His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 86

Alex and Aurora: 2 and a half years old.

“Mama?” Alex called me, and I smiled at my little boy. He had spoken for the first time almost a year and a half ago, but it still made me grin every time he called me mama with his little voice

“Yes, baby?” I coord, picking him up in my arms and carrying him outside, letting his sister sleep,

“Play?” He blinked his huge eyes, and 1 nod.

“Of course, my love.”

1 carry him to the twins’ little play area in the house, and he happily hops out of my arms and into the soft area where his blocks and cars were kept along with Aurora’s dolls and a soft ball pit that they could jump into.

I watch as he puts a few blocks on top of one another, making a tower.

I

“Wow. That’s so tall.” I sit next to him, passing him the blocks one by one as he adds them onto his creation, careful not to topple them.

It w

was a quiet afternoon in our house. Gabriel was at work, and this was usually the time for the twins to nap but Alex had a sugar rush and couldn’t sleep. Even then, he wasn’t making noise, aware his sister was sleeping in the room next to ours.

“Mama… look!” He pointed at the tall tower, satisfied by how much he had managed to pile on.

1 was just about to praise him when he punched right in the centre of it, watching with a spark in his eyes how all of it fell down into many pieces.

“FUN!” He shouted, the grin of his mouth endless, his brown eyes showing so much sudden enthusiasm.

1 sighed, resisting the urge to face palm.

It’s bothersome how much destruction excites him.

“You’re supposed to build, my love. Not break.” I remind him gently, smiling at his antics.

“If no break, then how build again?” He pouts, and I nearly laugh

boy. He had always been this way. Always inquisitive, always observing, always witty. And his knack for watching things break? It

He called me again while in the middle of racing his

“Yes Alex?”

somehow missed the jiggling of the keys or the sound of footsteps,

with my eyebrows furrowed. “You’re home so

lips as he walked over to the play area through the little white gate, kissing me softly “How

told my husband as he settled across from me, and took Alex in his

placing a big kiss

1/3

Chipter

running the car over Gabriel’s coat, dropping it in his

1 gled

day let a little child

you home. Gabriel?” I asked

missing the

“And not me?” 11

pout.

as open as I had

Gabriel’s hold, diving into the ball

a closer eye on him, dipping his feet in the

closer to him, sitting the same way. His shoulders were tense, and he wouldn’t

able to rest

the top of my head, taking a deep breath over my head as if to absorb my presence. “I had a bad

creases “A bad dream? What

was coming back from somewhere from work, I think. And I

hold on

“I could save only one of

my free hand, and he intertwined our fingers,

question I didn’t ask, and I shut my eyes for a brief second. “Since I woke up, there is a certain suffocation, a certain

a dream, Gabriel,” I

“I know.” He looks away again, to Alex. “But if I was ever given such an impossible choice, yo know I would put myself through a hundred deaths before giving up on you or the kids,

I know that,” I whisper. “You’re a good father, Gabriel

the twins will hate me when they grow up, when they find out I missed

will never find out. And even if they do, they wouldn’t hate you because