The Winter Bride (TSBS-2) COMPLETED

Chapter Thirteen

The truth exposes some people so deeply, their last defense is to front a carefree insanity.
-Criss Jami, Healology

Neil Harris

Through the window of the diner, I could see my white Aston Martin sitting outside, looking out of place between a Van and a Volvo.

Just like me inside the packed diner, among the average working people but I had been stared at too many times since childhood that being out of place didn't faze me anymore.

Pedestal life was what I was born into and it was what I craved for. Brewing trouble in the city gave me a thrill. The elite society expected me to be a boring uptight man, talking about business everywhere I went but it was the opposite, I always did. Giving the tabloids something to make a mountain of, was entertaining for me.

These past few years, I had been under the radar and actually tried to be the man that I was expected to be but it was time.

My eyes moved from the car to the sight before me. Looking down and hiding her face in the massive hoody, she was trying to be anything but out of place.

Yes. It was time for Neil Harris to cause more trouble in the quiet city and it starts with this wife of mine.

I leaned back on the seat of the booth and swiped my hand in the air. "Drop the hoody."

Her green eyes shot up at me, with alarm. "But they'll recognise me."

With scrutiny, my eyes roamed around the room to find few wide eyes staring back at us but most turned away, minding their own business to care about two wealthy individual sitting inside the cramped diner.

"I'm pretty sure they already do. Now, drop it or I will."

My warning was met with resolute silence. Now, she really wanted me to burst out in public. I wasn't a patient man. I hadn't forgotten her sharp words in the car about my family. It was only the hunger for food that had stopped me from leaving her in the middle of the street.

Slowly, I straightened up from my seat and looked down at her indecisive eyes. "Fine. Then I won't be sitting with a mugger."

"Mugger?" She choked out.

"Yeah." I nodded, suppressing the grin that threatened my straight face. "That's what you look like in here."

With her face hidden, she could pass off as a normal civilian. Nothing sort of a mugger but at least, the word would frighten her enough to drop the damn hoody.

It wasn't in my nature to go out for breakfasts at eight in the morning. Hell, I could barely wake myself up at ten in the morning everyday to grace the office with my presence but the couch in my office wasn't the ideal place to sleep last night.

Not having my comfortable bed under me woke me up at seven. The whole office had been eerily quiet and I realised, eight was the usual time for the employees to reach the workplace. Guess I wouldn't ever know that since I preferred my sleep more at that time.

So, I decided to do just that when I returned to the penthouse but upon seeing the alluring wife I left behind, my hunger awakened. Since, I couldn't sate my hunger with the prude wife, I fell at the mercy of food.