She Said I Do (But She Don't) ✔

Chapter 10

Days went by with Owen or Alice avoiding each other. They'd listen if the other had awakened already before they woke, listen if the other was in the kitchen before deciding to have dinner or even coffee. They would snake around each other's every movements.

And lately, they had both been increased their time at home. Owen had cut down on his working hours which Alice reasoned he was doing to show he can be a husband who truly wanted to be with his wife and that she was his first priority. Alice, on the other hand, hadn't gone out since the day she had ran from Owen to Liam. And she had kept the word she given to Owen to not see Liam anymore even though they hadn't agreed to each other's terms. She had answered Liam's call to check on her the day after the episode at his place and she had confessed she won't be meeting with him anymore. Liam was an intelligent bloke though he didn't need to be to perceive that Owen had to do with her decision. Without giving him the truth for his assumptions, Alice ended the call by telling him it was better off if they started over as Owen's cousin and, even though she denies it, as Owen's wife.

Also as to her word, Alice had gone to the bank the following Monday with Ethan's lawyer. But, surprisingly, was to no avail. The procedure of retrieving Ethan's money was more complicated than she thought. Ethan had laid specific rules to ensure Alice wouldn't be forced in a marriage for her money because, as the financier had recalled from his meeting with her brother, Ethan had an absolute fate in Owen to increase the business with his good brains therefore his wealth to be inherited would have been bigger. The lawyer had amusingly remarked that the procedure of having her marriage inspected by the court before the money was issued wouldn't be much of concern since it was Owen himself she married. She had only nodded to that, refusing to comment. What would the lawyer have said if he was to learn she intended to ask him to file her divorce after getting the money? If only they knew! If only Ethan knew! His sister married his best friend for his own money!

Every day, she chastised herself for coming up with the stupid marry-me-and-get-the-money plan. Now she countered she could have helped Owen with her own money and kept the marriage money for... for what? She didn't want to get married. It was why she settled on giving that money to Owen. Because she knew she wouldn't be needed them.

At times she would question Ethan's reasoning behind that money. He must have had reasons why. Alice could only come up with one option: Ethan was encouraging her to marry, to remind her that he wanted her to marry. She could remember vividly the time when she was at a diner meeting with Ethan and his girl at the time. Ethan had observed a guy stealing interested glances at Alice and cocked his head to encourage her in introducing to the handsome fellow at the table further to theirs. But that wasn't what she really remembered. Ethan's words the next day still echoed in her ears.

"You can't let our parent's marriage, their mistakes, influence on your life to the point of literary fearing from looking at a man."

The frail Alice she had been at the time chocked on her tears when she spoke back. "I don't want to be hurt like mum."

"It's impossible to have the same life your mother did. Look at me. Do I live like my father? No, because I'm me, because I have my own life. So do you, Alice. Don't be afraid."

Alice had pondered on those words for the days that followed. When she had seen the same man at the same diner a week after, she tried to keep in mind Ethan's words when the polished gentleman strode to her table. Don't be afraid. She had kept her warning bells at bay from the moment the striking gent shook her hand and introduced as Steven. They had indulged in a conversation that reached personal, private and professional and led to a well-mannered Steven in asking her to meet again the following day. So she did. She met him again and again and again. Steven was the first man she had ever touched and who she let him touch her since her assault. He made her every negative memory she had looming in her mind diminished. Then, Steven declared he was moving to France to take over the business his retiring father owned and her heart was broken like when her father left them and when her mother died.