The Billionaire's Forced Alliance

Chapter Eighteen

Sarah opened her eyes as her vision settled squeamishly on the ceiling above; in the soft whitish gold light of the new day, the hues of the bedroom moved from impressionist pastels of lavender to brilliant pop art. Waking up came really slow and relaxed, as if the day was kind enough to come softly into focus. Rubbing her eyes to reshuffle her brain, she yawned. Beside her, there was no one and her ears immediately set up in extreme alert as she heard the shower running in the bathroom. He was an early riser, she thought, checking to see that it was seven in the morning.

She looked here and there and then sighed. The breath that came out of her lungs seemed to tighten at her throat when her vision stopped at something. A black box was kept above her pillow, and it was wrapped with a red bow. Was it a gift? From Ben? Her heart pounded incessantly. Though her eyes were open, she couldn't think what it could be; her heart was pummeling, mind empty. It was as if a hypodermic of adrenaline had been emptied into her carotid. She strained into utter disbelief, her breathing rate beginning to rise.

With shaky hands, she held the box and for a minute, just stared at it, wondering what it was. Gathering the courage, she untangled the bow and opened it, her mind totally blown at the sight she saw. It was a brand new phone; well, not just any phone, it was the all new iPhone 13 Pro Max in the colour, Sierra Blue. She stiffened in one place, frozen like an ice statue.

How? When? What?

There wasn't any interrogative sentence that was left to come into her mind.

"Oh, you woke up. You liked the phone?" She heard his voice and turned around watching him stand in front of the mirror wearing a white T-shirt and a matching white towel that was wrapped around his bottoms.

She looked at him, her mouth gaping open. "Uh--Wh-what? You--you bought this?"

"Yeah, did you like it?" He asked again, setting his hair with his fingers. There wasn't any hint of arrogance or hesitance in his tone, instead, he said it very lightly as if giving such a super expensive phone to her wasn't that much of a big deal to him.

"It's an iPhone, Ben. Not just an iPhone, it's the latest one! My god, I can't--I can't accept this." She shook her head, her skin breaking out in cold sweat.

He stared at her as if she had spoken in a different dialect. "Why? What's wrong? You don't like it? You don't want this colour? I knew it! I should've taken the green one." He explained to himself, shaking his head.

"Colour? You're concerned about the colour? My---god, Ben----what are you?"

He paused for a moment and then looked at himself in the mirror. "Ah---a human, I guess?"

"No, no, no! Not like that. I--meant--how can you do this?" She shrieked.

He sighed. "You can change it, Sarah. You can take any phone you want, okay? I'm sorry I chose this..."

Was he kidding? What was wrong with him? Why was he acting like it was nothing, that giving her something so pricy was okay? God. Was he really so generous? She didn't know, but it baffled her completely to see a man like him; not man, a person like him, in general. He seemed to have no doubts in buying the phone for her as if it was his responsibility. Oh, responsibility. He was indeed responsible, wasn't he?

"Okay, Ben, are you serious?" She bounded out of the bed and within a few minutes, she was in front of him.

She felt him tense and then he turned towards her. "What? What do you mean?"

She couldn't do it anymore. She had always been damn good at concealing her emotions and acting reserved but this man was totally throwing her off-guard. "Ben, you can't just give your forced wife something so expensive....it's not feasible." She whispered.