CHAPTER 5: What Is He Hiding From Me

Aria’s POV

The sound of an alarm clock jolted me awake, I was so tired. Sleeping with a barrier of pillows was not exactly comfortable. Nathan was gone already but the faint scent of his perfume told me he had just left.

The time was eight thirty and I had to get ready for a dress fitting by nine.

"Nine o'clock he said," I muttered, dragging myself out of bed. "Well, he can wait."

I took my sweet time getting ready. I used his body wash and soaps too just to piss him off. After my shower, I spent a good twenty minutes picking out the plainest silk skirt I own with a simple blouse.

If he wants a fashionista for a wife he is going to be so disappointed when he picks me up and I look as plain as ever. I didn't apply any makeup except lip balm.

I made him wait an extra ten minutes so I could find the right shoes to wear. I slid into the front seat adjusting my seat belt.

"You are late, the stylists have been waiting for us," he said, adjusting his seat belt.

"Then let them wait" I shrugged, getting comfortable.

"Patience is a virtue Nathan, you should practice it"

"I'm not going to engage in this type of conversation, I've dealt with women with attitudes far worse than yours"

"Oh, why thank you" I flashed him a fake smile.

He looked irritated now.

"That's not a compliment" I smiled mentally hearing the frustration in his voice.

"Oh trust me it is," I grinned.

The dress fitting was a nightmare on its own by the time we were done I was exhausted. Three stylists made me stand on a platform while they were adjusting a dress on me.

Nathan sat on a leather chair a few feet away working on something. I know he is a businessman and all but he is always busy typing away on his phone. A few times I caught him sneaking glances at me then going back to whatever he was doing.

"Beautiful!" One of the stylists said practically jumping up and down, she brought out a large mirror in front of me and I almost gasped at the sight. I looked gorgeous, from the black satin material complementing my skin to the way the material lined perfectly with my curves. I looked absolutely beautiful.

"Mr Cross, what do you think?"

Nathan turned his attention to me and kept staring at me like I was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid his eyes on and to be honest, it felt kind of nice. Wait, what no Aria, that is your sister's fiancé!

"I love it," I said.

"You look beautiful," Nathan said, his eyes taking me in.

"Thank you" I felt a blush creeping in, oh Aria you stupid girl.

After the dress fitting, I was really hungry and nagged till Nathan drove me to get food. “This tastes really good” I said, shoving my food in his face to annoy him. I was being as messy and unladylike as possible but he was still calm. What is wrong with him?

“I’m not hungry,” he replied, still typing on his phone.

“What are you always doing on your phone”

“In case you can’t put two and two together I run a business Aria and I have to be available every single day, doubt you would know anything about running a business” he scoffed.

“First of all that’s really rude and secondly I’m very good when it comes to business, you think I went away to business school for nothing? I’m literally a pro at this. Before you all decided to alter my life plans by this stupid marriage I wanted to start my own business”

“You can still do that, I can help you if you want to”

“Me? Take help from you? Nah I’m good” I rolled my eyes. What makes him think I would ever take help from him? Oh please I’d rather chew on a jacket than ask him for help.

“Had no idea you hated me that much” he murmured, hands gripping the steering wheel.

“You married me against my will I think I have more than enough reasons to hate you”

“You could have run away like your sister” he shrugged, now that got me mad.

“You know what I think you did something to Alexa or said something to make her leave you, here you are acting unbothered that your original wife is nowhere to be found”

He looked like he wanted to say something but kept quiet.

“You know what I’m done with this” I was pissed, I came down from the car and started walking as Nathan drove slowly, pulling the windows down to talk to me.

“What do you think you are doing? Get back in” he sighed.

“No, you don’t get to just replace my sister with me and move on like nothing ever happened. Did you even love or care about her?”

“Aria we will talk about this later now get in, don’t make me come down to get you” his voice was sharp and commanding.

“Make me” With that he stopped the car and came down, everything happened so fast I did not even have time to process it when he grabbed me by my waist, lifted me, and basically threw me into the passenger seat. He got in the driver's seat and turned on child’s lock.

“You can’t do that! Stop this car, Nathan stop this” I yelled.

“You’re fucking crazy” I added before sinking into the seat.

Neither of us said a word the whole drive back, he pulled up into the estate and came out of the car walking straight into the house.

I came out of the car and into the house, I just wanted to change and sleep the whole day. I changed and went downstairs to grab a quick snack and on my way back up I heard Nathan's voice, he was being very quiet.

The door was cracked open a bit so I looked inside to find him talking to someone on the phone.

“I need your best team on this, and remember I’m paying you to keep this discreet, nobody should know about this. Especially not my wife she must not know” With that he ended the call and shoved his phone into his pocket looking frustrated.

“What should his wife not know?” I whispered to myself. What could he be hiding from me?