His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

MIA
I woke up on Alex’s bed, and the other side was cold and empty My eyes snapped open quickly, because my last memory was
falling asleep in Alex’s arms.
While I slept too much, Alex usually stayed up at night reading files and making notes and calls, and never left the bed till I woke
up.
In the past week, I had gotten used to waking up to him sitting next to me, wishing me good morning, making sure I slept well
and my sleep wasn’t plagued my nightmares like it had been the first few days after I was saved. I never told him about it, but he
somehow knew.
I had this growing suspicion that the two weeks I hadn’t allowed to see him, when I often dreamt of his touch and his kisses and
him holding my hands, they weren’t dreams. He really was there, sitting next to me, all night long.
“Alex?” I call sleepily, but when no voice replies, I get off the bed. The bathroom was empty, and so was the walk-in closet.
This was weird. Alex wasn’t here.
I quickly finish my morning necessities, and rush downstairs after freshening up into some comfortable lounge wear.
“-I loved the chocolates, thank you, and the new hair. Are you sure you can’t stay for breakfast?” I could hear Sofia’s voice even
before I exited the hallway.
“Sometime else?” Another voice replied, “I need to help Dad with some work today. I’m interning under him for the summer, and
I’m so excited-“.
I zone what the girl says out when I reach closer for the duo to come in view. Sofia was hugging a huge box of chocolates close
to her chest while facing a girl with light pink hair that fell to her shoulders in perfectly set curls. She was fair, about my height,
and looked like she worked hard to maintain her body from her toned muscles visible because of the shorts and little top she was
wearing.
She stopped talking when her eyes fell onto me, and the smile vanished from her lips.
“Oh, Skye, this is Mia.” Sofia says once she reads the situation. “Mia, this is Skye. She’s Gabriel’s friend’s daughter, and the girls
used to be best friends right until high-school after which Skye shifted counties. She’s finally back!”
I remembered Skye alright. The girl who followed Alex like a little puppy when they were kids- Aurora’s words not mine- and then
left the country at sixteen when he rejected her. Dramatic much?
And I was her first love’s wife.
“Alex’s Mia?” Skye looked like she wanted to frown, and her gaze was disapproving.
I squirm even though I offer her a little smile. “Nice to meet you, Skye. I’ve heard a bit about you from Aurora.”
Her lips twist. “I can’t believe Alex got married,” she studies me again from top to bottom, and I hug my arms closer to my
chest.

“Skye. She’s Alex’s wife.” Sofia scolds her in a stern yet affectionate tone. “Be nice and welcoming.”
Skye sighs and then draws a smile to her lips upon listening to Sofia. “Sorry. You just took me by surprise. It’s weird that the Alex
we knew ran from commitment and then boom! He has a wife.”
“Skye.” Sofia warns.
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Chapter 130
“It’s okay,” I smile awkwardly at Sofia. And then I bat my eyelashes at Skye innocently. “It just takes the right person, I guess.”
Skye’s face sours. “I should leave. I’ll come visit someday else?” She quickly hugs Sofia, passed me a fake see-you-around and
then scrambles out of the house.
Sofia sighs before she turns to me. “I’m sorry about her. She’s just... She’s fangirled over Alex since she was a child.”
“You don’t need to apologise. I understand.”
“You’re family, okay? And if Skye tries disrespecting you again, you come to me. Clear?” She asks, and I nod, which makes her
add. “But from what I saw, you can handle her pretty well.”
1 chuckle under my breath. “Where,” I clear my throat, “Where is Alex?”
Sofia’s eyes furrow. “He didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“Alex left last night. There was an emergency that he needed to be there for immediately. I asked him if you knew and he said
he’d call and explain everything before you wake up.”
Fear and anxiety grip me. “Alex left for where?”
“He went back, Mia. Alex went to Philadelphia.”
And left me here?
What the f**k?
My anger doesn’t kick in until that evening when I was sitting in his room and watching Netflix. There was triple security in the
house, probably for safety concerns since he wasn’t here, and his phone was still switched off.
That b**h left me alone and actually went back.
So much for protecting me.
Granted there were like a million guards stationed at every corner who would kill a fly if it tried to bite me, he still left.
My anger turns into worry when I try dialling him at night before I sleep and it still says switched off.
I sleep with the phone in my hand in case my husband calls, but my worry turns into utter panic when the night gets over and
there was no sign of him.
So, I do the most logical thing. I barge into Alex’s father’s study, demanding Damien’s number.

All my confidence dissipates into thin air when Gabriel Whitlock’s eyes set at me, and he looks up from his file like I had offended
him by walking in without permission. “Can I help you Mia?”
I gulp. “It’s Alex. He- He said he’d call after he reaches but it’s been more than twenty four hours. I- I’m worried for him.”
Gabriel’s expressions soften. “He does that sometimes. He gets caught up in work there and keeps his phone switched off to
avoid distractions. Says distractions cost lives in his line of work.
“You’re not worried?” I ask, surprised.
“I was the first few times he did that. Now I’m just used to it.”
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O
“I- I’m not,” I say in a low voice. “I told him I was happy here, but I didn’t mean it in the sense that he should leave me here and
go
without telling me.”
+5
“You miss him.” Gabriel comments. I avoid meeting his eye. “Mia, I have seen the way my son looks at you. You tamed his
demons, the ones me and my wife spent all our life failing to chase away. He hasn’t left you here. He would never leave you if he
had the option. I’m sure the situation called for it.”
I don’t reply, the worry still seizing my heart.
“When you were in the hospital after you were kidnapped,” Gabriel adds, his voice turning a little playful, “Alex roamed around
like a wounded puppy. I wasn’t sure if his men would even take his orders after that, he was that soft.”
I softly chuckle under his breath.
“He used to wait outside your room every night when you refused to see him, waiting till you fall asleep so he can spend the
night sitting next to you.” Gabriel says, “His mother and I asked him to sleep countless times because he worked all day long, but
he refused to close his eyes because that’s the only time he got with you. At nights.”
I sniff, slight tears glazing my eyes. Stupid medicines and stupid hormones always making me cry. “Thank you,” I whisper
breathlessly. “For telling me all this.”
“My son is an idiot, but don’t give up on him, okay?” Gabriel nods with a small smile. “And that is not to say that you should
accept shit from him. If he ever mistreats you, come here, and I will fix him for you.”
I smile back. “Thank you,” I repeat, sniffing.
“Family doesn’t thank each other.” Gabriel reassured me. I still thank him again which gets him to sigh before I apologise for
barging in and leave him alone.

I had left with a lighter heart but one that still worried for my husband. Where was he? What was so important that he left like
this?