SILENT WAR OF WORDS

LEADING THE WAY inside the shelter, Zoe walked with Hans following behind her.

Oh, how much she wished to walk side by side with her husband while fingers interlaced together. That might be the best feeling for her.

Although impossible, it's not wrong to dream.

Clearing her thoughts, she entered the glass door of the shelter where they met employees doing their own tasks.

"Good morning, Miss Zoe!"

They soon greeted as they saw Zoe walked inside. Their eyes immediately fell on the handsome man behind her.

Zoe greeted back with a smile and introduced Hans, "Good morning everyone. This is Mr. Donovan."

"Good day, Mr. Donovan!"

"Good morning." Hans bowed a little.

"Miss Zoe, he is your husband, right?" Julie, one of the volunteered nurse asked with eyes beaming.

"Ah, yes." Zoe nodded shyly.

She haven't told the charity yet about her wedding personally but she's not also surprised why they knew about it.

For sure, news about it have been spread across the country.

They congratulated Zoe for her wedding which she also thanked them happily. After being satisfied of their greetings, they released Zoe and Hans. The two of them continued to made their way to the art room.

This time, Hans walked beside Zoe and she stiffened for a second. Bringing back her composure, she smiled, her happiness reaching her eyes.

Watching her husband at her peripheral vision, she saw him walking with his chin up. There's so much elegance and confidence on how he carry himself.

Zoe thought she couldn't fall for him any deeper, but oh boy, she's wrong.

She fell, deeper and harder.

Acting like everything is normal, Zoe kept on her tracks. Since Hans was already here, Zoe decided to give him a tour inside the shelter. It was much better to have something to talk to than to just stay awkwardly silent on their way.

"That hall is the dining area," Zoe motioned her hand on the spacious area on their right side.

Although nervous, she needed to do the talking!

Hans turned his sight to the place where Zoe pointed. The walls in the dining area were painted with a scene of pastoral land where many types of animals were also there. There was a large rectangular table on the middle with around twenty chairs on each side. The ambience is just right for children.

"This room is where we accept our visitors," Zoe opened one room.

Hans looked inside and nodded. It was very cool and fresh inside with simple gray furniture contrasting the clean white painted walls and floor.

"We also have there our guestrooms whenever some relatives of our patients wanted to stay for a night," she pointed a hallway opposite to the visitor's area.

"Upstairs is the rooms of the kids and also our infirmary," Zoe leaded Hans further, "and this hallway leads to different recreational rooms for our kids. The art room is right there on the end."

Hans looked around as Zoe showed her the rooms. He can say that Angels' Haven is a very child-friendly place.

The walls are painted with murals that looks like were made by the children, the floor where in different colored tiles and the furniture around were designed for children's use. The colors complimented each other which appeared pleasant to the eyes.

The place gives off a lively feeling to whoever walks around the shelter, Hans wouldn't deny it.

"Here we are, the art room," Zoe announced as they reached the door at the end of the colorful hallway.

Slowly opening the door, Zoe leaded Hans inside the spacious and bright room.

Walls painted in light blue and baby pink mat covered the floor. Shelves with different art materials are organized in the room. Various children artworks were displayed, paintings hanged on the wall, clay arts sitting on a steel rack and many more crafts were shown off.

The children were scattered around the room as they were so focused on doing their activity that they didn't notice the two entered.

Dacre Galvez, the one who teaches the children about art was the first one to see Zoe and Hans.

"Kids, continue your activity. I will just greet your Mami, okay?" Sir Galvez announced to the children with a gentle smile on his face.

"Yes, Sir!"

The kids answered in unison and they also greeted Zoe and Hans, "Mami! Mr. Hans!"

These kids are truly the sweetest.

"Zoe, it's nice to see you here again," Dacre stopped in front of her, took her hand and gently kissed the back of it.

Hans cleared his throat beside Zoe which made Dacre released her hand.

'How could he do that in front of me, the husband?'

Standing straight, the art teacher faced Hans, "I supposed you are Mr. Donovan? Zoe's husband?"

There was a pause of silence, before Hans answered while staring straight back at Dacre, "Yes."

'So take your hands off of her.'

Though he didn't voice out the last sentence.

"Hello, Sir Galvez, this is Hans Donovan, my husband, and Hans, this is Sir Dacre Galvez. He is one of the volunteers who teaches the kids," Zoe introduced both of them.

The two greeted each other with a firm handshake. Hans gray eyes held seriousness as he stared right into Dacre's malicious blue ones. No one wanted to break from their competitive gazes, because if they do, they'll feel that they lost to something.

Zoe felt the tension between the two so she decided to interrupt, "Gentlemen, why don't we sit over there?"

Dacre was the first one to withdrew his hand and looked at Zoe. He smiled sweetly, "Right, Zoe. You must be tired. Let's go and have a little chat while the kids are doing their activity."

He then offered his hand to Zoe.

Hans raised his one eyebrow in disbelief.

'This guy is really something. Rude.'

Hans reached for Zoe's hand before she could even decide to accept that filthy hand.

"Yes, let's go," Hans pulled Zoe close to him and wrapped his arm around her waist.

Walking towards the vacant table, they walked past Dacre and Hans saw how the corner of the guy's lips curved into a mocking smirk.

Zoe, whose mind still processing what happened was lost for words. She couldn't react at the sudden show of Hans possessive actions so she let herself be dragged by Hans lead.

Is Hans starting to like her? She wanted to jump in happiness at that thought.

'No, he doesn't. It's just a show, Zoe!' Her rational mind pointed out.

Oh, right. But she's still happy.

"Sit." Hans ordered as he pulled out a chair for her.

Zoe found herself sitting down. Hans can always make her oblige with his one word commands. It maybe because of the authority and power in his voice that makes her submit to him.

Hans also sat beside Zoe and after a few seconds, Dacre took his seat opposite to her.

Dacre was wearing a casual long sleeves blue polo shirt with three buttons opened and a paired jeans. The art teacher was also a good-looking man. He has a tan skin and well-built body. His face have gentle features and Zoe thought that he is also a good guy.

Dacre volunteered ten months ago to help teaching the kids in Angels' Haven about arts whenever he have time. Since then, he and Zoe became friends and they would always sit together to have long conversations, mostly Dacre was the one with many stories.

"So, how are you, Zoe? It was a long time since our last meeting."

"I'm good, Sir. I didn't know you were already back from Japan."

"The exhibit was already done and I also missed Texas. After all, this is home," Dacre remembered something, "Ah! I have something for you."

Dacre opened his sling bag beside him and took out a small long box and gave it to Zoe, "Open it."

Hans saw how Dacre intentionally brushed his fingers against Zoe's hand. He growled inwardly as he clenched his jaws to control himself.

Zoe opened the box and she smiled after seeing what's inside of it, "Thank you, Sir Galvez."

"I hope you like it. You said you wanted to travel at Japan so I brought some chopsticks souvenir for you. These are of high quality and are made from a special wood only seen in Japan."

"I liked it so much, Sir. Thank you!"

"Mr. Donovan, I am sorry, I only bought a pair for Zoe. If you like, I will call my assistant to order chopsticks for you," Dacre apologized but there's a hint of mockery in his tone.

"Don't bother. I can go there right now and buy on my own," Hans rebutted nonchalantly.

Zoe was once again stuck between the two intense staring contest. They don't seem to like each other in their first meeting.

War clouds are looming.

"Sir Galvez, here's what you've asked," Hillary, a kitchen staff set down a cup of ice cream sundae and three glasses of avocado shake on the table.

"Thanks, Hillary."

Zoe also thanked Hillary. Good thing she came because Zoe doesn't know what to do with Hans' and Dacre's silent war.

It wasn't silent! Zoe could absolutely feel it in their words.

"Zoe, I know it's your favorite," Dacre pushed the sundae and the glass of shake to Zoe. He also gave Hans the other glass, "I didn't know what you like so I only got you a shake, Mr. Donovan."

"This would do," Hans answered, "Although, I would advise that you should limit your sugar intake. There's so much sweets in that sundae and it's bad for your health."

Upon hearing Hans' words, Zoe's hand with a spoonful of sundae froze midair. She turned to look at her husband but he is not looking at her, rather his sharp eyes were on Dacre.

'He said those words for me, right?'

"Oh, come on, Mr. Donovan. Zoe has a healthy lifestyle and it's just for today. Don't stop her good appetite."

Zoe grimaced at the word 'healthy lifestyle'. She would eat anything she likes, healthy or not as long as it gives her satisfaction.

Hans didn't argue anymore but took a sip of his shake. He listened as Zoe and this cocky guy talked about his adventure in Japan. Zoe was very attentive to his story while eating small portions of her sundae.

'How dare she be interested in something when she's with me?'

Hans is pissed. He could almost break the glass on his hand because of the tightness of his grip. But he kept his composure and acted calm and unperturbed.

"The last time we spoke, you said that you're not in a relationship. I was shocked when I heard the news about your wedding."

"About that, uhmmm... we..." Zoe doesn't know how to say that their marriage is an arranged one.

"We kept our relationship in secret," Hans answered for her.

What? What?!

Dacre raised an eyebrow, "But the news told that your parents arranged your wedding."

'This guy, he already knew but he still asked. What does he wanted to imply?'

"Yes, they did all the preparation and it surprised us. Our parents know about our relationship and they already wanted us to settle down together to have a family of our own. The two of us haven't talked about having a wedding since we wanted to focus first on our careers so they took the initiative to arrange our wedding."

What the hell is going on?!

Zoe just watched Hans as he explained to Dacre with her mouth slightly opened in shock.

All he said was a lie! A secret relationship and their parents knew about it? They didn't have that!

"Oh, is that so?" Dacre sipped on his shake, not convinced of Hans words.

Hans nodded and smiled triumphantly.

Zoe blinked many times to make sure she is not seeing things. This is the first time she saw Hans smiled, and it made him so freaking drop dead gorgeous! Her heart beat so fast and she was short of breath seeing the majestic view of his smiling side profile.

She might be exaggerating things but Hans is making her crazy by just his simple smile.

Hans took a sip of his drink and as soon as he placed the glass on the table, his smile faded and it was replaced by a dark and threatening look.

"So, you should better know your place when I'm with my woman, Sir Galvez. Stop touching her if you still want to have your hands attached to your body."