Dangerous Desire The CEO’s Hidden Woman

Staring at Scarlett’s back outside the window, Claire bit her lips slightly and thought to herself: if Francis didn’t really love Scarlett, she might still have a chance to win his love. If she didn’t fight for it and missed her chance, she would end up depressed. She would have to watch her beloved spend the rest of his life unhappily. She couldn’t allow that to happen. After all, for her, Francis was no less than a god. Scarlett was just a daughter of a failure, how could she be worthy of her god?

Scarlett knew Claire was very ignorant, but she never expected her to be that ignorant. Carrying a little plastic bag with drinks, Scarlett walked back to the classroom down the chilly campus path, cursing the cold weather under her breath.

In the afternoon, Scarlett took a nap on her desk and suddenly was pushed awake by Sarah.

“Hey, wake up! You are all over social media again! You’re even trending on Twitter.”

Scarlett almost fell down on the ground, and then she pulled off the coat that had been thrown on her shoulder and sat up. When she saw their eyes on her, she felt kind of strange because there was envy, worry, doubt, and disdain in all of their eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Scarlett asked. She had a bad feeling about this.

“You can watch it yourself!” Sarah said as she put the laptop in Scarlett’s arms.

When she moved her eyes to the post, she was shocked by the bold headline in red. “Foreign Language School Student Marries Sandler to Avoid Scandal.”

It was a sensationalist, clickbaity headline, to say the least.

Multiple articles described how Scarlett had hooked up with Francis and then schemed to become pregnant by him so her child could be the heir of the great Sandler empire. There were photos, too. From photographs to luxury cars picking her up at different spots across town to her dining with Francis, this was surely incriminating material. At the end of one article, there was a picture of Francis’s villa, and underneath it the words, “Congratulations to Scarlett for marrying such a successful man! We wish her a bright future!”

Following the flurry of attention online, someone started to dig into her educational background: her scholarships, grants, and more. Within no time, Scarlett’s personal affairs were being debated and discussed all over the Internet.

Scarlett raised her head and looked at the others in the classroom. They all stared at her, wondering what to make of this barrage of new information they had just learned about their classmate.

“Is this all for real?” Sarah asked first. After all, everyone in the room was dying to hear from Scarlett.

Unexpectedly, Scarlett was very calm. She licked her lips and admitted with a nod, “Indeed, I’m married, and Francis Sandler is my husband…”

Sarah’s mouth went dry.

“Sarah, it’s not what you think. We fell in love with each other and then got married because of love, there is no scheming or plotting in our marriage. These articles are just spewing nonsense… The media are framing me!” Scarlett explained.

Sarah forced a smile on her face and replied, “Of course, I believe you. But the problem at present is… well, how do you think you’re gonna make twenty-five thousand students at our college believe you?”

Scarlett took a look around the room and felt disappointed. She said, “I’ve done nothing wrong. And I don’t need others to believe me. I know I didn’t do anything wrong or underhanded. I haven’t tricked anyone.”

***

Sitting there in the classroom, Scarlett’s phone suddenly rang. She picked it up. It was her advisor asking if she had a moment to chat privately.

Sarah grabbed Scarlett’s hand to walk outside; the minute they had left, others in the classroom started gossiping.

“I have a good friend who majored in computer science. She can hack our school website and erase the stuff on there that’s about you…”

Scarlett shook her head to disapprove. “The school website is the least of my worries. Everything is already out on the Internet. It doesn’t matter now.” Scarlett knew that nothing could be done to undo the damage.

“Why didn’t you just announce your marriage in public before?”

“Because I think my being married to Francis has nothing to do with others!” she said and went on, “Is it because I once was in the headline, and now I’m some kind of online celebrity? I don’t want to be the subject of gossip and entertain others with my private life.”

Our teacher must have asked to speak to you to figure out what’s gonna happen with graduation. But you have really good grades, so I wouldn’t be afraid of any penalties just because of this stupid social media thing.”

Sarah accompanied Scarlett to see the teacher, but they never expected that he would lead them to the office of the Dean, Mr. Smith.

Scarlett and Sarah felt awkward because they were surprised that the dean knew about the news.

“Which of you is Scarlett Morris?” Mr. Smith stood up as he pushed up his glasses.

“It’s me. Good afternoon, sir!”

Mr. Smith nodded his head and said, “Well, I’ve reviewed your information, and nothing seems to be amiss. I’m not sure why you’re all over social media right now, but let it not affect your future studies.”

“I’m so sorry to cause you so much trouble!” she said.

“Our school is a big one and has many students. We can’t expect all of them to be rational. If this incident hurts you somehow, I just hope that you stay calm and don’t take it too seriously. Don’t think about it too much. Our school will take measures to protect innocent students from being tarnished.”

“Thank you, sir! Thank you very much!” Scarlett nodded.

“We will make an announcement to clarify that you have an excellent track record and your status as a student remains intact. But as for the other parts involving your personal life, you will have to handle that yourself.”

“Thank you, sir! I’ll handle the rest!”

“You are welcome! It’s not a big deal, and that’s what I should do as the school leader. It’s time for the school to do something to right the ethos.”