Chapter 9: Marriage Proposal

The pill solidifies and Charles picks it up with a pair of tweezers. Avery opens her palm and looks at the tiny white tablet. Suddenly, she has an idea.

"Is there a kind of medicine that can prevent me from getting pregnant?" she asks.

Charles frowns tightly. He pretends to be busy arranging the tweezers and tubes on the table to disguise his discomfort.

"You want to avoid getting pregnant at all?" he asks.

Avery nods.

"There's no such medicine," he says severely.

He's lying. He could easily make some for her if he wanted to.

"Why do you ask?" he wonders.

Avery takes a glass of water from Charles. She pops the tablet into her mouth and takes a long sip.

"I don't want to get pregnant with his child," she says, 'I don't even want him to touch me, but I don't know if I can prevent that."

Charles presses his lips together to remain silent. He wishes he could help her but he's up against Evan Howel, a man who has enough power to influence the entire city and even the country. Charles doesn't have the kind of power to fight someone like that.

"So you plan to scare him away instead? You want to make it so he can't bear to touch you?"

Avery can't deny that she's been intentionally pissing him off in an attempt to persuade him to divorce her. But it hasn't worked the way she planned.

The conversation seems to be getting too heavy, so she jokes, "It's hard since I'm so beautiful. I think only a cranky doctor like you could resist my charm."

She winks at him with her beautiful blue eyes and Charles feels his heart tremble. How can he resist her?

Avery changes the subject back to the pills, "They work up to 48 hours after, right?"

Charles, still drowning in her smile, clears his throat and nods.

"I want some more, just in case."

One by one, he carefully puts the tablets into a glass container and hands it to her without question. He knows what she's up against. Evan is not a normal guy. If Evan has decided he wants to have her, Charles worries that she might not be able to refuse him.

"Thanks," she puts the glass in her pocket, "I'll check on Nanny now."

She turns to leave the room, but a strong hand grabs her wrist. Charles looks at her intensely, then releases his grip, gently stroking her palm and fingers with his. Something icy and hard slips onto her middle finger.

"Will you marry me?" he asks lightly.

"My answer doesn't matter," she jokes, "Bigamy is illegal."

Charles smiles, but he doesn't say a word. Instead, he fiddles with the ring he's put on her finger. The green diamond at the center of the ring opens, revealing a thin needle embedded in the stone.

"It's made of a material which can detect poison in food," he says, "It's specially designed to detect the new toxin in your body."

"It's far too valuable. I can't take it." Avery protests.

She starts to take it off her finger. She knows a lot about precious gems because collecting them is one of Mrs. Howel's passions. When her family prepared her to compete for Evan, lessons on precious stones were considered a compulsory part of her education.

She can tell that the green diamond is incredibly rare: it's extremely difficult to manufacture and it costs at least three million dollars a carat. Judging by its size, it's multiple carats. She doesn't realize that the needle is far more valuable than the rare gem that conceals it.

Charles pushes it back down her finger.

"It's not as valuable as your life," he says.

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She's never seen him so insistent about anything. Reluctantly, she lets him put the ring back onto her finger. It fits perfectly.

"Let's go," he guides her out of his office and toward her nanny's room.

"Has Bryan Flynn been coming around lately?" she asks.

Bryan is her nanny's son. She grew up with him and thinks of him as a brother.

"If he doesn't have to go to school," Charles answers, "But he's busy lately and he's always asking me when you will come."

"Doesn't he know it's almost impossible for me to go out?"

Avery can't help but frown thinking about the difficulty of visiting her nanny.

"He knows. But we all want to see you more often."

"I'll probably see you every day once the divorce is finalized," she says, "Won't you get bored of me?"

"No, it would be a pleasure."

Charles looks at her with intense almost slavish devotion and she laughs.

"What's so funny?" Charles worries.

He's never heard her laugh like this before.

"She probably has no idea how beautiful she is when she laughs," he thinks.

Avery shakes her head, "I'm thinking about Bryan's wild haircut," she says, "The last time I saw him he'd just changed his hair. It was hilarious."

"What if I got the same haircut?" Charles jokes.

"Don't. You look better this way."

Charles nods with satisfaction and smiles to himself.

They arrive in the room. The nurse isn't in, and Avery's nanny is alone. She's lost weight since the last time Avery saw her. Her hair has grayed, too. She's lying on the bed so serenely, she wouldn't look ill if it wasn't for the oxygen mask strapped to her face.

Avery walks toward the bed, moving lightly so her heels don't create any noise against the floor.

"Nanny?" Avery calls her tentatively.

The woman doesn't respond; she just lies there, motionless and silent. Avery takes Nanny's hand and Charles pulls up a chair for her. She sits down and strokes the wrinkles on the old woman's hand. The long coma has caused such dramatic weight loss that Avery feels like she's stroking only skin and bone. It aches her heart to caress nanny's wasted hand over and over again.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to come," she apologizes, "You mustn't be angry with me. You know how strict the Howel's rules are—it's taken me ages to sneak out. But then if you knew what I'd done you'd scold me for misbehaving, wouldn't you?"

Avery smiles suddenly, recalling how worried her nanny got every time she came home past curfew. The older woman used to swear when Avery complained that the Howel's house was like a jail.

"Would you wake up if you knew I was divorcing Evan?" she asks.

She stares at Nanny's calm face. If Nanny was awake, she'd give Avery a stern look and put her hands on her hips. She'd frown and scold Avery, telling her that she's very lucky to be Evan Howel's wife. That she should cherish her marital bliss.

Lucky? Bliss? Evan groans. The last three years at the Howel's house have been the most miserable years of her life. There is no bliss. She is not lucky.

"Rest assured, I promise to take good care of Bryan and myself."

She thinks of Bryan as her baby brother, although they don't have any blood relation. Charles escorts Avery to the entrance of the hospital. After a simple goodbye, Avery gets into her car, floors the gas pedal, and disappears into the night.

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