Chapter 71 An Awkward Position
Seeing that Arabella'd left her sentence hanging but clearly implied something, Gabriel's eyes narrowed slightly, "What about me? I'm looking at my own wife—that's completely different from him ogling other men's wives."
Arabella couldn't be bothered to argue with him anymore.
Gabriel had limited experience with babies, and Henny in his arms was genuinely hungry now, growing increasingly dissatisfied with just being held. His crying gradually revealed his cranky temperament.
"Hurry up, I can't calm him down," Gabriel urged.
Arabella glanced at him. "This isn't about how fast I can be. Isabella won't let go until she's full."
"Then what do we do?"
"Go find Mary. I told you that you couldn't handle this, but you insisted on showing off."
But Gabriel stubbornly refused to ask Mary for help.
He stared at Arabella's nursing position, hesitating for a moment before suddenly having an idea, "Why don't you feed them both at the same time?"
"What?" she asked incredulously.
Gabriel said, "I'll hold Henny, and you just need to open your shirt..."
Arabella really didn't want to deal with him, but Henny was indeed crying more and more pitifully. With each wail, he kicked with his hands and feet, and it felt like Gabriel might drop him.
"Quick, if he keeps this up, he's going to fall." Gabriel was indeed struggling to hold him, urging again.
Arabella didn't mind nursing both babies simultaneously, but the limited space here meant that for dual feeding, Gabriel would have to hold Henny right in front of her chest.
But that would require Gabriel to be so close while holding Henny, making her uncomfortable.
Her cheeks involuntarily flushed red. Unable to refuse, she silently unbuttoned her shirt.
Gabriel dragged over a low stool and sat beside her, steadying the swaddled Henny with both hands as the little head nestled into Arabella's embrace.
Looking at her awkward, bizarre nursing position, Arabella shot him a look, "Do you know what I look like right now?"
Gabriel's gaze focused on Henny's face. Seeing that he'd finally stopped crying after latching on and was earnestly swallowing, Gabriel asked without looking up, "What do you look like?"
"A breeding sow."
Just lying there with no function other than nursing.
Gabriel fell silent.
No wonder so many bloggers said that women lose all dignity once they have children.
From the moment they enter the delivery room, they have to completely expose themselves for everyone to observe.
However, she was fortunate—her accidental marriage into high society granted her a certain nobility that still commanded some respect.
Plus, with her poor relationship with Joanna and the family not living together, her postpartum days had been relatively peaceful.
She remembered when Sophia had given birth, she'd complained that Zachary's mother, feeling sorry that Zachary had to work during the day, had insisted they sleep in separate beds. Then Zachary's mother moved in to sleep with Sophia, supposedly to help with the baby.
From then on, Sophia had no privacy in front of Zachary's mother.
She remembered Sophia being very distressed at the time, feeling like her body was no longer her own—that after giving birth, she'd become a feeding machine, and a shameless one without any modesty.
Back then, she'd just married Gabriel; their relationship was awkward, and they hadn't been intimate yet.
Hearing Sophia's complaints, she couldn't imagine it at all.
Fortunately, when she became a mother, her experience was much better.
During cleanings, except for professional caregivers, no outsiders were present.
Nursing was also done with as much privacy as possible.
No one thought she was being precious or said, "You're a mother now, is all this modesty really necessary?"
Thinking about it now, Gabriel's wealth and power had given her an invisible layer of protection.
If she had to rank her most undignified moments, they would probably be when the lactation consultant massaged her during her bout with mastitis, when Gabriel had helped her afterward, and now, nursing both babies simultaneously while Gabriel blatantly watched from the side.
Perhaps to ease the awkwardness, Arabella tried to change the subject.
"By the way, Gabriel, there's something I need to tell you. I found a job, and I'll start work next week." She suddenly remembered this and figured she should inform him.
Sure enough, Gabriel turned to look at her with surprise. "The real estate company you interviewed with a few days ago?"
"Yes."
Gabriel blurted out, "Sounds like their management doesn't have functioning brains."
Understanding what he meant, Arabella became very unhappy, "Am I really that incompetent? I graduated from a prestigious university—aren't I qualified for a marketing and communications position?"
He fell silent, but his displeasure was obvious.
He hadn't wanted Arabella to work outside the home, but directly refusing would definitely cause another fight.
"What about these two babies? They're only four months old—are you heartless enough to wean them?" He gestured with his chin toward Henny and Isabella at her chest.
"I can pump milk."
"Pump milk?"
"Yes, many working nursing mothers do this—they express breast milk and store it in the refrigerator."
Gabriel looked incredulous upon hearing this.
"Also, Gabriel, I still intend for us to divorce, but if you won't agree right away, I hope you can give me some freedom. And... I don't want my colleagues to know about our relationship."
Arabella had originally planned to finalize the divorce before officially starting work, so she could focus entirely on developing her career.
But given Gabriel's current state of being consumed by lust, he wouldn't agree to divorce easily.
So she could only make alternative demands.
The divorce matter would have to be postponed.
As expected, hearing that she wanted a secret marriage, Gabriel immediately sneered, "You've really changed now. Now you're the one arranging my life."
Arabella's expression turned cold, "If you don't want it this way, then divorce would be even better—clean and simple."
"In your dreams!"
Their conversation fell into a deadlock and ended unpleasantly, resulting in Gabriel's expressionless face when they returned to the private dining room.
The adults all understood the situation and carefully attended to them, but two-year-old Lily, with her innocent candor, suddenly said, "Mr. Sterling, your expression looks really sour!"
The moment the words left her mouth, the Bakers nearly jumped out of their seats, rushing to cover Lily's mouth.
Lily didn't understand why, and continued adorably, "Every time Daddy's expression looks like that, Mommy always says... your expression looks really sour—who are you showing that face to!"
The little girl's imitation was spot-on, terrifying the adults.
"Sweetie! Do you need to use the bathroom? Come on, Mommy will take you to the restroom." Sophia had always been proud of Lily's exceptional language skills—being so articulate at just over two years old—but today, for the first time, she felt this linguistic talent was a disaster.
Zachary watched Sophia forcibly remove Lily, then turned to Gabriel with an apologetic smile, "Mr. Sterling, children don't understand—please don't take it to heart, don't take it to heart."
Gabriel smiled without warmth, "Of course, Lily is very cute. No problem at all."