The Billionaire's Fragile Bride

31. REPLACEMENT

Chapter dedication goes to Mahi_jais and JosefinaCervantes363.

A huge flame of mortification whacked Callan in the face when Orla ignored him, but he quickly veiled the spurting hurt before it became visible in his countenance.

He contemplated walking away and staying back to give the cat to her but he couldn't go back. He was already in front of her and he got the cat for her, it didn't matter if she wanted to see him or not. He had to give her what he got for her.

Orla was oblivious to the cat that was behind Callan. Though her eyes were on him, her vision was fuzzy from unshed tears and she could barely see that he came with a cat.

With her fingers, she brushed the flowers off her hair and dress and rose to her feet. She looked at Callan again and this time, she glimpsed the cat. 

A small smile popped up on Callan's face when he noticed Orla's eyes were on the cat behind him, he walked closer and towered above her.

"Orla?" He dubbed tranquilly.

"What do you want from me?" She responded harshly, obviously not interested in the cat. She was a cat freak and would have jumped on Callan when she saw that cat, but she had exhausted all her energy brooding over Betty, and she was still mad at Callan.

"Huh?" Callan's eyebrows crumpled in bewilderment. "I have been looking for you. Have you been here all day?" He asked again in that calm voice that Orla already loathed because it did a lot of unexplainable things to her.

She clasped her hands together, snickering at him. Callan didn't care about her, what was with the question? "Why do you care where I have been all day?" She retorted, resentment fused in her tone.

She suddenly hated having him around her. She wanted to run away from him, and all that had to do with him, but no matter how hard it was for her to admit it, Callan's house was the only place she had in the world, he was the only one she could still call her own in the whole world. He was still her husband.

"Orla…" He moved close but hesitated. After meticulous thought, he moved again and took her in, in a swift glance before closing the distance between them. "I got you a new cat, maybe you can replace Betty. You've been sulking and I think getting you another cat will make you happy."

Orla laughed softly. She shook her head and stared unbelievably at her husband. "Make me happy? Why should you care about making me happy when all you've ever done is be the reason for my sadness?" She shifted away from him and said. "Is this Callan? Is this you? What's your plan this time? What do you want from me?"

"Orla, I got you a cat to replace your dead cat," Callan said, looking down at the cat. "She looks so much like Betty, you can make do with her for now." He stretched out the cat to her, but she didn't take it from him. "Here, take it." He nudged her with his head.

Orla tried to process if Callan was the one standing in front of her with a cat in his hands. To her, the cat didn't look like Betty, she was in no way close to Betty. She was darker, smaller and didn't have the cool aura Betty possessed, the one that attracted her to Betty the very first time her mother brought her into the house years ago.

"I don't need your cat, Callan." She blurted out.

"You know nothing about me and Betty, you don't even know the kind of relationship that we had. I don't know why you are pretending to care about me when you don't."

"Orla,"

"I hate it when you call my name!" 

Callan was disturbed. He stayed still and they stared into each other's eyes, reading their emotions with their hearts.