Married to my suspect

The door opened before I could input the code, and I stepped back as Eleni's face came forward. I could see the disappointment in her face when she saw it was me rather than Danielle, but I didn't take offense. I simply walked inside, removed my shoes at the door, and went into my study. Actually, I'd mostly performed on autopilot since that night we'd gone to have dinner with my mom. It had been two days since then, but it felt like so long ago. I'd tried to get a feel of what Danielle was feeling and why she would just drop that bombshell like that, but she'd remained tight-lipped. Through the night, the delay at the airport because of the bad weather, which had resulted in us having to go back to the hotel, the flight back and even the drive home, she'd said nothing. If I wasn't so focused on her presence, it would have been easy to forget that she was there.

I knew this was a farce to begin with, an arrangement to give both our parents joy and give us peace of mind in return, but we still had over five months to go according to the contract. I maintain that Danielle had been tight-lipped, but she had spoken to mention the fact that she was ready to pay any penalty for breaking the contract, even though the term hadn't been expressly stated. I'd ignored her and when she had seen that I hadn't been ready to reply, she'd gone silent as well. That was about fifty hours ago.

Whatever I had thought I was feeling and ignored in the past as just a normal reaction to being in a closed space with someone of the opposite sex with our kind of arrangement was indeed not just a flimsy feeling. I'd thought my heart, mind, or whatever was involved, had been closed off and would be impossible to open, but Danielle had unintentionally forced it wide open. Ever since she'd dropped her bombshell and withdrawn, I'd had to physically stop myself from begging her to stay or trying to renegotiate our arrangement. This was exactly what I had always tried to avoid, but now, there was nothing I could do about it.

I could hear the women's squeals from my office, so I shut the door. There was no point in torturing me with what I couldn't have, Danielle looking happy after seeing me. At least, I couldn't remember one time that my presence had brought on the amount of squeal like that of Eleni's. Even when we had been in the UK, she had spent almost all her time worrying about Eleni. Or had something happened while I was away that she hadn't told me?

I sighed. If not that I'd presented myself for so long as an indifferent person, I would have stalked downstairs to ask what was going on. God only knew how long the indifference was going to last, and I only hoped it last as long as I didn't do anything stupid, like begging her to stay.

I clenched my fist and let out a humorless laugh. How was our work balance going to work after this?

DANIELLE'S POV

The moment I stepped into the house, I hugged Eleni tightly as she threw herself at me. Before we knew it, we were both jumping around with our arms still around each other in glee.

I released her and studied her face, noting she looked none the worse for wear. "How have you been?" I asked her and she took my hands.

"I really missed you. I didn't realize how afraid I would be by yourself, but I could not call you back. I was so afraid that he will take me away." She said, and I arched my brows in surprise. She was beginning to sound like a native.

"How long were you studying? I can already hear the difference." I noted, and her eyes widened.

"Really?" She squealed and despite my languidness, I squealed with her. There was no point bothering her with my problems. Besides, what would I tell her? And this was between Jonathan and me, there was no way I could betray his trust like that.

"The whole day. My teacher is even telling me to stop. I was just bored throughout." She said, leading us to a couch. I dropped my purse on the table and sat down beside her, taking my mind off everything that had gone wrong in my life. We'd promised Eleni safety yet left her alone in the house. Coupled with the fact that Jonathan had advised that she stay off the internet so she wouldn't expose her location, a secret, I could imagine how bored she would have been. We had barely been able to connect her to her English tutor with an iPad that hid everything, including our IP Address.

"So how was your trip?" She studied my face and the excitement oozed out of her expression. "Did something happen?"

I shook my head and forced a smile that hopefully looked genuine. "I'm good. The trip was fine. I'm just tired."

She frowned. "Really? Are you sure you did not fight with your husband? Did he hit you?" Her voice had reduced to a horrified whisper, and I quickly took her hands.

"No. Jonathan would never raise his hands against me. We saw his family, and they are a large family so we're both really tired. That's just the problem. Were you able to go out while we were gone?" I asked to distract her from the conclusion she was drawing about us, and thankfully, it worked.

She nodded. "Yes. The house was swallowing me, so I had to go out. Greg and Barty followed me everywhere so it wasn't as bad as I thought." She sighed. "I miss Greek. And my job. And my family. Will I go back there again?" She finished, and I closed my eyes tight to stop the tears that had welled in my eyes at her confession from dropping.

I simply hugged her without a word. What assurance could I give when even I knew that would be impossible as long as her husband was still alive. I was suddenly hit by a wave of worry. What was I going to do when I got the divorce I asked for. I couldn't imagine breaking her heart like that so soon.

While it might seem like I was overestimating my importance to Eleni and her healing, I knew I wasn't. I worried about her like my child because she gave me enough reason to. I'd also read that victims of abuse stuck to whoever seemed safe to them. And while Jonathan wasn't that bad an option, it was obvious her abuse still made her cautious of men. A category Jonathan still belonged to, last I checked.

Eleni sniffed. "Thank you so much."

I sniffed as well, and we remained in silence for a while, just the sound of our breath, keeping ourselves occupied with our thoughts. Mine, what next I was going to do, if I should just spill everything to Jonathan and get his help and what thoughts kept Eleni occupied, I wondered.