Chapter 6

Belle's POV.

I used my right palm to massage myself after the realization of the slap had hit me. I stared at her, wondering why she had done that.

"You came back?" Lucy asked, anger in her voice. "You had the effontery to come back after the warning we gave to you?" She asked again.

I couldn't respond to her questions. I tasted blood in my mouth due to the slap and didn't want to suffer another one.

"With your parents dying, do you suddenly think you have nothing to lose? We warned you to stay away, didn't we?" She asked me.

"I did." I replied softly and calmly. "I left him and I stayed away"

"Then what the hell are you doing here? Claiming to be married to my son?" She asked and when there was no response, continued to talk.

"He never mentioned you. For the past four years, after he got tired of searching for you, he stopped mentioning you. He was fine and healed of you, so tell me why the hell you are back? When did this so called relationship begin that it even led to a secret marriage?" She asked, as if trying to accept everything.

"Christian and I love each other. We have been seeing each other for a while now and decided to have a simple marriage." I heard myself say to her.

"You are here to leech off him, aren't you? Your wretched parents didn't leave anything for you to fall back on and you decided to marry my son to get money out of him." She accused daringly.

I jerked my head to look at her face. I was desperate to hold her neck and squeeze until the life left her eyes. I was surprised at myself that I could think such an evil thought.

"Love or whatever made you come back into Christian's life, I will deal with it myself but let me give you a sound warning, Belle." She said, moving towards me so that I could see her eyes.

 She was a tall woman, a bit taller than I was, so I had to look upwards to meet her gaze.

"The day Christian finds out that we blackmailed you into leaving him, I will make you lose whatever you live for in your life." She said.

"At least you agree that I was blackmailed." I heard myself say to her.

She raised her eyebrows at me, daring me to repeat myself but I only remained silent.

My impulses was one thing I try so hard to control. Bernard always joked that it would put me in a big mess on a very big day. I hoped that very big day wasn't today. Because I was exhausted from the trip and the whole drama I had experienced.

"I can see that you are trying to be funny, Belle." She said taking a step backward to give me breathing space. "I don't blame you though, you are married to a very rich man and think you can speak to his mother as you please but let me remind you. I still have information on your friend, Bernard. And unlike your parents, he is still alive."

I looked at her again. With fear, this time around. Bernard didn't deserve any wrong to go his way. I wouldn't be the reason why he suffers anything.

"Leave Bernard alone." I said to her, my voice shaking. "I won't speak to Christian about anything."

"Good." She said. "Then we are on the same page. Keep the blackmail a secret. If possible, take it to your grave, and your best friend lives. Do otherwise, and await the day I send his body to you." She concluded and walked gracefully away from me.

It surprised me how wealthy people made threats with the lives of others. As if they could give life as easily as they threatened to take.

I took sometime to steady my breath, wondering at the same time how scared I would be of Christian's father confronting me, if I was this scared of his mother.

I got to the dinning room and saw that everyone had stopped eating. Gabrielle had her back against everybody as she stood by the window, looking outside, hands folded.

Christian walked up to me.

"It's time to go." He said and without giving me the opportunity to say goodbye, walked out of the room. I followed him, trying to keep up with his pace.

"Slow down Christian." I shouted as we got outside. He only stopped while we waited for the valet to get his car.

"Slow down? You are not a princess, surely you can walk faster than that." He replied harshly.

"What the hell is wrong with you? What transpired in there for you to be this rude?"

"Nothing went wrong in there, Belle." He said. "It was a very pleasant dinner."

"What?" I asked, trying to make sure I had heard him correctly.

"So pleasant that now I am fighting my cousin just to please you." He said.

"To please me?" I asked. "You literally didn't say anything while your family almost chewed me out. You only interfered when it was becoming too much for you to handle." I added.

"They weren't chewing you out." He said, facing me and lowering his voice so that no one would see that we were fighting, even though we were totally far away from the main house. "They were only saying the truth." He added afterwards.

"The truth?" I asked, beyond surprised that he said that.

"Yes, Belle." He replied. "The truth."

"How about we go in there and let them find out about more truth?" I asked and he turned sideways to look at me.

"Now you are blackmailing me? Adding more to your game? Aside leaving me on my death bed five years ago?"

"I didn't leave you!" I screamed at him, almost giving in to my impulse again. I was desperate to tell him the truth. I just couldn't.

Bernard was more important than the truth.

"Yes you did!" He shouted back at me. "You left me, making sure I was half dead before you did, or didn't you?" He asked me.

I opened my mouth to speak, but words couldn't come out of it.

"Yeah. I thought as much." He said.

Finally the car came around and Christian snatched the keys from the valet's hands. He entered the car and turned on the ignition, waiting for me to join him inside.

I took a deep breath and not wanting the valet to decipher that something was fishy, offered him a smile and a tip and walked to the other side of the car. 

We drove in silence, none speaking to the other. The ride back was one of the most suffocating rides I had ever experienced in my life.

                               *******

I woke up the next morning with the worst headache anyone could ever have. It was a surprise my head could still sit properly on my neck.

I realized that the house had been arranged and everything set in place. This was the benefit of being rich. You didn't have to do too much work because there are always servants at your disposal.

I got to the sitting room and saw Christian sipping a cup of coffee. I nodded at him and he nodded in response. We have been living a life of little words since the previous night.

"Off to work already?" I asked, being the first person to break the silence. I hated awkward silence. It didn't usually make sense to me when one person could just easily break it.

Christian nodded again without responding. He knew how to be very petty, I'd give him that.

"What about me?" I asked him. "Don't I have to work?" I said as it occured to me that we had not discussed what I would be doing after marriage. Really very stupid of me.

He dropped his coffee and turned the magazine in his hands. He wasn't paying me much attention, or maybe he was but just refused to show it.

"You won't work, Belle." He replied after awhile. "You are going to be in the house while I do the working." He added.

"Like a housewife?" I asked in horror. I definitely didn't know how to stay at a place for a very long time. It drove me crazy.

'Yes, Belle." He said calmly. " Like a housewife." He added, still reading the magazine and flipping the pages. 

I was tempted to snatch the book away from his hands and have him face me but at the same time, I re-thought my impulse. I didn't have the right to demand attention from him. Infact, I didn't have any right at all.

"Why?" I exclaimed later. "I don't want to be a housewife. I don't know how to be a housewife." I added.

"Well, I should believe that people aren't taught how to be one." He said, not minding my predicament, the magazine was more important to him than whatever I was feeling.

"It wasn't stated in the contract I signed that I was going to be a housewife, Christian." I reminded him, knowing fully well that he knew that.

"Then sue me." He said in a carefree tone and I turned to look at him. "Go ahead, Belle, sue me, since you weren't intelligent enough to ask what the hell you'd be doing as my wife before you signed the god-damned contract." He said.

He was harsh. Harsher than I had ever known him to be. He wasn't this harsh when he had presented the contract to me.

"I'm leaving." He said, standing up and gathering himself. "See you in the evening. The maids will cook, you don't have to lift a finger. Just be a rich woman and see a movie or something." He added, dropping the magazine and turning to leave.

"Was this the plan all along? To make my life miserable for one year? Are you trying to get back at me Christian? For leaving you?" I asked annoyed at him.

He turned to look at me, a bewildered expression on his face.

"You don't have to keep mentioning leaving me everytime we have a conversation. The damage has been done." He said without any care in the world.

"Then why the hell are you doing this to me?" I asked in a pleading voice.

"Don't give me that crap Belle." He said. "Don't do that manipulative thing with me. We signed a contract and I am doing everything I said in the contract. Today is just Day 1. Don't make me look like the bad person before we even start our lives. I'm giving you a pleasant life young lady, you should enjoy it." He added and walked out the door after that.

I closed my eyes and sighed, looking at the whole house and taking in it's largeness. It was better living in a small house than being alone in an enormous one like this.

I wanted to run away.

The maids came into the main living area; the one I and Christian shared with their cleaning materials.

They waited for me to give them the go ahead to start and I nodded my head, not wanting to delay them any further. Christian wanted me to be a lazy wife. And a lazy wife was what I planned to be.

As I turned to go back upstairs to my room, I heard the bell ring. I raised a hand to signal to the servants that I would see to it and they went back to their business.

I walked to the door and tapped the security camera. The person knocking covered the door with her body, but I knew it was a woman, although her face wasn't visible.

I turned the knob and flung open the door, staring face to face with the lady in question.

"Gabrielle" I called out.