Chapter 49
1068words
After two knocks, she let herself in.
Asher released a breath of relief and dropped the phone he held to his ears. "I was just about to call Eliss, you were gone for way too long. I got scared."
Lily chuckled and strutted over to him. "Were you worried that your trained employees would have eaten me alive, or..?"
"You are my wife, no one would dare disrespect you." He cut in before she could finish her question and Lily shrugged her lips, wagging off the 'if only you knew ' that she wanted to say.
She made herself comfortable on the bed beside him, and touched his head in a bid to check his temperature. She smiled and nodded in satisfaction. "Better."
"Yes, I did as you instructed. Proud of me, mother?"
Lily rolled her eyes at his obvious yab, and ignored him, which caused Asher to breathe out a laugh. "Tell me, how did the meeting go?"
Lily's brows shot up and she bobbed her head semi-excitedly. The welcome she got had killed off her excitement, but now that she was presented with an opportunity to talk about it, she could feel her excitement coming back although, not as much as it was at first.
"Soo...?"
"Yeah," she started, snapping out of her thoughts, "it went well. There was a problem with the interior designing. They couldn't reach a company that was free for it, so, I offered to take up the job." She said, feeling nervous instead of excited at the look on his face.
"You said you'd take on the project?" Lily bit her bottom lip and slowly nodded. " Wow.." he breathed out, and her heart picked up its pace, "well, I'm not doubting your abilities or creativity, Lily, but it's a huge project. Do you have the resource? Human resources for it?"
"That's for me and my company to figure out and for you to not worry about."
"Company?"
A smile finally found its way to her face and she nodded, excitedly. " Yes, a company. I've been thinking about it for a while but I was stalling due to a lack of experience, but hey... I have to do it first to see if I can pull it off."
Asher chuckled and spread his arms for a hug. "Well, congratulations, we'll celebrate properly once I'm out of this bed! I'm happy to be your first official client. Can't wait to see what you'll pull off."
She immediately embraced him, giggling. " Well, thank you, but you are not my first client. Mrs Darby is."
He pinched her sides lightly, and she squealed, laughing as she broke away from the hug. "I still am your first client. You designed this house first. This room carried your design first."
Lily breathed out a laugh, her eyes wandering around the room. "That doesn't really count."
" It does." He said almost immediately and Lily glanced at him, smiling. " It does, you brought this room alive with your designs. I miss them."
She forced her eyes away from him, and stared at the ceiling. "You are going to have to pay me to add my touch to this room again."
"How much will it cost?"
"A divorce." She blurted out and time came to a halt momentarily for Asher.
" Sorry, what?" He asked and Lily laughed forcefully, waving her hand dismissively.
"It's a joke. I was just joking."
"It isn't funny though."
"Why though?" Asher arched a brow and she shrugged. "What? Our contract marriage ends in less than one year, and our deal is like 20 days away from its expiration and you are not in love with me yet."
" Says who?"
Lily's eyes widened slightly, and she swallowed, confused on what to say as she chuckled. "That's... That's, impossible."
"Why?"
"It didn't happen in 5 years, how can..."
"We never spent time together in those 5 years, and..."
"And whose fault is that?" Lily cut in, her voice higher than she expected.
"I told you that I was trying to not be in your face because I thought you were angry about being forced into this. I gave you your freedom by telling you that it was just a business deal."
"Your words and actions contradict each other, Asher. You said what you said to give me my freedom -" she made air quotes at the word, " yet you won't sign the papers that will actually grant me my freedom. That's hypocritical."
" Lily, did I do something? This doesn't sound like.. "
" Yes, you did something, Asher. You confuse me. You walked in with my sister in your arms, smiling for the first time in ages, then you stopped me from leaving you. You defended me in public and kissed my sister. You saw something in an envelope and decided to take me to a yacht, where you fucked me but completely refused that it was just fun. You open up about yourself but ask nothing about me. You gave me a silly ass explanation as to why you treated me like I was air for 5 years but never gave a good apology, never tried to make up to it with your actions either. You didn't love me for 5 years but now you insinuate that you might. That's what you did!"
Silence engulfed them after Lily's outburst, the only sound in room was the sound of her harsh breathings. For a minute, they both stayed in that silence, each saying nothing to the other till Asher spoke up.
"Where did all this come from?"
"From the place I've kept it bottled all these while."
"Does this have anything to do with what I saw in that envelope?"
Lily shook her head. "The envelope wasn't mine. It belonged to a friend." Asher's shoulders immediately sagged in relief and he let out a deep breath. " This envelope is mine though, and I want you to sign it." His mouth immediately dropped open and he attempted to say something but she cut him off. "Please just sign it, Asher. I want to be free."
