When His Nauseous Sweetheart Frowns, the Tycoon's Family Takes Turns Pampering Her-Chapter 9: Just a Contract Marriage
Blaze Fairchild suddenly spoke, and Luna froze in place. Does this guy have X-ray vision or something? He spotted her even though she was behind the wall.
Just as Luna was about to turn and run, pretending she hadn’t heard the man’s voice, she suddenly noticed a short shadow on the ground. Looking up, she saw a lamp casting a faint glow, shining right on her and projecting a shadow.
Luna Axton had no choice but to bite the bullet. She took a step forward, stood in the doorway, and kept her head down, not daring to look at Blaze Fairchild.
"I..." Luna was inexplicably nervous. She swallowed hard. "I just saw the study light was on and wanted to check if you were here."
"I live here."
Luna was shocked. "There’s only one room, and one bed?"
"Is there a problem?"
"No."
After saying that, she scurried back to the room.
Anyway, she has her little baby to protect her. If they have to live together, so be it.
Luna put away her clothes, grabbed a book, and sat down on the sofa by the window to read under the floor lamp. She had only read a few pages when her phone rang.
"Luna Axton, you’re only twenty-two! What are you doing getting married? I think you’ve lost your mind!"
Luna could feel Joy’s fury through the phone, which was vibrating so hard it made her hand numb. She put the phone on speaker, set it on the sofa, and let Joy Coleman vent.
"You’re still a student, and you’re already rushing to be someone’s wife! You’re making me so mad! My parents would be furious with you too.
"Once you graduate, you could find anyone with your talent! Why do you have to chain yourself to a man who only thinks with his lower body right now?"
Joy Coleman let loose a torrent of criticism, then took a sip of water to wet her throat.
"Luna Axton, I want you to divorce him right now. That man doesn’t deserve you."
"Joy, he’s the baby’s father. He’s willing to cover Mom’s medical expenses and even moved her to a private room with special care. I think it’s pretty good."
Joy Coleman was taken aback. Mrs. Axton’s medical bills are so high, she thought. Anyone who can afford them has to be some old, ugly man. Luna is such a wonderful person. How could she marry an old man!
Even though the news infuriated her, Joy Coleman was still a rational person. Because reality was staring them in the face.
She had wanted to advise Luna not to marry for money and, more importantly, not to think that marrying a man would solve all her current problems.
But the words got stuck in her throat; she couldn’t say them.
It wasn’t that Luna Axton hadn’t tried. She was only sleeping three or four hours a night, juggling a heavy course load and shuttling between multiple low-paying part-time jobs, but it was still just a drop in the bucket.
And then there was the baby. No one wanted to harm it, especially not someone as kind-hearted as Luna.
All she knew was how to criticize Luna for making the wrong choice, but could she help Luna solve all her problems?
No.
So she had no right to say Luna was wrong. It was easy for her to judge from the sidelines.
Besides marrying him, there really was no better option. Marriage would allow the child to be born and also cover Mrs. Axton’s medical bills.
This was undoubtedly the best choice Luna could make, but she was sacrificing her own chance at love and a happy marriage.
Joy Coleman gritted her teeth. "I think it’s pretty good too, Luna."
Luna Axton nodded emphatically, reassuring Joy and herself at the same time. "Mhm, it is."
"I’ll come find you when I have time. I’ve been swamped with overtime these past few days. I’m still at the office now, WAHHH~"
Joy Coleman complained, breaking into fake sobs.
"The boss is a total psycho. He works overtime, so the whole company has to work overtime. The intern pay is great, sure, but death by overwork is going to come faster than a raise. I’ll die before I even get to spend all my money."
"Right? Evil capitalists just want to exploit their workers. Even you, a future lawyer, can’t avoid it, let alone anyone else," Luna chimed in, adding viciously, "Your boss is a real monster."
"The key thing is, the overtime is fake! The managers won’t let us leave early. We have to pretend to be busy."
"Huh? That’s a thing?" Luna was astonished. "Your managers are just as monstrous as your boss. They’re both despicable."
"Tell me about it. Once this internship is over, I’m definitely not staying at Evergrow Group."
Luna doodled in her book, all the while joining Joy Coleman in complaining about Evergrow’s boss and management. As a result, she didn’t notice Blaze Fairchild, who had already returned to the room.
When Blaze Fairchild heard "Evergrow Group," he faltered mid-step, his expression hardening.
He stood in the doorway listening for a while, only to realize Luna Axton wasn’t talking about any of the group’s projects. She and the person on the phone were just bad-mouthing the boss of Evergrow Group—in other words, him, Blaze Fairchild.
The company’s managers are actually making everyone work overtime just because he was?
It was the first he’d ever heard of it.
Usually, when he left work, he took the president’s elevator directly to the basement and left through a different exit, so he never paid attention to whether the company’s lights were still on.
When Luna Axton saw Blaze Fairchild walk in, she hastily grabbed her phone. "Joy, I have to go."
Without waiting for Joy Coleman to say anything else, she hung up. The phone’s dark screen showed it was already past ten at night.
Blaze came back to the room, so he must be planning to sleep.
"I’ll pack up right away."
She had brushed her teeth earlier in the shower. While Blaze was in the bathroom, Luna dog-eared her book and set it on the sofa. She also wrote out her plan for the next day and left it open, so she wouldn’t be idle in the morning.
Now that she didn’t have to work part-time, she had more free time to manage. Of course, she would spend it on her studies and on being with her mother.
After tidying everything up, just as she was about to get into bed, she noticed a schedule on the bedside table.
It was for her, a detailed schedule created around her class timetable. It included her three meals a day, daily yoga routines, and appointment times for prenatal psychological counseling and maternity education classes.
The entire page was filled with her schedule for the week, with activities squeezed into every available slot around her classes.
Aside from evenings and her lunch break, she had almost no time to spend with her mother.
Luna Axton stared at the schedule, the paper trembling slightly in her hand.
The bathroom doorknob turned, and the herbal scent of shower gel drifted into the air.
Luna Axton summoned her courage. "Mr. Fairchild, I can’t live according to this schedule."
Blaze Fairchild’s profound gaze fixed on her for a few seconds before he stressed again, "Luna Axton, our marriage is just an agreement, a partnership. You have to do as I ask, and only then will I provide the corresponding compensation."
Luna Axton bit her lower lip hard, feeling humiliated.
Blaze Fairchild’s words were like a slap in the face, forcing her to see reality. From the moment she signed the agreement with Kyle Joyce, her life belonged to Blaze Fairchild.
There was no respect; she was never asked if she was willing, refusal was not an option, and if she didn’t cooperate, he would use her mother to threaten her.
A sense of powerlessness spread through her heart. Only now did Luna Axton truly understand what a marriage based on a transaction of interests felt like.
If it’s only about benefits, then feelings don’t matter.
Luna Axton couldn’t quite describe the feeling in her heart. There was the relief of her mother’s medical bills being taken care of. There was the joy of being able to keep her baby. There was the happiness of being able to focus on her studies. And there was also the sorrow of losing herself.
She lay on her side in bed, stubbornly staring out the window.
The room’s lights were turned off one by one. The bed dipped behind her, the last lamp was switched off, and the room plunged into darkness.
The room was quiet. She could hear the sound of a stream outside, its gurgling flow a natural white noise.
"Move over a little," Blaze Fairchild’s voice sounded.
"I’m fine here."
Blaze Fairchild didn’t insist, merely shifting his body closer to her side.
