A Contract Marriage After a ONS novel Chapter 1652

"I've been having trouble sleeping lately. Sometimes I even get woken by a nightmare immediately after I drift off. I keep having the same dream. In it you turn around and walk away without even a glance at me, leaving me gazing helplessly at your merciless receding back.

"I'm scared. I'm really very scared. That kind of fear is bone-deep. It makes me very uneasy...”

He spoke very slowly, enunciating each word, his face etched with dejection.

Grace stiffened momentarily and her eyes rested on him.

"Even I myself have no idea how it came to this. Grace, I..."

After saying that, Charlie did not know how to continue.

Considering how things had turned out, it seemed that he should tell her everything and try his best to have her change her mind, but he also felt there was nothing he could say that would make a difference.

He was a man, one with a fairly successful career, but in terms of love life, he didn't have a clue how he had been put in such a situation.

The look in Charlie's eyes flickered as his Adam's apple bobbed. There seemed to be something sparkling in his deep-set eyes. It was faint, but Grace could see it clearly.

If her guess was right, the glistening things in his eyes were tears.

Grace saw them. Her heart was hammering, her throat dry.

At this moment, she recalled something that he had once said.

"As a man, no matter how great the ordeal is, you have to endure it, because a man has no right to show weakness. There are many people behind you who rely on you.

"If you go soft, they'll lose the only one they can count on!"

Grace had never seen him like this. She had known him for such a long time, but this was her first time seeing him shed tears.

Beneath her gaze, Charlie felt his upset flooding over him in greater wavers, and he couldn't subdue it, no matter how hard he tried. He actually felt a sting in his eyes.

Before tears rolled down his cheeks, he turned around and said with feigned composure, "Wait here. I'll go downstairs and buy you some clothes."

Having finished speaking, he left without a backward glance.

Grace sat in her chair. There wasn't a shred of her usual casualness or indifference on her face, only indescribable somberness.

"Men do not shed tears easily," as the saying goes. When he pivoted around, she had distinctly seen tears sliding down his cheeks.

She hugged her knees, her whole body as rigid as her toes.

Before long, Charlie returned. His face was as handsome as always, its contours distinguished and soft. "I got you some clothes. Try them on."

All the clothes fitted her very well. Clearly, he was very familiar with her sizes.

After she dressed, it was time to punch out. The two of them went downstairs and sat into the car. Charlie drove her back to the hotel.

If the circumstances were different, Charlie would definitely talk non-stop, and even Grace wouldn't be able to silence him.

But on this occasion, things were very different. He didn’t utter a single word.

Grace didn't speak either. The mood in the car was subdued. Both of them kept silent.

Andrew, after opening the door, saw Grace's clothes and narrowed his eyes. "I remember very well this was not the outfit you wore when going out this morning. Is there something you're not telling me?"

Grace made no response. She just asked," Where's Eaton?"