Chapter Five

LORE

A wife,my Wife.

Mona is the perfect woman,the perfectly created woman for me. The moment I saw her at that fundraising,the very second I laid my eyes on her,I knew she was the one. I still remember every detail perfectly like it all happened yesterday.

I was talking to my friend Damien and an Asian couple who are our investors when she walked past us. My whole world stopped, I, stopped speaking,she was that perfect. She was in an emerald green dress and her blond hair was neatly tied on the top of her head,she walked to the farthest corner of the room and accepted a glass of champagne from the waiter, elegantly taking a sip.

A young lady, probably her age,walked to her and started a conversation, seeming so excited to chat with her. She watched as the lady spoke with charisma,she wasn't smiling and she definitely didn't want company. There was this sadness etched on her face that drew me to her. A face like that deserved to smile,to be happy. In that moment,I wished to see what she would look like smiling and I made it my mission to make it happen.

The lady seemed to have given up because she turned away and left.

I wondered what her laughter would sound like,I wondered how her voice sounded.

I've met many beautiful women in my life but I've never been so enchanted by one as much as I was with this girl.

She sighed and turned to her side,then those beautiful eyes clashed with mine. I couldn't see their colour from here but I saw everything I wanted to see.

At some point,it was like she was looking through me and not at me. That didn't matter though,all that did was the fact that she looked in my direction. I couldn't see the colour of her eyes from here,but I saw everything I wanted to see.

One look,just one look in my direction was all I needed.

That was my wife.

I vowed to make her my wife at all costs,so I asked around and It didn't take me much effort to find out that she was the daughter of Henry and Rose Morello,the Duke and Duchess.

The only problem though was nobody knew who she was,well, because apparently,they are twins. Identical twins who gave people a hard time to differentiate who from whom.

So I strategized,I got to meet her parents,I pretended to be interested in their family business and was ready to invest any amount of money just to find a way into their daughter's life. I asked them if they had a son and that was my ticket to information about her. They glady told me about their family with two perfect daughters.

They mostly praised one. She seemed to be their favourite of the two,It wasn't difficult to pick that up.

I asked around,again, because I had no idea which one of the twins had flooded my brain. I found out that the youngest of the twins was a bit rebellious and had a sharp tongue. Later, Henry and Rose approached me with their daughter,I finally knew her name.

Mona,Mona Morello.

They were so proud of her. She spoke and her voice was perfect,her smile was perfect and she was a hundred percent perfect up close. It wasn't just about her looks,which by the way, were carved to perfection like those of a goddess. It was her personality and how she carried herself that made me even more drawn to her,sealing the final nail in the coffin.

So now,here we are. I finally married the woman I wanted.

I walk into the room, taking off my tie and shoes,I round to the left side and sit at the edge of the bed, watching my wife sleep. I brush the strands of hair from her face then run my knuckles over her cheek.

Her eyes slowly open and lock with mine and i smile down at her.

"Hey," I whisper.

"Hey," she sits up and leans her back against the headboard. "What time is it?"

"It's eleven pm."

I haven't really had time to spend with Mona these past few days. It's been a week since we got married and there's something really off about her. It's like the woman who whispered sweet nothings to me just vanished and left nothing but her body behind. She's made it her life's mission to run away from me every time. It's moments like these when she's asleep that I get to touch her. I'm a patient man,I will wait for her to feel comfortable enough to trust me with herself,I won't force her to sleep with me.

"I'm sorry I woke you," I apologize.

"It's okay."

She doesn't even look at me when I'm close,her eyes only meet mine when I'm at a very unreachable distance,and only for a brief second.

She was never like this,we got along perfectly. In the first few days of our marriage,I thought she was being shy but things escalated to a whole different level.

I let her go back to sleep and slide in to my side of the bed.

The Next Morning

"What do you think the reason is?" Damien asks while playing with the beard of his jaw.

Damien is my best friend, we grew up together and have been inseparable. I trust him but i won't tell him every single problem in my marriage. The only thing I told him was the changes I've noticed in Mona.

"So you're saying your wife doesn't let you touch her?"

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to say it for me to know,Lore. If she can't even look at you or stay in the same space for more than five minutes,how do you expect me to believe she let you get intimate?"

I run a hand over my face as I sigh in frustration. My eyes meet his and he shakes his head.

"Do you think she was pretending to be interested in you all that time?"

"No,that was a lot of pretence to keep up with. I was a hundred percent sure that she liked me enough to marry me, I saw it in her eyes,in the way she looked at me. Love was too strong of a word to label what we had but trust me,it was very special."

"Well,did you perhaps say something to her that rubbed the wrong way?"

I frown then shake my head.

"No,I would say maybe unintentionally but no,I never said anything that would make her distance herself from me."

He sighs.

"If you say so."

After Damien left,I was left alone with my thoughts,wondering if maybe I did say something wrong to her but i can't pin anything.

*Four Days Before The Wedding*

She giggled and pulled me in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to go,then she backed me in a corner. The gracious and poised woman only acted that way around me,she only let me see that funny and carefree side of her. I couldn't ask for more.

Seeing the seriousness on my face had her lips pursing in a thin line.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"You're perfect."

"And you," she paused, placing her palm in my cheek. "Are the perfect man,the only man I've ever felt this way for. The only man I want to call my husband and spend the rest of my life with." She smiled at me and got on her tiptoes, kissing me with so much need that confirmed her words.

When we pulled apart,she hugged me tightly and whispered.

"I can't wait to be Mrs Cavannaugh."

Coming down from that memory lane, I pull out my phone and make a reservation at a high end restaurant.

I will corner her tonight,I will find out what is going on and i definitely will pull out the Mona i fell in love with.