Become the Wife of A CEO

Clara knew she couldn’t compose herself and go back to work, so she let her colleague Stephanie take charge of the interview, and she asked for a leave.

She took a taxi back to Horace’s house. Once she closed the door behind her and took off her shoes, she couldn’t gather any strength to walk into the room, so she sat on the floor, lost and exhausted.

She couldn’t help thinking of Darren, her nightmare. “Every time when I think this must be the worst, but the next time you’ll torment me even more cruelly. You sent me to other men as if I was a commodity. This time are you trying to insult me with your disgusting money?”

When Clara was about to drive herself to tears, she was suddenly scooped up into a bridal carry by somebody.

“What?” At first, Clara was shocked, but then she spotted a handsome, angular face. It was Horace. Clara asked, “Horace. Why…are you home?” It was noon, and Horace should be at the office.

“I come home to fetch something,” Horace explained. Then, Horace noticed her eyes, red from constraining tears; his face sunken, and asked, “What about you? Why do you come home this early?”

“The interview is finished, so I come home earlier,” Clara explained, but then she realized she was still in Horace’s arms, which made her face burn. “Horace…could you let me down. It’s a bit embarrassing.”

“There’s no one home,” Horace said coolly, and carried Clara into the room, “Don’t sit on the floor again. It’s too cold.”

Horace put Clara on the sofa in the living room and ask in a cool voice, “Have you had lunch yet?” While Clara was reminded that she was so angry with Darren that she had forgotten all about lunch, so she shook her head and ask, “What about you?”

“Neither did I.”

“Well, let me cook for us.” Since Martha was not here, she, as Horace’s wife, should be responsible for the cooking. Once she got up, she suddenly remembered something, and said embarrassedly, “I am not so proficient in cooking. Is it okay that I make some fried rice?”

She knew Horace was particular about eating. Though not luxurious cuisines, Martha would normally prepare delicate home dishes and she would cook lots of food, and Clara was afraid she couldn’t do so.

Horace thought Clara was rather cute with the cautious expression on her face, and he said, “Fired rice will be fine.”

Clara breathed a sigh of relief, and putting down her purse and phone on the table, she went into the kitchen.

When Clara was cooking in the kitchen, her phone rang, and it was a message. Clara was busy with cooking, but she worried that the message was sent by her colleagues about something important, so she called out, “Horace, could you please check the message for me?”

While Horace was reading the financial news, he lowered his head to check on Clara’s phone upon her words. But on the screen, he saw a name that annoyed him – Darren, and the content of the message was even more annoying, which said, “C, if you really needed money for your mom’s treatment, I can lend you some.”

Horace tightened his grip when he saw the message. C? What a cute nickname. Also, why did Darren know about her mother’s illness? Did Clara tell him herself? The possibility filled Horace with anger. Clara hadn’t even told him about her mother’s illness. How could she tell that bastard Darren?

While he was still lost in his thoughts, Clara had made the lunch and was about to serve it on the table when she said, “Horace, it’s time for lunch.”

She didn’t notice the cold and unpleasant expression on Horace’s face since she was focusing on untying the apron. However, the knot was too tight and she found she couldn’t take off the apron, at least not in a short time.

Horace raised his head, then found Clara seemed to be troubled by the apron, so he walked to her and caught her hand to stop her, saying, “Let me help you.”

Horace stood so close to Clara that when he spoke, Clara could feel his breath falling on her shoulders, which made her blush. She drew back her hands and said, “Thanks.”

Horace didn’t say anything but concentrated on untying the knot, but thanks to Clara’s efforts, the knot became much tighter, which was quite difficult to untie.

Knowing Horace was standing right behind her made Clara a bit nervous, so she had to speak something to distract herself, “Horace, who sent the message?”

Horace paused, but he soon answered, “It was from Darren.”

Clara was stunned at the name, while Horace continued, “Don’t you want to know about what he said?”

Clara swallowed and smiled bitterly, “Did he text to humiliate me?”

“No.” Horace finally untied the apron and took it off for Clara, and continued to say, “He said he could lend you the money for your mother’s operation.”

Clara’s eyes widened, and she turned around while asking in shock, “How can he possibly know…” She was about to say how did Darren know about her mother’s illness, but when she turned around, she faced directly into Horace’s cold eyes, which made her even more shocked.

The expression on Horace’s face betrayed him and Clara understood everything, and she asked in a quivering voice, “Horace, you…have known my mother is ill too, haven’t you?”

Horace lowered his head to look at Clara, her forehead glistened with sweat since she had just cooked in the kitchen, and her bang tumbled. Horace couldn’t help but raised his hand to tuck the strand of hair behind her ears and tried to say as casually as possible, “Yeah, I knew that.”

Clara’s eyelashes twitched. She should have known it. Horace was a man of power, he could easily find out anything about her if he wanted to.

Seeing Clara falling into silence made Horace frown, and he asked, “You angry?”

“No,” Clara answered, shaking her head, “I know your people with noble names will be cautious even to people around them.” Clara knew it just like Darren who had also concealed his true identity from her, so it wouldn’t be so shocking for her to find out Horace had probed at her personal information.

But Horace was hurt by Clara’s words since he had never intended to guard against her. As for the information, he had only checked her background once before their marriage and he had never done it again. This time, it was because of the investigation about what happened two years ago that he accidentally knew about her mother’s illness.

“Clara, I…” Feeling depressed, Horace was about to explain when he was interrupted by the phone ring – it was Clara’s phone again.

Clara paused at the call, but when she noticed the phone number, she picked it up immediately. “Hello, doctor. I’ll soon pay off all the charges, please give me more…”Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

But before she could finish, she was stopped by the anxious exclamation of doctor. “Miss Selman, your mother’s illness was exacerbated, and she needed an operation right now! Can you please come to the hospital to sign the agreement and pay off the charges? We should start the operation as soon as possible!”