Chapter two

Chapter two 

"What?" I couldn't believe my ears. Was this some kind of cruel joke?

"Dad you know I have a boyfriend right?" Even though they didn't particularly like Max they acknowledged him, or at least so I thought.

"And we both know that he's just a placeholder and you're not happy with him." He stood up from his chair and placed both his hands on my shoulders as he said the words. The gesture annoyed me, it was like he thought I was a child or something.

"So what? I'll be happy with some stranger you just force upon me?" I started to feel my breath quicken out of anger.

"He's no stranger, you know his father. And of course, we'll give you some time to get acquainted with each other." The way he said the words so casually aggravated me. As though I was the one being unreasonable not him.

"I'm not going to do it!" I yelled and ran back upstairs into my room.

While I was still on the stairs, I heard Dan reassure my father. "Don't worry, she'll come around."

How dare they think they can plan my life? I thought angrily as opened the doors to my walk-in closet picked some random clothes and threw them on the bed. I got a suitcase and stuffed the clothes in.

It was time for me to take up Max's offer and move in with him. 

While I was putting my underwear in, the door opened slightly.

"May I come in?"  My mother's quiet voice came from the door.

"Do I even have a say in that?" I spat at her.  She sighed as she came in and closed the door behind her.

"What are you doing?" She asked calmly as she sat on one of the sofas in the room.

"I'm leaving this world of tyranny." 

"The same tyranny that clothes and feeds you?" she smiled sadly.

"I don't care, I'm leaving everything that comes with it." I huffed

My mom paused and regarded my suitcase. "That suitcase will only last you three days considering how you dress."

"I'll send for the rest of my stuff." I huffed as I walked into my closet to pick out shoes to wear.

"How?" 

"What do you mean how? One of the drivers to bring it."I said wondering why she was asking me an obvious question.

"But you no longer have access to that, anything or service your father's money paid for, even your clothes if we're being thorough. You're leaving everything that comes with this 'tyranny' remember?." She pointed out.

"So you're saying I should leave naked? Cause I will." I was adamant.

"No Jessica I'm telling you, this is the lifestyle you've known all your life and I doubt you can live without it, your father would of course let you take as much as you want but-"

"Then there is no problem is there? " I went back to my packing.

"Sit with me, Jess." She tapped in the space next to her. I sighed but grudgingly obeyed.

"Your father loves you." I snorted at that but she ignored it. 

"And if you needed it he would give you every penny he's worth, but the problem is that right now, he isn't worth much."

"If he loved me he wouldn’t be selling me like that. What are you talking about, dad is a millionaire." My father ran a successful company.

"Not anymore."

"What?!" I was shocked. What did she mean by that?

"He was scammed into making some really bad decisions and we've tried to keep it from you but soon, we may not be able to own a lavish house like this one or even the one-room apartment your boyfriend lives. He's bankrupt."

"Oh my God." My head was spinning. 

"So Dan threw us a lifeline, you marry his son and merge the two companies. I know it's a lot to take in, but your father needs you. So just please think about it. " she pleaded with me.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"What's in it for him? Why is he helping us." I had to ask, no one is that selfless. She knew I was talking about Dan as she answered.

"He has a sibling, a younger brother who is in well into his thirties and alone,he seems to sworn of marriage and they are not even on talking terms anymore. He doesn't want Ethan to end up like him."

"But Ethan is in his 20s isn't he? He still. has a long way to go before thirty."

"Dan is sick. He might not last the year."

"Oh, I see. I- I’ll have to think about it." I quietly said, still trying to make sense of everything. She stood up and left leaving me dazed on the chair.

I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep until a loud knock on the door woke me.

“Who is there?” I called out a little annoyed.

When the door opened I swallowed nervously, it was my dad and he did not look happy. This was the first time he came into my room and I noticed he was holding a brown envelope.

“You ungrateful little thing.” He started to say making me sit up right in shock. My dad and I were not close but I never heard him speak to me that way and it scared me.

“You think you can break this family? You think I will let you ruin me?”

“ I didn’t do anything to you!” I retorted, refusing to be intimidated despite the fact that I was shaking.

“And haven’t I done everything for you? Your mother and I have given you the world and yet this is how you repay us.”

“I have a right to what goes on in my life. Especially whom I marry.” 

“No you do not and I have clearly given you too much freedom.”

“Putting me in a gilded cage is not freedom.”

“So you’d rather prefer being the sewers with that rat you think will marry you?”

“Yes, if I have to.”

He flung the envelope at me. “Open it.” He barked.

With shaky hands I tore it open and pulled out a stack of photos, and the picture staring at me made my blood run cold.

It was a picture of max naked while two women had their hands and mouths on various parts of him. 

“No. This is an old picture, I changed him. He changed for me.” I said as a year rolled down my face even though deep down I knew the truth. Max was cheating on me.

“ look at the rest.” As I filed through I saw more pictures of max in the middle of sexual relations with women and sometimes men.

But what I saw afterwards was what made me question everything I thought I knew. In the photograph I saw Jennifer in a hotel room kissing  a man while had his hand up her skirts. 

I started to ask what the point of this was? Then I realized I recognized the man. The New York governor.

“Ashley’s Dad.” I gasped. If my blood went cold at the sight of max cheating on me, this time it froze.

“I thought you’d know him. Your best friend with your other best friend’s father. It would be quite a scandal if this picture ever made it to the press since he plans to run for a second term, . and you might not know but his wife, Ashley’s mother prides on their family’s pristine reputation. I wonder which would be worse, she seeing it? Or the press?”

Ashley’s mother was not a kind woman, she didn’t like Jennifer for whatever reason and she made it obvious. If she saw this, she would ruin Jennifer and her entire family. And I can’t begin to imagine how Ashley would react to this. I can’t let that happen.

“You’re blackmailing me.” I whispered in disbelief. My own father was doing this to me.

“You chose the hard way. Your wedding is in two weeks. You know what will happen if you don’t cooperate.” He walked out of the door leaving me with no choice.

****

"We should hire a stripper,"  Ashley yelled over the loudspeakers in the club.

It was now two days to my wedding and while the preparations had gone by smoothly, I couldn't stop thinking about Max’s betrayal and what Jennifer did with Ashley’s father. I tried to come up with different explanations but none of them made sense.

When I announced the wedding to them, they asked no questions although I'm sure they suspect the reason, but all three of us had something in common, we did not like to talk about money rather the lack thereof. They cheered and hooted and Ashley playfully called me a traitor.

"A stripper for the virgin bride?" Jennifer said doubtfully.

"Well, you can't have a bachelorette without a stripper." Ashley countered.

As they continued to banter I noticed a handsome man sitting in the darker corners of the bar was staring at me. He looked to be in his thirties but he was so hot and even from afar, I could tell he had a dominating aura.

I decided to turn away and take what would be my second drink of the night but when I turned back he was still staring and I was getting annoyed so when the bartender dropped two martinis in front of him I walked over and picked up one of it and immediately took a sip.

"Consider it a charge for the view," I said walking away with the remainder of the content.

And that was all I remembered before waking up the next afternoon naked in the same bed with him.

“Get up.” I heard my mom say.

I turned on my other side and snuggled deeper into the blanket, I wasn’t ready to face the world just yet.

“Hey,” Her sexy voice beckoned. The problem was my mom`s voice wasn’t sexy, and it wasn’t deep either. 

My eyes flew open and I almost fell off the bed while scrambling to get away from the man who was on the bed with me and nearly died when the blanket covering my body slipped and one of my breasts peeked out. As much as I wished the ground didn’t open to swallow me, so I did the next best, I screamed.

“Calm your horses. It's nothing I didn’t see last night.” He drawled and if bored by my antics.

What was he talking about? Why don’t I remember anything? And most importantly, why the hell was I naked?

“What am I doing here?” I finally asked confused.

He lifted one perfectly arched brow and smirked. “You have to ask?”

“I don’t remember getting here, I don’t know who the hell you are so yes, I do have to ask.”

“Well, your guess is as good as mine.” He interlocked both arms around his neck and reclined back on the stacked pillows behind him.

“You just woke up in a hotel room you don’t remember going naked with me.”

“Pretty much.”

“Do you think we .  . . had sex.”

Was I supposed to feel different if we did? Is that why we couldn’t remember? Did losing your virginity come with some partial amnesia or shit? No one ever mentioned that.

“Highly likely.” His grey eyes twinkled.

Before I could reply my phone beeped. Fifty-five missed calls from Ashley, Jennifer, and my mom. The time on my phone read one pm on the fourteenth of November.

Shit. My wedding is tomorrow. And here I am in bed with some strange hot man whose name I don’t even know.

“Oh my God. I need to get dressed. Where are my clothes?" I looked at him in question.

“Neatly pressed and perfumed, and perfumed waiting for you in the closet. Would you like some tea while we are playing Butler-landlady?” He replied sarcastically.

 I ignored him and started to get up but stopped when I realized that I couldn’t leave the bed without one of us ending up naked.

“Close your eyes.”

“What?” he asked, stunned.

“I need to get my clothes.”

“I am not closing my eyes and you are not leaving until we figure out if we at least used protection.”

“oh my God. Oh shit. I am getting married in less than a day and I might be pregnant with another man`s child and I don’t even know his name.” I said in panic while burying my hands in my hair. I looked at him still lying casually. “How are you so calm?”

“No wife, no fiancé.” And then he stood up ever so casually,  completely, wonderfully naked. He looked to be in his late thirties so I did not expect his body to be so .  . . perfect. I've seen Max in his underwear and he didn't look anywhere near this good. I guess it's true men peak in their thirties.

“A few more seconds and I'll have to charge you.” He winked before disappearing into the bathroom, recognizing those words my face turned what I was willing to bet was beet red.

I quickly started to look for my clothes while he was in there and after a few minutes of scavenging I found most of my clothes but my panties, but at this point I couldn’t care less. I picked up my bag and shoe ready to bolt.

“I thought we agreed neither one of us can leave till we figure this out.” he stepped out of the bathroom with a towel tied around his waist and the rest of his hair still down his shoulders and neck. It was magnificent and I subconsciously swallowed.

“YOU agreed that, I have to go get married,” I emphasized on the pronouns.

“Well that might be difficult since according to this, we are already married to each other.”

"What?" I said incredulously.

"See for yourself."

He said and handed me a paper he picked up from the floor, it was a marriage certificate.