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

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

Luna quickly added. He has a lot of meetings with

“Luna, it’s okay.”

“Im sorry, Mrs. Whitlock.”

I

came for you earlier in the

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.

unlocked the already set-up phone to see that there was no

“Gabriel Whitlock.

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TIL

Chapter 3

arrived with a perfectly drafted agreement like he’d said yesterday. I’d gone over it for an hour

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

I was in an art gallery. I tinkered with my new phone for a while, I checked in on my grandfather who insisted he

new job since I left my old one when I moved three hours away to marry an imperious man, but I was confident 1 could

grandparents, who happened 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 was still convinced I could manage by myself and marrying a complete stranger was off the table but when my grandpa had to come out of retirement and take up a job for some extra cash, my heart

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

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 was

myself while the housemaids, looked over me like I was a

and being alone turned into a habit. I spent my time getting pally with Lunat and the others, learning how to cook

from three out of seven places I had applied to,

wasn’t a formal clause in the agreement we had signed, Gabriel Had explicitly

Probably not.

forth on the idea of calling him. But it was a quarter past twelve, and I hadn’t seen him in the house for days. A part of my heart felt tighter wondering if he was staying with someone

in haste. It was around nine- thirty in the morning when I sat alone in my room

rang, and on the fifth

“Hello!”