Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Surprise visit of Solomon Grantham

　　"What?" Isaac was shocked. "How can she blame you? That accident was terrible. You could have lost your life. You were lucky that the deadly accident didn't kill you. Hah." A bitter smile crept on his lips, and he shook his head in dismay, "How terrible she is, and you are still waiting for her." Isaac gazed at him dubiously.

　　"The accident damaged her uterus. She won't be able to conceive. You know how painful it is for a woman. I can feel her pain. All I need is to find her. I will tell her that I love her so much that I don't care if she can give me a child or not. I simply want her to be by my side."

　　Isaac was stunned to hear the revelation. His heart also ached to see the pain in his eyes. He rubbed his shoulder to comfort him.

　　Nicholas smiled a little and continued, "Well, I am happy for you. Finally, you find the woman you have searched for a long time. I also want to meet her. If it was not for her, I would have lost my best friend that day. I could never forgive myself if you had died when you came to visit me."

　　Isaac smiled and said, "Yeah. I just wish I could gather myself to confess my feelings. You know I was shaking in front of her. She is damn beautiful."

　　Nicholas smiled but that smile didn't reach his eyes. He envied Isaac to see him so happy. When they were in college, Isaac used to remain quiet and sullen all the time. He never dated anyone because of his silent love for this unknown girl. On the contrary, Nicholas was lively and cheerful with his girlfriend Sasha. They were the most beautiful couple in the entire college. They were so happy together. But now, the situation has changed. He was separated from Sasha and was in grief whereas Isaac was delighted as he found his dream girl.

　　Tring. Tring. Tring.

　　Meanwhile, Nicholas received a call from the villa. He frowned slightly and answered the call, "Hello."

　　"Master, Sir is coming for dinner. He sounds angry on the phone." Mariam, the head servant of the villa, said in a state of anxiety. "I made a call to Miss Morris. She is on the way."

　　"What?" Nicholas frowned deeply. Displeasure surfaced on his face. "Is she not there?"

　　"She rarely stays here. Most of the time she stays in her apartment with her mother and brother."

　　Nicholas grimaced and pinched his nose bridge. This woman was becoming a headache for him.

　　"Alright. I am coming."

　　With that, he disconnected the call. He stood up to leave but Isaac's words stopped him, "What happened? Where are you going?"

　　"It's a family matter. I need to go to see grandpa." He glanced at Isaac across his shoulder.

　　"Then let me join you. I also want to see grandpa." Isaac grinned and stood up as well.

　　"Not tonight." Nicholas turned around and patted his shoulder. "I will invite you to dinner next time." He gave a smile to him.

　　Isaac nodded and agreed with him, "Okay. Goodnight."

　　"Good night."

　　After parting with Isaac, he drove directly to the villa.

　　When he reached the villa after almost an hour, he saw his grandfather talking happily with the woman he married a month ago. He froze at the doorstep to see her smile. He didn't know that his so-called wife looked so beautiful. Her smile was alluring. Her eyes twinkled when she smiled.

　　Nicholas had seen countless magnificent models and actresses. Zara was not considered as gorgeous and beautiful as them, but she looked innocent and pure. She was pretty in her own way. He never took a good look at her. This was the first time he was observing her so attentively.

　　Her curved eyebrows were thin. Her thick curved eyelashes were flapping from time to time when she blinked. Her red thin lips were opening and closing continuously, but Nicholas was so engrossed admiring her that he couldn't hear her at all.

　　"You still remember to come back."

　　Solomon Grantham's cold voice snatched him out of his trance. He looked at him and approached him, smiling a little, "Sorry, grandpa, you have to wait for me."

　　He gave him a big hug.

　　Solomon Grantham slapped on his back and scolded, "You brat. why didn't you come to the mansion last night? Why did your PA lie to us?"

　　"Grandpa." Nicholas sat on the sofa beside him and smiled, "I was truly busy last night. Benjamin didn't lie. Suddenly, a client set a meeting in a bar. I went there to meet him. I thought it would be over soon, but the meeting lasted longer than expected, and I got drunk too. Ask your granddaughter-in-law if you don't believe me."

　　Nicholas looked at Zara with a faint smile on his face. Solomon also turned his head and gazed at her inquisitively.

　　Zara's heart thumped loudly when she made eye contact with Nicholas. She immediately pulled back her eyes and looked at Solomon, "Yes. He was drunk last night."

　　Solomon's anger towards Nicholas dissipated a little after hearing this. He was mad since last night thinking that Nicholas lied to him. But it turned out that he was actually busy with a meeting.

　　"Uh. grandpa. We should eat now. I will ask Mariam to serve dinner."

　　Zara's words broke his trance.

　　He nodded and said, "Alight."

　　Mariam served the food soon, and they all started eating quietly. Solomon didn't stay long after dinner. Zara thought Nicholas would also leave, but to her surprise, he went to the bedroom. Her heart was pounding inside her ribcage.

　　What was he doing? Was he planning to spend the night at the villa?

　　Last night's erotic scenes surfaced in her mind, causing her cheeks to burn when this question passed through her mind. She was hesitating whether to go to the room or not. She remained rooted in the dining hall, looking at the bedroom on the first floor.

　　"Madam, I am going home."

　　Zara came to her senses after hearing Mariam.

　　She only nodded in response. She closed the door when Mariam left. After dithering for a while, she finally made her way to the room.

　　She saw Nicholas in his pajamas sitting on the single settee beside the french window reading a book. Taking a deep breath, she walked to the closet, hanging down her head. Nicholas glanced at her slender figure and resumed reading his book, ignoring her completely. Zara quickly took her pajamas out of the closet and went to the bathroom.

　　Her heart was still beating faster. She closed the door of the bathroom and leaned against it, placing her hand on her chest. She was inhaling and exhaling deeply as if she was trying to calm down. After a while, her heartbeat normalized, and she took the shower quickly.

　　Nicholas was still reading the book sitting in the same position when she came out. She wanted to ask him something but she couldn't summon her courage to speak and ended up staring at him stupidly.

　　Nicholas sensed her piercing gaze and asked, without looking back at her, "Are you not done yet staring at me?"

　　Zara's cheeks began to burn again. She was embarrassed. She looked down on her toes, biting her bottom lip.

　　Nicholas closed the book and kept it on the small table beside the settee. "Mariam said you rarely stay here." He slowly raised his head and looked at her. "Have you forgotten the terms and conditions of the contract? According to the terms, you can't stay out of this villa without my permission. Do you forget that?"

　　Zara's toes curled up, and she clasped her pajamas on both sides tightly. She was nervous.

　　"I. My bro-brother is not well. His surgery is scheduled next week." Zara finally summoned her courage to speak. "Please allow me to stay there until he recovers."

　　Nicholas's tense eyebrows eased up a little to hear her. Now only he remembered about her brother's illness. But his words were cruel and cold, "No, you can't. I don't want grandpa to suspect us."

　　Zara was stunned. She looked up at him instantly in disbelief. How could he stop her from staying with her mother and brother?

　　"You can go to meet them, but you can't spend the night there. You have to return here. Am I clear to you?"

　　His tone was not high, but it was authoritative and cold enough, forcing the other party to lose the courage to speak.

　　Zara looked down again, pressing her lips tight. Tears pricked her eyes, but she blinked stubbornly not to shed them.

　　"Anyway, I am going to stay here from tonight to avoid grandpa's suspicions."

　　Zara almost choked on her saliva after hearing him. He eventually decided to stay here in the villa. She clearly remembered him saying on their wedding day that he felt disgusting to see her face.

　　What happened now?

　　If he stayed here, he would encounter her again and again. Wouldn't he feel disgusting? She wondered. She slowly raised her head and gawked at him incredulously.

　　Nicholas sighed in dismay to see her spacing out.

　　"Why are you staring at me now?"

　　Zara came to her senses and shook his head frantically, "No. I mean. Uh." She looked here and there other than his eyes and searched for the proper words to say.

　　Nicholas creased his eyebrows and observed her. 'Is this woman crazy? Why is she behaving so weird?' He sized her up attentively.

　　"The. room. I will go to the guest room." She rushed to the closet soon after dropping those words.

　　Nicholas wanted to stop her, but in the end, he didn't say anything. He stood up and walked out to the study.

　　Zara didn't have many things in the villa, so it didn't take much time for her to shift to the guest room. She locked the room and laid on the bed, placing her hand on her chest. Her eyes fixed on the ceiling. She still could feel her heartbeat in her mouth. She became so anxious and nervous, standing a few minutes in front of him. She wondered how she could stay calm with him under the same roof. This thought only increased her palpitation. She pulled the quilt up and hid under it, trying to get some sleep.