Pretended to Need Quiet, Loved Another’s Chaos Chapter 03

Pretended to Need Quiet, Loved Another’s Chaos Chapter 03

Faye really did have beautiful eyes. They shone when she smiled and turned red when she cried.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Dawson. I didn’t know you and Mr. Pierce were…”

She picked up the glass of whiskey.

“I’ll drink it. Consider it my apology.”

Her face crumpled as she raised the glass to her lips, but I stopped her and nodded toward Adrian.

“Mr. Pierce has already taken more than a dozen drinks in your place.”

Her tears fell even faster.

Adrian frowned, hurried over, and spoke to her gently.

“I told you not to drink. Put it down. It’ll make your cramps worse.”

No one in the room said a word. They looked at him, then at me, and finally at Faye, who was now sobbing.

I didn’t even understand why she was crying.

If anyone had earned that right, it was me.

Just as Adrian reached for her shoulder, Faye wiped her face and ran out. He glanced at me before following her.

The dinner ended soon afterward in an awkward silence.

I went to settle the bill and overheard two Pierce Cosmetics employees whispering nearby.

“Are Mr. Pierce and Ms. Dawson really married? Then why does he keep making things difficult for her agency? He’s shot down draft after draft.”

“I heard it was a marriage of convenience between their families. Those are never about love. It’s pretty obvious he’s into Faye.”

As I drove home, I kept thinking about the four years Adrian and I had dated.

He had pursued me and spent the next four years loving and protecting me.

After graduation, we broke up because our families disapproved, but a year later, he came back and proposed, determined to marry me no matter what either family said.

How could anyone call that an arranged marriage?

Adrian came home shortly after eleven. His footsteps thudded across the bare floor as he crossed the living room.

“You shouldn’t have said that tonight. Now everyone’s speculating about Faye and me. It’s hurting the company, and she’s been crying all night.”

“Tomorrow, you need to clear things up. Tell everyone you misspoke.”

I’d stayed awake because I wanted to talk to him about the divorce. Instead, he walked through the door blaming me.

I looked up at him.

“Is being married to me really that embarrassing?”

“I’m talking about the statement you need to make.”

“And what exactly am I supposed to say? That we aren’t married, or that it’s only a marriage of convenience?”

He frowned, visibly losing patience.

“I’m trying to discuss something serious.”

“So am I, Adrian.”

I held his gaze, then asked, “Do you even love me?”

He frowned, and for one brief second, his eyes shifted away.

“You need to calm down.”

“I am calm. I’m just trying to understand. You can’t even stand the sound of me breathing, but no matter what Faye does, you sleep perfectly well. Have you ever actually thought of me as your wife?”

I fought to keep my voice steady, but Adrian’s eyes snapped back to mine. When he answered, every word carried a resentment I couldn’t understand.

“You have insomnia too, don’t you?”

“You slept just fine in Liam Grant’s bed, but the moment you came back to me, suddenly you couldn’t sleep.”

“You never loved me, Ivy. What gives you the right to expect me to treat you like my wife?”