Foreign concern

"Do you want to eat dinner out?" he asked her on the way.

"No, I will eat at home," she replied although she wanted to add 'alone' at the end of the sentence but she held back. She wondered why he wanted to eat outside with her but it was so weird that she could not agree.

When she got home, she disappeared into her room unable to understand why he was trying to get close to him.

If this had happened in her past life, she would have found it very beautiful, she would have blushed and searched her closet for an outfit to look gorgeous beside the man she loved but this was different and the brightness of her youthfulness was gone.

She sat down at the table with a pen and a book with the intention of writing any other opportunity she could use to get away from the marriage but time passed and she was unable to come up with anything.

A knock came from the door. She closed the book with the page still empty and stood up. She had a feeling it was husband and the thought that he came to persuade her to out to dinner with him but when she opened the door with the intention to be reluctant a little to agree later, she opened the door to see Ye Qiao.

When she met the woman's gaze, the woman bowed. She smiled tightly before nodding.

"What would you like for dinner?" the woman asked.

She parted her lips to respond but she thought of her husband and said, "Ask Mr. Lu, I will have what ever he does."

"Mr. Lu went out, he said he won't be back for dinner," Ye Qiao replied. "So, what would you like to eat?"

She felt her heart race. "Nothing, I will make dinner myself," she replied calmly and stepped back into the room and closed the door of the room behind her. She felt the excitement the knock brought her disappear into the thin air as she turned and walked back to the desk.

This was how it was in the past, so much waiting, countless times and yet she got nothing from it. This time, she was even a little bit hopeful as he had acted nice to her by casually inviting her to eat dinner with him when he had not done that in more than half a year at this point.

She looked at the book she closed with more determination to escape this marriage. The villa was well secured that she could not imagine escaping with those trained guards watching her. The villa has never been this secured and he employed them to watch her.

The thought of him employing more than a dozen guards to prevent her from leaving should be enough to tell her how much the man cared to keep her in the marriage but he was unwilling to know the little almost insignificant things he would have done to keep her obedient by his side.

Her stomach grumbled. She glanced outside at the window, it had become dark and she had been too absorbed in her thoughts to notice. With a tired look, she stood up from the chair with the thought that her husband might not return home for the night as usual.

She opened the refrigerator when she got to the kitchen, it was hers but it looked different. It was neat and well organized but this was clearly not done by her. The women her husband employed must have taken from what she had filled the refrigerator with days ago and replaced them with fresh supplies.

It was her refrigerator but it felt different and almost unfamiliar. She looked at the groceries arranged in it and chose a menu that made her smile as she remembered the taste. She brought all the needed items to the table and began preparing her meal.

She was excused from preparing meal when she travelled and when her husband employed those women but the thought of preparing something for herself made her smile as though it had been a while, she had done something she enjoyed doing.

She hummed as she began washing the vegetables and slicing them. When she began preparing the soup, she leaned closer and took a deep breath, the spice stung her nose but the aroma that filled her nose, filled her heart with so much warmth, it lifted the corners of her lips.

She smiled and lifted a spoon close her lips to taste. The steam indicated the temperature and she moved away from the pot to blow on it. She loved cooking and immersed in what she was doing, she forgot that her husband was not at home and might not come home for a while.

"You look so happy," a familiar voice came from entrance to the kitchen, behind her.

The voice was so familiar but she had not expected anyone to be around causing the spoon she held to fall making a loud noise that further startled her as she had been trying to reach for it to prevent it from falling.

She winced as she rushed to the sink and turned on the cold water on her hand.

Seeing the furrow of her brow, Lu Tian rushed forward to her, he took her hand and held it under the tap when she tried to pull it away.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

She lifted her head to be sure about the worry she heard in his voice, it was too foreign to her ears to be real but when she met his gaze, she looked away hastily from that warmth she had dreamt to see in his eyes when he looks at her because it was too good to be true.

When she did answer him, he lifted her hand gently before repeating, "Are you okay?"

His touch and his voice were so soft and gentle that she could swear she was in one of her many day dreams. His touch was warm as he brought her hand to the running water again. It was so warm in comparison with the cold water flowing against her skin, so warm, it was almost scalding than the pain she felt from the hot liquid that spill on her hand.

She wanted so badly to pull away from this fake moment so she won't be too immersed in it but her body froze as he lifted her hand again but this time higher to his lips as he bowed slightly and blew against the red spot on her hand.

She tried to remind herself that this was far from her reality but the more she stared as him attentively trying to ease the pain she felt, the more she wanted it to last longer as her heart raced pounding against her chest, threatening to bust out of her chest.

"You are so silly," he whispered with a slight sigh before blowing again.

Those words were a perfect knock on the door of her mind awakening her from her day dream and useless feelings.