BETROTHED TO THE BILLIONAIRE

Valerie’s POV

It thunders continuously and I scramble out of bed with agitation. This is the third time I am getting out of bed because of the scary rambling of the thunder.

Right now, I am done with the idea of sleeping alone in this goddamn cold room.

When I was home, whenever it rains and there is thunder, I always run to my parent’s room. Whenever I feel uncomfortable running over to them, I take solace in Fred.

That fucking idiot.

Now I hate him so much for thinking I will overlook what he did with Brenda simply because she was the one who seduced him.

How could he allow her to do that to him on two different occasions and he expects me to take him back?

If I hadn’t gotten married to a man like Ryan, would he have called me so we could meet?

Even though my heart still beats for him, I want to get rid of all the memories I had with him and I know the best way to do that is to have good times with someone else so it will be easier to erase the ones I had with Fred.

It will be quite difficult but I am willing to do that. I will try to move on from him. He is not worth it.

I rush out of my bedroom to call the maids to help me. I can’t sleep in this room alone. I should probably go to Ryan’s room.

We don’t need to share a room. I will ask them to take my bed into the room and I will sleep on it before he is back from work.

I heard he comes back late from work and I don’t plan to wait up for him. I am usually an early sleeper.

Fred is the only reason for me to keep late nights.

I stand by the reins of the staircase after instructing the butler who called two others to help him get the bed out of my room and into the Master’s bedroom.

At first, I was surprised they aren’t bothered about waiting for what the boss will think of that decision but I guess they aren’t scared that he would be against it because I am his wife and I’m sure they have no idea we are not in love.

The mansion is magnificent. The artistic paintings downstairs are beautiful too. I got lost in them the moment I entered the building.

The high chandeliers glow with beautiful colors. The staircase is grand as well but I couldn’t do a tour around the whole place, except for my room which was already tidy, and Ryan’s room which I visited out of curiosity.

He is surprisingly fastidious with his belongings. Everything seems to be in an orderly form in his room and I refrained from touching anything so he won’t know that I was in his room.

I don’t realize how long I have been standing on the staircase and how long I have been lost in a world of my own until the butler arrives with a huge smile on his face and his arms clasped behind me.

“Madam, the room is ready”, he murmurs, the smile diminishing slowly as he bows in respect.

The other two men who helped him also bowed giving me an anticipated look. They want to know what else they need to do before retiring for the night.

I already had dinner.

I had pizza for dinner and I’m good to go.

“That will be all, Mr…”, I pause, raising a brow at him.

“It’s Dominion, madam. This is Connor and the young man here is Eric.” He points to the first man beside him and then the second young guy.

“Thank you, Dominion, Connor, and Eric. That will be all.”

They all nod and walk past me. Hugging my body to myself, I walk to the bedroom hoping that I will find sleep with the hope that I won’t be alone in the room.

If I toss in bed for several minutes, then I will have no choice but to wait up for Ryan. The presence will put me to sleep.

Signing heavily and wondering when I will eventually get rid of this fear, I find my way to the room.

It is the Master Bedroom and it is way bigger than the one I was given. The walk-in closet is huge and beautiful. I love the color; white.

Most of his furniture has this color and I wonder if white is his favorite color.

His beddings too are white and the bathroom wall is painted. Two of the sofas in the bedroom are white while the last one is brown.

My bed has been placed a few distances away from his and there is still a lot of space left in the room.

Without wandering further, I get into bed with another heavy sigh and drag the comforter to my chin, hoping for a dreamless sweet night’s sleep.

I am making a great effort to ignore the desire to think about my failed love life and Brenda.

I close my eyes, waiting for sleep to come, the sound of the thunder gone. I can barely hear the sound of the rain pattering too and I wonder if this room is soundproof.

Just then, I hear the door turning open and I squeeze my eyes shut tight so I won’t have to argue with him tonight.

Pretending to be asleep will be the best. He can’t possibly throw me out when I am already fast asleep, can he?

Surprisingly, I hear no sound from him, just the sound of his feet approaching after he closes the door. I am tempted to open my eyes a little out of curiosity to peep but I remember what he did last night when I pretended to be asleep.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

His face was inches away from mine and he was trying to see if I was truly asleep or not. Maybe this is what he is doing now too.

I force my body to go still as though I am fast asleep, yet I hear nothing from him. There is no more sound and I can’t feel his breath anywhere around.

Suddenly, he flops to the bed and I hear a sound that comes out like a sob mixed with a growl.

Ryan? Is this truly Ryan? Is there an intruder? Ryan would never cry.

What I am expecting of him is for him to start screaming his lungs off right from the moment he opens the door to see me inside his room when it was obvious that we won’t be sharing a room considering what happened between us last night and the fact that we are not real.

This marriage is just for our parent’s sake. It is legal but not real between us.

With curiosity eating up at me, I find myself opening my eyes slowly until I see someone’s back. It looks just like Ryan’s. This was the same suit he wore before leaving the penthouse this morning.

His head is bent and his hands are over his head.

I furrow my brows, wondering what happened. Did something happen at work? Did something happen to him on his way home? Was he attacked?

I gasp at that and almost jump up to touch him and see if he is hurt anywhere.

Like the speed of lighting, I find myself sitting upright and doing just what I was thinking. “Ryan, are you ok?”

My hand grabs his shoulder as I try to turn his face to me so I can see his face and be assured that he isn’t hurt anywhere but he shoots upright to his feet, startled.

Standing straight in front of me, he doesn’t look hurt but his intense eyes bore into me with sadness.

Before I can say anything else, he shouts. “What the hell is happening here? What are you doing here?”

This is when I remember that I am in his room and I realize he didn’t see me when he first came in.

That explains why the shout I expected from him right from when he entered never came.