The Love Affair(Good Wife Better Mistress)

Pills

The pill solidifies and Conrad picks it up with a pair of tweezers. Nicole opens her palm and looks at the tiny white tablet. Suddenly, she has an idea.

"Is there a kind of medicine that can prevent me from getting pregnant?" she asks.

Conrad frowns tightly. He pretends to be busy arranging the tweezers and tubes on the table to disguise his discomfort.

"You want to avoid getting pregnant at all?" he asks.

Nicole nods.

"There's no such medicine," he says severely.

He's lying. He could easily make some for her if he wanted to.

"Why do you ask?" he wonders.

Nicole takes a glass of water from Conrad. She pops the tablet into her mouth and takes a long sip.

"I don't want to get pregnant with his child," she says, 'I don't even want him to touch me, but I don't know if I can prevent that."

Conrad presses his lips together to remain silent. He wishes he could help her but he's up against Alex Romano, a man who has enough power to influence the entire city and even the country. Conrad doesn't have the kind of power to fight someone like that.

"So you plan to scare him away instead? You want to make it so he can't bear to touch you?"

Nicole can't deny that she's been intentionally pissing him off in an attempt to persuade him to divorce her. But it hasn't worked the way she planned.

The conversation seems to be getting too heavy, so she jokes, "It's hard since I'm so beautiful. I think only a cranky doctor like you could resist my charm."

She winks at him with her beautiful blue eyes and Conrad feels his heart tremble. How can he resist her?

Nicole changes the subject back the pills, "They work up to 3days , right?"

Conrad, still drowning in her smile, clears his throat and nods.

"I want some more, just in case."

One by one, he carefully puts the tablets into a glass container and hands it to her without question. He knows what she's up against. Alex is not a normal guy. If Alex has decided he wants to have her, Conrad worries that she might not be able to refuse him.

"Thanks," she puts the glass in her pocket"

She turns to leave the room, but a strong hand grabs her wrist. Conrad looks at her intensely, then releases his grip, gently stroking her palm and fingers with his. Something icy and hard slips onto her middle finger.

"Will you marry me?" he asks lightly.

"My answer doesn't matter," she jokes, "Bigamy is illegal."

Conrad smiles, but he doesn't say a word. Instead, he fiddles with the ring he's put on her finger. The green diamond at the center of the ring opens, revealing a thin needle embedded in the stone.

"It's made of a material which can detect poison in food," he says, "It's specially designed to detect the new toxin in your body."

"It's far too valuable. I can't take it." Nicole protests.

She starts to take it off her finger. She knows a lot about precious gems because collecting them is one of Mrs. Romano's passions. When her family prepared her to compete for Alex, lessons on precious stones were considered a compulsory part of her education.

She can tell that the green diamond is incredibly rare: it's extremely difficult to manufacture and it costs at least three million dollars a carat. Judging by its size, it's multiple carats. She doesn't realize that the needle is far more valuable than the rare gem that conceals it.

Conrad pushes it back down her finger.

"It's not as valuable as your life," he says.

She's never seen him so insistent about anything. Reluctantly, she lets him put the ring back onto her finger. It fits perfectly.

"Let's go," he guides her out of his office and toward the parking lot.

"Has chanel  been coming around lately?" she asks.

"If she doesn't have to go to the office," Conrad answers, "But she's busy lately and she's always asking me when you will come."

"Doesn't she know it's almost impossible for me to go out?"

Nicole can't help but frown thinking about the difficulty of visiting her friends.

"She knows. But we all want to see you more often."

"I'll probably see you every day once the divorce is finalized," she says, "Won't you get bored of me?"

"No, it would be a pleasure."

Conrad looks at her with intense almost slavish devotion and she laughs.

"What's so funny?" Conrad worries.

He's never heard her laugh like this before ever since her marriage to Alex.

"She probably has no idea how beautiful she is when she laughs," he thinks.

Nicole shakes her head, "I'm thinking about Chanel's wild haircolor," she says, "The last time I saw her she'd just changed her hair. It was hilarious."

"What if I got the same haircolor?" Conrad jokes.

"Don't. You look better this way."

Conrad nods with satisfaction and smiles to himself.

They walk to the parking lot.

Nicole walks towards the stairs, moving lightly so her heels don't create any noise against the floor.

"Who knew it would be this hard divorcing Alex?" she asks.

She stares at conrad's calm face.

"Rest assured, I promise to take good care of you."conrad says

Conrad escorts Nicole to the entrance of the hospital. After a simple goodbye, Nicole gets into her car, floors the gas pedal, and disappears into the night.