Ciara was in the large living room, performing her usual finger magic on her computer keyboard, with her gaze fixated on its screen.

She did not notice the man who had just entered, or maybe she did notice him but decided not to acknowledge his presence and continued with her work.

The man stared at her for quite a moment, his intense gaze seemed like it was piercing deeply into her skin. He said nothing nor moved away from his position.

Ciara felt the gaze was too intense and heated her. “What is it?” She suddenly asked, still not sparing him a glance. “You are staring too much, it's creepy, and it's making my skin crawl.”

He scoffs at her words as he finds them offensive. “Your skin is crawling, eh?” He repeated huskily, with a trail of mocking in his voice. “I see…"

Ciara wanted to ignore his presence, but she just could not, no matter how much she tried to. “Did you have anything you wanted to say?” She muttered in questioning, her voice far from friendly, glancing at him. “Or maybe, you just decide to stand, hovering over me for no reason?”

“And what if, eh?” He replied nonchalantly with a question instead, probably he intended to anger her.

“Well, your presence is distracting, yeah. As you can see, I'm busy here. I'll need no interruption, Ryan —not even from you.” She told him plainly, her choice of tone saying it all. “You know what that means, don't you?”

The guy, whose name turns out to be Ryan, laughed lightly. “Ah, yeah. Of course…" He nodded his head curtly. “I do, you don't need to say much. Alright?”

“If you can excuse me, then…" She said in a drawing tone, expecting him to excuse her, as she had expected.

“I'm afraid I can't.” His voice was plain and as well as still as water.

Ciara suddenly raised her head. “You can't, eh?” She felt the mocking in his voice, her gaze now fixated on him. “Why —?”

She couldn't help but wonder why he likes taunting her, can't he just let her breathe normally —even if it's just for a day?

For the past few months, she had thought she would adapt to his nonchalant attitude and get used to him as the day rolled by, but soon, she was forced to realize her thoughts were nothing but mirage.

This man —he would never stop getting on her nerves. This minute, he would treat her like she never existed and the next minute, he would be on her neck.

After a few seconds of silence, he managed to break the silence with his cold voice. “Wait here, I'll be right back.” He told her.

Ciara felt the coldness in his voice hit her in the guts, and before she could reply to him, he was out of her sight, already racing through the stairs.

“Arrgh…!” A soft groan escaped her throat as she clenched her fist in a tight ball. She was pissed off, but she managed to control it, calming herself mentally.

She breathed in slowly before returning her attention to her system. Barely ten minutes had passed before Ryan returned and with him was a file he was holding.

“Have it…" He muttered as he stretched it toward her, but before she could figure out what he was stretching towards her, he dropped it on her system's keyboard, and a heavy clapping sound erupted.

Ciara was burning red. “What the…"

Ryan interrupted her abruptly, giving her no chance to complete her words. “Go through it, woman.” His husky voice sounded like he was commanding her.

Her heart clenched tightly at how he addressed her —woman. Is he not supposed to be more formal, even if he would only address her by her name?

This was because she was not just any random woman, she was his wife —his contracted wife at that. She could not even recall the last time she heard his name from his lips.

Yeah, they might not be bound by love but only papers, Ciara's ears still ache to hear him call her by name, but that day won't just come —never!

Sucking her heavy breath in, she managed to let words escape her throat. “What's in there?” She muttered in questioning, not acknowledging the document on her system.

“I believe you are a literate woman. You can read, can't you?” His rhetorical question was nonchalant and he sounded really rude.

He is succeeding in pissing her off, he is. Ciara did not want to do as he had commanded her, but she found herself unconsciously picking the document.

She couldn't help but wonder what was inside as she slowly opened it, ready to feed her curiosity. Steadily, she ran her eyes through the content of the document.

Her eyes suddenly widened in shock —no, the shock is an understatement to what she felt at the moment. Her breath seized almost instantly, unable to comprehend its content.

“Tell me this isn't true, Ryan. Tell me it's a stupid prank you decide to pull on.” She blurted out as the document dropped from her fragile grip.

Like it was natural or maybe just a normal routine for him, Ryan picked up the document from the floor and dropped it right on her thighs.

“Well, I'm sorry to say, but this is not a prank, woman.” He replied to her, carelessly picking his words. “I'll implore you to believe whatever you read there because it's true.”

Ciara shook her head all of a sudden like she just fell out of a trance. “I won't fall for this, it's not true.” She muttered. Ciara sounded more like she was only talking to herself, but her voice was audible enough to Ryan's hearing.

“It is true.” He stated plainly, forcing a ball pen into her right palm. “Sign it, woman. Sign the divorce paper now…!”