Contractually Yours: An Arranged Marriage Romance by Nadia Lee
Author:Nadia Lee [Lee, Nadia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Four Isles Press
Published: 2023-05-17T16:00:00+00:00
Chapter 22
Lucienne
Iâm shocked to see Bianca in the office on Tuesday. She said sheâd try to get back soon, but I didnât want her to rush. I was actually thinking about texting her to take more time, but it slipped my mind yesterday because I was swamped.
She stands up when she sees me.
âWhat are you doing here?â I ask, giving her a hug. âHow are you feeling?â
âBack at work, obviously,â she says, returning my hug listlessly. âAnd Iâmâ¦okay, I guess.â The hitch in her voice says she isnât okay.
âYou werenât supposed to be back until later.â I shouldâve texted her yesterday, no matter how busy I was. She knows about some of the things I wanted to do once I got marriedâlike auditing my financesâand she mightâve felt pressured to come back to help.
âPlans change. Wanna go into your office?â
âYeah, sure.â
We go inside together. I gesture at the couch by the coffee table and sit down next to her.
Sheâs paler than usual, her eyes slightly bloodshot. But if you arenât close to her, you wouldnât know sheâs exhausted, emotionally and physically. Sheâs done a good job hiding it with makeup and a sunny yellow blouse and blue skirt. But her smile doesnât have the usual brightness, and her skinâs dull underneath the foundation.
I hug her again, harder this time, and feel her sag into me. I wish I could do more, but thereâs nothing I can do to make things better for her. âWhen did you get back in the States, anyway?â
âLast night.â
Okay, so maybe getting in touch with her yesterday wouldnât have worked because she wouldâve been on a plane. Still⦠âYou shouldâve taken today off.â
âI didnât want to. I wanted to make sure you were okay.â
âMe?â I put a hand over my chest. âIâm not the one who lost her uncle.â
She shrugs helplessly with a forced smile, like sheâs at a loss for words to describe how she feels, but sheâd hate to impose her grief on others.
Empathy stirs. I couldnât figure out what to say when my mom passed away, either. All sorts of feelings come forward, impossible to articulate when so many of them contradict each other, or magnify little things that you know shouldnât matter much anymore.
âI think itâs best if I just keep myself busy. And I was concerned about your marriage to Sebastian. I mean, I knew you were going to marry him, but I just didnât like the way he was with me.â
âYouâve interacted with him?â He didnât seem to recognize her name at the Mexican restaurant.
âWell, yeah, of course. When I had to organize things like the lunch or flowers or send him the documents for the Sebastian Peery collaboration. He rarely responded, and when he deigned to bother, he was so abrupt. His assistant wasnât any better, either.â
The details about the lunch and flowers feel off. Iâm the one who texted him about both. But maybe she got in touch about something related to the lunch dates, and he blew her off.
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