The Faceless Billionaire Celebrity Wife-Chapter 337: Bonus Child.

The kitchen was filled with the warmth of a simmering pot of stew, the soft hiss of vegetables sautéing in a pan, and the earthy aroma of rosemary. Ruthlyn moved gracefully from counter to stove, her hands busy but her mind elsewhere. She stirred the pot, her brow furrowed slightly like one deeply considering something.

"Hey," she called out, her voice barely higher than a whisper.

Behind her, Enoch was leaning against the kitchen island, lining up the groceries to be arranged in the refrigerator. His brows raised slightly at the silent, and tired, call.

"Hey... you alright?" he asked, then turned completely, "Do you need me to do anything?"

"No, absolutely not!" Ruthlyn replied, "It’s just... I’m not trying to be selfish here or anything but... I was just thinking..." she trailed off again, biting down on her lower lips nervously, "Just, never mind."

Brows furrowing in confusion, Enoch dropped the bottles of milk in his hands and walked around, going to stand behind her.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

Without turning to look at him, Ruthlyn replied, "You didn’t. You think I wouldn’t have thrown you out of here immediately you offended me, if that was the case?" she laughed, a dry one. "You don’t believe me, Young Master DeLoach. Might I remind you that I’m the one in charge right now; both at home and at work?"

"Oh... that’s the problem?" he murmured thoughtfully, a slight frown starting to form on his face.

"What is?"

"Work. With Ethan totally unavailable and Raymond handling other stuffs, we haven’t been able to take breaks or even leave work at normal hours," he stated. "I understand if you’re tired. Sleeping in hotels for days just so we can get to work earlier the next day is insane."

Ruthlyn’s eyes widened in shock with each extra word he spoke. Who was tired here? Who had complained about sleeping in an hotel all through the day and had insisted that they come straight home instead?

"No, Enoch, you won’t put words in my mouth. I wanted to talk about a totally different mat—"

"No, Ruthlyn," Enoch echoed. He schooled his face into a persuasive expression, "Should we just dump it all and abscond? They won’t be able to find us, I promise."

Ruthlyn flashed a fake smile that disappeared almost as it showed, "Thanks, but no thanks. Enoch," she called, her voice as serious as it could get.

"Sorry, I won’t bring that up again," he responded, even before knowing why she was calling him. "What were you saying again?"

"I just thought you might have forgotten that if everything was alright... we would have been preparing for our wedding right now. We’d have had our wedding tomorrow. Everyone totally forgot about it, which is understandable but..."

"Well, I didn’t forget," Enoch interjected, "Mum and Dad didn’t, Ethan didn’t too, they mentioned it this morning. And I’m sure Shikera wouldn’t mind even if we were to go on with the wedding tomorrow, but do you want to?"

"Of course I do," Ruthlyn replied without thinking.

"That was fast. You didn’t even think about it," his voice was low. "We can postpone if it’s not what you really want at this moment. I... I don’t want us to get married only because we are obligated to do so. I don’t want us getting into this only because our parents planned it. I want you to get married to me because you really want to. Because you really want to spend forever with me."

Ruthlyn was quiet, patiently listening to him as he talked. When she was sure he was done talking, a small smile curved on her face as she asked, "So... want me to propose?"

Enoch jerked his head up to meet her eyes, searching her face for assurance. Assurance that she was really trying to pass across the message he was thinking of right now.

Ignoring him completely, Ruthlyn placed the lid on the pot and continued, "I bought a ring actually. Might not be as expensive as you would like but I put my heart into it." She tucked her hand in the back pocket of the shorts she was wearing and pulled out a small box.

The sight of the small, familiar looking, box was all Enoch needed to snap out of his thoughts. What the heck was he doing? Ruthlyn was about to propose to him and he was simply staring?!

"No!" he exclaimed, bursting into a fit of nervous giggles. "You have always been the first to act all these while. Admitted it’s your fault the next morning after both of our—I won’t call it mistake—first connection. And now this? Not today; I’m stealing it from you."

Leaving Ruthlyn with her mouth parted in surprise, he didn’t wait for her reply before sprinting towards the stairwell from where he headed straight to his room. Using one hand to pull out the drawer so he could retrieve the small ring box within it, he used the other hand to send a quick text to Raymond.

[Apologies; can’t follow the lineup we set earlier. Ruth almost proposed to me! Sorry.]

His fingers found the box and he didn’t hesitate to grab it. He rushed back out of the room, down the stairs to the kitchen where Ruthlyn was still waiting for him. She was still standing in the same spot he left her, by the simmering pot with the small ring box cradled in her palm.

"Did I say something wrong?" she asked, as soon as he appeared at the doorway to the kitchen.

Enoch didn’t reply. Instead, he walked to the cooker and switched it off.

Eyes widening in shock, Ruthlyn started to ask, "What are you—"

"We can come back to it... Or just go on to do something more interesting," Enoch interrupted her. He slipped his hand in hers and led her out the kitchen, and out the front door to the lake side.

They stood at the edge, the calm waters acting as a perfect backdrop to their images.

"Okay," Enoch began, "Just get everything out of your mind. Everything that happened this past few minutes, I mean.We’re starting all over again and uhm... sorry about this, the lake. It’s the closest to a beautiful scene right now."

Ruthlyn’s lips curved into a small smile as she gave a small nod, "Okay. Let’s get straight into it."

He nodded, "Ruthlyn," he called her name softly, breaking through her concentration.

"I’m listening."

Enoch hesitated, the confidence he was feeling just a few minutes earlier wavering just slightly, but he pushed forward. "I’ve been thinking about us... about everything."

She raised an eyebrow, feigning confusion, "What do you mean you’ve been thinking about us? I’ve only ever heard this from guys who want to break up with me," she added, a glint of mischief sparkling in her eyes.

In spite of himself, Enoch could not help but glare at her when he heard that. Her small chuckle eased him up and he straightened, moving closer to her, his voice low but steady. "When this all started, neither of us planned for it. Not that one night, not the engagement that followed, and definitely not the happiness that came with falling in love with you... but look at where we are now." He gestured to the kitchen around them, the life they had built, piece by piece. "We didn’t expect this. But I wouldn’t change any piece of it."

Ruthlyn’s expression softened, but there was a flicker of something, maybe amusement, maybe astonishment in her eyes. But she had to stick to the script, "Enoch, what are you getting at?"

He stepped even closer, his eyes locking onto hers, and for a moment, everything else faded away. The crystal moon sitting up in the sky, its sparkling reflection on the lake’s surface, and the howling sound of an animal deep in the woods—it all disappeared, leaving only the two of them. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the small velvet box, and Ruthlyn’s breath caught in her throat.

Enoch beamed, "I know we were thrown into this, and I know it wasn’t conventional, but I love you, Ruth. I didn’t realize how much I could love someone until you... or should I say, I didn’t believe I would be lucky enough to get the genuine love of someone else apart from my parents and family. With my dad so fixated on my older brother, and my mom always focused on grooming my sister—and then later getting affected by her disappearance—i was pretty much the bonus child..."