The Accidental Wife by Sara Islam

when we could hardly tolerate each other.

1. Chapter 9Before I knew it, I was Mr. Kensington. I had been a Kensington for the past four months. I was starting to get used to living with him under the sroof despite being very anxious at the beginni According to the media, our wedding was legendary. To me, I was a big show that I couldn't wait to get it over with. My family had because we didn't want people to get the wrong idea. My father had to deliver a speech that was full of lies. Fiona acted like a loving ste I was barely involved in any preparations for the wedding. There was a wedding planner who handled everything. When she askedabout what I would like for decorations, flowers, and basically anything, my answer was always the same. Go with what's trendy an The thing I chose was my wedding dress and I made sure to choose something I wasn't madly in love with because nothing about that marriage was real. I didn't want to look back at that day and smile because of a beautiful memory. Nothing about my marriage was It was a Saturday morning, so I woke up at ten instead of waking up at seven like I did every day. I had been working at the company and I was quite happy with my job. Uncle Steven honoured my request and putin a department that wouldn't makebe in an I walked to the kitchen prepared breakfast forand sat down to eat. Julian and I hadn't eaten together except for maybe a handful of times. When I was young. I used to dream about being in love and living with the person I would want to spend the rest of my life w every day.

My reality was way different.

As I w was eating, my eyes went wide upon seeing Julian in front of me. Apparently, he was out for a run, but surely something went wrong. His knee was scraped and so was his elbow and he was limping- "What happened?" I stood up, approaching him.

"I stumbled on a rock and fell," he said.

"Letclean you up." I told him. "Go to the bathroom and I will get the first aid kit." He seemed reluctant at first but nodded and walked towards the bathroom down the hall.

I brought the first aid kit from one of the kitchen cabinets and went to the bathroom. I found him already sitting on the edge of the bathrub. His knee was in a really bad shape.

I crouched before him and grimaced at how the wound looked. I took cotton and a bottle of antiseptic. After putting sof the antiseptic on a cotton ball, I looked up at him and said, "This is going to hurt. I'm sorry in advance "It's fine. Just do it" He took a deep breath and I started to clean the wound. Once the cotton ball touched his skin, he flinched. "Sorry," he mumbled as he steadied himself.

It tooka couple of minutes to clean it, then placed a band-aid on it. His elbow was in a better state, so cleaning it wasn't as painful as his knees.

"Have you eaten breakfast?" I asked him as I stood up.

"Do I get special treatment for being injured?" He smirked, causingto roll my eyes.

"Fine, make yourself something to eat." I shrugged and headed out of the bathroom "Wait!" I heard him call after me, so I turned my head to the side and saw him limping towards me. Managing to makefeel bad, I stopped. "I'm really hungry and I can't help but crave whatever you made. It sunells amazing"This was officially the first compliment 1 had received from Julian. I needed to mark the day.

"Are you a coffer person or a tea person?" I wondered.

"Coffee, why?" "To make you coffee along with your breakfast." I beaded towards the kitchen and quickly made him spancakes, and omelet and I placed a few pieces of cheese on a plate along with cut cucumber and slettuce I took everything to the living room where he was and placed everything on the coffee table.

"This smells amazing. Thank you," he said and quickly started to dig in. "Oh my God, Emily. What did you put in these!" "Are they bad" My heart sank "Are you kidding me! This isn't just good. This is Michelin star restaurant good." I grinned upon hearing that, I had always been fond of cooking. and I knew that I was good, but I never thought that I was that good. 12:36 PM Chapter 9 "I can make you breakfast withif you'd like," I offered.

"Please!" I giggled at his reaction but nodded.

Not feeling comfortable enough with being in the splace with Julian for long, I got up from my seat. "Where are you going!" He frowned "I'll go get ready. I'm going out with Maya," I said.

"Do you have anything on Monday?" he asked. His question was weird. Why would he want to know something like that? "There's a business dinner and everybody is bringing their partner, so I thought maybe you'd like to accompany me." Now it made sense.

"Sure. It's good for our image to be seen together," I replied. "What's the dress code!" "Semi-formal" "I'll make sure to buy a nice dress" "Take my credit card and get whatever you want." That was a first. "Before you say no, you're my wife and you have the right to take money from me. This is an event that I want you to attend with me, so it doesn't make sense to make you pay for a dress you're going to wear in it." "O-okay," I stuttered, taken aback by what he had just said. "Thanks" I went to my room to get ready; however, I couldn't get out of my head how nice julian was. He had never been that nice to me. I didn't know what changed and I didn't want to get my hopes up.

"You're tellingthat be gave you his Amex card?" Maya gawked atas I took a sip from my iced coffee. I ended up telling my best friend the truth about my marriage to Julian. At first, I wanted to keep everything a secret, but I realized that if I didn't have somebo Nobody from Julian's knew that she knew the truth, though.

"Yes" I nodded.

"And he asked you to make him breakfast after trying your food for the first tin four months?" Again, I nodded. "And he asked you to go with him to that business dinner?" "Why are you repeating everything I've just told you?" "Because this is unbelievable, Emily! You two have been married for four months and this is basically the first actual encounter you two had, which happens to be super cute and nice." "And this supposedly means something?" I wondered, tilting my head to the side.

"Well, yeah! Maybe he wants to give your

marriage a chance." I snorted at the suggestion. Julian would never want that. "Listen, Emily. You're way better than you think. You're beautiful, smart, kind, caring, hardworking and loving. Any man would be lucky to have you. Maybe he has just realized that." "First of all, thank you. Second, we need to get you out of the la la land you're living in. Julian probably still loves Fiona. I played with the straw of my drink

"If he loves Fiona, this means that he fell on his head as a baby," Maya said it as a matter of fact, makinglever laugh. She had never been a fan Fiona, Maggie, or Jeffrey. She hated them for the way they treated me. Truthfully, I was thankful for her presence in my II bought an emerald green dress for the dinner. It was a little bit expensive, but I was aware that it was nothing to Julian.

Jeffrey Harolds yard to sei a budget forfor designer clothes, but only because he wanted to make sure that I looked presentable whenever we were seen togethe together. My budget was nothing compared to Fiona's budget though. She didn't even have a budget. I honestly didn't care about wearing designer clothes or normal ones, but what hurtwas the way I was discriminated against. Julian's treatment today hadconfused and I would be lying if I said that it didn't get my hopes up. It wasn't like I was dying to have a relationship with him, but it wasn't easy to be strangers with the nun you were married to.

"Oh my God," I heard Maya say as the scrolled through her phone as we were having dinner, I gave her a questioning look. "Fiona is dating Chester I almost spat my drink. Why was Fiona dating my ext