Sentenced to Marriage

Chapter 5

I was in Grandma’s room, sitting by her bed, and holding her hand. She was plugged into all sorts of equipment that helped her breathe and monitored her. She looked as if she was peacefully asleep. I only hoped that she couldn’t feel any pain while being in her motionless state. I talked to her often, hoping that she could hear me, or at least know that I loved her, and I wanted her back. I had never complained about anything, especially not in her presence. I didn’t want her to think that she could have been some kind of a burden to me because she wasn’t. She was the only family I had left, the only person I loved in this world, and the anchor that kept me going. But I wished she could tell me what to do because I was tired of being on my own, constantly dealing with all kinds of problems. I was angry and frustrated, and all kinds of “if only” swirled inside my head. If only I had more money… If only I had the diploma… If only I could have a well-paid job…

“Help me, Grandma…” I muttered, trying to smile despite tears drawing lines down my cheeks. “Things really got complicated this time, and you know that I suck at solving problems that require talking to other people…”

I felt overwhelmed, yet I forced myself to push my problems away for a moment. I wiped my tears and took a deep breath to calm down. Then I reached out my hand to stroke Grandma’s beautiful, long, white hair. She had to be stunning when she was young. She didn’t want to show me any of her old pictures, but I remember Grandpa saying that Grandma used to be the most magnificent woman he had ever seen. Even now, I could see her beauty through the lovely wrinkles on her face, stamping each tough year of her life. Sophia Bell, at 65, was one hot granny.

I used to wonder if the women in our family weren’t cursed, certainly Grandma. She had never been treated kindly by her fate. She got pregnant when she was 17 years old. The father was her high school boyfriend, a local sports star from a wealthy family. He had never acknowledged the baby. He accused my Grandma of cheating and spread all kinds of gossip about her, turning her image from the naïve and kind girl she was into the vicious slut he accused her of being. In the end, even her parents believed this bastard’s rumors. As a strong and independent woman, she packed her bags and left her small town and family. After she had given birth to my Mother, she applied to college. She was raising a child while studying and working. My Grandma was a real-life wonder woman.

When she was in college, she met Charles Johnstone, aka Grandpa. Of course, he and I weren’t blood-related, but he loved Grandma and treated my Mom as his daughter and me as his granddaughter. To me, he was the best Grandpa I could imagine having. I was grateful to him that he had found my Grandma and filled over forty years of her life with love and warmth. He was her rock, and I know that Grandma couldn’t have broken down long ago if it weren’t for him, especially after my Mother died in a plane crash… Sophia Bell had always been resilient. I had seen her devastated and crying only once, and that was at my Mother’s funeral. I was five at the time. The next day, she washed her beautiful face, took me for a walk, and told me that she would be the one raising me from that day. Now… my perfect and strong grandma was lying in bed in a coma, and I would have fought the devil if that could have brought her back.

“Right,” I said, finding new determination within me, “We are not going to get evicted from our workshop. Then I’m going to find us a great deal that will bring us a lot of money, and I will get this hundred thousand dollars for the operation. And you, Grandma, are going to wake up and live for many long years.”

Who was I to whine and complain? I had Sophia Bell’s blood running in my veins. I had to prove that I was worthy of calling myself her Granddaughter. I stood up to lean over her, kissed her forehead, and left her room, ready to crush Golden Estate Investments if they weren’t willing to change their minds about throwing us out of our workshop. I strode out of the clinic, taking fast, energetic steps. On my way to the bus stop, I texted Alan.

“Send me their company address.”

A minute later, I received an address, detailed information on the company itself, and how to get to them from the clinic, along with Alan’s short reply, “Go blast those bastards.”

I smirked. Alan had never failed to impress me. I bet he had all those things prepared for some time and simply waited to hear from me. I checked the address and five minutes later was already on my way there, figuring out the right arguments to use. Sitting on a bus, I opened the file Alan sent me and started reading about the company. I had to know who I was up against first.

I started reading, muttering under my breath, “Founded in 2017, Golden Estate Investments is a part of the Lan Diamond Corporation…”

I gasped and stared at the screen in disbelief for nearly a minute. Someone was obviously playing a dirty trick on me. This couldn’t be right, right? This company couldn’t be a part of Lan Diamond Corporation because that would mean that it belonged to Aren Lan! From what I’d heard, this guy owned probably a large percentage of New York City, but come on!

My stomach squeezed at the thought that I could meet this arrogant asshole again. I hit the online search, making a desperate attempt to cast a spell on reality. I prayed for there to be another company called Lan Diamond Corporation in New York. Of course, that wasn’t the case. Once I clicked on the official Aren Lan’s Lan Diamond Corporation site, I easily found a link to Golden Estate Investments… I let out a frustrated growl that earned me a wave of frowns and glares from other passengers.

A few deep breaths later, I came to realize that I wouldn’t have to deal with Aren Lan anyway. The “big boss” would never care about some lowly creatures trying to fight against the rules of his huge company. Still, the thought that it was Aren Lan who now owned the building with our workshop was pissing me off great time!

The bus stop was a block away from the Lan Diamond Tower, where Golden Estate Investments and Lan Diamond Corporation had their headquarters. The building was impossible to miss.

“That guy has some serious issues…” I chuckled to myself as I walked in front of a glass and steel giant, daringly ascending the lower clouds.

I exhaled, clenching my fist before stepping through the revolving door, and immediately stopped in awe as I walked into the entrance hall. The windows and glass used to construct the ceiling were carefully angled to create a diamond-shaped cut, giving the impression of entering a gem. I stood for a few seconds with my mouth open, admiring the perfect structure and the glow spread by the smooth surfaces reflecting the setting sun. Only after I almost got swallowed by the crowd that left one of the elevators did I break from my daze and started looking for the Golden Estate Investments office. Fortunately, the information board was right in front of me. I quickly found out that I needed to go to the fifteenth floor… and didn’t fail to notice that Lan Diamond Corporation had their offices on floors from twenty-seventh to thirty-sixth, with the CEO’s office on the top floor, of course. Suddenly, I started to wonder if he was there today, imagining him sitting behind his desk in that sexy grey three-piece suit he was wearing when I met him.

I shook my head violently and slapped my cheeks with both hands. “Focus, Cora!”

It was deadly frustrating just how much this guy could mess with my head without any effort. I bet that if I let myself picture him a second longer, I would find myself thinking of having sex on that desk with him… Oh God… too late.

I couldn’t believe that I got turned on just thinking about that cocky jerk! If it weren’t for the people riding in the same elevator with me, I would have banged my head against the wall. Did he spread his pheromones everywhere in this building or something?! I clenched my thighs, forcefully containing my

increasing for no explainable reason arousal. Somehow, being in that place suddenly made me pathetically horny. Reasoning my insane behavior, I decided to blame it on my soon-to-come period.

I regained my composure once I got off the elevator on the fifteenth floor and walked towards the Golden Estate Investments’ reception. A red-haired receptionist buzzed me in through the elegant glass door, and I stepped in, putting on my professional smile.

With a polite nod, I started with “Hello. I am renting one of the apartments you currently own, and I came to talk about the unfair eviction notice my partners and I have just received.”

The receptionist leaned back, grimacing nervously. Fine, the tone of my voice came out harsher than I wanted it to. I guess my anger surfaced despite my good intentions.

“All of our managers are busy right now… Why don’t you come again tomorrow?” She obviously was trying to blow me off, but I wasn’t that easy to deal with.

“That’s OK, I’ll wait,” I said, making myself comfortable on a sofa right beside her desk.

“B-but it might take a few hours or even longer than that,” she urged, ineptly fighting against my relentlessness.

I stated coldly, “I have a lot of time, and I’m not going anywhere until this case is settled.”

Her irritation sounded clear in her sigh, but I ignored it. With a wicked smirk on my face, I pulled out my phone and started browsing online to kill time. If they thought that we would just accept their notice and move out, they messed with the wrong computer freaks. Game on.