Sentenced to Marriage by MadlainQ

Fight I woke up sitting on the floor by Aren’s bed, my hand stretched to hold his while he slept, my upper body twisted in a weird, uncomfortable position. It took me a while to stand as my stiffened muscles refused to work, punishing me for my awkward way of falling asleep. It was four in the morning when I swayed back to my bedroom to lie down in bed and try to relax. I couldn’t. The image of Aren, desperate and mortified in his sleep, haunted me each time I closed my eyes. What could cause him such pain? Was it something from his past? “Lanfen…” I muttered, staring blankly at the ceiling. It was probably a Chinese name. I wondered if it was his family member, but I had never heard him mention that name before. And what was it that he was calling? “Buyao zou”? I wondered what it could mean. Should I ask him in the morning? Would he answer? For the first time, I wasn’t sure that he’d tell me the truth…

I was scared. I couldn’t explain it, but something fragile had broken between us. I hoped that I was exaggerating, but my instincts were telling me otherwise. He was the only one who could clear the air between us, and he needed to do it willingly without me pushing, but was he going to? I lay with my eyes open for the next two hours. By the time the sound of the alarm clock spread loudly across the room, I just numbly pressed the switch off and got up from the bed, resembling a robot or a robotic zombie. I could have seemed indifferent on the outside, but on the inside, I was trembling with anxiety. I took a quick shower, corrected my face color with some BB cream, and went downstairs to the kitchen.

To my surprise, Aren was already up, greeting me with a smile and acting as if nothing had happened. That wiped all the anxiety from my system in a flash. I was no longer restless-I was seriously pissed.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, hoping that he would mention having a nightmare himself. He smiled briefly before turning his attention to making an omelet. “Um… good, I think” I knew that I told myself that I wasn’t going to push him, but his carefree mood was making me itch a bit too much. “Do you want to talk about what happened last night?” I asked, pretending to be calm.

He turned around, looking at me as if he didn’t know what I was talking about. Then he looked up, trying to remember, and then said, “You came to my bedroom… You said something about a nightmare.”

I gave him a suspicious glance. “You sounded like you were in pain, traumatized over something… or someone called Lanfen.”

his expression as I mentioned the name. A heartbeat later, his poker face remained in place, but for a split second, a form of restlessness intruded into his confident expression. “I don’t remember having a nightmare,”

fail to notice the way he avoided telling me anything about that Lanfen. I also couldn’t help but wonder if he truly didn’t remember anything from his nightmare or if he simply didn’t want to tell me. It started to bother me more and more. What if his

me. “Don’t start, Cora.” His harsh tone surprised me, making me take a step back “I have

crushed under a pile of stones. “Wow…” I muttered as a bitter smile twisted my lips. “And yet I was stupid enough to

stepped on the stairs. “Don’t be this way. I only

deal in our contract and the so-called real relationship? Was everything that had happened between us before an illusion? Was I only imagining that he had feelings toward me? Perhaps I was acting irrational, but I refused to let him have it the way he wanted. I turned around to face him and stretched my lips into a sort-of-smile. “I’m sorry, Aren. I should have cared about you, or held your hand for hours, hoping that you would sleep peacefully. I shouldn’t have done it. I apologize for interfering in your private time. Now, would you excuse me? I’m going to call Benjamin. I think it would be better if I went to work separately, so I wouldn’t invade your privacy even more.” I jerked my hand away from him and marched up to my bedroom to take my purse and jacket. This time he didn’t follow. I was glad he didn’t because, at that moment, I felt like a doll made of the most fragile porcelain that could break in the breeze of the wind. “Idiot! You did it to yourself! Did you think that if you bared all of your most

hide my anger when I barged into the office

which earned him my darkest glower. He immediately raised his hands in surrender. “I come in peace, babe. Just remember that we have the power

faintly. As much as I wanted to do something that would make Aren feel as miserable as I did at that moment, we had more important things to do. Despite Aren’s claiming that some other issue in his life didn’t concern me, I treated finding the guy who kidnapped me and wanted to blow me up extremely personally. Frankly, I knew that I

care about who was entering the room. “Mrs. Lan… can we talk?” I heard Neil’s extremely timid voice. I faced him, narrowing my eyes. “Did anything extraordinary happen?” He laughed nervously. “That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you about…” I sighed and leaned my back against the chair. “Aren has been acting strange since yesterday. First, he jumped out