The Millionaire's Arranged Marriage (5 page)

CHAPTER 9

Dilvan

- - -

“Nice restaurant choice
,” Isabella said, as Dilvan pulled the seat out from the table for her, being a complete gentleman.

He’d heard about JiRaffe Restaurant before, knew it was an elegant place to dine, so he’d made reservations for them.

“I know you have good taste,” he told her.

“How do you know that?” she asked playfully, sending him a
striking smile, almost blushing.

“Just a well, educated guess,” he replied.

“You guessed right.”

“You look very beautiful tonight,” he told her, his eyes rolling down to her cleavage. She’d exposed more than an average woman would have, probably because she was accustomed to being scantily clad. It came with her profession.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“So let’s see what’s good here,” she said, picking up a menu, holding it in front of her face, then peeping around it, smiling at him.

Dilvan
found her playfulness appealing.

“I don’t eat meat,
” she added, “So I hope they have options on this menu to accommodate me.”

“Oh, you’re vegetarian
.”

“Yep. It’s the best way for me to maintain my figure. I plan on modeling at least until I’m thirty-five.”

“How old are you now, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I don’t mind at all. I’m twenty-five.”

“So am I.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Dilvan said. “You say that like you’re surprised.”

“Only because you have such distinct features...you look like you could be a few years older, which is a good thing for a man, by the way, but not a woman.”

Dilvan nodded. “Do you drink wine?”

“I do. I love wine.”

“Okay. Perfect.”

“Good evening folks,” the waitress said. “May I start you fine folks off with something to drink?”

“Yes,” Dilvan spoke up. “Bring us a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, please.”

“Sure thing, and a
re we having appetizers tonight?”

“Yes,” Isabella said. “I’ll have the organic mixed greens.”

“And I’ll have the crab cake.”

“Excellent choices.
I’ll be right back with your wine and two glasses.”

When th
e waitress walked away, Isabella said, “You’re adventurous, I see...ordering a bottle of wine before a shoot.”

“I always have wine before a shoot...it
helps to relax me, so when I’m being yelled at to
look this way
and
look that way
, I won’t have a complete meltdown.”

Isabella gig
gled. “I know what you mean. I’m looking forward to this one, though. I always wanted to shoot at the Santa Monica Pier.”

“Me too.”

The waitress came back with the wine, popped the cork on the bottle and poured them both a glass. After telling them that their appetizers were on the way, she walked off.

“So what else do you do besides model?”
he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I know you don’t work twenty-four-seven?”

“No. In between shoots, I like to spend time with family. My sister has three little girls
and I love spending time with them, especially since I don’t have children of my own. Actually, I don’t want children. I’m sorry, that was probably too much information. I tend to talk a lot when I’m nervous.”

“Why are you nervous?”

“I think you know why I’m nervous, Dilvan,” she responded, blushing.

He wanted to smile, but refused. Instead, he said, “So no kids, huh?”

“Nope. I like ‘em, but I can’t mess this body up with kids.”

“Ah, I see.”
And boy did she have a body
, he thought. The downside of it all was Dilvan wanted kids...just not with Gabrielle.

The waitress brought over their appetizers and after walking away again, Isabella
asked, “What about you? You have little ones?”

“No. I have one niece and one nephew,
but I would like to have children of my own one day.”

Isabella nodded.

“My Mother supports many charities that help kids,” he added. “She is obsessed with doing charity work.”

“
That’s wonderful. What organizations are she involved with?”

“M
ostly her own. She founded
Padma’s Food House
, which is a program that helps to provide food for kids during the summer months. It’s also the name of her restaurant where she welcomes people for free of charge.”

“Free of charge?”

Dilvan nodded. “Yep. The only thing she asks is that patrons leave a donation in a drop box on the way out. She doesn’t really care how much they leave, but people are so generous, you know. People who have more money, leave more...people who can’t afford to leave a lot only leave maybe a few dollars, but at the end of the day, everyone, no matter how much money they have, gets to experience delicious food. She hired some world class chefs for that place.”

Isabella
smiled big and covered her mouth.

“What is it?” he asked her.

“Don’t tell me Padma Alexander is your Mother.”

A smile grew on his face. “Yes. As a matter of fact, she is.”

Isabella’s eyes grew even bigger. “Really?”

“Yep. Really.”

“Man, it’s a small world. I actually met her when she was doing a bone marrow drive in Virginia Beach and raising awareness for bone marrow donations...said she does those regularly in honor of the donor who came through for your Father.”

Dilvan nodded.
“Yes. Another foundation she started recently...the G.A. Foundation of Hope.”

“
Yes. That’s wonderful. How is your Father, by the way?”

“He’s doing a lot better. That bone marrow transplant saved his life.”

“Yeah. That’s what your Mom was telling me at the drive.”

“It was a rough time for
our family, you know. My Father is the glue that holds us all together. We may not get along all the time or see eye-to-eye, but we love each other. I actually think that my Father is the only person on this earth who understands me. I don’t know what I would’ve done if we lost him.”

Isabella nodded.
“Yeah...thank goodness her daughter-in-law was such a close match.”

Dilvan disguised a frown and asked,
“What do you mean?”

“You know,” Isabella said as a look of confusion brushed across her flustered face. “Your
Mother introduced me to her daughter-in-law, which would be your sister-in-law, right? I think her name was...um...Gabrielle. Yeah, that’s her...cute girl, brown-toned, natural hair...”

Dilvan frowned. No, Gabrielle wasn’t his sister-in-law. She was his wife! However, since Isabella didn’t know he was married, she could only assume that Gabrielle was his sister-in-law.

Dilvan’s chest rose in and out as he tried to process what Isabella was telling him. Seemed she knew the affairs of his family more so than he did. What was going on? Was Gabrielle really the
anonymous
donor that saved his Father’s life?

“Are you okay?”
Isabella asked when she saw how despondent he’d become.

“Yeah, fine,” he responded, then turned up the glass of wine to his mouth, finishing it then pouring another.

“Are you sure? You look a little flushed.”

“U
m...” He took two bills from his wallet, a hundred and a fifty, “I gotta go. Thanks for having drinks with me, and I hope your shoot goes well tomorrow.”

Isabella looked confused when she watched him stand up. “O
...kay. I hope yours do too.”

* * *

Dilvan took a taxi back to the hotel where he sat on the bed, furious and equally confused. It hadn’t dawned on him, until just now that the letters ‘G’ and ‘A’ in G.A.  Foundation of Hope possibly stood for Gabrielle Alexander.

Had his wife, the wom
an he loathed, saved his Father’s life? Back when his Father, Colin, needed the transplant, all the brothers were tested, but no one was a match. Family members stepped up and when there were no matches, Dilvan took to the streets, organizing a team to find a match for his Father. To get more people to get tested, he even offered ten thousand dollars to the person who was a match and donated marrow for him. But even the reward of money didn’t bring in a match. Then, one day, an anonymous donor showed up, was a close match, and Colin recovered for three months following the allogeneic transplant.

Since breaking out in a sweat,
Dilvan stepped out onto the balcony to get some fresh, Santa Monica air, rubbing his hands across his face. He couldn’t rest unless he found out if this was true. Who else to get the truth from but straight from his Father?

He dialed his
Father’s cell phone. Colin was in New York, meeting with investors and was no doubt in bed by now since it was 1:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Dilvan listened with sweaty palms as the phone run several times. When the voicemail picked up, he hung up and dialed the number again.

“Hello?”
Colin answered with a groggy voice.

“Hello,
Father. It’s Dilvan.”

“Dilvan...what’s the matter, son?
Are you okay?”

“U
m...yeah. I’m okay—”

“Then why on earth are you calling me at one in the morning?”

“I’m sorry...I’m in Cali, and um...I need to know something, Dad.”

“Okay, well spit it out so I can go back to sleep.
”

“When you were sick, back in February, and needed that bone marrow transplant, d
id you know who the donor was?”

“Dilvan, wh
y on earth is this an urgent matter to you?”

“I want to know.”

“Why, son?”

“Because I need to know. Was it Gabrielle?”

“Dilvan...”

“Just tell me. Was it?”

Colin blew an agitated breath.

“Dad, I wouldn’t be asking you if I didn’t need to know, now please just—”

“Yes! Yes, Dilvan. It was Gabrielle.”

Dilvan’s lips trembled
and for a moment, he could feel his heartbeats pounding against his chest with fierce thumps. “I don’t believe this. Mother told me it was an anonymous donor!”

“Dilvan, you need to calm down.”

“Calm down! And y’all have been lying to me?”

“L
isten, son...your Mother told me not to tell you that Gabrielle was the donor.”

“Why?”

“You’re going to have to take that up with her. Now I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow, so I’m going to get off this phone. If you decide to call your Mother, do me a favor...wait to call her at a decent hour. Goodnight, son.”

Colin hung up the phone and
Dilvan immediately dropped to his knees and covered his face. It was true. For the last six and a half months, he’d been torturing the woman who had saved his Father’s life. He wondered if Heshan and Prasad were aware that Gabrielle had done this for their Father. Was he the only one left in the dark? The one terrorizing Gabrielle?

He hadn’t realized, until this moment, how innocent she was
and how incredibly bad he’d been to her. He was trying to teach his Mother a lesson, but Padma had ended up exposing him for the selfish man he was – the man she constantly complained about.

Dilvan
held his head in agony. How could he be so cruel to Gabrielle? He hadn’t tried to get to know anything about her or her family. He degraded her, told her she was ugly, that she was a waste of space. He hadn’t truly realized her worth, that she had a heart of gold. That she was truly a gem. He hated to admit it but his Mother chose the perfect woman for him. He just didn’t want to see Gabrielle for her value.

CHAPTER 10

Gabrielle

- - -

“So Padma should
be here any minute now,” Tyson says, sitting directly across from me at the dining room table.

I don’t bot
her looking up at him but the pheromones floating across the table, which I attribute to testosterone, Zest body wash, aftershave and some luxurious cologne, blends deliciously with the aroma of bacon, ham and pancake syrup. Beatrice had cooked another mouth-watering breakfast, with waffles this time.

Tyson
was just finishing up his last waffle, then he wipes his mouth and asks, “Are you okay?” when he notice I hadn’t eaten much of anything.

I nod, my head still down
. I was worried about telling Padma all the things her son had done to me. If Dilvan ever found out, I’m certain he’d find me and strangle me to death, especially if Padma cut him out of the family inheritance.

“Gabrielle?”

“Yes.”

“Can you look at me? Please?”

I look at him, maintaining eye contact this time. The feeling of sitting at this table and looking people in the eyes is overwhelming for me. That’s just something Dilvan didn’t tolerate, something I’ve become accustomed to.

“There you are,” he
says, flashing a heart-stopping smiling. “When Padma leaves, we’re going to pack. Okay.”

I nod
again.

“How’d you sleep last night?”

“Good...better than I’ve slept in a long time.”

“
Good, now why aren’t you eating?”

“I’m not really hungry.”

“Why? Are you worried?”

Is this guy reading me that well
, I think to myself. That’s when I realize I don’t know him that well – that he’s here, he said, because Padma sent him here purposely to find out about my life with Dilvan. So just to clarify and to see if he still has the same story as yesterday, I ask, “Why’d Padma send you here again?”

“I told you...she wanted me to make sure you were okay.”

“And why would she think I wasn’t okay?”

Tyson grins. “You do realize we’ve already had this conversation, don’t you?”

“Have we?”

“Yes. I told you...Padma saw
some bruises on your neck...and everyone knows how cruel Dilvan can be. Why do you think his brothers don’t come over here anymore?”

“Okay, so in
the grand scheme of things, you are Padma’s clean-up guy?”

Tyson
laughs. “You’re making me sound like a mobster.”

I grin a little.

“Nah, I’m not Padma’s
clean-up guy
,” he says then laughs again.

“So
what do you do? Maintain her properties?”

“
Something like that.”

“And she sent you here to look after me?”

“She sent me here to find out what’s been going on
and
to determine if Dilvan had been treating you okay. But you haven’t been particularly forthcoming with me so she’s coming to find out for herself this morning. I understand you two are pretty close.”

“Yes. I love
Padma like a Mother.”

“Then make sure you pour your heart out to her like one.”

“But—”

“Well
hello, my daughter,” Padma says, stepping into the dining room, interrupting my conversation with Tyson.

“Hi,” I say
, then get up from the table to greet her with a hug.

Tyson
stands and says, “I’m going to give you ladies your privacy. Holla if you need me.” He disappears somewhere in the living room and now, it’s just Padma and I, sitting at the table. She takes a plate, grabs a few food items and asks, “How have you been, daughter?”

“U
m...” Before I can lie and say I’m
okay
, she says, “Tyson told me the story about what happened last night.”

I
frown. “He did?”

“Yes, now I want to hear it from you, dear. What has been going on in this house?”

“Padma, I don’t want to get Dilvan in any sort of trouble.”
Translation: I don’t want Dilvan to kill me.

“Forget about Dilvan!
” she snaps, her home country accent dominating her vernacular. “I made your Father a promise that I would take care of you, and I’ve been so busy with the business, that I have failed. Now I want to know what’s going on.”

“
Okay...um...last night, Dilvan forced himself on me and he pushed me to the floor. When I woke up, blood was underneath me and that’s when Tyson came in and found me. I’d had another miscarriage.”

“Another?
Meaning you’ve had one before?”

I nod, dab
the tears from my eyes and say, “Yes.”

Padma’s lips trembled. She was so angry, so troubled that she pushed her breakfast plate away and stood up, pacing back and forth by the dining ro
om table, her hands balled into fists. “What else has he done to you?”

“
Not sure if you were aware, but we have separate bedrooms. Every Tuesday and Thursday, he comes to my room to have sex with me...said I wasn’t good enough to sleep in his bed. He calls me names, makes me eat off of the floor...one time, he made eat my dinner in the rain...said if I didn’t finish it, I couldn’t come back in the house.”

I was so shaken at this point, I wasn’t sure if I could finish telling her all the things Dilvan had made me suffer through.

“What else?”

“
He yells at me...makes me call him ‘My Lord’...makes me stand naked in front of him...when you come over for breakfast, he kicks me underneath the table if he thinks I said, or am about to say, something out of line.”

I take a moment to catch my breath and dry more tears, then I say, “I tried so hard to love him,
Padma. I tried to make this marriage work. Even though I know I’m not deserving of him and that he could be with someone better than me—”

“No,” Padma interrupts. “You
deserve someone better than him!” She sits next to me again, holds my hands and say, “I’m so sorry, Gabrielle. I thought marriage would change him. This is my fault for trying to fix my flawed, narcissistic son...he’s so wrapped up in this materialistic culture...thinks the world owes him something that he neglects the people who love him. But he will never hurt you again.” She sucks in a breath and dabs her eyes. “Tyson is going to show you where you’ll be staying. I’ll take care of Dilvan.”