Sentenced to Marriage by MadlainQ

Suspicions Did I know what I was signing for? Most likely, no. Had I imagined a life without Aren? Definitely not. Was it insane? Absolutely, yes. Certainly, it didn’t mean that I was willing to forget the way Aren acted in front of me, but I was giving him another chance. No, scratch that – I was giving us a chance. Was it a rational thing to do? No, it surely wasn’t. I was painfully aware that it had nothing to do with having a forgiving heart, but more with my current inability to give up on him. Call me foolish and masochistic, but perhaps I wasn’t ready to leave him and still hoped that he wouldn’t screw up again… The consolidating fact was that he felt guilty as if he was genuinely honest when he claimed that he didn’t want me to leave him. Again, was I interpreting his behavior in a way it could ease my mind? Of course, I was, but it didn’t mean that I was doing something wrong, right? I was walking on cloud no. 9 whenever he held my hand, and believe me, it’s hard to make logical decisions while you are inside your freaking pink paradise. It turned out that after Jack and Chris had given Aren an hour-long lecture, they finally told him everything they knew about that night of the attack at the clinic. That made Aren admit that the fact that he saw someone confusingly resembling Lanfen at the party could not be a coincidence. They were all in agreement that we needed to meet and discuss everything I had seen and heard in the hotel.

I guess they had to be more than eager to hear my story since it was Saturday morning and Aren and I were going to meet at Jack’s place in Brooklyn. When we arrived, Chris was already inside, drinking coffee while sitting on the sofa in Jack’s hall-slash-dining room, which opened up to a small kitchen space. It was obvious that a single man lived there. There were no flowers or warm accessories, and most of the floor in the apartment was filled with boxes of documents.

“Come inside,” Jack invited us, grinning. “Mi casa es su casa-make yourself at home.”

“Thank you, Jack,” I said, entering first and sitting on the sofa next to Chris.

I could see that Aren’s jaw tensed as I sat next to his friend, but he didn’t say anything. He just followed me to the three-piece suite and sat in an armchair next to the sofa.

Jack narrowed his eyes at us. “Are you guys still fighting?” “No,” I replied, smirking. “But forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting.” Chris barely stifled a laugh, seeing that Aren was having a hard time swallowing the bitter pill. Jack decided not to fuel the fire and darted to the kitchen area to make us all a cup of coffee. As soon as the source of caffeine had been fairly distributed, Chris straightened up in his seat and locked his eyes on me. “So, Cora, why don’t you tell us what happened yesterday?” I put down my empty coffee cup on the table and took a deep breath. “First, let me tell you the most important part: Max is alive and well, and the guy who kidnapped me and wanted Aren

dead collaborates with Mr. C.”

Chris cursed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I seriously wish for this fucker to end up dead in the depths of the ocean.”

“Have you seen his face?” Aren asked me with a smug smirk.

“No, I saw only the back of his head. Why?”

made a nasty cut on his face with a wire I grabbed when we struggled under the water. Then

I bet that the fucker didn’t spend his last weeks in a

and they aim to bring down Aren and the whole company…” I

where I’ve heard it.”

company owner with that name.” Aren shook his head before looking at me. “Are you sure that you heard

the name

a real name but a nickname?” Jack

that there’s no

a warm smile. “Don’t think that way. At least we know that this guy owns a company, and he is most likely

but it was something. Our meeting with Chris and Jack also brought something else: I forced Aren to agree to my further training with Chris and Jack. I knew that he wouldn’t say no after the way he had messed up the night before, but I also couldn’t miss his warning glare

I couldn’t help the feeling that we were missing something important. A weird kind of anxiety flooded me

“Um

we go to the company?” I

“It’s Saturday. Why would

to check something.” I smiled nervously. I couldn’t explain why, but I felt

We’ll go to the

I shared with Alan and Norton,

upstairs. Strangely, I was less restless as soon as I sat alone in front of my computer. As I logged into the company’s system, I finally felt that I was in control. I’d been out of my comfort zone for so long that entering my security software felt like the most soothing and relaxing thing I’d been doing in weeks. Researching all possible Hasketts was the first thing I did. Fortunately, it wasn’t a very common name so I initially thought that this task wouldn’t be that hard, but not knowing the first name made the research nearly impossible. I groaned angrily, having zero probable matches after two hours of searching the net. Moreover, I couldn’t find any Haskett that owned a company that could possibly compete against Lan Diamond