The convenient marriage - Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Zane had not moved even a finger since she placed his hand on the spot on her abdomen where the babies kicked. She stayed for a second more like this, before she realized her blunder.
Not a moment later, she quickly let go of Zane's hand. She knew nothing of this man, or of his marriage with the owner of this body, how could she be so bold to take his hand?
He could be a man truly in love with his wife, or not. Although, she was inclined to think the latter. Since she had opened her eyes until now, he felt cold to her, emotionless. A man seeing his wife wake up from a coma should have had his eyes in tears, but they were not, not a speck of feelings could be sensed from him. A clear indication of the strained relationship.
'I am sorry, I should not have done that!' She stated apologetically, with her eyes lowered.
He did not react immediately to her apology, he did not assure her it was alright, but it also did not feel he was angry at her. It was like the person that she had become had no effect on this man. Was he really her husband?
'In three days you will be able to come home, the doctor already informed me of this. We will see each other then. I will come when you are ready to be discharged.' Zane simply stated, he also did not look at her longer, as he was subtly checking the hand that she had let go of.
Left alone in the room, she sighed again. Just as she thought, the husband did not like his wife at all. How could he not visit her again, considering she was supposed to stay for at least three more days?
This situation made her feel pity for the wife whose soul no longer resided in her current body, but on the other hand she felt relieved. She was no actor, even faking she had amnesia was difficult, she thought. The doctor simply diagnosed her as having amnesia just because of a misunderstanding, were she purposely try to act like that to mislead him, she would never succeed.
Luckily, even if someone were to doubt her, fingerprints and DNA were still the same, and who would ever believe in reincarnation?
The next three days were uneventful, other than the usual checkups no one bothered her at all. Even the nurse only stayed quietly by her side and helped only when she needed.
Taking deep breaths to prepare herself, she sat on the couch waiting for Zane to come and get her. All the paper work was done, as soon as he arrived she would be discharged.
The quiet atmosphere was interrupted as were her thoughts, when the door suddenly opened. She looked towards it a bit frightened, not knowing what the future would bring, but for the children in her womb she would do her best.
Through the opened door, Zane stepped inside accompanied by a male nurse wheeling in a wheelchair.
'Are you ready?' He asked looking towards her, not even exchanging a greeting, before already preparing to take her away.
'Yes.' Aria replied. It seemed to her this was the best way to discuss with this man, ask and answer, without small talk.
He nodded and signaled the nurse to bring the wheelchair to her side.
The male nurse, not knowing the situation, only brought the wheelchair near her and waited for her to sit helped by her husband. If the husband was in the room, surely it would be rude to help her.
Aria did not wait for anyone's help, the growing independency she was slowly getting accustomed to these days was amazing. She liked being able to do things on her own. But she ignored the fact that her giant belly would be a difficult thing for her frail and weak body to move.
Trying to get up from the couch, where she was originally assisted by a nurse to sit on, she only managed to raise her body up a few inches pushing herself against the armrest, before she fell back again on her bottom.
Blushing a bit at the constant stare of Zane, to whom she did not dare look at, since they arrived, she opened her mouth helplessly.
'I am sorry, could you help me a bit?' She asked looking at the male nurse.
The latter was a bit baffled by the question, such a petite beautiful woman seemed to not hold any value to her husband? Even a total stranger would quickly pick up on it.
'Yes, of course!' He immediately replied, and after he made sure the brake for the chair was on, quickly went to her side and nimbly held her hand, assisting her up from the couch and then gently on the wheelchair.
He was still wary that her husband would offer to help her himself, but he never did.
So once they arrived in front of the car, the nurse no longer waited like the last time, embarrassing the beauty, and assisted her without waiting for any words from her.
Quite a weird couple, the male nurse reckoned, as he was looking in the direction the car went towards. Rich people also had their struggles too, he finally thought as he was wheeling in the wheelchair towards the entrance of the hospital.
Typing away on his laptop, still working, Zane no longer spared Aria a glance. But just once in a while, perhaps with the corner of his eyes he could see the small petite woman sitting obediently in her place. She did not open her mouth once to voice a complaint and ask him anything for that matter, even outside the window she did not gaze.
She only kept both her hands on her belly, and just from time to time massaged it. Perhaps the children moved again, he thought, and she was trying to sooth the pain theirs kicks inflicted, or maybe she was just hugging them affectionately, as her eyes seemed to only look towards the belly with a small smile on her face.
The quiet ride finished when the car entered a private residential area. Only then did Aria look up, thinking she would see the house, but it took another five more minutes, before the car arrived in front of the massive mansion.
Standing arranged in two rows, ten servants were lined up with an old butler in the front.
Fortunately this time, Aria did not need to suffer any embarrassment. Without even waiting for the master of the house to alight the car, the old butler had already opened the door for Aria and two servant girls also approached the car to help her.
'I have work to do, so I will not accompany you inside. Whatever you need, just ask the butler, he is already informed of your state and will help you out!' Zane briefly informed her, just as she was preparing to get out.
'Alright!' She answered to the first words he said, since they met in the hospital room. And did not stay longer in the car.
Having alighted with the help of the two girls, she greeted the butler who suggested to first help her sit, before talking about anything else. She nodded and slowly walked towards the house, by this time the car was nowhere in sight.
The view of the immense renaissance modern style mansion had made her a little unsettled at first. A mansion this size was surely occupied by many people, but such a worry was dispelled by the butler who informed her that the only residents were her and her husband.
Why was there a need for such a big mansion and ten or more servants for only two people? It baffled her, but she tried to not show it on her face.
The butler also eased even more her worries, when he briefly explained the current state of things. He did not dive into the personal relationship between the two masters, as it would overstep his boundaries, but she still learned the following things from him.
One, the previous owner of the body was the sole heiress of the Langdon inheritance, and also the sole member left of the main family, after the death of her grandfather.
Two, the Langdon's and the Black's had shared a friendship for generations, a friendship that started with the great-grandparents of both families. Between the lines, she also understood that unfortunately each generation after the great-grandparents' one had only male representatives for both sides, or female representatives respectively. The previous generation consisted of female heirs, the mother of Aria and the mother of Zane.
The current generation of Zane and Aria, was the first in which the families had opposite gender heirs, so finally their families had managed to merge the two families into one, as it was a wish from long ago.
In conclusion, it was a political marriage. The butler of course did not tell her that, but the alienation of her husband and the little insight in the history of the two families, made it an easily deducible reason.
Three, the mother of Zane was the only one of Zane's parents still alive, but she was currently travelling abroad, so she would not see her for a while more.
And fourth, Zane was the president and owner of a large conglomerate and would be most of the time working, it meant he was rarely home.
Aria listened in between the lines of each information she got from the butler. The old man was quite intelligent and was experienced in his work. Everything he had said to her were normal things of everyday life and family history, but she realized he was quite thoughtful. He had, in a sense, justified the absence of her husband, without actually saying it, and had also excused him for the absence he will show in the future as well.
Absence that started from the day she arrived and continued even after two weeks had passed. That's right, Aria had not seen Zane for more than half a month, but who was counting?
Living day by day in the mansion, mostly surrounded by the servants, she had formed a tight bond with them. It also helped that the previous soul had rarely been present at the mansion, as she lived separately in an apartment on her own, and would only return from time to time, and even then only briefly stay. So the servants were not aware of her previous personality.
In this way, even if she acted too differently from the original owner, they would not be able to tell. She could display her usual self without too much worry.
As such, every day was bliss. After a sumptuous breakfast with all the servants in the kitchen, as she had insisted from the first days that it would be too lonely for her to eat alone in the dining room, she would spend her days doing everything she liked and never had the chance to.
Being as happy as she could be made her glow, and the cheerful personality that she possessed when she was much younger showed itself day by day more.
When she had previously lived in the orphanage she was the big sister of the smaller children, she was the one who made them all happy. Even though she was born sick she never showed it, but as her disease got more and more severe, and she was moved permanently to the hospital, she lost her happy side, she changed into the gloomy personality she had just before she died.
Originally she was a people's person and by the end of those two weeks since she came at the mansion, it showed completely.
Her activities ranged from painting, a hobby she discovered she actually had a natural talent at, as most of the time she had only sketched on paper at the hospital before, to going on walks around the huge outdoor perimeter of the mansion to regain her strength, to baking cakes and cook with the girls, to playing chess with the butler, to reading books from the extensive library of the mansion, to singing karaoke with the servant girls. But her most favorite activity still remained knitting small clothes for the bundles of joy that were steadily growing, while she was sitting in the living room, humming nursery rhymes.
Getting up in the middle of the night, as she found herself doing these days, she slowly sat up. Her stomach growled as she sighed, she was hungry again.
She ate more and more each day, but it was still not enough, she was always hungry. Eating for three was not easy at all. It also did not help that the girls kept stuffing her with food, because she had been too thin and pale when she barely came home, they said. As she ate, she felt like eating even more.
And finally it had come to the situation that she was getting hungry even at night.
Moving her large belly, she walked slowly to the kitchen, making sure she made as little noise as possible. She did not want to bother the servants, they were already at her beck and call each day, she could not disturb them even at night.
Walking to the kitchen she breathed easily, fortunately the kitchen was placed a little further from the bedrooms, as such she could make as much noise as she wanted to here, and nobody would be troubled by it.
'Well then, what should we eat Peanut A and Peanut B?' She asked the small children, using the pet names she had made up for them.
'Should we just boil some pasta with some tomato sauce?' She asked looking in the fridge. There were already a lot of leftovers in it, but she wanted something warm and fresh.
Pasta would be easy it would just take five six minutes to boil and the sauce was already bought premade in a jar and would only need to be warmed a bit, so in all it would only take 7 or 8 minutes.
Receiving a kick from her belly she took it as an affirmative answer.
"Alright Peanut A we shall make some pasta! Peanut B as you have not voiced your opinion, I shall take it that you silently agree!' She affirmed spirited and giggled. Don't ask her how she knew, but she kept getting the feeling that one baby which she named Peanut A was the more energetic of the two, and Peanut B was the quieter one, even when he kicked he did so gently like he was afraid to hurt her.
Even the doctor had said that one of the baby was more lively and active than the other one, when she had the ultrasound, so she had kept differentiating them based on their kicks and movements.
Humming a nursery rhyme, she started to prepare her midnight snack.
She was so entranced by what she was doing, as she was singing, that she failed to notice the handsome man watching her by the door.