Rent A Wife!!!

Chapter 18: Busted!

Chapter 18: Busted!

Recap:
Sean took me out the front door, we saw all the men sitting on chairs in the lawn. Jude looked at me confused but I just waved back at him. Sean took me around the back and showed me the pool and the tennis court. Then he took me to the gym and recreational area. The gym had every fitness equipment imaginable and the recreational area had a fooseball table, a pool table, a few video games and an xbox 3. I stared in awe at my surroundings. Sean shut the doors of the recreational room and locked it. I looked up at him questioningly and Sean looked at me with a serious expression and narrowed his eyes and said, “Ok what’s going on here? And try not to lie to me!”


Natasha’s POV:
I stared at Sean, my heart was beating so loudly I was sure he could hear it. I ran my tongue across my lips and stared at Sean. He was looking at me so sternly, I felt like a student who had been caught cheating during a test. I decided to play dumb.

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean”

“Actually I don’t” I crossed my arms across my chest and tried to act nonchalant.

“Natasha” said Sean putting one hand on his waist and tilting his head, “do I look dumb? Chic, yes but not dumb!”

I stared at him and tried to think of something to say. “Jude is the kind of guy, who when he falls in love and thinks about marrying a girl he’d flaunt it to the world. But today when he has taken this major step to take the plunge he hasn’t even bought a ring for his wife to be? Seriously? I mean seriously! Do I look like an idiot Natasha?” He stopped his rant and took a deep breath while I just shook my head. I don’t know why but I had this gut feeling that I could trust Sean. So I took a deep breath and was about to tell him the truth when someone started knocking on the door frantically. Sean looked at me in surprise and unlocked the door. Jude walked in breathing hard. He looked from Sean to me trying to comprehend what was happening. Sean stared at him raising an eyebrow daintily. 

“Well Sean! Bro if you weren’t gay I would be asking you two some serious questions right now!” Jude laughed at his own joke, cleared his throat nervously. Then he stepped in and locked the door himself. He looked at me and said, “Natasha we can trust Sean. I trust him with my life. We can tell him” I nodded and grabbed a chair to sit.

“You should sit as well Sean and you need to prepare yourself”

I sat there as Jude told Sean about our scheme. I noticed that Jude left out the part where he was paying me weekly to be his pretend wife. Sean’s expression grew from shocked to astonished to surprise to horrified in seconds. By the time Jude finished telling him everything poor Sean looked positively scandalized. He sat there with his head in his hands.

“Dear God! What have you’ll done?!” I chuckled when I remembered how Sean had the same habit as me. Sean glared at me and I fell silent immediately.

“Sean you know how mom and dad insisted on finding a perfect girl for me. You also know I couldn’t settle down with someone I didn’t know” Sean just nodded and turned to me.

“What’s in it for you Natasha?”

I looked at him and before Jude could say anything I said, “He pays me for it!”
Sean looked at me shocked and Jude proceeded to tell him how are deal materialized and the reason behind it. Sean stepped forward and hugged me.

“You are a brave woman! Hey you know you can start an agency ‘Rent A Wife’, you would be helping a lot of young lads out there. Heck I think I might even join you!”

“But Sean you would be a husband!”

“Er no I am the wife honey!”

All three of us started laughing and then Sean said, “Don’t worry Natasha! I’ll be your inside man. I can help avert any potential disasters.” I stepped forward and gave Sean a tight hug he squealed and said, “Careful you’re ruining my new shirt!” The three of us left the gym area and walked towards the house.

“uh oh trouble alert!” said Sean. We looked up to see all the members of the family sitting in the lawn chairs and huddling together, however as soon as they saw us they broke their discussion and had identical huge smiles on their face. They looked at us expectantly and as soon as we came near them they started speaking together.

“Jude what date have you chosen?”

“Natasha have you picked a dress?”

“Have you guys decided where will you go for your honeymoon?”

“Have you chosen a menu?”

“Who will be your best man?”

“Who will be the bridesmaid?”

“Which flowers?”

“What color?”

“The menu?”

“Which wine?”

I looked at them bewildered; Jude looked as lost as me. We looked at Sean who shrugged and yelled, “Everybody quiet!” and just like that all of a sudden there was silence and everyone looked at Sean expectantly. He took a deep breath and said, “Raise your right hand and say you have potential!” That did it for me I tried my best but started laughing so loudly that I was shaking! I fell on the lawn clutching my stomach and Sean fell with me laughing as well. Jude looked at us and finally gave in and started laughing. The others just looked at us as if we had lost our minds for good. I punched Sean who stopped laughing and looked at me ‘What?”

“That was insane!”

“I know right?”

I nodded and gave him a high five.

Jude cleared his throat and now everyone looked at him expectantly. “Guys we haven’t decided anything yet. We thought of taking it slow. We don’t want to rush into anything right now.”

“Jude we are giving you one month. Then after a month we will begin all preparations!” Mr. Smith said and nobody argued with him. Jude nodded his head and looked at me. I shrugged. We had decided to get married so it didn’t really matter when we got married. 

Mr. Smith got up and said, “Natasha I would like to speak to you alone for a moment.”
I looked at Jude in alarm and it didn’t help that he looked alarmed as well. I followed Mr. Smith into the library where he sat down behind a huge mahogany desk.

I sat down and liked my lips nervously. I fidgeted with my ring while Mr. Smith looked at me intently.

“Natasha, tell me something about yourself. Where are you from? What do your parents do?”

“Sir I am from here itself. My father was killed in an accident when I was little.”

“I am really sorry to hear that!”

“Its ok sir, I have come to terms with it now” I said smiling weakly. “I did my graduation while juggling between jobs because my mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.” At this point Mr. Smith’s eyes widened but he kept his face impassive. I continued to tell him about my aspirations of being a surgeon or an interior decorator. He listened to me and finally when I had finished talking he gave me a really warm smile and said, “Natasha you are a remarkable young woman! I really admire you. I am glad my son chose to marry you.” We stood up and he came around and hugged me. “Thank you sir” I whispered. “That’s Dad to you young lady!” I looked at him and gave him a teary smile. “Thank you dad”

There was a knock on the door and Jude walked in. “Natasha are you making my dad cry?” I shook my head and wiped my tears. “Son you have chosen the perfect girl. You couldn’t have chosen anyone better. Hell she’s almost as good as your mother!”

“Thanks dad!”

We all left the library and Jude and I walked to our rooms to freshen up before dinner. Jude locked the door and slumped on the bed. “Natasha they love you!” He looked at me when I didn’t say anything. “Hey what’s wrong?” he asked when he saw I was crying. “Jude what are we going to say to them after a year? I mean I feel like such a cheat!”

“Natasha we will think of something don’t worry!” I nodded and went to wash my face.

Jude’s POV

I watched as Natasha went to wash her face. I started wondering about what we would say when we decided to end our fake marriage. I thought about how happy dad was and how he thought Natasha was perfect and mom’s happy face and I started feeling low too. I started thinking about what I would do when Natasha would leave for good. I mean she had been my companion for these past few days. She had helped me realized how hurt I was over Stephanie’s betrayal and how I went about getting over it was wrong. Ever since she had come into my life there had been someone to go home to. I hadn’t even realized how lonely I had been. My heart started beating really fast as I realized that someday I would have to part ways with Natasha and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why was I feeling so low about it! Natasha came out refreshed and we both went down to eat dinner with my family.

As we walked down the stairs my mother took Natasha aside. I went to see what the matter was. “Oh Jude! I won’t keep Natasha away from you for long! I just had to give her something!”

“What is it mom?” I saw Natasha looking at mom curiously.

“Well” she said smiling widely “I wanted to give her this” she said holding out her palm.
Natasha gasped as she saw what it was and I just stared at my mom. She was holding out a beautiful dragonfly pendant which was studded with diamonds and had rubies as its eyes. It was dainty and beautiful. I also remembered that it belonged to my grandmother who had given it to my mom and mom had said that she was saving it for her daughter in law and right on cue mom started speaking, “This belonged to Jude’s grandmother. She gave it to me when I got engaged and now I am giving this to you. Its yours to keep and pass it on to the next generation.”

For the umpteenth time that day Natasha started crying, “I can’t keep this”

“Oh honey, you have to. Its tradition!” Natasha shook he head while my mother hugged her.

“Take it Nats. Its yours.”

Natasha glared at me as my mom put the pendant in a silver chain and put it around Natasha’s neck. It looked beautiful around her neck.

“Thanks! Its beautiful” said Natasha wiping her eyes.

“You’re welcome Natasha and welcome to the finally. Now lets go everyone is waiting to eat dinner.”

Dinner was a quiet affair after dinner all my cousins surrounded Natasha and started asking questions. I smiled as I glanced at them. Natasha was answering all of them with a lot of patience and all of them had taken a liking to her. She was that sort of a warm person.

As I sat by myself my phone vibrated. I glanced at the display and my heart started thundering. It was a text from Stephanie.

I sat there staring at my cell phone my heart thudding in my chest. What could she possibly want with me right now? Why was she messaging me now after all these days?

I realized my fingers were shaking as I pressed the view button. I looked around to see that everyone was still busy in their own conversation and what I saw on the display made my heart stop, “I still miss you-Steph”

A/N: Sorry for the delay guys! I want to upload frequently but my schedule is crazy! I am working 12 hours shift that barely leaves time for me to do anything else. So what do you think Jude is going to do? Will he reply? Will his feelings for Stephanie resurface again? Let me know what you guys think. Thank you so much for all your lovely messages and comments they make my day! As usual please lend your support. I have noticed there are a lot of silent readers please leave a comment and vote if you truly like it. I would love to see my book in the What’s HOT list ?. As usual lend your support to me. Love you guys! <3  Vote please!! Oh by the way the best comment gets a dedication ;)