“ I don't know why you are going this far when I agreed to. If you haven't lost that deal, you wouldn't have been doing this and I won't be stuck with you.” Damon said, trying to gaslight Scarlett who felt bad immediately. “Why are you always behaving this way? What rong did I do to deserve this?” Scarlett asked, as she kept on seeing more ridiculous clauses. “You made me lose a multi million dollars deals, do you know how much more that would have added to my portfolio. You made my company look like a joke to them all and you expect me to let it slide like that?” Damon asked, weirdly calm with his hands placed on his desk in a very comfortable position as she stared at i with her lips left ajar.“I know, and I'm paying dearly for it, I would have to stand you for a whole year..” That came out before Scarlett gave it a proper thought, but she clasped her hand over her mouth the moment she had realized her mistake.Damon wasn't pleased with her sassy reply but he didn't mention it so
“What's the new report? She have been missing for more a than forty eight hours now.” “I can't find her anywhere. I have placed a missing person advert everywhere you can think of, but it hasn't yielded any effort".."I thought you asked her to go back home for the day”. Julian said, looking up from his laptop with a worried expression on his face. “What do you mean? She was there a few minutes before getting into her car to leave. I watched her leave.” Damon muttered, pacing up and down with his thoughts raging wild.“Maybe she got annoyed and left for somewhere to calm her mind down. Women can be a lot to handle at times.” Julian suggested, smiling a bit as he tried to calm the situation down. “No, she wouldn't do that. She's stubborn, fierce and all that, but she listens.” Damon countered, still at a loss as he tried to know she went to.“She can do that, she wouldn't have expected the wedding so soon. It came as a shock to me too. I wasn't expecting something like that.” “Hmm
CHAPTER ONE: AARON’S SURGERYSCARLETT’S POVToday is the day I decide to carry another man's child in my womb, while still married to my husband, Aaron.I know it sounds so crazy, but I have thought of a thousand reasons to back out of this decision, yet nothing else holds me down as much as the fear of losing my husband. The last time I spoke to the doctor, I was warned that if Aaron didn't get a surgical operation within the next four weeks, he would be at risk of dying.The burden to raise the money for his surgery fell solely on my shoulders, and his mother wasn't taking it easy on me at all as she told everyone who cared to listen that I was the reason behind her son's misfortune. She never accepted me as her daughter-in-law, anyways.When I first saw news of an unknown billionaire who needed a woman to bear a child for him through surrogacy, I had applied nonchalantly, without any expectations.Early this morning, a strange number called me, informing me of my scheduled intervi
CHAPTER TWO: LET'S SIGN THIS!SCARLETT’S POV"Are you dumb?" A voice asked, jolting me out of my thoughts.I looked up at the masked man before me and it felt like my tongue had been tied, because I wasn't even able to speak. Rather, I shook my head, and started to cough.He leaned back on his chair, folding his arms across his chest. I knew he was watching me through the mask and worry gnawed through me."I asked you a question." He said.I let out a harsh breath and mumbled, "Yes, yes. I am very sure about this. What are the terms of the contract, please?""Almost everything has been stated in the document you shall sign next week. However, I have to make certain things clear."I bobbed my head as I clenched my fists, waiting for him to continue. At this point, I was ready to do just anything, as long as I got the money for my husband's surgery."Are you married?" He blurted.The question threw me aback as I wondered if my response would make me to lose this deal.."Uh! Yes..yes..oh
CHAPTER THREE: MISSION OVER, SCARLETTSCARLETT’S POVFour Weeks Later.As I stared at the test strip in my hands, relief washed over me. The two lines were boldly visible on the strip, confirming what I already knew."Finally. it's real" I muttered under my breath, breaking into tears.I was pregnant with the masked man's baby. I had spent the last few weeks, living in complete fear of not not being able to get pregnant, despite how much I had been paid.I was even more worried that the masked billionaire would silently kill me here in Italy and no one would know. Well, no one actually cared enough to call me, even after I left the country.There was a sickening feeling at the pit of my stomach as I rubbed my flat belly, trying to imagine what my child looked like. Would the child turn out to have a striking resemblance with the masked billionaire, or with me, its mother? I was consumed with worry that I might never know the gender of the child in my womb, as the masked man made it cl
CHAPTER FOUR: BIG SHOCK!SCARLETT’S POV"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have arrived at San Diego International Airport, California." A loud voice announced from unseen speakers, "Please fasten your seatbelts and prepare for landing. Local time is 10:45 AM. We hope you have enjoyed your flight, and we thank you for choosing our airline."My heart skipped a beat as I sat up straight. I had been on this flight for what felt like an eternity, and the thought of finally getting back home made me nervous.Ever since my child was taken away from me in Italy, my heart was shattered. I knew that I wasn't supposed to get attached to the baby, but I hadn't even gotten a chance to look at it, or even hold it in my hands.I glanced around the cabin. My fellow passengers were stirring, some yawning, others checking their phones or gathering their belongings.As the plane began its descent, I shut my eyes and thought of my husband, Aaron. Ever since I left the country, he h
Chapter 5 Scarlett ran down the flight of stairs, and her vision became blurry as her eyes filled up with hot tears which streamed down her cheeks. She stumbled as she got to the sitting room and as she got up, my eyes came face to face with a life-sized picture of her and Aaron, hanging on the wall. She stared hard at the picture for a long time and shook her head wistfully as the memories came flooding. From where she stood, she could still hear Adriana’s loud giggles from the bedroom floating down to the living room. Or maybe it was her head. Sobbing, she looked around the house one last time and with a heavy sigh, she picked up her suitcase and left the apartment. Confused and tired, she walked down the street. “But where do I go from here?” She asked herself as she stopped and looked around the street and saw so many strange faces. It dawned on her, she knew nobody and had no one to run to—friend nor family—and the sad reality that Aaron had been her entire world irked h
Chapter 6“Julian?”Scarlett sat up on the bed, confused. She kept staring at the paper in her hands for a long time, and at the same time racking her brains to think of who this person was, but she couldn’t think of anyone. She read the note again, and on impulse, picked her phone to dial the number. She typed out the number on her keypad and stopped momentarily as she was about to hit the call button. “What do I say to this person?” she asked, speaking to herself. She discarded the idea and dropped her phone, and then reclined on the bed as she looked around her. She’d never been in a room as lush as this, even her room at the apartment where the masked billionaire had kept her wasn’t as luxurious as this. This had to be a real five star hotel, and only someone who had good cash could pay for a place like this. She didn’t have that ‘good cash’, and she didn’t know anyone around who did as well.So who put her here?She got up, and walked to the window, drawing the curtains open an
“What's the new report? She have been missing for more a than forty eight hours now.” “I can't find her anywhere. I have placed a missing person advert everywhere you can think of, but it hasn't yielded any effort".."I thought you asked her to go back home for the day”. Julian said, looking up from his laptop with a worried expression on his face. “What do you mean? She was there a few minutes before getting into her car to leave. I watched her leave.” Damon muttered, pacing up and down with his thoughts raging wild.“Maybe she got annoyed and left for somewhere to calm her mind down. Women can be a lot to handle at times.” Julian suggested, smiling a bit as he tried to calm the situation down. “No, she wouldn't do that. She's stubborn, fierce and all that, but she listens.” Damon countered, still at a loss as he tried to know she went to.“She can do that, she wouldn't have expected the wedding so soon. It came as a shock to me too. I wasn't expecting something like that.” “Hmm
“ I don't know why you are going this far when I agreed to. If you haven't lost that deal, you wouldn't have been doing this and I won't be stuck with you.” Damon said, trying to gaslight Scarlett who felt bad immediately. “Why are you always behaving this way? What rong did I do to deserve this?” Scarlett asked, as she kept on seeing more ridiculous clauses. “You made me lose a multi million dollars deals, do you know how much more that would have added to my portfolio. You made my company look like a joke to them all and you expect me to let it slide like that?” Damon asked, weirdly calm with his hands placed on his desk in a very comfortable position as she stared at i with her lips left ajar.“I know, and I'm paying dearly for it, I would have to stand you for a whole year..” That came out before Scarlett gave it a proper thought, but she clasped her hand over her mouth the moment she had realized her mistake.Damon wasn't pleased with her sassy reply but he didn't mention it so
Good morning sir." Scarlett greeted, looking gorgeous in her gown and well-tucked and professional looking hair which caused Damon to stare her a lot longer than how he did.“Morning," Damon replied, without looking up as I dropped his coffee just the way I noticed he liked. He took it without saying a word of acknowledgement to me and took a sip without an expression on his face. . “Prepare the conference room in less than two hours; they should be here, and you would have to listen attentively to everything that would be said in the meeting. Make no mistakes so we won't lose any valuable information.”"Yes sir,” Scarlett replied, walking out of Damon's office with her heels clicking on the spotless marble tiles. " He doesn't have to be that cold; at least a thank you for the coffee is enough,” Scarlett muttered, not noticing that Damon was standing at the door of his office. “Thank you for the coffee," Damon said, surprising the wits out of Scarlett and she gasped. Her face turn
Chapter 16Scarlett couldn't believe her ears. What the hell was going on here?“What are you talking about? Because I don't seem to understand. Become your pretend wife? How? What does that even mean?” Scarlett asked, looking visibly confused.“Okay, calm down, Scarlett. There's an explanation to all of this,” Damon said.“Then start explaining immediately, because I don't get how you just met me for the first time today and you're asking me to be your pretend wife — whatever that means,” Scarlett said.Damon sighed heavily. He knew it'd be hard, but he didn't expect it to be this difficult. He wished Julian was here to save him.“My last relationship failed. We had a misunderstanding because I had to do a sur—” he paused immediately. Was he about giving himself away right now? “Scratch that. I got into a venture my ex didn't support and she wasn't patient enough to understand what I was trying to do, and then she cheated. I had to break up,” he said.Scarlett was losing her patience
Chapter 15“Glad you already met her, Grandma. This is Scarlett, my fiancée.” Damon said, smiling at his grandmother. “What?” Scarlett asked, shocked. Damon walked over to Scarlett and put a hand over her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You good, Scarlett?” Damon asked, his eyes showing concern.“Yeah, are you alright, daughter?” Grandma asked.Scarlett stared, willing her mouth to open but finding no words.“Scarlett?” “Yes… Yes, I'm fine. I'm good,” Scarlett said, finding her voice. “I'll just get something to clean this up.”“Oh, don't worry about it, it'll be sorted,” Damon said, signaling to one of the office staffs to clean the mess.“So you already got a wife and you didn't inform me? Is that what it is now, Damon?” Grandma asked, her eyes lit with pleasure. “Well, we were planning to make it a surprise, Grandma,” Damon replied, smiling and turning to Scarlett. He gave her shoulder another gentle squeeze. “Right, Scarlett?”Scarlett had never felt so confused in her
Chapter 14"Good morning, Julian!" Scarlett exclaimed as she noticed Julian approaching from nearby."Hey... good morning to you, too! I didn't expect you to be up this early. How did you sleep last night?" Julian asked while making his way to the dining table."Honestly, I struggled to get a good night’s sleep, but I managed to rise early enough for work," Scarlett joked, prompting a chuckle from Julian."I can tell you definitely woke up early enough to prepare all this amazing food," Julian commented as he grabbed a slice of toast.Scarlett laughed lightly while she placed the pancakes on the table and took her seat."As I said, my sleep was restless, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to whip up breakfast. It’s the least I can do, considering all the support you’ve given me," Scarlett said while enjoying her meal. She felt immense gratitude towards Julian. "Come on, stop with the gratitude. Just make sure to give me some cash when you receive your first paycheck!" Julian quipp
Chapter 13Following her discussion with Julian, Scarlett was left bewildered, thinking that things couldn't have turned out better. He'd just given her hopes of a job, and she didn't even care if it was in another country. Scarlett still thought it worth giving it a shot. It was better than sitting home all day, bored and doing absolutely nothing.That night, after completing her usual routine, Scarlet was getting ready for bed when she heard a knock at her door.At first, she chose to ignore the noise because she wasn't expecting anyone. However, the knocking persisted, getting her irritated. She was tired and needed to sleep.Not knowing who might be at her door, she decided to open it after a deep sigh.To her surprise, when she unlocked the door, there was nobody there, leaving her bewildered.She had heard the knocking repeatedly, not just once or twice, yet upon checking, it was completely empty outside. “What's going on?”Her heart began to race as unsettling thoughts crosse
Chapter 12 “Hold on,” Damon said, suddenly sitting up from his previous reclined position and startling Julian.“What's up? Any problem?” Julian asked, looking up from his phone. “This plan… your plan…” Damon trailed off.“Yes, the plan” Julian nodded, urging him to go on. “What's up with the plan? It doesn't sit well with you?”“No! No, not that. I mean, how exactly do we go about it, exactly? I mean, we can't just go and tell her we have a job for her just like that and she should come over,” Damon said.“Why not? She's isn't doing any of this for free, remember?” Julian asked.“I know, Julian. But it's not just about what we are going to pay her. You think we'd just tell her ‘Hey, we've got a job for you in Italy and you need to pack up’, you think she'd just get up? You think she doesn't have a life?” Damon asked.Julian stared at him. “Why do you care, Damon? I really don't get it.”Damon continued. “Look, don't get me wrong, okay? Slow down. Now look. She was a surrogate mothe
Chapter 11Damon stood still, dazed by the words he just heard from his grandmother. Did she really mean that? Losing access to everything he'd been working hard to build was worse than a disaster and there was no way he was going to let that happen. This was crazy. His grandmother had to be kidding.“Grandma, wait!” he said, running after her.He ran past the door that led to the inner house and sprinted up the flight of stairs and paused as he came to his grandmother's bedroom door. He took a deep breath before he knocked, two silent quick raps on the hard mahogany door. “Grandma?” He got no response. He knocked again. “Grandma? Grandma please, please we need to talk about this, okay? Please.”Still no reply. He was getting frustrated. “Okay, grandma. I agree with you, and I'll get married. But could I please get a little more time? Three months is too sudden for me to bring myself down to love anyone right now, Grandma.”Her voice came floating softly from behind the door. “I don