THE DECEIT

Chapter 1: The Proposition

The drizzle drifted through the cityscape and rinsed with a watery curtain each of the glass towers’ jagged edges, smoothing them. Each drop murmured her woes; every runnel down its pane reflected her tangled paths of life.

She had specialized as a forensic accountant throughout her life. Days were unrolled in spreadsheets and numbers, the endless search for anomalies, things she had a real knack for, it seemed, that put her rather glaringly in the crosshairs of both the righteous and the corrupt. Unknown to her was the gift about to bring a knock on her door that would change everything.

She was dotting the last touches to a rather plain report when the door was opened. Elise raised her eyes and saw, before her, a man: Charles Thorne, a person whose presence on its own merit filled a room. There was a suit over the man's athletic shoulders, and he had piercing blue eyes that seemed to explain the power and danger he wielded. A billionaire and an industry titan, all at the same time both wealthy and powerful, he had been to her office many times before. What was different this time, though, was the look in the man's eyes.

"Elise," he murmured in the voice of gossamer, "we need to talk."

She gestured for him to take a seat. Her heart raced at his sitting down across from her, pounding in a mad rhythm as he looked her over with a gaze as hard as steel. Charles Thorne didn't do casual drop by for tea and chitchat. If rumors were believable, he was as formidable as his work ethic, bordered on passion.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Thorne?" she replied, trying to sound cool.

His eyes never left hers as he tipped forward until his breath mingled with hers. "Can I make you an offer, Elise, one that would change your life?"

She was on her guard. Of course, she had heard all the rumors bandied about concerning the shady dealings of Thorne Industries and how often they also trod very thin lines with regard to legality, but she never thought any of them would ever personally contact her.

"I'm listening," she said, intrigued despite better judgment.

Charles breathed deeply. "Elise, we're in a real mess. We are suspected of money laundering and corruption. The police are moving in on us, and we want someone of your caliber to extricate us from this bog."

Elise frowned. "And why would I help you? What's in it for me?"

Charles tipped back a bit on his chair, smiling knowingly at the corners of his lips. "I'm going to give you a lot of money that you won’t need to work for the rest of your life. Yet that's not all, I'm also making you an offer to join us.

Elise gasped at that. “Become one of your family members? How?

"What I'm offering you here is a paper marriage," Charles said coolly. "You marry me, and in return, I'll take care of you. You will have at your disposal resources and connections of which most people can only dream of. And when at some time in the future you decide to leave me, you will leave with a generous settlement."

Contract marriage. What kind of bullshit was that? It sounded trashy like what is anticipated between the covers of some badly written romance novel, but here he was, Charles Thorne, one of the most powerful men in the country, proposing just that.

"Why me?" she managed to ask in a whisper.

"Because you're the best at your work," he'd said bluntly.

"And because I need someone whom I can trust; a person who would help me flow through this crisis safely and securely".

Elise just stared at him, her heart thudding hard against the ribs. It couldn't be—it had to be. Too good to be true.

"And what's behind it all?" she blazed. "What kind of contract marriage?"

Charles's face darkened. "In my organization they have been trying to get to me, to topple me. Maybe they see in this investigation some kind of leverage to get on their own track; I can stabilize my position finally with you as my wife and protect my interests. It's strategic; nothing serious."

Yet, it was a heady promise: to be the billionaire's wife, all his vast wealth and influence hers to command. But what that actually meant was scary in the truest sense of the word. She would be right in the middle of all this power and intrigue—in not an imaginary world but this very one, where one's life is always at stake.

She said, "I have to think over this offer."

Charles nodded. "Take all the time you need. But remember that the clock is ticking. The authorities are not going to wait forever".

Before Charles had time to get up from the chair, the door opened again, and in came a very tall man, taller than Charles, with dark hair and limpid eyes as if they contained all the secrets of the world; younger than Charles was her assessment of him. Something in contact with him made her heart shiver.

"This is my brother, Ethan. He's going to be working with you. He handles the legal department of the company."

Ethan stretched his hand, glancing deep into Elise's eyes. "I am really pleased that we are meeting. I have been told a lot about you."

She took his hand and shivered. There was this electricity in Ethan—an attraction that was pulling her close. A current just seemed to run through her, something she had not felt for a long time.

"Pleased to meet you," she panted.

Charles and Ethan left, and Elise sat back on her chair, a whirlwind of thoughts brought about by the proposition running through her mind. This was outrageous, yet impossible to resist, a moment in time when a decision would set her life onto an utterly different path of life.

She passed through days of indecision. For hours and hours, prolonged far into the night, she sat in her little semi-detached house, looking out of the window at the rain-soaked city, with Charles' words, rattling through her head. The offer was sweet in its temptation, but dangerous in its nature. If she were to be a Thorne, then she would be right in the very vortex of a storm—the maelstrom of power…

It was Ethan who really convinced her. He would come to her office, pretending to have discussions about something or other directly related to one or another legalistic matter in the investigation, not a few times. Of course, there was another silent agreement between the two of them that neither really could get out of. They talked and talked, every word they spoke underlined with tension over a sub-language of something so specific.

His eyes bore into her, quite literally taking her breath away. 'One evening while sitting in her office, he said, "Elise, I know my brother's proposition seems extreme, but he's right about one thing. We need someone like you, someone who can help us go through this mess and come out the other side."

Elise looked at him; Ethan almost heard her erratic heartbeat. "What about you, Ethan? What do you think about all this?"

Ethan hesitated, his look changed, and his face got clouded by some emotion that she could not understand. "I think you're the best person for the job. And I think… I think more's at sake here than just money and power."

Elise held her breath. There was something in Ethan's eyes that made her heart race. She felt how his gaze gave promise for more, for something deeper, for something profound.

And the next day, Elise made a decision. She called Charles and accepted his proposition. The wedding was planned with breathtaking speed, a whirl of preparations that made her dizzy.

That morning of the wedding, as Elise was preparing herself standing in front of the mirror, her wedding dress seemed so very elegant, and yet on an utterly simple creation with dark hair tied in a loose chignon. She did feel every inch the bride of a billionaire, yet inwardly there was turmoil: nerves and doubts.

A knock sounded on the door, and Ethan entered. He looked at her with admiration, and then for a second, something unreadable passed from his eyes. It said so much—things that should make her heart melt.

"You're beautiful," he whispered.

Elise raised her eyes to his. "Thank you, Ethan. I really don't know what to say."

Ethan stepped closer until their eyes met. "There's nothing you need to say, Elise. Just know and trust that no matter what happens, I'm right here for you."

Her gaze met his, and his breath jerked. Something in his eyes did something in her heart, and right then, she realized she'd begun to fall for him. And it was that realization that was going to fill her with hope and dread.

The ceremony began, and to Elise, it was still somehow surreal—like walking onto the set of some movie. Charles was there, very composed, but in walking down that aisle, it was Ethan who held her focus by his eyes. Something passed between them in that moment neither said a word but said everything in a silent promise.

Facing one another, Elise had to recite the vows, to bind her into a lifeless, business deal of a marriage that left her cold, making her very sad: to live the rest of her life with a man she did not love for her own personal gain. But with a glance at Ethan, she knew her heart was already given to somebody else.

The moment the ring was slipped onto her finger, congratulations and good wishes came in a deluge to bring the ceremony to an end. Elise had been somewhere else in her mind. It brought to her the feeling of probably having just stepped into a world of shadows wherein love and loyalty would be tested and right and wrong would run into each other, beyond recognition.

That night as she lay on the bed, Elise stared at the ceiling, feeling so helpless, for in that moment, she did not know what she thought or felt since her thoughts and feelings were all mixed up.