SHE'S MY WIFE

Chapter 12: I Am Your Husband

Something was definitely up. Emilia had said she would be gone for an hour but then took two hours. That wasn't like her. Max knew the threat she issued him was because she was angry but she wouldn't have taken so long to come back especially after telling him that. Then there was the fact that she didn't touch her food. In the two weeks he'd been there, he had noticed how she ate anything she came across. When  he asked her, she told him she was breastfeeding so everything she ate wouldn't last long in her stomach. He loved her enthusiasm about being able to eat whatever she wanted without gaining weight.

Since she'd left angry at him, he hadn't dared ask why she was so quiet, afraid that she might snap at him again. The things TC had told me had been both shocking and disturbing. The fact that Lisandra had planted a spy in Em's house just to keep tabs on her was maddening. He wanted to know why she wouldn't leave them alone. Wasn't being in prison enough for that woman? Why would she want to keep tabs on his wife? Then there was the other thing he didn't want to believe. No matter how much he looked at it, he couldn't, wouldn't let himself even think that his mother had anything to do with his son's death.

It was unbelievable and there was no way he was telling Emilia any of that. She'd never gotten along with his mother. Their fights had driven him insane because they always put him in the middle. Between a mother and a wife, whom could a man choose? His wife whom he loved with every bone in his body or the mother that had given birth and raised him? And now this? He didn't want to think what Emilia would do if she found out about it. Sending him straight to hell for starters and demanding his mother be imprisoned.

For all her faults, Max didn't think she would be able to survive in that place. She'd lived her life as the daughter of a rich man and married another one which meant she didn't know what it was like to not have anything. Even after the accident, she had people at her beck and call. How do you go from that to living in prison, wearing overalls all day instead of designer clothes and jewelry, sleeping in a tiny room instead of an ensuite bedroom? She wouldn't last a day in there. She was also on a wheelchair which put her at a disadvantage with the other people. They could hurt her and she wouldn't be able to defend herself. Dammit, why did she get involved? Why couldn't she see how much he loved Emilia and leave them alone? 

How was he going to tell her any of that? For the first time, Max wished he had been born in a different family. He wished they didn't have that much money so that his mother would have gotten along with his wife. He wished he'd been a simple man and not the son of the billionaire Edgar Carter. His life would have been different for sure. He could love Emilia without fear of losing her because of his family. How much more time did he have before the truth came out? How much more days did he have to be her husband before she told him to disappear from their lives?

"Hey, what do you think?" she asked coming out of the bathroom. Max's thoughts evaporated from his head in an instant, leaving only her. Getting out of bed, he raked his eyes over her, from her head to her feet then back up. She'd asked what he thought. As if he could think about anything when she stood in front of him dressed like that. Was she looking to kill him? "I'll take your silence as a good thing. I can definitely work with speechless"

"Did I miss something?" he put his hands in his pajama bottoms to avoid touching her. He was itching to feel how soft the material was against her skin. But the second he started he knew he wouldn't be able to stop so he needed her to clarify for him exactly what was going on before he touched her.

"This is courtesy of Doug. Isn't he just a sweetheart?"

"Excuse me?" he bit out balling the hands in his pockets into fists.

"Well, Doug thought that he needed to make you happy to get you off his case. Seriously Max, you have stop scaring him. He's harmless and adores Gaby to bits"