you call me. You don’t wait for Luna to call Peter who will tell me
when I’m free. You. Call. Me. Clear?”
I nod.
Tll be home for lunch. He added, and turning around, he left.
As the door shut behind me. I wondered if he meant we would have lunch together. That’s why he said that to me, right? Right.
Deciding to talk about me getting a job over lunch, I headed down. Luna was there, talking to the driver, handing him a list.
Gabriel was gone.
“Sofia, you had to add some of your art supplies to the list right?” She asked.
“Yeah.” My mood having spun upon talking to Gabriel, I took the list from her and added the A4 canvases I needed with brush
brands and sizes, and the oil paints. “I was told that you had to pick me up from the car and get me into the house last night
because I slept.” I looked at the driver. I’m sorry, and thank you!
In my peripheral vision, I could see Luna shutting her eyes tight

You’re mistaken, ma’am. It was Gabriel Sir.”
“It was, huh?” I asked, eyes flickering to Luna who wouldn’t look at me.
“Yes, in fact I offered because Sir had a bit of backache the week before your wedding, but he refused to let anyone carry
you
“Okay. Thanks for letting me know.” I handed the list back to him and turned to Luna, who was mumbling apologies under her
breath and something about ‘Sir’s orders.
“Traitor!” I feigned anger but my heart smiled as I headed to the couch. If he cares, why does he pretend so hard not to?
Gabriel returned at lunch and casually waited for me at the dining table, asking Luna to call me down from my room, which I am
glad he did because I was so lost trying my new art supplies I had completely lost track of time. The first half of the lunch was
silent.
Then, he cleared his throat. “I believe Arthur won’t be a problem again.”
I looked at him, eyes narrowing. “What did you do?”
“I spoke to him,” he replied calmly.
I didn’t believe his calmness one bit, but I didn’t push. “I want to begin working again.”
“Sure,” He nodded, his eyes flickering to the dried paint on my knuckles. “If you like, I can ask somebody to clear a room besides
yours for you to use.”
Yeah that would be really nice. Thanks.” I half smiled. He nodded. “Um... Arthur, he mentioned something about there being a
charity gala?”
He did?” Gabriel stopped eating. “Did he say anything else?”
“No, just that.”
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“Okay.”

“So, are we going to the gala?”
“I am invited, yes. But Arthur would be there. I didn’t think you would want to see him again after today.”
“You said Arthur wouldn’t be a problem again, right?” I asked softly.
He nodded.
I shrugged, “I trust you. We should go to the gala.”
Gabriel just looked at me for a long moment. I didn’t know what made me say that, but it had something to do with how worried
he was that Arthur had made me uncomfortable, how serious he was that I was his responsibility. I did believe he had taken care
of the situation and I didn’t need to worry about it again.
He
gave me a little smile. It’s this weekend. On Saturday night. We’ll leave at seven, you might want to wear a dress that touches
the floor. There’s a code.”
“Okay, I nodded, suddenly enthusiastic and smiling. “What’s the charity for?”
“Penguins? I think? No, I guess it was sharks.”
I giggled at his lack of knowledge. “I don’t think anyone ever raised money to save the sharks.”
“Then they must be raising money to kill them.” He muttered.
“Gabriel!”
“Some sea animal they’re saving, Freckles.”
“Penguins are hardly sea animals,” I teased.
He huffed, and after a moment of silence, added, “I think I owe you an apology for being unfair towards you after we got married.
I was recently made to realise that you left your entire life to be my wife for six months. So..
I looked at him in surprise. “Okay?”

“Okay?” He repeated.
“You said you owe me an apology, I mused. “So, apologise?”
“That’s it. That was my apology.”
I chuckled. “Oh my, God. No one ever taught you to apologise.
He ignored me.
“So, does that make us friends? Sort-of friends?
“I don’t do friendships, Freckles.
Then what do you do, Gabriel?” I rolled my eyes. “The more I get to know about y
you, the more boring I think you
are.
“I don’t know what I dislike more, the fact that you rolled your eyes at me, or the fact that you just called me boring. He raised
one corner of his lips into a somewhat smile.
I smirked. “Both. What’re you going to do about it, husband?”
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“If you don’t stop teasing me like that, wife, I might have to actually show you.” He replied in a huskily low voice that send shivers
down my spine, and he smirked, knowing exactly what he had done to me.
1 shut up for the rest of the lunch.
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