CHAPTER 33. Am I not your husband?

The girl's pure white nightgown stood out in the transparent water, revealing her curvaceous body. Her long black hair was floating in the water.

Mark narrowed his eyes before pulling her out of the water and moving forward to pick her up and carry her to the bed.

Mark's big, sturdy steps made their way to the bed, with Paula's body already covered with a towel.

"Get a doctor in here."

After closing the internal phone line, he sat on the bed. Towel in hand, he carefully wiped the water from his wife's face.

This woman did not want to confess to him what she had recently faced. She even fainted because she was too tired.

Paula claimed that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, but in reality, he never treated her as his wife.

He wasn't even her friend.

She just thought he was an employer—just a benefactor.

How ridiculous!

He claimed that he was her husband, but he never really treated her as his.

She remembered what happened in the back garden of the Aliston residence that night. He blinked his big eyes and looked at her.

"I am a member of your family from now on. I will be by your side."

He still remembered how clear the young woman's voice was when she said it. She caressed her glossy lips before smiling helplessly.

"I've never seen you as a burden. But what about you? Are you treating me like a burden?"

The woman, who had fainted, pursed her lips. Silently, she clasped her hands together.

After observing her for a long time, Mark realized that her posture was similar to the act of washing clothes.

He remembered the report Neo had given him that afternoon about her condition in the sanatorium. A barely perceptible sense of strangeness flashed briefly in his sunken eyes.

Half an hour later, Mr. James, who arrived in a hurry, was led into the bedroom by the butler.

Looking at the man sitting next to Paula, Mr. James chuckled. Then he sat next to Mark and asked, "Is she your current wife?"

Mark nodded.

The white-robed doctor lifted Paula's wrist to feel her pulse as he gave a small smile. "She really seems harmless. No wonder Uncle Zerrick doesn't deal with her."

Mark looked at the starry sky outside the window, showing a sneer. "They don't deal with her, and it has nothing to do with her appearance."

"Of course I know it has nothing to do with her looks."

James rolled his eyes and said, "I just want to express the fact that your wife is cute. Considering your level of emotional intelligence, I really don't know how you have survived until now."

Mark pursed his lips and smiled. "I think my emotional intelligence is pretty good."

"That's right. You only have me as your friend after all these years."

James lowered Paula's wrist. Then he turned around and looked at Mark seriously. "There's nothing wrong with it. You're probably just too tired and sleep-deprived these days."

Having said that, he gave Mark a playful smile and said, "You just got married. How can you tire her out so much?

The veins on Mark's forehead twitched. "I didn't touch her. She was blackmailed by others, so she went to work to earn money. That's why she's so tired."

"Interesting."

After knowing all the details of the incident, James looked at Paula. There was a flash of admiration in his eyes.

"She has a heart of gold. Not only does she not ask for money from you, but she also goes to work and hides it from you. It's rare to find a woman like that."

Having said that, she turned around and looked at Mark. "Since you know this happened to her due to fatigue, let her rest well. Why did you ask me to come so soon?

"Firstly, I remind you that it's time to make a public announcement about your body condition. Then secondly..."

Mark smoothed Paula's hair to both sides of her face and asked, "Is there any way to stop her from doing things like this?"

James was stunned. He had understood then. "So, you can't drive to your wife. Is that why you called me?"

The man frowned slightly and said, "Something like that."

Tapping the side of the bed with his finger, James gave a small smile and said, "Leave it to me. But do you have a place here for me to stay? He's very tired. You should at least let him rest tonight, right?"

Mark nodded.

At first, he didn't plan to let her rest. He wanted to force her to beg for mercy. After that, she would tell him all her troubles.

He thought that if he did it that way, she would remember him. In the future, I would have to share some incidents with her husband immediately.

However, she didn't think that her stubbornness and persistence had gone beyond her imagination. She was even willing to collapse from exhaustion instead of complaining to him and asking affectionately.

She was obviously a kind and naive young lady, and she was so stubborn that she pushed him to his limits.

"This is my first time staying over, right? It's so weird."

James laughed and put his hand on Mark's shoulder. "As expected, one becomes kinder and more humane after marriage."

Having said that, he felt his words were a bit off.

"But if you really have more humane feelings, why did you let your wife faint from exhaustion in front of you?"

Mark didn't bother arguing with him. He let go of James' hand and turned to leave, saying, "As you wish."

Involuntarily, looking at the tall, straight back of the man, he went up to look at Paula, who was sound asleep. Then he let out a long sigh and commented, "Mark, have you done your duty to this young lady?"

Mark paused for a moment. His tall figure was elongated due to the glass-enclosed chandelier in the hallway. He asked, "Is there a problem with me being filial to my wife?"

"But Mark, you should know what you will face in the future. I'm sure you know better than anyone how your two former fiancés died. Even though this wife of yours has gotten what she wanted, being an obstacle to you in the future is an inevitability." James frowned.

Mark narrowed his eyes and replied, "We'll see."

Right now, it is not even clear what kind of feelings he has for Paula.

It was too early to talk about these things.

***

Warm midday sunlight entered the room through the window, shining on the young woman's sleeping face.

Paula was forcibly awakened by the sunlight.

When she woke up, she usually stretched her body.

However, the sunlight in the room was too dazzling. As she opened her eyes, she involuntarily closed them because of this.

Why are the mornings so bright? she wondered.

She frowned. After thinking about it for a while, she suddenly felt that something was wrong. Picking up her phone to look at it, she realized that it was already past ten in the morning.

She actually slept until ten o'clock!

Paula took out her mobile phone to check the date. Immediately, the sparkle in her eyes faded.

It was Friday. In the morning, she had an advanced math lesson taught by a woman who was tough and lacked personality. There was also a physics lesson from the university that he didn't quite understand.

It was past ten o'clock, which meant that the advanced math lesson was over and the university physics lesson had started.

She cried miserably before getting up. She quickly got out of bed to clean herself up.

She started to remember what happened the night before.

If she was not mistaken, Mark seemed to be in a bad mood tonight. He had asked her to bathe him repeatedly. Therefore, she had obeyed him and bathed him repeatedly.

She didn't remember anything about what happened afterwards.

Standing in front of the mirror, Paula looked at herself and sighed softly. As expected, after starting college, she had become spoiled.

When she still lived in the countryside in the past, she had a much more laborious farm job, but she wasn't as skinny as she was now.

She was probably too tired the night before, so she fell asleep while helping Mark take a bath.

Although she didn't know what happened next, she could guess.

"Mark probably realized that I was too tired, so he didn't wake me up. Therefore, he asked the maid to take me to bed, didn't he?"

Thinking of that, she smiled slightly. Actually, her husband was very kind to her.