The Faceless Billionaire Celebrity Wife-Chapter 198: Do You Love Me?

"Ethan..." Was all Shikera could say, as she stared at him in disbelief. Was this really her husband?

Ethan laughed inwardly at the way Shikera was staring at him. "He did leave his name though. He signed on this particular painting so if you can find him with your own connections, then you should go ahead," he stated, only to see her eyes brighten in relief.

"Where is the signature?" Shikera asked.

"Over there. Right on your peaches."

Mortified as she was, Shikera had no choice but to step closer to the painting to examine it carefully. And there on both of her breasts, was a word scrawled in curvy handwriting.

’Vincent.’

"I hate you, Ethan," Shikera whispered. She fell down to her knees in relief but Ethan was quick to catch her, lifting her up to rest against him.

"Why do you hate me?" he asked. His face could not be anymore serious than it was at this moment.

"Why would I not hate you? You wanted to kill me with worry," she complained, holding him tightly.

"Did you think I would allow anyone else see this?" he asked.

Subconsciously, Shikera knew she should have trusted that Ethan would not do anything like that. But she had also reminded herself that she was nothing more than a tool in some unknown people’s hand right now, what if Ethan wanted to destroy her self esteem before they could use her?

Cradling her head between his hands, Ethan made her look up at him.

"I asked if you think I would let someone else see you like this," he repeated.

"No. But..."

"Then why were you scared? You know what, Shikera, you have been a little bit strange these past few days. You lose your stand too easily," he pointed out, maintaining eye contact with her.

Shikera tried to remove her head from his hands but he held her tight, frowning to show his disapproval.

"Answer me," he insisted.

"Lose my stand? How...?"

Ethan sighed, his eyes roving all over Shikera’s face as if he was looking for a sign. The sign of what, he did not know.

"Do you love me, Shikera?" he suddenly asked.

★★★

"Where do you think we should go next?"

"Did you check out the new ice cream parlor in front of Preston TV?"

"Look at that. Isn’t it beautiful?"

Cyprian grew tired of asking questions and answering the same questions by herself, when Shikera was right next to her and ignoring her.

"Shikera! Is there a problem?" she asked.

Snapped out of her thoughts by Cyprian’s voice, Shikera looked around to see that they were now outside the gallery and were now strolling down the streets.

Ethan and Raymond were a few steps behind them but she could not bear to turn due to the guilt tugging at her heart.

She turned to Cyprian, "Where are we going?"

Cyprian chuckled, as if she could not believe Shikera was asking her that.

"Aren’t you the birthday girl? We have been following your footsteps waiting for you to tell us where you wish to go," she replied.

"What?" Shikera was surprised. "Why would you be following me? I don’t have anywhere in particular that I want to..." She trailed off when her eyes caught a building across the road from where they were standing.

"There, let’s go there," she declared, pointing at the building. Cyprian, Raymond and Ethan were surprised but none of them voiced out their thoughts as they followed her across the road.

When they finally came to stand in front of the building, Shikera removed the scarf around her neck and walked over to Ethan. Avoiding his gaze, she struggled but succeeded in wrapping the black scarf around the lower part of his face.

"Too many strangers," she whispered, giving a lame explanation for her actions just now.

When she was satisfied with how the scarf looked around him, she turned to step into the large doors of the building whose banner read,

’As Thetic Orphanage Homes.’

They went straight to the director’s office who in turn ushered them to a large hall where the children were.

"On any normal day, they would be in bed by now but today is our founder’s and biggest benefactor birthday so they are staying up later than usual," the man explained. He could see from the way the visitors were dressed and the manner with which they carried themselves, that they could be potential donors to the home so he was trying his best to create a good impression.

On the other hand, Ethan, Cyprian and Raymond were now staring suspiciously at Shikera.

"What? What did I do?" she asked.

"Are you the home’s biggest benefactor?" Cyprian whispered, loud enough for Shikera to hear but not loud enough for the man.

"Benefactor? How can I be the one?"

"It’s your birthday today too. You always tell me not to wish you happy birthday because countless other people are doing so, just like this children are. Who knows if this is one of your secret projects?" Cyprian shrugged.

"It’s not. I just told you...where did you even get the idea of me having secret projects?"

Just then, the man got back to them and said, "The children are organized now; you can go in."

The four of them stepped into a large hall, decorated with multi color balloons and cartoon characters painting. The low chairs were colorful and from the noticeable difference in the heights of the children in one section to the other, Shikera and the rest could that the children were classified with their age difference.

The children went on with their mini feast without knowledge of the guests that had just entered while the teachers and nannies bowed slightly, before directing their attention back to the children.

Before she could stop herself, Cyprian found herself standing in the section where babies were. There were multiple nannies in this section tending to the numerous babies in their cots, some crying and some quiet while very few were asleep.