William Caddel ~•~ I didn’t know if Eliana was stupid, naive, or both. I was leaning heavily on both and rightfully so. I wished I could see through her. I wished I was able to tell what was going on in her head. I wished I could understand her thought process and figure out how she came to agree to get married to me. It wasn’t for my name because it was going to happen in private. Was it for the money? From her point of view, we wouldn’t be married for a long time anyway. Did she want the alimony? But then again, she didn’t hesitate to agree to signing a prenup so what exactly was her game plan? Aside from the three days we had all spent together in the lake house, she had only seen me four times. I was a total stranger to her. She didn’t know my intentions for her. She didn’t know the fucked up thoughts I had about her yet she was offering herself so easily to me. Was she comforted by the fact that I was a public figure? I couldn’t sleep that night. My thoughts were rid
Eliana Brown~•~I was already starting to regret agreeing to marry William Caddel.Sure he was rich, but apart from his name and age, I knew next to nothing about him. I knew nothing about his career, how he handled situations, and how he lived in general yet I blindly agreed to marry him. I didn’t even have any time to get prepared because we would be having a court marriage soon. Since there were no guests, we just needed to get our marriage license and get married. Fuck me.I rested my head against the window, wondering how my life was going to move from here. I had made a lot of impromptu decisions these past few weeks but this one was the biggest of all. I was getting married. I’d always wanted to get married. Harry and I had been together for six years and I wanted to get married to him but he wanted us to properly get our lives together first. Now that I had left him, I saw that he was evading it on purpose and I was thankful I didn’t tie myself down to someone as inconsiderat
Eliana Brown~•~“WHAT???” Catherine exclaimed. “What do you mean by getting married? I haven’t kept in touch for one week and you’re getting married?”I stayed silent and allowed her to continue ranting.“I always thought I was going to get married before you, even when you were still with Harry because let’s be real, everyone knew you weren’t going to end up marrying him. You just broke up like a month ago. How are you getting married? Why are you getting married? Who are you getting married to?” She stared at me, waiting for a response.“What question should I answer first?” I joked but Catherine wasn’t in the mood for joking.“Who are you getting married to?”“William Caddel.”There was a long pause where Catherine just stared at me like I had grown two heads. When I didn’t take back my words, her jaw dropped. “No way! William Caddel? The billionaire man you owe twenty-five thousand? That one?”I nodded. “And I don’t owe him anymore.”“What? He forgave your debt because no offense
Eliana Brown~•~Two days later, I was standing inside the private elevator in my apartment complex that led to the penthouse above. To say I was nervous was an understatement. Since there were no stops, I got to the penthouse in less than a minute and the doors of the elevator opened to reveal William Caddel leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He was still in formal attire as though he had just gotten back from work.When he saw me, he pushed off the wall and approached me. “You’re early.” He checked the watch on his wrist. He had told me to come over by seven o’clock. It was six-fifty-eight. “I like that.”I didn’t know how to reply to that so I just went with “thanks.” I stepped out of the elevator just as he reached for the shoe rack and placed a pair of slippers in front of me. Getting the hint, I took off my shoes and put them on, following him inside when he resumed walking. They fitted perfectly, making me wonder if he usually had women over.I came to a pause. Wh
Eliana Brown~•~A week later, William and I had gotten our marriage license and we had also signed the prenuptial agreement. When we visited his grandfather to tell him about our progress, excluding the prenup of course, he suggested we get married immediately.However, William stood his ground and said we would wait for a month. In reality, I knew he wanted the prenup to marinate first so I didn’t say anything about it and just let him convince his grandfather. Besides, I wasn’t rushing to get married to him.It was also going to be my first day at my new job and I was pretty nervous.[William: if you’re ready, come downstairs, I’ll give you a ride.]William sent me a text as I just finished getting ready. I was supposed to have breakfast but since he was ready to leave, I forfeited breakfast and went downstairs.[Me: the parking lot?] I texted him back as I put on my shoes and exited the house. The complex had an underground parking lot. Sadly, I didn’t have a car.[William: no, I’
William Caddel~•~“Did I hear correctly?” Duke exclaimed as soon as Eliana left my car. “You are getting married to her? I’d think it’s just your delusion but she didn’t oppose it.” His voice portrayed his surprise. I hadn’t told him and George yet about the trip to the lake house or the fact that we were getting married.I glared at him. “Watch your mouth. I’m still your boss.”He scoffed, undoing his seatbelt so he could turn to face me properly. “I knew you were obsessed with her but I didn’t think you’d be getting married to her six weeks after being in contact with her. How did you convince her?” He paused. “Wait, did you threaten her?”I rolled my eyes. He was so dramatic yet he acted so mysterious at work. When I first met Duke, he barely spoke, only talking to me whenever it was necessary. Now, he yapped even more than George.“You manipulated her into leaving her job. You manipulated her into staying in your apartment complex. Now you’re manipulating her into getting married
Eliana Brown~•~My first day of work was quite bland.After they showed me around, they took me to my desk and left me there for the rest of the day. I felt like an intern all over again. Everyone was busy and I just had to sit there and stare.Not wanting to look idle, I turned on the computer in front of me and started browsing through several sites, trying to learn more about 3D printing.Before five, the desks started to empty one after the other. It was the end of the day but I didn’t know whether I could leave or not. The head of the sales department was still in his office and I hadn’t been productive throughout the day.I let out a sigh and shut down the computer, looking around when I got a text on my phone. Grateful for the distraction, I quickly checked it.[William: you done?][Me: I guess][William: you guess? I have to work for one more hour. I’m in a meeting. I’ll come pick you up when I’m done. Can you wait?]We just talked about the possibility of being seen earlier
Eliana Brown~•~William paused and slowly arched an eyebrow at me. I immediately felt embarrassed. I sounded like a jealous girlfriend.“Right about now.” He murmured and brought out his phone to book a cab. I turned to the side, looking out the window the car zoomed away from the building. Why did I say that out loud? “And done…”I gritted my teeth. William was doing it on purpose. From their interactions, I could tell my boss admired him. She wanted him but I wasn’t so sure how William felt about her. It didn’t exactly seem like he liked her but he was entertaining her which was somehow worse.I took a deep breath. That wasn’t my problem to worry about, was it? They were old enough to do whatever they liked. They only had a six-year age difference while I was younger than William by sixteen years. Even if I liked him, which I didn’t, I was too young for him.“How was your first day?” William asked, bringing my attention back to him.I cleared my throat and found the courage to face
Eliana Brown ~•~ I was having the best time of my life. After going on this trip with William, I finally understood why people always suggested traveling. It was well worth using my annual leave. Aside from the fact that William didn’t hesitate to initiate sex whenever he could, it was nice just walking around with him. However, the sad part about it was that it was already coming to an end. It seemed too soon but I had already spent six days touring the city. “Why are you pouting? What are you thinking about?” I sighed. “I don’t want to go back.” “Should we stay another week?” I laughed at his suggestion. “Your mistress will fire me.” William rolled his eyes at my joke. “Olivia is not my mistress.” “She still likes you, doesn’t she?” “At least, she doesn’t act on it anymore. She knows her boundaries.” I nodded, agreeing with that. No matter how much she liked him, she knew when to step back. That was probably why her relationship with Sandra, William’s ex, was
Eliana Brown~•~My leg immediately stopped shaking when a heavy hand was placed on it.Looking away from the scenery, I focused on William.“You haven’t sat still since we landed here. I’m afraid you’d exhaust your energy before we get to do anything.”My cheeks heated up at William’s teasing but I still ignored it. “It’s my first time here!”“Yeah? I could never tell.”I swatted his hand away from my leg. He wouldn’t get it. He grew up rich and had the opportunity to visit several places. I never even got to leave America. I grew up in a small town and managed to break free and travel to the big city immediately after I turned eighteen. Then I had to focus on working to feed and accommodate myself. Even worse, Harry was living off me at some point. I had no time or money to travel and enjoy the finer things in life.It was why as soon as William mentioned a vacation, I was more than excited. I'd read about Paris and I’d seen it a lot in movies. Even when William mentioned Paris, I m
Eliana Brown~•~I stared at William warily. It seemed like he was up to something. As promised, his meeting didn’t take long but the smug look he had on his face as he came out had me really suspicious. “What was the meeting about? Why do you look so happy?”He chuckled. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”“Yes, I would, and I’d appreciate it if you told me about it.”“Why not just see for yourself?”“See what?”“Just wait and see.”Even if Duke entered the car, he didn’t start driving immediately, letting me know that whatever I had to see had to do with the restaurant they just came out from. I stared at William, then at Duke through the rearview mirror, but their faces weren’t giving me any clue as to what I was waiting for.As I waited, I recalled something else. “By the way, what’s in the briefcase?” When they came back, Duke had put the briefcase on the passenger’s seat.At my question, William nodded at Duke and Duke handed the briefcase to me. I was taken aback by its heavy weight
William Caddel~•~Eliana was a lot clingier than usual.I didn’t know if she just wanted to keep an eye on me or if she was actually suspicious of my movement but she insisted on following me when I told her I had somewhere to be.Not wanting to directly lie to her, I just told her I had to meet with someone but according to her, it was the weekend and she was meant to spend it with me. When I told her it was important, she insisted on accompanying me. Denying her would either lead to more suspicions or make her mad so I accepted it.Duke was driving me today even if I had given him time off. The last break I’d given him wasn’t used to completion because he came back for my birthday and my grandfather died the morning after. He didn’t want me to handle Eliana’s ex alone so I also had no choice but to let him come along.On our way to the restaurant I told him to meet me at, my phone rang.I brought it out of my pocket only to see that it was Sandra calling. I let out a sigh. I had be
Eliana Brown~•~I knocked on Mr. Edward’s office once before I opened it and stepped in. “You wanted to see me, sir?”Without saying a word, he handed a document to me. I opened it to see that it was the sales report for the last month. “Uhhh…” I trailed off, not knowing what he wanted from me.“You’re doing the report again and you have…” he looked at the watch on his wrist. “About five minutes to get there.”My eyes went wide. I was surprised he was letting me report to William even if Bianca was present. Mr Edward had never liked me and even after finding out I was married to the boss of his boss, he still didn’t care. According to him, it made sense why I was hired. However, he thought I was capable so he wasn’t too bothered by my presence.“Really?”“Four minutes, fifty-two seconds.”“I’ll be on my way immediately!” I exclaimed and rushed out of his office. It seemed like he was finally warming up to me. The other day, he allowed me to meet a client on my own. Thankfully, the c
William Caddel~•~One week later I was finally back at work.Eliana resumed work way before me since her boss already didn’t like her. She didn’t want to give her reasons to fire her.The news of my grandfather’s death had hit the internet and every call I got these days was to offer condolences to me. I wouldn’t lie. It was quite tiring but I understood that my grandfather had a lot of friends and business partners before he retired and left the company for me.I had been tempted to have a private funeral but I wanted his friends to be able to say goodbye to him one last time, which was why I announced his death and the funeral to the public.The funeral happened two days ago yet people were still calling to sympathize with me.A knock on the door interrupted me from my thoughts and without waiting for permission to enter, Duke came in, slamming the door close behind him.I cocked my head at him. “Is something wrong?”“You have an unwanted visitor.”“Who?”“Eliana’s ex.”I frowned.
Eliana Brown~•~After being recognized as William’s wife publicly, it was a lot easier to navigate expensive places.Back when I was just Eliana Brown, it was very hard to even book a reservation for places like this. If my friends and I wanted to dine in such a nice restaurant, we had to book several months ahead, but this time, I could just waltz in and get what I wanted without any stress. I wouldn’t lie. William’s connections were quite good. It was precisely because the owner knew William which was why the staff prioritized me as soon as I got there. It felt good. Also, I didn’t have to keep William waiting. He finally wanted to eat something. If I took too long, he could change his mind. I couldn’t have that.They boxed my order and the owner handed it to me personally, telling me to send his regards to William. I nodded and assured him we’d visit soon before I left and flagged down a taxi.The ride back home wasn’t long but I was impatient and kept bouncing my leg each second
William Caddel ~•~Fate was playing a cruel trick on me.I lost my parents a long time ago at the same time. At the time, I thought my life was over, but my grandparents took me in. Since I was young when my parents died, I didn’t have many memories of them.I didn’t have any uncles, aunties, or cousins that I could lean on. I only had my grandparents.Twenty years ago, my grandmother got very sick and passed away, so it had just been me and my grandfather for the past twenty years.He got older each day and even more weaker as the days went by. I saw this coming. I knew it would happen soon but I still wasn’t prepared for it.Even after the official announcement of his death, I still couldn’t believe he was gone. As though I was in a trance, I dealt with all the paperwork and did all the necessary things to transfer his corpse to the mortuary.Eliana accompanied me every step of the way, staying close by as though she was scared I would snap.I wouldn’t. I felt numb. It hadn’t prop
Eliana Brown~•~I woke up to the sound of rustling on the bed.My head was aching from all the alcohol I had the previous night, but William’s footsteps were too heavy to ignore.I rubbed my eyes as I sat up on the bed, wondering why William was up. It was four o’clock in the morning. Even if he was an early riser, he didn’t wake up so early these days.I watched as he dashed into the closet and came back out dressed in less than a minute.“What’s going on? Where are you going?”He turned to look at me when he heard my voice. “The hospital.”Every atom of sleep cleared from my eyes immediately. “What? Is something wrong with Grandpa?” As I asked that question, I was already getting out of bed. Thankfully, William hadn’t taken off my clothes last night so I didn’t have to bother about finding clothes.He nodded as he grabbed his car keys from the nightstand as well as his phone.“I’m coming with you.”“You had a stressful night. You don’t have to.”“I will.” I rushed into the bathroom