Page 11 of His Forgotten Wife

What if it was true? What if she was never able to connect with any other man like she had with Ares? Where did that leave her?

Whether it was the jet lag or the nightmares she’d had since hearing about Ares’s accident, or the fact that her grandfather’s health was rapidly declining, her dreams had been far too disruptive and her sleep fretful at best.

Even at his peak health, Grandpa hadn’t been an effusive person. At his happiest with her, Dolly would get a slight tap on her cheek from him. Not that she’d ever doubted his affection for her.

But it meant it had been years since anyone had held her properly, or touched her even.

When she woke up from one of those dreams, near tears and shaken, she craved to be held and touched. So badly that it gouged a deep cavern inside her.

And the face she reached for to anchor herself back to the world, the touch she craved was Ares’s. It was the same longing that had made her take the drastic step of confessing her desires to him.

His reaction, though, still stung. Still punched hard at the deepest parts of her where she admitted that she was all alone in the world. Had been for a long while.

“Dahlia? You okay?”

Dolly blinked at Arabella’s voice. Her throat stung with emotion but she swallowed it all back. “Of course.”

He might not be as bad as his family but Ares did like his world just so, like any other rich, privileged man. And for that, he would use any means. The way he was wired, he wouldn’t even feel bad about it.

She had to remember that.

“What were we talking about?” Dolly said, forcing a laugh. “I’m still not used to the time difference.”

“You were telling me to not be intimidated by my brother,” Arabella supplied.

“Right, don’t be,” Dolly said, straightening the sheets on the bed. “He’s as flawed as you and I are. If anything, he’s easier to understand if you try too.”

“Simpler to understand? His intellect is scary and he left home when I was still a kid. I don’t have anything in common with him. And I really want to get to know him before he…decides that he’s not happy here and leaves us again.”

“That’s not—” Dolly stopped herself, catching the look in Arabella’s eyes.

Tears shone there but she didn’t let them fall. “Thank you for not lying to me, Dahlia, like everyone else.” A serrated laugh escaped the young woman. “I want to build a relationship with my brother. But not by manipulating him or emotionally blackmailing him.”

Dolly nodded, her heart going out to her. At least, it was what Ares wanted too. Helping Arabella was something she could and would do, happily.

Maybe if Ares nurtured a deeper connection with Arabella, he wouldn’t need Dolly so much as his anchor to the outside world.

Maybe with Arabella on his side, he could even convince the meatheads to let go of the lawsuit without further mayhem.

Maybe he would realize that he could function very well in the world without their fake relationship or their very real marriage.

Without Dolly at all in his life.

The idea appealed to her mind and crushed her heart equally.

“How about,” Dolly said, forcing breeziness into her tone, “I give you some pointers about his likes and interests? If it’s one of his favorite topics, he won’t shut up about it, like any other man.

But unlike other men, he won’t talk down to you if you ask questions.

He finds true joy in the art or science behind something. ”

“Noted.” Her expression turned wary before she said, “I’d love to get to know you too, Dahlia.”

“Why?” Dolly said, even as her heart warmed instantly at the prospect of getting to know Arabella. She colored realizing how rude her question sounded.

She hadn’t been lying when she’d complained to Ares about not having a life while working with him.

Forget romance and dating, she barely even had a friend.

If not for Christina—with her unreservedly gushing personality—pestering her at work, no one would know even a hint of what Dolly’s homelife had been like for years.

“Other than the fact that my brother thinks the world of you?” Arabella said, smiling.

“You are overestimating my role in his life,” Dolly said, stuffing her sunglasses, a hat and a paperback she’d bought at the airport into her beach bag.

If she avoided Arabella’s watchfulness under the guise of packing, she was only a little ashamed of it.

“I’m just very good at what I do for Ares and he rewards that. ”

Arabella frowned. “You make it sound like your entire relationship is based on work. But you’re engaged.” She almost sounded sad at that.

Dolly flushed. “No, but…work is the basis of our relationship. There’s a certain level of constancy that Ares requires in his life and I give him that. He has very rigid boxes in his head and it’s important to not mix them up or he’ll explode.”

And yet, she had done exactly that.

Just because they had signed a paper contract that bound them together legally—which had affected her way more than she had assumed it would—she had thought it would be okay to confide her attraction to him.

Granted, a combination of factors had contributed to her error: they had been stuck because of a snowstorm, her grandpa’s health was failing and she had a little to drink.

That weekend the tight lock she kept around her heart had loosened.

After nine years of being in a very specific box for him, she’d suddenly jumped out of it and muddied all the lines for him.

For Ares, the lines weren’t simply lines but deep, solid walls that he lived his life within.

He didn’t understand nor want to understand the world outside of those walls.

And her confession had threatened him—his sense of security, his boundaries—by nearly tearing down those walls.

She knew better than anyone else how he lived his life and yet, she had lost herself in her own feelings, and hurt both him and herself.

“Then there’s the fact,” Arabella said, bringing Dolly back to the present again, “that you’re smart, beautiful and genuine, Dahlia.”

This time, Dolly’s laugh rang out loud. “Ahh…is there a reason you’re sweet-talking me?”

“What? No,” Arabella said, a blush dusting her cheeks. “When Mama asked him about the engagement after he woke up, Ares said he’s never known anyone else like you. Those were all his words for you, Dahlia. I think I left out generous and kind too.”

Dolly stilled, even as a maelstrom spun through her insides.

She felt like parched earth suddenly facing a deluge of pouring rain. It shouldn’t affect her so much that he thought those things about her, but it did. Little filaments of joy seemed to come alive through her body, lighting her up from the inside.

“When he woke up?” she asked, despite knowing not to indulge herself.

Arabella nodded.

She sighed, her head pounding with a renewed ache. These days, she was forever standing at that crossroads of beliefs—one that said Ares saw her as she was, as she wished to be seen and one that said he was ruthless enough to give her whatever she wanted only to keep her close.

Dolly gave herself a mental shake. Going in circles about Ares’s motivation would get her nowhere.

She was committed to help him through his hard period of transition after the accident just as she was committed to leaving him. In the meantime, she would enjoy the luxury setting, being looked after morning to night. While keeping a strict, professional distance from him in her head.

Her gaze caught on Arabella’s pretty floral sundress. “Can you tell me what the occasion is today?”

“We’re going to celebrate Ares’s birthday. Don’t tell me you forgot?”

“Of course I didn’t,” Dolly said with a pang.

It was the first thing she’d remembered when she’d looked at her smartwatch this morning.

All I wanted to do was to find him and tease him out of a grumpy mood like I did most festive days.

Instead, she had reminded herself that there were others here who had a claim to him more than her.

That the little claim she did have to him was fake.

“But he thoroughly hates celebrating it. Usually, I’d drag him to my favorite restaurant after threatening him with a lawsuit about employee neglect. ”

Arabella’s pink mouth fell open. “I didn’t know that he hates it. I don’t think Mama does either.”

The girl looked so upset that Dolly said, “Between you and me, we’ll manage his grumpiness.”

Smiling, Arabella hooked her arm through Dolly’s and shuffled her along.