His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 75

GABRIEL (continued…)

The next morning:

I seemed to have been in a comatose. The nights of not sleeping in Sophia’s hometown because she couldn’t sleep, and then coming back and working away my nights had finally caught up to me.

I don’t know for how long I slept, but it was definitely the most intense sleep I had had in a very long time.

I woke up to my phone buzzing next to me,

For the first time, how much time it was and how quick I needed to get to work weren’t the first things on my mind.

“Hello?” I press the phone to my ears without looking at the caller ID.

“Gabriel,” There was a breathy whisper on the other end. “It’s me. Lily”

“Lily.” I repeated after her, a little dumbstruck and foggy. “Hi”

“Hey,”

My mind cleared, and suddenly, all the sleep disappeared. I rolled over to the other side of the bed, Sophia’s room and her paintings coming into my view.

“Lily,” I greeted again, clearing my throat. “What’s up?”

“Nothing. Um. There was another question in my mind that I couldn’t get myself to ask last evening.”

I shut my eyes, putting my hand through my hair. I would be frustrated if I wasn’t in a situation of my own making. Scratch that. I was still frustrated. “Hm?”

“Did you ever love me?”

“In my own ways. I did, Lily.”

“And if it wasn’t for Sophia, do you think we would have a chance?”

“I don’t know.” I tell her, truthfully. I don’t mention how I had bought a ring and if I would’ve proposed, I would’ve loyal to her till she left me herself. But to be trapped in a marriage like that, so loveless and dry, it scared me after all with Sophia. “Look, I don’t think we should be talking. It isn’t fair to my wife.”

I could hear a sniff from the other end.

gave you the closure you deserved,

breathes. “Goodbye,

“Goodbye.”

off and going to work. In the end, I decided the former.

wanted to check on Alister, how he was taking the news of his cancer. If it weighed down on me, I was sure it did on him too. There were

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Chapter 75

smile when I found him sitting by

eyed his loose shirt and shorts, and the drink he was sipping, which didn’t look anything like his regular black coffee, and looked a

His smile was so wide, it was nauseating. “I have

him.

empire we have today. Now that it’s in your hands, I can finally enjoy the

evening by the pool. We need to

He

it from the

my

password to the phone. Weird. I always had the default lock and home screen so that remained the same, but everything inside was different. There were no apps, no photos,

everything okay?”

isn’t mine. I reply in an unsure voice, “Did it format

impersonal phone and changing models every few months. The phone looked new just

again, Lily did call, and I did

grandfather says, and unlocks

but the

groan, “How the hell did I exchange my phone? And

important on it? Something that would be a nightmare to clean, work

linked to my Mac. I can track it any where and if someone somehow disables

with sarcasm. “Since your phone is switched

Lily called me. If this isn’t my phone, how

“What?”

wince. “I exchanged my phone with hers

me. “You

a stony glare. “I ran into her.

Chapter 75

“So she called you in the morning and didn’t mention that you’ve exchanged

the number she had called from. The phone goes through,

“I’m going to have to go to