Sentenced to Marriage

Chapter 25

Apology I ran out of the Lan Diamond Tower, wondering what the hell had just happened. I hit Aren, I threatened him, and I expected that he would be infuriated by that, but when his body was an inch away from mine, it wasn‘t anger that I felt from him. He seemed frustrated, as if he suddenly felt the need to explain himself and didn‘t know how to do it. He also said that he couldn‘t predict his own reactions to me, as if not all of that had happened during our date had been a part of his plan... What did he mean by that?

I was confused and flustered. I wanted to tell him that I would not let him mislead my feelings any longer. I thought that he was going to keep acting cold and indifferent, just like when he told me that our relationship would never involve emotions. Why did he change his tone so suddenly? It sounded like he wanted to coax me as if he cared... Did he care or was I imagining things?

I went back to the penthouse to change, and then Benjamin drove me to the workshop. I needed to keep my mind busy and prevent myself from wondering if Aren wanted to continue our conversation once he came back home. Anticipation made me feel excited and anxious. I didn‘t want us to fight, and I didn‘t want a silent war between us, but I had to tell him how I felt about what had happened before I started to believe the illusion he created. I hoped that he would respect my point of view and learn to trust me more.

“Do you go on a date tonight?” Alan‘s voice pulled me out of a daze.

“W–what?” I turned to him, trying to focus my slightly clouded stare. He pushed himself from his desk and slid across the room in his office chair, stopping next to me. “You keep checking the time,” he explained, smirking.

“No.” I sighed and then let the sour chuckle escape my throat. “It‘s quite the opposite. My... so –called boyfriend and I fought today over something he did...”

“He‘ll apologize,” Alan said, with the confidence that I wished to have.

“How can you know that? You don‘t even know him.” I laughed.

“But you know him, and you let him pass through all those walls you have built around you over the years. That means he has to be worth it,” he claimed, a faint smile painting his face.

I forced myself to smile at him. If only I could tell him the truth... Nonetheless, Alan was right about one thing: I let Aren get closer than anyone else. For the last three years, I had rejected every man who tried to approach me. I would have slapped those who tried to even touch my hand. Of course, it was all due to my previous relationship, which traumatized my sex life. None of the rules I set applied to Aren. He could break every single law I established around my personal space and get away with it. I kept wondering what made him different... except for the obvious fact that he was the sexiest man that I had ever gotten close to.

Even if Alan didn‘t know the whole truth, his words helped me cool down and focus on my job. I got through the day relentlessly tapping the computer keyboard. I was so consumed with my tasks that I barely noticed when the evening came. Benjamin drove me to the penthouse just before nine. Aren wasn‘t home yet. I took a quick shower to look more refreshed and waited

him in the inain hall, watch

TV on his two hundredi inch screen

Arendtidn‘t come back for another hour A little after ten o‘clock, I opened a bottle of wine to Case IV NITO Drinking a RenPROHIN NCCond glass gave me the courage to write him a text message, asking if he was finally coming home lle didn‘t reply I gave up on waiting for him after midnight Mad and disappointed, I finished the bottle and went to bed,

The next morning. I woke up with a hangover, but my slight headache was nothing compared to the stabbing pain in my chest. As I walked out of my bedroom, 1 quickly realized that I was still alone. I was more than aware of how busy a man like him could be, but couldn‘t he at least reply to the damn text I

sent ! I was angry. I was pissed at myself for trusting that he would actually want to clear the air between us

“What did you expect? You signed the contract. He is paying you. What made you think that he would treat you better than his replaceable employees?” I scolded my reflection in the mirror,

I drank coffee for breakfast and left for work, wishing to leave the place where everything smelled like Aren as soon as possible. At 7 AM, I was already in my full working mode, taking out my frustration on mere computer problems. As my anger doubled my efficiency, I had finished everything in the day’s schedule before Alan and Norton joined me around nine.

“I guess that he didn‘t apologize?” Alan commented on my state with a lopsided smirk.

I stretched my lips into a thin smile. “He didn‘t reply to my message either.”

“Ouch.” Alan patted my back, his lips forming a sympathetic grimace. “Yeah...” I sighed and nervously rubbed the center of my chest

“Maybe you should dump him.” Norton‘s sudden statement caught Alan and me by surprise. We stared at him, raising our brows, but as he quickly turned back to his usual self, he shrugged and sat by his laptop. At that moment, I wished that I could just “dump” him and move out of his penthouse, but I painfully realized how complicated my life became the moment I signed that freaking contract. Since I had nothing left to do that could occupy my brain, I decided to take a walk and fill my growling stomach with some sandwiches on the way. I opened the door and almost bumped into the delivery man as he was just about to knock.

“Ms. Cora Bell?” he asked, glancing at me from beneath his peaked cap. “Yes?” I smiled nervously, trying to remember if I had ordered anything online and forgotten about it

“Sing here.” The man put away everything he was carrying, pulled out a signature monitor, and pushed the pen into my hand.

“But I didn‘t order any–“. “As you can see, someone sent you flowers and a package,” he explained curtly, urging me to put my signature.

I exhaled and placed my name on the screen. He nodded, satisfied, grabbed the bouquet and a medium–sized box, and handed them to me.

“Have a nice day,” he tossed on his way out.

I stayed on the threshold for a minute, before I started to process what I was holding. The box wasn‘t too heavy, but it was carefully packed as if it contained something valuable. I put it on the table and looked at the flowers. It was a bouquet of the most beautiful red roses.

“Now that‘s a fine way to say I‘m sorry.” Alan grinned mischievously. “Who said it was from him?” I said, instantly blushing as I hoped that the roses were from Aren.

Even Norton leaned out from behind his computer to look at me curiously, as he had immediately chosen me and my private life as the most entertaining aspect of the day. After I acknowledged that they wouldn‘t leave me alone unless I told them who the flowers and the package were from, I sighed and dug my hand into the bouquet, hoping to find a note. As soon as I reached between the roses, I noticed a piece of thin cardboard with engraved ornaments. There was a handwritten message on it.

“What does it say?” Alan leaned over my shoulder, trying to read it. I put the roses away and hid the card from him until I read it myself.

The message said, “23 red roses. Each for every published photo. A.”

I couldn‘t help but smile. His indirect apology was romantic in a way. That made me even more curious about what was inside that box.

“Help me open it,” I told the boys. “Tell us what the note says first.” Alan pouted. “Not a chance.” I snorted. There was no way that I could explain to them the meaning of Aren‘s message anyway. “Then tell us if it‘s from HIM?” Alan raised his eyebrows, awaiting my response. I nodded and grabbed the scissors to open the box. In the middle of cutting the tape around the package, all three of us swallowed, as the specific protection betrayed that there was a computer inside. I lifted the box lid and gasped. Alan was more literal... “Oh, fuck me...” he breathed out, gaping at my wonderful gift. I barely registered when my laptop left the box and landed in Norton‘s hands, and then in Alan‘s hands.

“Jeez... this is like customized NASA equipment!” Alan exclaimed. “If these parameters are for real, then this baby should work at the speed of fucking light!” I gulped and looked at Norton, who, for the first time, was as agitated as Alan was. They placed my new laptop on the table and began to stare at it in pure admiration before their eyes

shifted to me. “If this is this guy‘s way of apologizing, then you should not only forgive him... you should give him a nice blowjob as a thank you,” Alan stated.

I laughed nervously. “I don‘t think that‘s—”

“Yeah,” Norton cut in. “I would say a few mind–blowing blowjobs, to say the least.”

I cocked my head to one side and blinked my eyes. I had never thought that there were such words in Norton‘s dictionary. Alan was a seriously bad influence on him.

“Listen, guys... That laptop is surely amazing, but our relationship is not on this level of physical —”

“Bullshit, Cora.” Alan frowned and pointed at my gift. “This isn‘t something you go buy in a shop. It takes time to create such wonders. Your boyfriend must have ordered this laptop a week or two weeks ago.

The guy cares and hell, for the gift he‘s given you, I would have given him that blowjob myself.”

As I erased the image of that final part of Alan‘s sentence, his words started to swirl inside my head... Never, in a million years, would I take my boys‘ advice. Nonetheless, if I were to accept Aren‘s gift, I would truly have to find my way to thank him...