Married with the Broken Hearted CEO novel Chapter 37

Ding dong~ 
Chadwick on the floor and Adira on his top, both tended their eyes at the direction of the door. The only on who might visit them during this house, one person came into their mind. 
Adira stood up while holding his husband’s cellphone. 
“Looks like you have a visitor,” Adira said as she offered the phone back to him. 
He looked alternately at the phone and at Adira’s spiritless gaze. Biting his lips with a frown on his forehead, Chadwick stood up and grabbed his phone back. He felt so embarrassed, not only because of the picture Jaymee had sent to him, but also the fact that Isa might be the person outside the door. 
Unable to say anything, he walked towards the entrance. Adira watched his back, and the way he dragged his feet onto the ground. 
She thinks he’s being weird. Long time ago, she remembered how fast Chadwick every time was he hears that Isa came to visit. He was as blistering as a cheetah. Yet now, he walked like a snail; as if leaving a mark on the floor. 
Soon, Chadwick stood before the entrance. He did not bother looking at the security screen because it is obvious who came to visit during this hour. He turned the doorknob and pulled the door open.
The crying woman came to his view. Isa has teary and soggy eyes, which means she’s been crying for long hours even before coming here. 
“Chadwick,” she sobbed. She threw herself into his arms and hugged him so tight. 
Chadwick was stunned. 
He rooted on his spot and momentarily held his breath. 
When he realized that he let Isa hug him inside their house, he quickly diverted his gaze to his wife who is watching at them without expression. 
He fell into a state of panic. 
Before, Chadwick only prioritized comforting Isa. But now, the situation has changed. More than comforting a friend he used to like, he wanted to clear up the misunderstanding and explain to his wife that he does not want this to happen. 
Therefore, Chadwick held Isa’s shoulder and about to push her away. But Isa hugged him even more tightly. 
“He doesn’t care for me! He is so bad!” she sobbed hysterically while snuggling him tight. 
Deja vu. 
Adira felt that she had already seen this scenario before. It took her seconds to remember that same situation happened during her birthday. 
What does it feel to see another woman hugged her husband for the second time? 
For Adira, it feels like going in the cinema with a friend, then finding out that the movie is the same movie she watched recently. But she cannot leave her friend out of the cinema so she had to endure and stay still even if she already knows what will happen next in the movie. It is exactly as plain as that. 
Not because she and her husband became closer than before, she will forget the fact that her husband likes another woman. And it is not her. 
‘As long as he promise not to use my blanket to that woman again, I have nothing to say,’ Adira thought. 
She turned her back, just like what she always does, and will go inside her room. However… 
“Adira.” 
She stopped when she heard Chadwick’s voice call her name. Slowly, she turned around to see him.
“Don’t misunderstand,” he said while staring at her with stern expression, like when the ocean suddenly went quiet; no waves, no movement, but in the next minute, a huge tsunami will about come. 
His voice and eyes are so serious that Isa ceased her tears and lifted her head to look at the way Chadwick stares at his wife. Then, Isa felt his hands on her shoulder. He pushed her away, without even gawking back to her face. 
Then, Chadwick added, “Isa just a friend.” 
Isa felt the rushing emotions of anger and sadness enveloped her heart. She came here after Geoffrey rejected her love. And now, Chadwick does not seem he’s caring for her anymore. She felt so alone, so hopeless, so pathetic. 
The root of these ill emotions?
Isa glared at Adira.  
Yes. She blamed it to the woman, who has not done anything yet to her. Adira just silently watched by the side, laughing, sneering, and shaking her head. Isa hated her for not being bothered like that. 
“Sorry,” Isa murmured, stepping backward from Chadwick. 
The two looked at Isa, who suddenly retreated. 
“S-Sorry for barging in. I-It  just that, I don’t know where to go anymore. I am sorry.” 
Next, Isa wiped her eyes before she walked out and ran away. 
“Isa!” Chadwick shouted. In hurry, he stared back to Adira and said, “I will be back as soon as possible. Okay?” 
Chadwick followed Isa and left his wife standing alone in the living room. 
Silence reigned. 
Adira tilted her head and blinked her eyes. 
“I am not supposed to wait for him, right?” she murmured then gawked at the slightly opened door. 
She thought before that seeing Chadwick and Isa together is like watching the same movie twice. However, when Chadwick called her name and said that she must not misunderstand the situation, it feels like seeing the same movie twice but realized that she missed a very important scene of the movie because she left the cinema earlier than the second time. 
*************** *********************
The first time Isa came to Chadwick crying because of Geoffrey, happened when they were in high school. 
Although Isa knew that Chadwick  likes her, she still keeps on coming to him while crying about her stepbrother; an old friend of Chadwick, who he couldn’t treat as a friend anymore. 
It was so painful for Chadwick to watch his love crying and calling other name in front of him. But soon, Chadwick  accepted it. Isa will never love him the way she loves her stepbrother.
After a long time, Chadwick  got used to it; comforting her because he knew no will do it except him. 
However, now he felt so confused. 
Chadwick likes Adira. 
No. 
It’s not just a simple like. 
He is falling more deeply to his wife. 
He doesn’t hold Isa dearly in his heart anymore. However, he still feels that he has some responsibility left, as if he hasn’t finished what he should end. 
“Why did you follow me?” asked Isa. 
They two of them are in the playground. 
They sat on the swings and stayed there until Isa calmed down and stopped crying anymore. 
“What if your wife misunderstand it again?” Isa added, pouting her lips as if she’s sulky. 
Chadwick decided to ignore the question and interrogated her instead. 
“What did Geoffrey do this time?” 
“As usual,” she answered while digging her foot on the sand as she swayed her swing a little. "He pushed me away again, telling that we cannot be together.” 
Chadwick  can understand why Geoffrey cannot love Isa back. He only treated her as sister, which made Chadwick felt both at ease and sad at the same time. However, what he could not understand is Geoffrey’s way of avoiding Isa. 
Does he really had to date a lot of woman and show it to Isa? Chadwick asked the question again and again, but failed to know the answer. 
“But this time, he brought your name,” Isa said.  
A scowled appeared on Chadwick’s forehead when he heard what Isa just said. 
Geoffrey brought his name? 
He, who ignored Chadwick for long years and said that Chadwick only befriended him just because of Isa?
‘That bastard?’ 
“My brother said that I should not bother a married man. Yet, I disagreed with his opinion. Even if you are a married man, you are special friend to me. You know that, right?” 
Chadwick met her gaze under the starry night sky. 
Before, he always gets mesmerized by those round eyes which speak innocence and brightness. However, all he feels right now is deep sympathy. 
Maybe, the reason why he cannot left Isa alone is because she is an orphan. And no one stays by her side ever since she lost her father. 
“Am I a bother?” Isa asked him. 
“No,” Chadwick replied. “A friend will never be a bother.” 
“Friend?” 
Isa swung her swing while laughing. 
“Before, you keep telling me that you are so in love with me. But now, it feels weird when you always say that I am a friend.”
Chadwick looked at the blank space and suddenly remembered my wife. 
He started to wonder how she will feel if she is looking at Isa and him right now, and hearing our conversation. 
It was then he realized what is that thing that he had to do, as soon as possible. 
“I like my wife.” 
Isa went of full stop, as she looked back at him with widened eyes. 
“Huh?” she uttered. 
“I fell in love with my wife.” 
Isa paused, as if a remote control told her to do so. Soon, when she blinked her eyes and gaped widely, a stuttering voice slipped from her lips, “S-Since when?” 
When? 
When did it start? 
Recently, Chadwick made a research how possible it is to fall in love with your wife after marriage. Researched said that marrying someone without feelings involve and then falling in love right after is one of the most complicated relationship story that 5% people in the world might experience. And Chadwick think that he, Chadwick McElroy, is one of them.
When he had my heart broken from Isa, he already gave up his dream of marrying someone he really loves. He was a 31 year-old man, who's too busy to fall in love again. Thus, he didn't go up against his father's idea to set him up in a marriage with business purposes. And so... Adira and him got married.
Adira is a cool and independent woman in work. Chadwick, therefore, thought that after their marriage, they can still go in parted ways; without bothering, caring or talking much at each other. However…
[“I wanted to get pregnant. Let’s sex.”] 
He  realized that that the real Adira is far from the image he imagined.
She's very selfish, straightforward and she doesn't have any common sense! Call him ‘old-fashion’, but Chadwick is the type of a guy who won't have a s*x with someone he doesn’t love and he thought she will respect it.
But every night, Adira comes to his room and said, "Let's s*x."
‘Like f*ck! What am I? A babymaker? And how could she asked it while wearing her poker face?’ Chadwick thought.
Indeed, Adira doesn't care about the other side's emotions. She's like a robot with unlimited functions and unfortunately, her manual gone missing. She says what she wants, she does what she likes and she ignores what she hates. Simply, she pissed Chadwick off.
After half a year of living with that annoying woman, Chadwick got used of her stupid antics and created my thinking routine like: 'Okay. Today, just ignore her.'
However, things have changed one summer night.
He got in a car accident. But though it wasn't that grave, he lost consciousness and was brought to the emergency room. What he saw when he woke up has puzzled him; making him unable to move in surprise.
 
Beside his bed was Adira. She was crying in silence, biting her lips firmly while looking at him. By the time she met his gaze, Adira quickly turned around to wipe her tears.
The woman who never shed tears over a sad movie, the woman who is always calm and the woman who rarely laugh at any jokes; THAT WOMAN... cried for him while wearing her indoor slippers.
Chadwick thought it was already too late for him to get touch in simple things like that. But when she cried for him, it felt good.
Little by little, she buzzed in his mind. There were times that he caught himself looking at her while she drinks her coffee every morning. He thought he was being stupid whenever he waits for her to come home, but felt relieve when her face illuminated at the entrance.
The more he observed her, he was persuaded that his wife isn't really an annoying lady but a cute independent woman, who just wanted to be alone. Plus... She's a natural pervert.
It was very hard for him to admit that he was falling for her because of his pride. But 'BAM!' Reality just hits him one day and his couldn't help but to accept this damn truth.
“I think, before the we came in the orphanage, I think I already like her,” Chadwick said to Isa while laughing at his pathetic self. 
“B-But how about your wife? Does she love you too?” 
Chadwick stopped the swing from swinging, digging his feet onto the sand. Then he stared back at Isa with a saddest smile he could ever wear. 
“It doesn’t matter,” Chadwick answered. 
As long as Adira doesn’t like any guy, or as long as there is no man who can love her crazily as he does, Chadwick think nothing matters anymore.