The Billionaire's Pretend Wife (Isabella) novel Chapter 81

She gave Seth a worried look. “I wanted to get to Hillside.”

“You can’t make it, not tonight. You should be indoors, Isabelle. Where do you live? I can take you back quickly before I go home.”

She swallowed and bit her lip. She didn’t live anywhere, not anymore.

“I…I–”

The wind blew stronger, and a wave of rain reached them in the back of the shelter. Seth shook his head and reached for her suitcase. “Get in the car.”

She watched as he took her luggage to the back of the car and then opened the passenger door to her. The rain beat down on him as he waited for her to hurry over.

She went and ducked into the car. He shut the door after her and went around to the driver’s side.

Isabelle noticed the sudden change in temperature. The inside of the car was warm–a lot better than being out in the cold.

As soon as Seth sat down in the driver's seat, he shrugged off his coat and reached over to place it around her shoulders. She tried to reject the offer, but he insisted.

“I don’t want you catching a cold,” he told her. “What’s your address?”

His gentle gesture, and his caring voice, and the look of concern on his face were all too much. It occurred to her that Seth was one of the few people, besides Ruth, who had always been nice to her.

First in college, and then at work. Even if he had once had romantic interest in her, he never treated her differently just because she refuted his advances. He, too, like Ruth, had always been in her corner. Unconditionally.

She couldn’t have stopped the rush of emotions that rocked her if she tried. She hid her face in her hands as she doubled over, crying for possibly the hundredth time that day.

Concerned, Seth reached over and touched her shoulder gently. “Isabelle, what’s wrong?”

She shook her head as she tried to fight the wave of tears.

Seth’s touch disappeared. Seconds later, he touched the back of her hand. “Here.”

He was giving her a wad of tissues. She took them from him and wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

“What’s wrong?” he asked when she sat back up, a little composed. “You can talk to me, please. I hate seeing you like this.”

She fidgeted with the tissues in her hands as she stared bleakly out of the window. “I don’t have anywhere to go,” she told him.

He was quiet for several seconds. But he didn’t ask questions. Instead, he said, “I have an empty guest room at my place. If you don’t mind, you can stay there tonight.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Don’t mention it,” he said as he started the car and got back into traffic.

Seth lived farther away from the city centre. They were barely able to get to their destination before it became impossible to drive in the storm.

He drove his car into the basement parking lot of a modern flat building, and when they left the car, they got into an elevator. He pressed the button for the tenth floor.

Isabelle was glad that he wasn’t asking questions about why she had nowhere to go. She couldn’t get into that without crying. Not yet. Maybe the next day, she would be more stable. But, what would she tell him, anyway?

That she had run away from her marital home?

That she had been living a lie, and she was now facing the consequences?

When they got off the elevator, Seth led the way to a door at the end of the hallway. He pressed a code into a panel on the door and pushed it open.

“After you,” he told her with a warm smile.

“Thank you,” she said and stepped over the threshold. He came after her with her luggage in tow. After they changed out of their shoes and into slippers, he brought her farther into the apartment, walking down a short hallway before getting to the living room.

The living room was expensively furnished, but not in an in-your-face kind of way. It was laid-back and had a homely atmosphere. It suited him.