Thief?!

Her light steps fell on the floor as she passed the corridor with the bird-cage in her hand but a sudden sound of a booming thunder startled her form, causing her to yelp in surprise and her hold on the cage to lose, only for it to end up dropping on the floor.

Oh my!

Her heartbeat stopped. Oh no! Her precious birds! She quickly crouched down, unaware of being watched by someone's heated gaze.

"I'm sorry. Did it hurt?" She cooed at her birds lovingly before hurriedly checking if they've gotten hurt because of her clumsiness.

After making sure that all of them were fine, she sheepishly smiled and apologized to them as if they could understand her words really well.

"I won't let it happen next time, I promise, okay?" She apologized to them. "Today you all will be staying in my bedroom, sounds good?" She giggled. "You see it's going to rain soon and I know that none of you like it." She stood up and was about to bend down to pick the cage, but as if finally feeling something amiss that someone was watching her, she looked up, getting instantly rigid when she saw the looming silhouette of a man.

"..." Her.

"..." The extremely good-looking man.

So what if good-looking, not more than her husband she was sure.

Wait! A man!

Thief?!

She brainstormed with an unexpected assumption and then she realized that they've been staring at each other for awhile. Wait! Her face!

"Ah!" She quickly covered her face. A thief saw her face! Nothing came to her mind as her feet felt cold and body trembled in fear.

She should run or scream or hide. Yes! Hide! With that thought she quickly hid herself in the nearest space possible, wrapping the curtain around herself like a cocoon.

Oh no! Oh no!

However, on hearing the sound of someone running toward her, she looked up. Spotting the head maid, her eyes turned moist with relief.

"What happened, mistress? Are you alright?"

She was here.

Fei hurriedly hid herself behind her savior and accusingly pointed her finger toward the..handsome culprit.

A handsome thief.

"T-Thief." She managed to voice out a mumble, but what she heard the very next moment almost caused the ground beneath her feet to slip.

"Master?"

"..." Fei.

H-Husband?

Nothing came to her mind at that moment so she did what she thought was for the best. Run!

She ran to her bedroom as fast as she could, not giving any response to the maids in the hallway while they watched her with concern.

What happened to the mistress? The only thought inside their mind. Why is she running as if she has seen a ghost?

Fei quickly shut the door close and leaned on it, huffing and breathing irregularly.

What... has... she... done..?

What has she done?! Oh god!

She covered her face and pitifully whined, remembering the way she acted in front of her...husband. That extremely good-looking man was her husband.

She is such a fool!

Remembering how she called him a thief, her already moist eyes turned more red and her face turned fiery pink in embarrassment.

This isn't how.. she'd always thought of welcoming him. Remembering the look on his face, she was sure that he'd be thinking that she was crazy.

Knock! Knock!

A polite knock on the door gave her a jolt of surprise. Oh lord! W-Was.. it him?

She couldn't utter a word when she heard the voice of the maid.

"Mistress, is everything alright?"

The maid was about to knock again when the door suddenly opened and she was pulled inside with an amazing amount of force.

Swish! Thak!

Shutting the door back, Fei turned toward the maid, looking troubled while the clueless maid was looking at her in shock.

Fei gulped and fiddled with her fingers as she spoke in an extremely low voice,"H-He... is here."

Who? The maid's questioning gaze made her feel small and weak as she tried again.

"H-Husband.. he's back."

"..." The maid.

Okay....WHAT?!

...

"What do you think I should wear? This green one.. or this? My mother sent this to me on my birthday."

"..."

"Do you think he'll be angry at me? I know I did wrong calling him that...but he should've informed me that he was coming back, right?"

"..."

"Am I looking w-weird? What if he doesn't like me?"

"..."

Weird?

After all the mess she created with her dresses and jewels scattered around the floor, she wore a red cheongsam dress with flowery patterns. The dress highlighted her fair skin and complimented her already rosy cheeks.

The maid helped her get ready as she applied just a little amount of makeup on her already pretty face and made her eyes look more round and bigger.

The maid was fascinated as she couldn't help envying the master for having such a beautiful wife.

Minutes passed and she was ready.

Fei looked at herself in the mirror and still looked nervous as she played with the pearl necklace around her neck, the one he gifted her that day.

Will he.. be upset? Sigh.

All kinds of thoughts swirled around her mind. Is she even looking presentable? How should she apologize to him? Will they talk? Can she talk? Will he talk?

"Mistress, you can do this." The maid tried to cheer her on as she helped her stand up. In return, Fei gave her a smile and nodded.

"Do you want me to accompany you?"

"N-No! I'll be fine." She can't be a coward all the time. She can face him. He was her husband after all. It won't be that hard, right?

...

"Were things fine while I was gone?" He asked and shrugged off the coat while the head maid behind him helped him take it off, slowing a bit in his action when he had a thought of her.

He lowered his head and worked on his cufflinks before asking further in a low voice."How had she been doing?"

"Mistress?" The head maid responded mockingly and handed his coat to another maid, shunning her away with her stern eyes as she answered in a flat tone."She had been well."

"Just that?" He chuckled in his velvety voice and combed his raven hair back when he heard another response which got his eyes to unfocus.

"How do you expect an abandoned bride to live while waiting for her husband for two years?"

Realizing that she has spoken out of her title, she rephrased her words as if the earlier question wasn't exactly what she meant by heart."The girl has been docile for as long as I can remember.."

Yang raised his eyebrows when he noticed the bitterness of the old lady, the lady even his father respected in his living days.

"It's good to know that she has been docile and didn't create much trouble which I was expecting at first, for the past years surprisingly I almost forgot that I had a wife in home," he said while rolling his sleeves up to his elbow and nodded as if satisfied with the fact of her being docile.

His eyes flashed, remembering her innocent reaction after seeing him. She was hiding her face as if it was a way of her covering her modesty. The corner of his lips curled up unknowingly.

"Many work issues were over there and some things took a while to be solved." He faked an excuse which always works out for him or so he thinks, unaware that this time he was using this excuse on a person, that too a woman who had lived fifty years of her life and who wasn't as naive as the young bride that he'd abandoned.

"So you want the whole world to believe that leaving her like this wasn't your intention to forget about her existence or even more so abandon her in the first place?" The old lady scoffed, not giving any second thought to her words as she talked to the family successor as if he was her own son.

Son, yes. She has raised the successor of this noble family like her own blood but after what he did to that innocent soul, she is doubting if she had raised him well.

Yang raised his brows teasingly."You seem to like her a lot."

"I pity her." The old lady said and couldn't hold back another scoff as she blurted out."And I also know that the master only came here for business and not to reconcile with your only family."

"Family who?" Yang smirked."The little girl?" And then he turned around, only to see the disappointed look on the old lady's face. He swallowed back what he was about to say when the head maid spoke up again, this time without any hesitation.

"The girl had been thinking about you every day and night, there wasn't a single day she'd not prayed for your well-being. She has devoted her whole life to you and also tried to amend things between you and herself in the past only for you to stomp over her love and care so heartlessly."

Head maid couldn't hide the pained look in her eyes as she talked about the one she has grown to love. "The girl has been through a lot and all she asks for is a speck of your affection. Was it that hard for you to show her even the slightest bit of care through a telephone call, master?"

Collecting herself after the outburst, the old woman turned around to leave the living room but then she paused and completed her sentence in the threshold.

"It'd be better if you leave in the same manner as you did last time and not give hope to the poor soul."

There was no guilt in the man's face as he watched the old lady walk out. He didn't say anything and tiredly placed both of his hands on the desk.

Lowering his head, he sighed. True that he won't be staying here for long as he had something to deal with first.

He didn't give a thought before coming here, well it can be said that he wasn't a good husband neither is he a good man.

He wasn't a good man, never was.

...