The Billionaire's Pretend Wife (Isabella)

When Jacob called Jason, he was still in bed, with his lover lying in his arms. His first thought at seeing Jacob's call was that there was an emergency at work, but then he remembered their meeting the previous night.

If that was why Jacob was calling him in the morning, his plan to patch things up with his wife must have failed. Unless he was so happy with the outcome and couldn't wait to share the good news. Shifting away from the woman lying next to him, he received the call. "Morning," he greeted, his voice sleepy and raspy. "What's the news?"

Jacob didn't bother with greetings, he just went straight to the point. "She doesn't want my money."

Jason scratched his morning stubble. "Well, that's a tough one. If gifts or money don't work, then you should aim for the heart. If you've hurt her feelings, trying to use money to get forgiveness might make it worse."

"You think?" Jacob said grouchily. "And you didn't think to say that last night?"

"Well, I mean money sure helps, but you need to ask yourself whether it really fixes the root of the problem. If you make it seem like you think your money can fix everything and make her forget whatever it is that you did, that might backfire. You can't be obnoxious about it. Maybe you made her feel like you were throwing your money at her because you thought she was throwing a useless tantrum and thought money was a quick fix."

"I wasn't obnoxious," Jacob snapped. Besides, he hadn't exactly thrown money at her. He had simply given her his bank card to make her life easier. And, in this case, money did fix the problem, didn't it? Well, half the problem. His inability to regain her trust was the main issue, wasn't it?

Jason sighed. "Since it seems that you really hurt her feelings, you need to do something that tugs at her heartstrings. Know what's better than money when you want to show you're aware you were an asshole and truly want to make up for it?"

"What?"

"Flowers."

"Flowers," Jacob deadpanned.

"Right. They are romantic, sentimental, and women love them. There's no better way to show her that you care about her feelings."

"So you're telling me that flowers are more valuable than money?"

"Sentimentally, yes, and that's where you seem to be lacking, isn't it? Flowers bring along smiles and soften hearts. It'll be easier for her to see that you're not a total asshole if you make her smile. If that doesn't work, you're doomed."

"Are you calling me an asshole indirectly?"

Jason's eyes widened. He had forgotten that Jacob was not only his boss, but also a pretty petty one. "No, of course not. I was just bringing what's probably going on in her mind to perspective." "This had better work," Jacob said and hung up.

Jason put his phone aside and laid back in bed. His boss's wife seemed a little too hard to please, but he was confident the flowers would work. They always did for him.

Back at the apartment, Jacob made a call to a flower shop to have roses delivered to the house. He figured the grander the gesture, the better it worked.

***

In the evening, Isabelle made her way towards her apartment after a long day at work. There was nothing wrong at work, per se, but all day long, she couldn't stop thinking about the situation with Jacob. She wished things could go back to the way they were before he accused her of stealing the ring. But how could they when he still wasn't addressing what he had done wrong?

What was the use of him giving her a bank card to pay for her expenses when he didn't trust her? If he thought she was capable of stealing from him, she rather preferred that he kept his distance from her. Even if she had accepted his card-not that she ever would in their current arrangement-it wouldn't have been of any help to her. She had no problem with her daily expenses. What she needed was money for Ruth's surgery. And that was something neither of them could afford to pay.

As long as there was no trust between them, it was better to lead separate lives.

When she opened the door to their apartment, she blinked as she walked onto a carpet of red rose petals. She frowned, thinking that she must have entered the wrong house. But no. Her key wouldn't have worked otherwise.

As she walked further into the living room, she realised that the entire apartment was filled with roses. She imagined this was how a hotel would decorate a suite for a newly married couple. And then some more. Heavens, the place seemed to have more roses than a flower shop. They must have cost a fortune!

When Isabelle walked into the house, Jacob rose from his place on a sofa in the living room, wanting to see her reaction and ask for her forgiveness yet again. She looked surprised, alright, but the frown on her face wasn't what he was expecting. He would have expected a more elated expression. Shit, had he fucked up again?

When her eyes finally rose to him after taking in the flowers in the house, she asked, "Did you buy all these?"

He took a step towards her. "Yeah. I-"

"How much did you spend on them?" she asked, her frown deepening as she turned around to take in the flowers again. "There's a ton of them!"

Yeah, that was the plan...

Isabelle couldn't even begin to fathom how much the flowers had cost. A single bouquet of red roses cost around twenty bucks. The flowers in the living room looked like they could make a hundred bouquets o more. Why would he spend such money on flowers? He must have used up money worth a month's income. Unless he found somewhere flowers were sold extremely cheap!

On second thought, she realised that she didn't have the right to scold him about his spending habits. As she had reminded him that morning, she was just his nominal wife. Her spending habits were none of his business, and his habits shouldn't concern her either.

Even knowing that, it still bothered her that he had wasted so much money on flowers.

Sighing, she placed her bag on a couch and removed her coat. "Let's put the flowers into bags and see if you can return them to the flower shop."

She sure hoped the shop accepted returns. Otherwise, whatever amount of money he had splashed on them would go to waste!

As Isabelle got busy picking up the flowers strewn around the room, Jacob remained rooted to the ground, shocked. And embarrassed. He hadn't even gotten a chance to tell her why he had gotten them-she had probably figured out and decided it was a stupid move on his part.

Whatever sentimental value Jason had been talking about was obviously entirely lost on her. But he should have known. There was no way Isabelle was going to walk into a house full of flowers and not instantly think of the cost.

As far as she knew, he was a part-time worker who didn't make a lot of money. He doubted she had for even a second thought of how romantic it was before deciding it was an unreasonable move. The magic broken-if it had been there to begin with-he silently joined her in picking up the flowers. He was so going to tear Jason into pieces when he saw him next.