Chapter 2

ALLISON

My eyes fluttered open as the blinding rays of light slipped through the windows. Was it morning already? I sat up.

“ I feel terrible yet not terrible,” I muttered as I held my head in pain. I was having a hangover from last… My eyes widened as the word last night rang in my head.

I tried to recount everything that happened after I went drinking with Cathy and the embarrassing clip of me forcefully kissing a stranger came to mind.

“ You’re pretty active for someone with a hangover,” an oddly familiar voice said. I looked up and saw the same stranger I had kissed back at the bar.

“ W-what are you doing here?” I stuttered, my voice raised. “ Are you stalking me?!” I pulled the bed sheet to cover me better. Wait… I looked under the bedsheet and I was…

“ Seems your memories from last night have finally come back,” he chuckled, finding my embarrassment and shock amusing. “ You really are not in any way aware of your surroundings for you to think that I’m stalking you when this is my house,” he sighed.

I wanted to bang my head against a wall right now. To think I actually had sex with a random man just because he was hot.

“ You didn’t tell me you were a virgin though,” he always had something to say.

“ Just go if you have nothing else to say,” I was too embarrassed to boldly and shamelessly answer him right now.

“ This is my room so well,” he shrugged, not budging. “ You said you dated your boyfriend for five years so why didn’t he touch you?” He kept pushing this question.

“ Maybe because he was busy knocking up my younger sister,” I said nonchalantly with a shrug.

“ Ahem, take a shower, get changed and come downstairs,” he said before leaving.

“ What was that all about?” I groaned.

>>>>>>>>>>

A few minutes later

I wore the new clothes he had brought me. I guess even jerks can be thoughtful once in a while.

“ Have a seat,” he said as I walked in.

“ What’s this about?” I mumbled as I obediently sat down. My eyes met that of a man in a suit with glasses. I had seen him at the bar last night as well.

“ Why the hurry?” Grey-eyes teased.

“ I have classes to attend, genius,” I snapped.

“ You didn’t seem as bothered when you drank to stupor and threw yourself at me,” he teased. “ But I do agree about getting over with this because I’m a busy person,” he handed me a glass of lemon water for my hangover.

I adjusted awkwardly on my seat because now that the effects of the alcohol I had drank had begun to fade, it was embarrassing having to see him again. How did he not feel embarrassed? Or is it because this isn’t his first time?

“ Let’s get straight to the point. Would you be my wife?” He asked and for a minute, my mind had to process his words before I turned a bright pink.

“ I know I’m gorgeous and all but who falls in love with someone they just met!?” Was he out of his mind?

“ Forgive my boss’s teasing. He was just trying to pull your legs,” who I assumed to be his secretary sighed.

“ You’re very interesting,” he rubbed his chin. He loved my reaction to his bizarre words.

“ A-anyone would react the way I did,” I stuttered. “ Stop joking around and say what you have to,” I exhaled.

“ I wasn’t joking about the marriage part though, I just said it vaguely,” he answered. “ And my name is Ryan. I’m well aware of who you are and everything that has happened to you so far,” he crossed his legs.

“ What are you? A stalker?”

“ Allison Genovese, clocked twenty-one years this year. You’re also in Castro University and you’re pretty much a model student,” he read out with a straight face. “ Do you want me to go on?” He smirked.

“ No, anybody creep can get that sort of information from anywhere. I’m a Genoveseafter all, it’s not unnatural to have caught someone’s eye,” I said. As much as I despised my family, I was unfortunately still from a wealthy and influential family like the Genoveses.

“ Do you have any idea what I really want? If you can tell me that, then I’ll believe you aren’t some creep,” I folded my arms.

“ I heard that your fiance cheated on you with your younger half-sister. I also heard that she’s carrying his child,” he tapped the rim of his glass. “ You want to ruin them and your family in general right? You feel and are certain that the Genoveses killed your mom, isn’t it?” He knew too much.

“ Who exactly are you?” I clutched my chest.

“ I must have hit the hammer on the nail quite perfectly,” he snickered. “ I’m Ryan West and yes, it’s the very same popular West family you know,” he was confident that I knew.

“ No way…”

“ My offer is pretty simple, marry me in exchange for your revenge. You certainly can’t touch the Genovesefamily with how powerless you are, the only way to make them pay is to have someone like me backing you up,” he rested his back against the couch. “ Well, ultimately, it’s your choice so what do you say?”