Love Not Included (An Arrange Marriage Story)

38

Nicholas went back to his office after the incident at the mall and Theora went home. She knew she had hurt him a lot and he wouldn't forgive her that easily. Remembering the time when Nicholas had hurt her and how difficult it was for her to move past it. Theora hated herself for not trusting him how could she be so stupid in believing Rachel right away.

Once she reached home, Misha greeted her at the door.

"Where did you go?" She asked "I was so worried. You didn't even take Roberto with you. You're sick you should've taken him with you. Did you go to the doctor or something?"

"Misha I can't right now" Theora pleaded. Theora knew Misha meant well but right now she wasn't in a good mood to answer the bombardment of questions Misha had thrown at her.

"Ok I won't bug you anymore but I've made you some soup which you will have because you haven't eaten anything all day" commanded Misha. Theora just nodded and walked into the kitchen. She drank a few spoonfuls just keep Misha happy before going upstairs to her bedroom.

Theora plopped herself down at the edge of the bed. She resolved she couldn't mop around all day and should take initiative. She needed to win Nicholas back one way or the other. Looking around the room an idea came into mind. Yes it'd be perfect she thought but she needed to start right away to be finished by the time he came home tonight.

Nicholas was having a private meeting with his dad they were talking about the incident with Claire.

"So this girl Claire she had an accomplice?" Leon asked

"Yes her name is Rachel. They planned to blackmail me into not investigating Claire so they could keep the money they earned from the leaks and get a bit more from me" he omitted the part about them making Theora believe he cheated on her. That was something that was just between him and Theora.

"You have all the proof against them ready?"

"I've submitted the text messages and the cctv footage of them to our lawyers but I think we won't need it after all. I just got a call from the district attorney Rachel and Claire have admitted to their crimes and accepted a plea deal they'll be sentenced on the first day in court"

"Good then we'll be able to keep all of this out of the press. Good job Nicholas you handled things well"

"Thank you father" Nicholas nodded. He felt emotionally drained and his father could sense something was wrong with him.

"Go home Nicholas you seem tired. There isn't any work left for you to do anyway" Leon said

"No I'm fine. I have to check on a few things so it might take a while" Nicholas said getting up

"Nicholas it can wait. I know you don't like me bossing you around but I have insist you go home"

"Fine I'll go. See you tomorrow father" with that Nicholas left for home. He planned on avoiding going home till late but he felt he had no choice now.

Nicholas felt something was off immediately as he arrived home all the lights in the house were on and it was barely twilight. Opening the front door, he saw everything seemed normal downstairs. It didn't look like Theora was anywhere downstairs and most probably up in their bedroom so Nicholas thought he'd hang out downstairs for a while. Going into the kitchen, he was about to grab the handle on the fridge to get some water when he noticed a post-it on the door.

Avoiding me, I see. It read.

Nicholas crumpled up the post it and opened the fridge seeing that everything in the fridge had a sad emoji sticker with a sorry sticker underneath it. Closing the fridge back up with a huff he didn't even bother to get the water he intended to. Maybe I'll have some coffee instead? He thought.