Last Thirty Days with You

The sound of the alarm clock beeping at 6 in the morning, woke me up like usual. I get up, take a 20 minute run on the treadmill, take a bath after that, change into my suit and prepare for the full day ahead at work. I would then hear a knock on my bedroom door, it's my wife, announcing that breakfast is now ready.

My wife gets up at 5 in the morning to prepare our breakfast and have it ready before I leave home for work at exactly 7:30. Every single day, during weekdays, this has been my routine, our routine – my wife and I.

Our marriage is not a normal one, we were not bound by love when we decided to enter this marriage. My wife was bound to it by duty, while I, on the other hand, unbeknownst to anyone, save my grandfather and father, is driven and bound by revenge to this sham marriage.

Ten years ago, in my grandfather's deathbed, he shared to me and my father, a family secret that fired my need for revenge against the family of my now betrothed wife. I came from a wealthy family, we inherited acres of land and other properties, and so my grandfather decided to enter and make real estate his business. My grandfather wedded the only daughter of a banker, my grandmother, who died shortly after giving birth to their only son, my father. When my grandmother's father died, my grandfather inherited all of the family's estate so, in turn, my father will inherit the same after his death.

My grandfather did not decide to remarry and instead focused his time and life in raising my father and growing his real estate business. Under my grandfather's leadership, our real estate business flourished. Soon, after graduating from business school, my father was introduced and groomed to inherit the family business. My father married my mother, who comes from an affluent family of lawyers. For years, all has been well, until one day, something happened in the past that almost led us to bankruptcy, this happened when I was still in primary school.

My grandfather entered a business deal with a friend but he was backstabbed into agreeing into a bad deal which costed him to lose 60% of ownership in the company or empire that he made and nurtured, even my mother's family could not help him salvage what we had lost. My grandfather suffered from a heart attack shortly after that, and so my father was forced to take over the family business and was tasked to take away what was rightfully ours from the people who stole almost everything from us. And, my wife comes from that family – the family that betrayed mine.

My father sold the remaining 25% shares that we have from my grandfather's company, and with my mother's family's help, my father invested this money into real estate geared towards building affordable homes for families and commercial spaces for businesses to rent or own. My father worked hard and ventured into farming, we now own several agricultural properties and lands where we grow and yield fruits and vegetables. In fact, we are the number one supplier of fruits by most of the biggest supermarkets in the country. Unfortunately, my father was diagnosed with lupus when I was in high school, he died soon after I entered college, so as early as 17, I was groomed to succeed the family business with the help of my mother.

How, you ask did we end up marrying each other when I am so hell-bent to take revenge against her? Simple, when her family's business was on the brink of bankruptcy two years ago, my company, the new company that my grandfather tried to save and the company that my father built, bought 40% of shares from my wife's family's business. They are also in the real estate business, they own holiday resorts and hotels. Not only that, her father promised her hand in marriage to me, I agreed. This decision surprised my mother the most but made her very happy, as she thought that I have no interest in marriage at all, and she's right, but I could not pass the opportunity of making a member of the family who is the root cause of my family's suffering to also suffer in my own hands.

My mother does not know that the real reason why I agreed to the marriage was to exact my revenge against my wife and above all, her family. Unlike me, she is not the sole heiress of her family's business, she has a younger brother who is still in college. We have been married for two whole years now but we almost never talk. She's just a trophy wife, after all, nothing more, and nothing less.

She was a junior in high school and college, we did know each other already, but we were never friends, we're just acquaintances. We would sometimes bump into each other during those times because we were on the same circles and may have talked a little before, but after finding out about how her family betrayed mine, I have been driven by revenge and have come to hate her family and her, even if, we both have nothing to do about what happened, even if she is innocent, I still hate her because of what her family did to mine. Controlling and trapping her into this loveless marriage is my punishment not just to her but to her family.

We live in the penthouse suite in one of her family's famous hotels. It's a three bedroom unit equipped with its own indoor pool. The other half of the rooftop is the pool area open to all the guests. Our little penthouse is my wife's own prison. Ever since we got married, I asked her to leave her job as the PR director of her family's hotels and asked her to focus solely on catering to my wants and needs. In this prison, in our marriage, she exists only for me. We seldom talk, unless it is absolutely necessary or it involves our business, we also don't eat at the same time.

In the morning, after preparing the breakfast, she retreats back to her own room, I eat lunch at work or wherever I am during the day on weekdays, and at night, when I arrive at around 7 or 8, or even at a much later time than that, my driver would notify her that we are on the way, so she would heat the food for dinner she prepared. After eating dinner, I would then go into my room, and she would clean up after me.

On weekends, I let her spend her Saturdays by going home to their family's ancestral home in the outskirts of the city, I already accompanied her there on a few rare occasions before, but now, I just make myself busy with work at home. On Sundays, we try to avoid each other by locking ourselves in our rooms. Sometimes, when I am not busy or pressed with work, we visit my mother who is now retired and living at one of our family's mansions located in the countryside. That mansion belonged to my grandfather's family and it was the same house where I was raised and grew up. That was also where my grandfather and father died.

My wife is just my obedient but irrelevant homemaker, and I intend to keep it that way for as long as I want. The only time that we might seem or appear as if we are a couple is when we have to attend gatherings or parties for our business. Other than that, we are nothing but strangers to each other, hardly a family, hardly connected by anything other than our duty and hate for each other.

To be fair, I did try to court and woe her a bit before our marriage, but that was just for show. I think she might have fallen for me a little bit because she whispered 'I love you' to my ears the night I proposed to her when we were on holiday on one of her family's famous resort overseas. But, the moment that our marriage was official, I told my wife that I did not love her, and absolutely have no plans of loving or falling for her whatsoever. I made it perfectly clear to this naïve girl that our marriage was only on paper, nothing more and nothing less. Additionally, as my wife, she is to do everything I want and follow my every order.

Another thing that I can't fulfill in this marriage, is the role of a husband. Early on, we agreed that we will never share the same bed. She is not to see any man other than me but I can sleep with any woman I want. I told my wife that the only reason why I married her was to exact revenge on her family, she is to pay that price. She's nothing but a pawn and a tool, a mere bird trapped in a cage. My plan is to take over their company and steal it from right under their noses.

Our families, it seems, have no idea about the kind of arrangement that we have. I definitely thought that my wife would tell on me to her family, I could have bet my life on it but she didn't. Her family, it would seem, has no idea about what happened between our families in the past, even my wife tried to deny it when I told her the story. She denied that her beloved grandfather was capable of backstabbing my grandfather. The audacity made my blood boil, was she implying that my grandfather was lying to us on his deathbed no less? I don't suppose she blabs about our marriage to her friends either. Not that I care anyway. I really don't care much about my wife, for as long as she stays as my perfect little wife, then I'm happy.

After breakfast, I would get the lunchbox that my wife has prepared for me, then I would leave the house quietly without saying goodbye.

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