Amelia's head was pounding as she slowly opened her eyes. She groaned as she tried to recollect the previous events of yesterday. As she tried to get up, she was met with an unfamiliar ceiling, a strange room, and a bed sheet covered in blood.
She tried to stand up and a wave of dizziness and nausea washed over her, forcing her back to the pillow. As she looked around, she noticed a strange figure sleeping on the bed.
As the man stirred in his sleep, his features came into full view. Memories of last night came rushing in and in an instant, she recollected that this was the stranger from the bar yesterday.
With a throbbing headache, she tried to recollect more information of why she was in bed with this stranger but all she remembered was her passing out.
That was when she noticed the pain in her private area. The pain flooded her like a tsunami, making her sore all over. That was when she realized that she had just been disvirgined and that too by someone she just met.
“By now I thought you would have gone, the ladies know not to stick around until the man wakes up,” the man said as he stirred up again and opened his eyes.
His eyes were a wonderful shade of brown, and his voice was low and husky. His voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't place her head on where she had heard or seen him before yesterday.
“What did you do to me?” She cried, feeling ashamed that a complete stranger had just taken away her virginity. In her three years of relationship with Edward, they had not even held hands not to talk of kissing or having sex.
“What do you mean? Do you not remember how you begged me to make you feel loved yesterday night? You told me you wanted to forget your sadness and I helped you do just that.”
“I don't remember any of this. You took advantage of a drunk lady. How despicable and shameless can you be?”
“In my defense, we were both drunk and you were the one that came to me, not the other way around”
“I remember coming to your table for a chat, but all I remember was passing out. You know what never mind. I'll just drop the subject. Where are my clothes?”
“Must be somewhere on the floor, and make sure to carry all your belongings on your way out”
Amelia didn't argue as she covered her naked body with the sheets and picked up her clothes that were strewn all over the floor of the room, a shred of evidence of a night filled with passion that she couldn't recollect.
The last thing on her mind was to shower as she made her way over to the bathroom to change her dress and head home.
Checking her messages she found an audio message from Edward that said that he couldn't go to register their marriage today. That was okay though because she had never planned to go on with the wedding after discovering what she had discovered yesterday.
As she made her way out of the hotel room, a call came through on her phone. Looking at the caller ID, she groaned before picking it up.
“After today if you are not married, just forget about becoming the head of the company”, the person on the line spoke.
“But I had this month to get married, why are you changing the rules all of a sudden”, she cried knowing that there was absolutely no way she could get married today.
“If you still want to take over the managerial position in the company, I better see your marriage certificate before nightfall”, the person on the line said hanging up the call.
Amelia sighed in frustration. She really needed to take over this position. She didn't know where she would get a groom to marry. Flashing her mind back to the event of yesterday, she made up her mind to do something bold, something she had never done before. Marry a stranger.
Not thinking things through, she went back to the hotel. At least if she would marry a stranger, why not it be the person to whom she lost her virginity to?
Arriving back at the room she left not long ago, she met the man dressing up. She froze as the man seemed even more charming while dressing up.
“What do you want? I thought I asked you to leave?”
“Why must you be so rude?” she spoke mustering all the courage she could gather. Somehow speaking to this man seemed to drain all the strength in her body, making her more sore than before.
“At least I should know the name of the person to whom I lost my virginity to.
“Nathaniel”, he said after pausing his movements. His voice was soft, barely above a whisper.
“I didn't get…..”
“Nathaniel Brooke,” he said. His voice was more audible than the last time he spoke.
“My name is…..”
“I know who you are. Amelia Stone of the reputed Stone family. Now I ask again, "What do you want?”
“Marry me”
“Excuse me?”
“I need to get married today, and I have no groom. I don't see any ring on your finger. So I would like to propose a contract marriage”
The man kept quiet and Amelia felt like digging a hole and burying herself. She was about to dismiss the proposition until…
“OK, I'll get married to you. But note the following; you are not to fall in love with me or confess any feelings for me. Violation of this will lead to the transfer of your company assets to me. Do you agree?”
“I agree,” she said hastily before he could change his mind.
Typing his laptop, he drafted up a contract and both parties signed it after carefully studying it and adding their conditions.
“A dress will be ready for you to wear in the next ten minutes, freshen up before then”
Minutes later they drove to the Civil Affairs office to register their marriage. The couple's wedding procedures were processed quickly. In just half an hour, Amelia held the marriage certificate in her hands. From now on, she was a married woman.
“Mr. Brooke, may I have a few words with you?
“Get in the car, and since we are now married, you can call me Nathaniel,” he said as he walked out of the registration hall.
Amelia followed closely behind. After getting into the Rolls-Royce, she nervously looked at Nathaniel before requesting, "Thank you for marrying me. If you need anything from me in return, please tell me, and I will do anything.
After listening to Amelia, Nathaniel gave a slight smirk. A dangerous aura swept through the car, “I'll text you the address of my house, and you need to move in before the end of today”. My assistant will be in touch with you for anything you may need.
Amelia had no objections. Since they were now married, a request like this was reasonable. So she obediently nodded her head as she replied, "I agree!"
"Good!"
After the two made their verbal agreement, Amelia got out of Nathaniel's car and left. Nathaniel looked at himself from the rearview mirror.
“Hmm, the meat has fallen into my hands without me having to do anything. What a wonderful development…….”
At the Stone's Residence.Amelia sighed as she disembarked from the car. As much as she wanted to take over the family's business, there was nothing she dreaded more than coming back to this mansion.The mansion held many more memories than she would have liked to have. The good ones and the bad ones too.The mansion had no elevator, so she was forced to use the stairs. She wanted to be as quick as possible, avoiding contact and unnecessary discussions as much as possible.She entered the mansion hurriedly, increasing her pace with every step that she took.At this moment, Mr. Thomas, the chubby butler, ran over. “Amelia, you’re back! It's finally good to have you here after so long”“Please Mr. Thomas, I'm not here to exchange any pleasantries. Where's my father?”The butler’s gaze softened “This household has missed you so much, Amelia. Nothing was the same after you left.“You're wrong Mr. Thomas, everything changed after that night. There's nothing here for me”The butler quickly
At Crescent Peak Villa.It was a top wealthy residential area in the city just like the word ‘peak’ in its name suggested. It spanned a huge area, but only five households occupied the place. Each household represented the five families at the peak of the business empires.When Amelia disembarked from the car, she was stunned. If she thought that her father's mansion was magnificent, then this villa was even better.She got to the gate and after showing them her I.D., she was handed a key to house 5 and given directions there.She had sent her luggage earlier, and as confirmed by the security guards, they were waiting for her in front of the house.She walked slowly to the house as she wanted to get familiar with her surroundings. She couldn't believe that she was now married and on top of that to a stranger.Bringing out her phone from her bag she decided to do a simple research on her husband. With the rollercoaster of emotions, she felt since yesterday, she hadn't been able to look
By the time Amelia woke up the next morning. Nathaniel had already left for work. She quickly had a shower and prepared for her first day at the office.She stood in front of her mirror, smoothing out her tailored black pantsuit. The crisp white blouse and pearl necklace added a touch of elegance. She chose this dress to give off the bossy vibe. She gazed at her reflection, her eyes burning with determination. The position in the company was more than just a job to her.Arriving at the company, she found out that a lot of directors and shareholders had yet to resume. She had asked Mr. Thomas to schedule a meeting with them today, so she was perplexed as to why many of them had not yet shown up.She made a mental note to address that in the meeting. She didn't have trouble locating her office, she had been to this place so many times as a child that the memory was etched into her brain.As she stepped into the office she found out that it was almost the same as she remembered it, save
Amelia was baffled. How was this happening on her first day of work? It seemed as if someone was trying to sabotage her. Well, she didn't get a PhD in Business management for nothing.But first, she needed to get the full story behind this. She started reading the news article and from it, she was able to know that Anna Lopez who was their brand's spokesperson was seen calling one of their products trash.For this model to have gotten the effrontery to do such and breach the contract, it is either she must have been paid by someone in the company to sabotage it, or she had been hypnotized into doing so. Her guess was the latter.Dialing the office line, she rang for Antoinette who had gone to bring the minutes of the meeting they had had today. She had planned on testing the capabilities of her secretary later but it seemed the future came too early than intended. Now she'll need to know if she could keep working with her or employ her own person.“How good are you Antoinette?” She as
Amelia studied the files that she had asked for from Ann. She didn't look even one bit worried about the current situation of the company. She knew that whoever did this would be forced to reveal their trump card soon. For now, she could only wait.After going through the files she decided to do something else. When she researched about her husband, she only looked at the information concerning his name and business. If they were to live together, she should at least have ample information about him.Surfing the web, she discovered that there was no personal information about him except that he was Nathaniel Brooke and a rich businessman. No family photos, friends, or friendly gatherings of any sort.Well, she was not surprised. A man of his nature would want to keep his personal information away from the public.Since she was done for the day, she decided to go shopping. She also remembered that she needed to redecorate her home now. Well, she could call the decor company after shopp
Amelia got home tired from her exchange with Edward. She had never met anyone as brazen as him. She made a note to ask Nathaniel later.Bringing out her phone from her bag. She decided to select a home decor style. She didn't want to wake up in such a creepy house. After browsing for a while, she finally found the one that was acceptable to her eyes and called the decor company to come set it up.The decor company was fast and efficient in doing their job, some hours later. The house was fitted to her taste. Feeling energetic from the bright colors in the room she decided to cook a meal. It wasn't stated in her contract, but she could at least do this for her husband.Nathaniel came home to the smell of homemade food. He was surprised as he never thought that Amelia could cook. He had this notion that businesswomen did not know how to handle housewife duties.He quietly entered the room and showered without alerting her. He came down to the dining room when he was done showering to me
Over the next few days. The company’s stocks continued to drop drastically. Even the press was not helping matters as the news article was voraciously published widely all over the country. It seemed that the person behind this was fanning the flames to force her to step down.The executives of the company had all requested to have a meeting with her over this situation but Amelia had rejected all of them. She remained unbothered as she knew that the person would soon be forced to make a move.Today, she was going to choose a new head for the design department. Out of the two candidates she had considered earlier, one of them showed more aptitude for leadership. And she had even found out that most of the designs in the company were actually his work that the credit had been taken over by the former head.Amelia arrived at the office at eight o'clock that morning and as usual her routine, she went to check on a department in the company. Unlike the other day when she had gone round the
Amelia's eyes narrowed on seeing the news. She had already done a background check on the company and she was sure that the designs for the jewelry did not infringe any copyright laws.The other executives quickly spoke up. “Hurry up and step down from the chairman position. Don't you see that the company is going to tear apart?Amelia gripped her hand on the mug until it had a dent in it. She would never allow the company her mother suffered to build to go down. Never!She shot a cold look across the executives and they all kept quiet as they were terrified. They wondered how a young lady could look so terrifying, but that would not stop them from achieving their aim.Amelia chuckled and said “So tell me now, how would stepping down from the chairman position help solve the current crisis that we are facing? Except one of you is responsible and is seeking to use this opportunity to take over the company?”“What are you saying?” They all chorused. “We are only trying to help you. Be q