Husband With Benefits
Chapter 154: A Double Date

Chapter 154: A Double Date

"To happiness."

Gabe, Demetri, Nora and Arabelle raised their glasses in a toast as they two couples sat in a small, rather cosy restaurant ready to share a meal. As Nora took a sip of her drink, her eyes met Gabe’s who looked at her gratefully for having convinced Demetri for this date.

Nora tipped her head in his direction before turning her gaze to Arabelle who seemed to have watched the entire exchange and understood that it was orchestrated by Nora.

Placing her flute in front of her, Arabelle took a deep breath and spoke," Nora, I think I owe you an apology for my reprehensible behavior towards you the last time we met."

Nora raised an eyebrow at that. This was not what she had expected. But of course, she knew that this was classic green tea behavior, pretending to be nice and apologizing. She’d have rather expected Arabelle to be a bit original.

Knowing the apology was as sincere as a snake apologizing for being poisonous, she shrugged it off and answered," As long as you don’t repeat it..."

Arabelle’s fingers clenched in her lap, and she gave a smile with gritted teeth as she said," Of course. But I hope you will understand that I always believed that Demetri would be my husband and so I loved him. Seeing him suddenly appear with another woman, that too someone who is so much younger than him, was a shock to me."

Nora nodded agreeably while Demetri did not even look at her while the entire drama was being played out, instead looking at Gabe who sat there motionlessly, as if he had not just heard his fiancé announcing that she had always loved his brother.

However, before Arabelle or Nora could add anything to the conversation, Gabe spoke up," We should not linger over the past which is gone. Let bygones be bygones. We’ve already toasted to happiness, let’s toast to a new future."

As the toasts were done and the dishes were brought to their private room one after the other, Nora realised that Arabelle was not as simple as she had deemed. Even though Sara had been an excellent actor, almost convincing her that she had changed, Arabelle was unlike that.

She seemed to have only changed her behaviour towards her, remaining as arrogant and aloof to the wait staff as she usually was. She also noticed the glances that were passed between Gabe and Arabelle as well as the light touches.

From there she turned to see Demetri who also seemed to be noticing these things. There were times when Arabelle would look at Gabe, when she thought no one was looking and sent him adoring gazes. It was quite a shocker to her.

As Arabelle excused herself to use the washroom, Gabe looked at Demon and raised an eyebrow," What do you think? Isn’t the doctor’s hypnosis working?"

Nora widened her eyes as she realized what was happening. Gabe had somehow hypnotized Arabelle into liking him?

Gabe shook his head as he saw her expression and sighed as he explained," She hasn’t been hypnotized in the right sense of the word, Nora."

Nora knew she was looking totally unconvinced, so Gabe quickly looked around to make sure that Arabelle wasn’t returning and explained," Do you remember that you mentioned Arabelle reminded you of your half-sister Sara when we danced together? Sara is mentally unstable because she has always been obsessed with you like her mother. It seems her life’s only aim was to destroy you."

"Recently, Arabelle showed me a few reports from her own psychological evaluations in the past, giving me a better understanding about how she became obsessed with Demetri when she was a young teenager. Instead of helping her get over the obsession and getting her psychological help, her mother fed into the obsession to keep her compliant. I knew the only way I could help Arabelle was to get help. So I contacted an expert. She has been using psychological cues and subconscious hypnosis to help Arabelle."

"It is a reckless game you are playing Gabe. This might make Arabelle more unstable and dangerous, and you might end up being even more hurt." Demon commented while Nora nodded her head. She couldn’t even imagine what the repercussions would be if something triggered Arabelle.

"I know that, Demon. But this is the only viable plan that I can think of now."

"You can let me handle her." Demon offered.

Gabe’s eyes hardened and for the first time, Nora witnessed hostility against Demetri in his eyes, shocking her.

"I won’t abandon her to die, Demon. I love her and if that means saving her from you and herself, I will do it."

Demetri did not deny that his method would indeed result in Arabelle’s death and Nora suddenly wanted to intercede. Softly, she called out," Gabe... aren’t you as obsessed with Arabelle as she is with Demetri?"

Gabe paused in the act of eating but before he could have said anything, Arabelle returned, causing everyone to quieten up.

As she sat back in her seat, she smiled at the other, before raising an eyebrow," Why are you quite all of a sudden? Were you all talking about me?"

Demetri quietly returned to eating his food while Gabe quickly shook his head," We just finished the discussion about this dish. It’s sweet here while at other places it is a bit savoury. Why don’t you try it and tell me which is better? Sweet or savoury?"

Gently Gabe placed a small offering of the dish on Arabelle’s place while Nora and Demetri could only watch in silence. However, to Nora, it felt as if she was seeing Gabe slowly destroy himself. It felt like a movie scene where you could see that the hero was running towards his death but you could only watch in silence, unable to stop it...

She only hoped that Gabe’s race towards his own destruction, did not end up ruining everything.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆NovelFire