On our way to the airport, we went to the mall to buy some gifts for my in-laws, and Michael just followed me around as I bought a lot of things for them. Since Michael was with me, we were flying in his private jet, I’m sure he is looking forward to going home as much as I was.

Finally I'm back. As soon as I got home, I went to my studio on the 2nd floor. I opened my studio and said “I miss this place, my little haven.”

“Honey! Remember we are visiting mom and grandma later. They have been asking for us since last month, when we were getting back”, I heard Michael say from downstairs.

“Yeh, I’ll just rest for a bit” before I got to close the door, Percy went, so I closed it after he was inside.

My studio is a place in the house where my husband isn’t allowed to come in. I put my paintings, novels that I have read and wrote over the years, as well as a few floor plans, house designs that I have been working on since we got married and also a bed to rest on, if I want some peace and quit alone. Michael also has a private room like mine, and obviously, I don’t know what’s inside. It's just fair, since he gave me this space for myself.

I lay there tired after the flight. Percy later on got up the bed and lay beside me. I then looked at Percy who had grown quite large in the past 5 months, and hugged him as I fell asleep.

I saw my grandma. She really does look like a mom. I was lying on her lap as she caressed my hair. She used to always do this to help me fall asleep while telling me a story about a king who fell in love. I always fell asleep before she gets to the end of the story, especially after the accident that took my parents’. I was suffering from insomnia for some time. This time it was different. Instead of making me fall asleep, I think she talking about something over and over again.

“Yena, Find them” I heard her say.

When I looked up at her, she had a troubled expression and she kept repeating “find them. Find. Find them. Find them. Find them. Yena. Yena. Yena.”

I then woke up to a knock, “Yena? Yena? Yena? Wake up honey.”

I got up and opened the door. I saw Michael and said “I’m awake, what is it?”

“We are meeting mom and grandma, go freshen up, we’ll be leaving in an hour.” He said and left.

I went to my room, took a bath, put on light make-up and went with a blue off long-sleeved top with a long white skirt, small blue bag and white heels. Put on some jewelry and went to meet Michael in the living room.

“Honey, you look great. Ready?” Michael gave a compliment with a very seductive smile.

I nodded, smiled and said “You look very handsome as well, honey.”

We then went to his car, got in and left for their family mansion. It took us 30 minutes to get there, parked the car in front of the house and gave the butler the key. As soon as we got in, we saw his mother and grandma. They had a smile on their faces.

Mom went to give us a hug. “Finally, both of you had time to visit. How was the trip?”

Grandma, who was sitting on the sofa, then chimed in “sit, tell me all about it, did both of you bring ma a grandchild this time?”

Mom looked at grandma and said “Mom, stop it. They are still young, you don’t need to rush things.”

Grandma replied “They might be young, but I’m not getting any younger darling.”

Mom smiled at us. I felt awkward in this situation.

I then heard mika say “Grandma, don’t worry, we are already trying for one. It might not be that long” he looked at me and smiled and put his arms around my waist.

“Oh Dear, thank Ghod” grandma sounded excited.

We haven’t really talked about children since 5 months ago, but I didn’t want to ruin grandma’s good mood, so I just smiled and nodded. I looked at mika, he somehow looked surprised.

He whispered “I’ll take it that you agree.”

I didn’t decline nor agree

We went to the dining table to have dinner.

About 20 minutes passed, both Mr. Kerr and Mr. Kerr Senior came in talking about something probably connected to business. Both Michael’s father and grandfather loved their wives very much, but were complete workaholics. I was told it was the main reason his father was closer to his grandfather than his mom, who was grandpa’s only daughter.

Of course, his mom was glad, grandpa was fond of her now husband when she first introduced him to them.

We all greeted them, Mr. Kerr went to kiss mom before sitting down beside her, as well as Mr. Kerr senior, who went to sit beside grandma, gave her a kiss and held her hand as he sat down.

Nothing much really happened throughout the dinner. We talked about how our life has been and them expecting grandchildren, talked about future projects and always being in good health.

I grew up coming here often, since my mom and my mother-in-law were best friends, which was the cause of the whole marriage arrangement, so everyone in the family treated me like their own, and when I turned 22, Michael brought me to the family home after picking me up from the airport, I thought it was weird then, since I just got back home from graduating abroad but since I got along with his family more than my legal guardians, I didn’t think much of it. After a few months, we started dating, after his parents and grandparents tried to set me up with him a lot of times, so I ended up agreeing to be his girlfriend. A couple of months after that, we got married. We had a private wedding. I couldn’t invite my friends from Zetiana to come to my wedding, because of how rushed it was.

After dinner, grandma and mom took me to the garden, since dad and grandpa called Michael to their office.

Grandma looked sad and asked “my dear, I heard from Michelle, you asked Killian for a divorce?”

I looked at mom, and she said “sorry yena, I blurted it out a while back” looking guilty.

“Don’t worry grandma, we already talked through it months ago after he went after me. It was just a minor issue”, I replied and gave her a smile.

“Thank goodness, don’t worry dear, if he does anything bad again, I’ll scold him for you as well as grandpa”. She made a grumpy face.

Me and mom couldn’t help but laugh and granny laughed along with us. I couldn’t help but find that I have a very cute family.

Meanwhile on Michael’s side:

As Michael went into the office, he was asked to sit down. The three men sat down on three different sofas.

Kevin started. “Did she find out?”

Michael shakes his head and answered “Not all, dad. Only the part where I bought her off, not everything.”

“Good” he said

John then ordered Michael “Killian, Get rid of that girl Regina. she is a threat. Her parents told her too much, and now she has the nerve to threaten us.”

“Yes grandpa, I have already planned to dispose of her before she plants more ideas in Yena’s head”, Michael agreed.

John looked satisfied.

Kevin followed with “Remember Killian, don’t let her go to Zetiana.”

Michael looked conflicted.

John said while getting a glass of whiskey “what’s wrong?”

“Last time we fought, she threatened me with divorce and said when we do, she’ll go back to Zetiana and never come back”, Michael answered.

“Your problem is easy. My child don’t divorce her, and agree to everything she wants,” advised Kevin

“And tie her down with my grandchild, we didn’t go into a lot of trouble with just love, and fortune, give me a grandchild.” John chimed in before taking a sip at his glass of whiskey.

“Understood grandpa”, Michael answered.

They continued to talk about business and plans moving forward.

Later, Michael went out of the office and went down to find the three beautiful women, sitting in the living room.

Back to Zariah:

When we were done strolling in the garden, we went back into the living room, then mom suddenly said “Yena? Isn’t your birthday coming?”

“Mom, it’s still 2 months away” I answered.

“Oh… that means your 3-year anniversary is also in 3 months.” Grandma then added

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“Yes grandma” I answered.

We got married a month after my birthday. My birthday is on November 23. We had a winter wedding on December 28th.

Mom said excitedly “I love this! another event! I love how my son is so smart about dates. You were born in November, your wedding was in December and his birthday is in January. three months long event. I love it. Let’s start planning for it dear” She started clapping.

My mother-in-law is known for setting up the most extravagant and breathtaking events, since grandma’s family is known for hotels, event planning and boarding schools for the elites, I wouldn’t doubt her abilities anyway. Grandma personally trained her since she was young.

“Sure mom, surprise me”. I smiled at her. I know setting up events makes her happy.

I suddenly felt arms around my body, I flinched, and heard a whisper in my ear “Baby, it's just me”.

He put his chin on my head and said “Hi mom, Hi grandma” and smiled

I looked above me and saw him looking at me.

“Did your meeting go well? You look to be in a bright mood?” Mom asked.

“It was fine, I’m just happy to see my wife”. He replied, I smiled.

Mom smiled brightly at us.

“Mom, We’ll be going now. I think I should let my wife rest for the night.” Michael said and suddenly carried me out of the house.

“Let me down Mika! I can walk well enough” I said, embarrassed.

“Dear, why don’t you just sleep here for the night and go tomorrow” Grandma proposed.

Michael whispered “how about that? Would that be alright?” I just nodded, and he turned around and went upstairs to go to his old room. On our way there in the corridor he stopped and put me down. And we went inside his room. I sat down on the bed, Michael went directly to his closet, got his pajamas and went to the bathroom. While waiting for him, I went to the shelves and looked through my favorite book and went to the sofa in front of the TV. After about 10 mins, Michael went out of the bathroom. His hair was still very wet.

I sighed and said “Your hair is still wet, dry it properly.”

He looked at me and smiled “I like it when you blow dry it, like you used to.”

I stood up and said “Come sit with me, I’ll go to get the blow dryer.”

He went to where I was sitting, and I went to get the blow-dryer in the drawers, plugged it near the sofa and sat back down.

I turned it on and asked “Is it too hot?” he shook his head and I started to blow dry his hair after about 10 minutes in silence.

I said “I think it’s good now.”

And he replied “thanks”

I went to the bathroom, I then heard the door close from outside the bathroom. I took a bath, then did my night skincare routine and I realized I had forgotten my pajamas, luckily he wasn’t back yet, so I opened my closet, took my pajamas and went back to the bathroom. I got out and went back to my spot and continued reading my book. As I was reading, I was reminded that no one was with Percy at home, so I stood up and went for the door, I opened the door to catch Michael, who looked like he was going to knock.

I asked curiously “What are you doing?”

“I was going to knock, obviously, since you caught me in this position. We probably have those telepathic powers that married people have, don’t we, since you opened the door before I could knock”, he said with a smirk.

“I still don’t get why you were going to knock. This is your room, and we have been here together a lot of times. You have never knocked” I said suspiciously.

He went silent, then I remembered “Percy, he is all alone at home, He might get hungry. We should go back.”

“I already sent a maid to our house, she is probably with him right now”. He replied

I sighed in relief.

“Yena? Would you go on a picnic date with me?” he asked charmingly.

“Isn’t it already late? The garden is probably dark by now” I said, confused.

“Just say yes please” he replied half pleading.

I nodded, and he took my hand and went to the stairs. I then realized he was taking me to the greenhouse.

I used to hide in the greenhouse before we got married. It was my hiding spot when we were little and also where I used to paint a lot when I got older. It was at the far end of the 4th floor and had its own stairs. Grandma and grandpa don’t come here anymore, since they made a garden downstairs. It is all glass on each side, as well as the roof. It had all kinds of flowers; roses, Irises, violets, daisies and a lot more. Grandma likes to garden. She studied landscape architecture before she got married. I heard gardeners just come here to water the plants now and maintain this place.

“I miss this place” I said to myself.

“I thought as much, so I brought you up here” he said, hugging me from behind.

He sat down on a foam he had probably prepared on the ground since it had a fruit bowl, pie and sandwiches.

He held out his hand for me to take and said “come here, sit with me”. He then pulled me, and I was sitting between his legs as he wrapped his arms around my waist and put his chin on my head.

I heard him say “Do you like it?”

“Yes, I have always found this place beautiful. How could I not like it?” I replied.

He clicked on the remote and the roof opened up. We sat in silence for a while, then came to a more comfortable position and I started to lean on him. After a while, we were in the green house looking at the sky lying down in each other’s arms while looking into each other’s eyes, then on the sky ones again. I wish I could freeze this moment forever, It feels so precious and beautiful.

“Yena?” he said, and I looked at him.

“Yeah?” I looked back at the sky and I replied dismissively.

“Can I ask you to do something for me?” He asked.

“Depends on what it is, so tell me what it is first, before I agree” I looked back at him before replying.

“Next time you get into trouble, can you tell me first even if I’m not physically there, I will try to help you. I don’t want what happened last time to happen again”, he said, and looked at me sincerely.

I nodded and said “Yeah, but you do remember why that happened in the first place, and why I left? What you said also hurt me, you know, especially questioning me about my loyalty and my love for you. If you knew me well enough, you’d know I would never cross that line with anyone. If you weren’t my husband I would have left you for what you said”, I looked sideways, not wanting to meet his eyes.

“Yes, I do, and I also apologize for insulting you at that time. I’ll do anything to earn your forgiveness. I really am sorry” he said. I looked back at him. He looked really guilty and hurt it clinched my heart.

“Mika, if we are completely going to work on us, I need honesty in this relationship. If you had just told me my family tried to sell me to you, before you bought me, I could have found a way around it instead of you buying me like I am some object. I never thought you of all people would degrade me into this small of a person. If I didn’t love you, I would really have left you. With or without my passport I would have gone anywhere, you won’t find me.” I told him how I felt.

“I’m sorry, I just didn’t know how to approach you after having zero communication for 6 years. I even wondered if you had remembered me. You ghosted all of us after your guardians became your uncle. The next thing we knew, I think a few months after being with your uncle’s family you decided to go to Zetiana and never came back” He said, looking disappointed and displeased.

“Don’t you think I was grieving and being with my uncle wasn’t exactly like heaven, since I had the capacity to leave them in exchange for a lot of money, I didn’t think twice. All my friends were in Zetiana, I didn’t have anyone here. What did you expect?” I said, exasperated.

“What about me? Wasn’t I your friend? Was my family not enough?” he replied dejected.

“You didn’t count. I had always seen you as a future husband my family had arranged for me. You couldn’t completely be my friend, knowing the kind of future that was fixed for both of us. I’m sorry” I could not tell him that, he wasn’t really in my mind when I left, since I didn’t have feelings for him, then. Also, that I didn’t have any intention of both coming back and marrying him.

He looked like he had been hit by a bolder, the pain in his eyes was unimaginably hurting me. I couldn’t imagine how much pain he is feeling right now. So I said, with a smile, as big as I can muster, “I’m here now, aren’t I? And I love you, so don’t worry, okay?”

He gave me a smile, nodded and hugged me. I felt his arms tightening around me. I let him, since I felt very guilty for leaving without telling him years ago.

“Please don’t divorce me.” I heard him say, it was more like a whisper, but I can hear it clearly.

I know that I can’t promise him that, since I feel like there’s always something he is keeping from me. I don’t like having a dishonest relationship, but what I hate most is when someone hides something from me.

Originally, since I couldn’t go back to Zetiana, I decided to go with what my mother wished, to marry him, but found him to be quite a likable person and fell in love with him shortly after dating him. He had good looks and a very attractive body, so as a human being, physically speaking, he wasn’t someone who lacked in any way, as well as his stamina.

I tried to push him, he let me and I looked at him in the eye and touched his face with my right hand. “Mika?”

He tried to look away, so I said “Mika, Look at me.” He looked back at me.

“You have to understand, I asked for a divorce because you did something wrong, I do realize it was wrong to ask for a divorce for just one bad thing, but if you were in my shoes what would you have done?” I said as calm and consoling as I can.

He didn’t answer, so I hugged him. “Mika, come down, we can’t fight while we are on a date.”

He silently hugged me back and picked up some fruit to feed it to me and said “I promise I will do everything so you will never ask for a divorce ever again.”

I opened my mouth and ate the watermelon. I turned my back to him, and he hugged me while I was sitting in the space between his legs. We sat like that for a while, it was very comfortable, the silence was a bit nice honestly. But I found myself thinking back to when we were kids.

“You know? Whenever I come here, I always recall our memories in this garden”, I said, feeling nostalgic about when we used to sit here while playing house when we were kids that one time.

“Which one?” He asked.

“Do you remember when we played house that one time?” I turned my head to look at him.

“We did that twice, don’t you remember the second time we played house?” He asked. This time he was smirking.

I was confused and thought for a little while and could not recall, so I asked “The second time, which time was that?”

He had a big smile on his face and said, “You really don’t remember?” he questioned before continuing “Don’t you remember a year ago we played house. He pointed his finger at a glass wall. “We did it at that exact spot” I blushed and slapped his shoulder.

“What? It was playing house, wasn’t it? To be exact, we did it here twice, didn’t we?” he said innocently.

“You’re such an ass! That’s not what I mean! I meant when we were kids!” I shouted, embarrassed.

“Shhh, not too loud, you’ll wake grandma and grandpa. I want to play house the third time” he said as he took my face to kiss me.

I kissed him back then covered his mouth before he could continue. “Did you bring me here for that?” I asked.

“Well, not necessarily. I know you love this place, so I also want you to come here to lighten your mood.” He replied now, making a move to go to my neck and kiss it.

He swiftly turned me around, now I was facing him with each of my legs on his waist. He started kissing my neck, so I said, “What if mom and dad catch us?”

“We weren’t caught the last time we did it here, and they are already asleep. Don’t worry” he replied, and went back to kissing my neck and going lower. This time he had his hands on the buttons of my pajamas.

“Ughh… you know third times a charm.” I said, sounding a bit more alluring.

He stopped unbuttoning my clothes and started to take off my pants. “I can do it fast, how about that? And we can continue downstairs.” I didn’t answer him as he continued to take my pants off.

He then looked at me and asked “Yena? Can I be rough with you?” and I nodded.

Next day

I woke up in bed and found that he wasn’t beside me. I thought maybe he had gone to work. Where does he get all that energy to stand up? I mean we did it a lot of times in the greenhouse and in our room yesterday. That was probably the longest we have ever done. Just how? Whatever, I’m still exhausted and numb from yesterday, I’ll go back to sleep.

When I woke up, there was already breakfast beside me. I looked at my phone and found it was already 10 am, I found a note on the tray.

“Yena, I cooked breakfast for you, please enjoy it, I’m just going out for a bit. Dad asked me to get some stuff. I’ll be back by 10 or 11.”

I ate the breakfast he left for me. After finishing it, I went to the bathroom to take a bath, do a morning skincare routine and put on some clothes. When I got out of the room, I found grandma and mom in the living room talking excitedly while holding some kind of folder. As I am used to it, I’ll assume that it is either for mine or Mika’s birthday or our wedding anniversary. As I grew closer, I found it was a function hall by one of mom’s hotels.

Mom saw me and signaled me to go near them. “What do you think, yena?”

“Those are beautiful mom, but for whose birthday is that?” I asked curiously.

“It’s a secret. We are still in 10 different locations to decide”. She replied and gave me a smile, then added “By the way, I haven’t seen Killian since early this morning, does he have a meeting?”

I replied unsure, “I’m not really sure mom, he just left me a note that he needed to go somewhere, and that dad had asked him to. He’ll probably be back in a few minutes”. After I had just finished saying that, we heard the gates open and about 5 – 10 minutes later Mika went in with grandpa.

He looked at me smiling, “Oh you're already awake.”

I felt insulted. “What do you mean? It’s already almost 11. In what world would you think I’d still be asleep?”

He got closer to me and said in a very low voice that probably only the two of us could hear. “With how much we did yesterday, I thought you’d be out all morning. Next time, I’ll try harder so you can’t even wake up all morning, to the point. You can’t even walk when you wake up” And gave me a wink.

He then turned to grandma and mom, smiled at them brightly. “Mom, grandma, let's go for lunch.”

The two beautiful ladies then got up and went to the dining room to ask the cooks to prepare lunch for everyone.

We had our lunch at 11:00 and when I looked at the food near me, I observed most of it was meat soups and vegetables. I wanted some fried chicken and a burger today, but oh well, tomorrow then.

Then I saw what was on Michael’s plate. To say it was mouth watering is an understatement. He had fried chicken, porkchop, potates, gravy, sandwiches and a poached egg. Not just that, but on the side of his plate was a small plate filled with different kinds of seafood. What the hell? I don’t know if he noticed me looking at his plate, but he looked at me with a smile. And mouthed something to me. Confused, I ate dejected. After lunch, we told them we were going home and said goodbyes.

In the car, Michael started. “You know they were trying to get you pregnant, right?”

“By food?!” I asked, confused.

“In a way, it is believed having a healthier diet makes it easier” he explained while driving.

I looked out of the window and said “But we aren’t ready yet.”

He looked at me and went silent. And it was silent the whole ride home. That night I had a really nice dream. I was at the camp, my friends and I used to go. We were just playing like we used to. I didn’t want to wake up from that dream, so when I did, I felt sad and depressed that day and didn’t go out of the room for 4 days. Percy didn’t leave my side and my worried husband probably felt like he didn’t want to be a problem and just stayed in the room with me for most of the 2 days.

After that, nothing eventful happened for the next 3 weeks until I got a text one morning from an old friend.