Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 60: Trouble Sleeping

“Jenna...” I called her name softly.

“Yes, My Lady?” she replied as she turned to face me again.

“Umm...has Bradon been coming home late lately?” I asked while trying not to sound too suspicious.

“He must be busy with work...” she replied while looking apologetic although she had done nothing wrong.

“Then, I guess he will be back late tonight as well...” I said before smiling a little her way.

Testing the waters a little bit shouldn’t be a bad idea...

“I’m afraid that might also be the case,” Jenna replied sadly.

She must have thought that I wanted to see Bradon so badly and that I hated the fact that he came home super late every night. That couldn’t have been any further from the truth. Of course, I was asking precisely to check that today would be just like any other day and that would mean that Bradon wouldn’t come back home until super late at night. Better yet, I hoped he would just come back at dawn or not at all.

“I see. Have a good evening. I feel quite tired, and I want to sleep after finishing my dinner. I’ll leave the tray in front of the room, please don’t disturb me when you come to retrieve it,” I instructed.

“Of course. Please have a good rest, My Lady,” Jenna replied politely.

After watching Jenna take her leave, I slipped into my room and locked the door behind me. I stared down at the food on the tray before letting out a sigh. It would be dark soon and the sooner I left after sunset the better it would be.

That early evening, I ate my meal alone in my room while not tasting anything. My eyes were focused on the view that I could see from the balcony window. The sun had completely set, and it was starting to get darker and darker. Soon enough the entire sky would become dark and the orange warm light in the garden would turn on.

I should leave as soon as possible to give myself enough time to get as far away as possible before someone realizes that I’m gone...

Now that I was about to execute my plan of escape, I started to feel oddly nervous yet undeniably excited at the same time. Before I could lose the courage that I had gathered, I quickly opened the door to my room to place the tray of food in front of the door just as I had told Jenna that I would. Hopefully, telling her that I needed to sleep after dinner would keep everyone away from my bedroom for a long while.

“It’s time to get out of here...” I whispered to myself.

My hands shook a little as I slid the glass door to my balcony to the side. The breeze that hit my face and blew my hair backward over my shoulders told me that it was a windy and slightly chilly night. Looking down, I wondered if the distance down to the ground had always been this high.

...

**Bradon’s point of view**

When was the last time that I came home before sunset?

I couldn’t quite remember and that may have been because I had never returned before sunset. The last rays of the sun as it dipped beneath the horizon painted the sky a dark shade of orange with a tinge of pink. It wouldn’t be too long before it became completely dark. Jenna will probably make quite a big fuss about the fact that I came home early for once in a very long while.

“You’re back early today...” Zain said emotionlessly when he saw me entering the mansion.

“I’m not sick,” I stated to answer his unasked question.

“That’s good to hear...” he replied with a relieved smile.

His face told me that he wondered why I was home early but that was a question that I wasn’t going to answer. Looking further inside after I heard the sound of footsteps, my eyes met Jenna’s surprised face.

“You’re home early today...” she said after gasping in surprise.

If everyone in the house could talk to me so casually like these two, then I would have to listen to the same phrase from pretty much everyone.

“Yes...” I muttered.

“Lady Diana is in her room,” Jenna readily reported before she smiled at me.

“I’m not here to see her,” I replied before walking past her.

That technically wasn’t a lie.

My eyes narrowed as I marched into the mansion while I could feel Zain and Jenna staring at my back. Because of Dahlia, I didn’t catch a wink of sleep last night and I could hardly concentrate on work for the entire day. My mind felt blurry, and I had to admit that I’ve been feeling extra grumpy all day from lack of sleep and lack of focus.

An average person can survive without food for around three weeks as long as he or she drinks water. Without water and without food, an average person can survive for around three days.

That was the most random thought that came across my mind when I got into bed the night before. Subsequently, I told myself that there was no way that someone as calculating and manipulative as Dahlia would honestly starve herself to death. She was just doing it to get attention so that she could get her way. The best solution was to completely ignore her and everything that she was scheming. Sooner or later, she would eat, and she would come out of her self-imposed isolation and live her life as normal.

Despite telling myself that and assuring myself that it was the most logical conclusion, I could still see her face from the last time that we fought. Since that day, I had not laid eyes on Dahlia. It was like she was here, but she was no longer here.

“Fuck it all, I’m going to sleep...” I muttered as I rolled onto my side on the bed and pressed my eyes shut even tighter than before.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out that closing my eyes did not work to switch off my brain.

--To be continued...