Married Without Love

Chapter 25

**Above is the picture of my take on Michael Russo. He is portrayed by Michele Morrone**

Hailey POV

I was in a designer clothes shop, looking for a gown for the reception party. We had chosen a theme colour of gold and white, and by we I mean our grandmother's. They were the ones who were overly excited about this party, but I didn't dread it either like I did before.

After hours of looking through different dresses and trying on and modelling many others for my grandmothers- only for them to reject every single one- we were left with three of the best ones which we preferred the most. I for my part had already set my mind onto which dress I would be purchasing. When my eyes had landed on the second of the three dresses, I knew I had to have it. It was drop dead gorgeous, elegant and detailed and it was just so me. I loved it for all it was worth and I am not generally someone who swoons over dresses and clothes. My grandmothers however weren't so sure on which one of the three dresses to pick for the party.

"Oh dear, you look beautiful in all these dresses," Nathan's grandma, Sophia said. "It's so difficult to choose the right one."

"It's true that all these three look beautiful," grandma chimed in. "But we need a dress that will make Nathan's jaw drop when he sees her in it."

Forget about making Nathan's jaw drop, but that did make my heart drop. Nothing I wear would make a difference to Nathan. He would never look at me in that sense. Sure our relationship was improving, we were getting better with each other. When we saw each other around the house we no longer ignored each other. We exchanged a couple of words about the weather sometimes or maybe some political opinion or shared a little bit of business insights but we were not what our grandparents presumed us to be. They thought we were deeply in love with one another, the romantic sorts who couldn't stand to be apart. Little did they know that until awhile ago, we were the bane of each others existence. It would hurt them so badly to learn the truth.

"Speaking of Nathan," Sophia went on. "I've sent him Hailey's pictures in those three dresses. Let's see which one he prefers the best."

"What?" I exclaimed loudly in surprise, causing both grandmothers to look at me puzzled by my reaction.

"I mean...you should not have disturbed him at work," I said quickly. "I told you that I liked the second one, we should just get that. Nathan's busy anyway and shouldn't be troubled with such trivial matters."

"Nonsense!" Sophia said, almost laughing. "A husband should never be busy when his wife commands his attention. Wife comes first and everything else next. Never let your husband put anything before you, or he'll start taking you for granted. You are indispensable and he should know it."

Who was going to tell her that I am the most dispensable thing to my husband? He could never put me first or I could never command his attention. We're not the couple they think we are. We are not in love.

"Sophia speaks truly baby," my grandma says. "We know that you like the second one but we're just getting another opinion. After all everything is supposed to be perfect."

All I could do was nod. Well at least they were happy even if I was not. But hey, I wasn't upset either. I just wish this whole reception thing was happening under different circumstances, where even if my husband didn't love me, at least I was still his woman and didn't have to share him with someone else. And I couldn't even say sharing because in sharing you get near equal parts, and I didn't even get that. All I got was bits of moments with the one that was supposed to be mine only.

"Oh look, I got a message from Nathan!" Sophia squeaked like a teenage girl who got noticed by her crush for the first time, much to my amusement. "What? What's that?" She said confused at her screen.