My Arranged Marriage Husband Was A Beast In Disguise Chapter 03

My Arranged Marriage Husband Was A Beast In Disguise Chapter 03

Looking down on Arthur didn’t stop me from making use of him.

My nanny — the one who’d raised me — still lived with us. I wasn’t about to train someone new. So Arthur got stuck doing everything else.

He never complained. He mopped every floor of the mansion, wiped down over a hundred windows by hand, and kept the grounds looking like they belonged in a magazine.

Sometimes I wondered where he got all that energy. Then again, after what I’d walked in on last night, I had a pretty good idea where all that energy was going.

The man had no outlet. Figures.

I’d just finished watching a show downstairs when a crash echoed from the master bedroom.

I bolted upstairs. Arthur stood frozen beside a pile of shattered glass, looking like he’d just signed his own death warrant.

It took me a second to register what I was looking at. That was my limited-edition vase — the one I’d picked up in Suncoast City.

Just like that. Gone.

I checked him for cuts first. Then my face went cold.

“What the hell did you do!” I snapped.

My voice made him flinch.

“I… I didn’t mean to, darlin’,” he stammered.

That kicked-puppy look on his face made something twist in my chest.

But I caught myself. I was never going to stay with him anyway.

Wasn’t this the perfect chance to make him hate me?

I forced my face into a furious glare and stormed toward him.

Arthur beat me to it. He stepped straight over the glass and closed the distance before I could.

I slammed right into his chest.

“Darlin’, don’t come over here,” he said. “You’ll cut yourself.”

The man was built like a wall. My whole side ached.

It took me a beat to remember I was supposed to be furious. I smacked his arm. It felt like slapping concrete.

“Do you know how careless that was?” I yelled. “That vase was one of a kind!”

Arthur blinked.

The corner of my mouth almost twitched. Good. That was the reaction I wanted.

Any second now, he’d decide I was impossible. Cruel. Not worth the trouble.

Instead, Arthur sucked in a sharp breath.

His eyes went unfocused. “Darlin’…” His voice dropped. “You smell so good.”

My brain stalled. Again.

I shoved him back. “Time-out. Corner. For the rest of the afternoon. Now.”

“Can we just do a little while?” he said, giving me those big, sad eyes. “It’s almost dinnertime. I still gotta cook.”

“…Fine.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

Shortly after, I was on the couch watching TV. Arthur stood in the corner, facing the wall, like a six-year-old in time-out.

That was when it happened. Bright, floating lines of text scrolled across my vision out of nowhere.

[Girl, keep pushing your luck. You have NO idea what that nice-guy male lead is packing.]

[Go ahead. Bully him. The real female lead is about to swoop in and steal your man.]

[The second our MC grows a spine, this evil side character is going to pay for every last thing she did to him!]

[Oh, it gets worse. The villainess’s entire family goes bankrupt.]

My brain blue-screened. I read the words three times.

Was I the villainess?

Arthur was the male lead? Then who the hell was the female lead?

I thought about it for half a second, then shrugged. Didn’t matter. Our marriage was a contract, not a love story.

He could end up with whoever he wanted.

Arthur heard the TV go quiet and glanced back over his shoulder.

“Darlin’,” he said, still facing the wall, “I just realized we’re outta groceries.”

“…Then go get some.”

“Okay!” He was already halfway to the door.

The comments flashed again.

[Can someone PLEASE take away his ability to speak?]

[It’s like opening a Tiffany box and finding gas-station beef jerky inside.]

[I dunno, he kinda sounds like my dad sleep-talking.]

[Supermodel with the volume off. Turn on the sound and he’s hollering from the porch to come get supper.]

[One second he’s untouchable. The next he’s asking what county your tractor’s registered in.]

[Baby, you’re gorgeous, you’re radiant, you’re… an MRE cracker.]