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

always witty. And his knack for watching things break? It was

while in the middle of racing his cars

“Yes Alex?”

jiggling of the keys or the sound of footsteps, I turned around just in time to catch Gabriel

I called him with my eyebrows furrowed. “You’re home

walked over to the play area through the little white gate, kissing

cookie after lunch,” I told my husband as he settled across from

his son, placing a big

1/3

Chipter

over Gabriel’s coat, dropping

1 gled

the man I met would one day let a little child run

Gabriel?” I

missing the

“And not me?” 11

pout.

but it wasn’t as open as I had gotten

hold, diving into the ball

shifts closer to keep a closer eye on him,

sitting the same way. His shoulders were tense, and he

hand through his arm to be able to rest my temple on his shoulder. “Don’t lie to me. Why’re you

Freckles.” He kisses the top of my head, taking a deep breath over my head as if to absorb

forehead creases “A bad

fire,” he barely whispers. “In the house. I was coming back from somewhere from work, I

on his arm

“I could save only one of you.

his palm with my thumb of my free hand, and he intertwined our fingers, bring it closer to his lips

answers the question I didn’t ask, and I shut my eyes for a brief second. “Since I woke

was just a dream, Gabriel,” I

“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,

“You’re

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

And even if they do,