His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 3

Before the wedding. I had put a lot of thought into how my wedding night would be. I wondered if I would have to have sex with a man I hadn’t known before that day, and in all the fear of that, I had forgotten staying alone in a huge room with nothing to do and no one to talk to as a possibility.

1 tossed and turned all night, barely getting any sleep.

The next morning, I wore one of the outfits that someone had stocked in the wardrobe for me to use. Growing up poor, I never got to splurge on myself. Any money I could save would only go into covering my grandpa’s treatments, and we still fell short most times.

Wandering alone in that big house, I wished I could confide in ber about the fake marriage I was stuck in.

But there I was, eating breakfast meant to feed twenty alone in the dining room.

I una stared at me.

“Have you eaten?” Lasked her.

“After you, Mrs. Whitlock.”

“Please call me Ms. Baker.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Mrs. Whitlock. Sir wouldn’t like it.”

“I don’t think Sir would know.” I tell her, looking around. The house was huge, and the chances of running into the man that

I wanted to actively try to avoid for the next six months was less. “Where even is he?”

“He left home last night after talking to you, and he hasn’t returned since.

I knew our marriage was l

in me. for the sake of it, but I didn’t expect him to sleep with another

time,” Luna quickly added. He has a lot of meetings with clients who live abroad and he functions on their

“Luna, it’s okay.”

“Im sorry, Mrs. Whitlock.”

Baker,” I

parcel came for you earlier in the morning

a box that I opened quickly to reveal a new phone inside. The latest model in my hand was a far stretch from the half broken one 1 had been using for the past five years, but I made it

Until now, apparently.

already set-up phone to see that there was no

“Gabriel Whitlock.

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TIL

Chapter 3

afternoon, his lawyer arrived with a perfectly drafted agreement like he’d said yesterday. I’d gone over it for an hour by myself before

not to, but also afraid of how low Gabriel’s ‘stooping

phone for a while, I checked in on my grandfather who insisted he was enjoying every moment of being reunited with his old friends and asked me

left my old one when I moved three hours away to

be my grandpa’s friends from school got in touch with him and agon and offered to pay out his entire treatment with one simple condition: I had to marry their grandson. I

did to convince their grandson to marry a nobody like me or why he agreed, but by his anger towards me, I

sympathise with him, because at least I got something out of this wedlock. It seemed like he got nothing except losing his freedom and the title of the hottest bachelor in front of the world. But at the same time, I knew he was no saint. He was an arrogant man, self-centred, and had implied that I

the housemaids, looked over

a habit. I spent my time getting

the fourth night, I checked my mails. I’d heard back from three out of seven places I had applied to,

called me for an interview two days later, but didn’t send in my confirmation yet. Even though there wasn’t a formal clause in the agreement we had signed, Gabriel Had

Probably not.

I went back and forth on the idea of calling him. But it was a quarter past twelve, and I hadn’t seen him in the house

myself the next morning, eating breakfast in haste. It was around nine- thirty

on the

“Hello!”