The Heiress and the Arms Dealer

CASSIE’S POV “Here, take this.” I took one look at the rolled-up piece of paper with smoke coming out of its end before Mirabel had the chance to stuff it in my mouth, and smacked it right out of her hand. “Are you crazy?” I whisper-yelled. “I can’t smoke weed on my wedding day!” She scrunched up her face in distaste and bent to pick it up. “Not like you smoke anyways,” she mumbled and dragged on it. I gave her a dead pan look when she blew it in my face. “If I get high while walking down the aisle…” “Then maybe you’ll come to realize how terrible this idea to get hitched is and you’ll want to run away. People tend to see things the clearest when they’re high. You sure you don’t want any?” I didn’t answer her. Contrary to what Mirabel thought, I actually didn’t want to get married today. But I had no idea how to go about ditching it without hurting Leon and everyone else involved and I had no intentions of letting her in on it because, well, she was high as s**t and she was sure to ruin it somehow. “Why don’t you be a good bride’s maid and go get me something to calm my nerves, huh? Not weed,” I added when she stretched her hand towards me with the ganja roll. Sighing and rolling her eyes dramatically, she got up and headed towards the door. “I’m going to get Leon and tell him that you’ve changed your mind about marrying him. Then I’ll announce to our families that you have decided to call off the wedding.” She basically floated out of the room after that. I was going to have to go out and counter what she says later on. Bunching up my huge dress that Leon insisted on paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for, I kicked off my heels, wore my worn-out convers and scrambled towards the door. My plan was to go out for a minute to where the little bride was being dressed and look at my motivation for doing this until I was sure it was the right decision again. Like a spy, I looked both ways, making sure no one was coming down the hall to the bride’s dressing room, before scampering out. I had barely gone five feet when I heard voices coming from one of the rooms used to house guests. “…because it’s just not fair.” I stopped in my track. The voice that just spoke sounded familiar. Against my better judgement, knowing fully well I did not have time to eavesdrop on other people’s conversation, I leaned against the door, pressing my ear against it until it hurt to go any further. “She’s literally going to become a billionaire after this wedding. How on earth is it not fair?” I couldn’t recognize the voice that asked this question. My heart was thumping loudly against my rib cage while my mind yelled at me to get moving. My feet, however, remained planted to the floors. “He lied to her, okay? She doesn’t need to marry him, but he made her think that she does.” I was confused now. The only wedding happening at the Palace today was my wedding and I was a hundred percent certain they were referring to the wedding happening today. Who had lied to me then? What the hell were they talking about? “Now, don’t call it lying,” the other man said. He sounded like he was offended on behalf of the person who had apparently lied to me. “Call it a means to an end.” The familiar voice scoffed and I heard a glass being slammed on a table a few seconds later. “That will is fake, okay? He only said that to make her get married to him because Leon is influential and owned one of the biggest tech companies in the world. He just wanted to grow his empire and become richer. He lied to his granddaughter.” The more they spoke, the less sense they made. By now my brows were so furrowed that my head started to ache. I no longer felt the urge to leave. In fact, I wanted to march right inside and demand that they told me what the hell was going on, but I knew doing that would make them shut up so I settled for listening through the doors. Thank goodness for thin walls! “Well, he wouldn’t have had to do that if she had just done what he wanted in the first place Al.” My insides went cold. Al, as is Alfred Montgomery, my grandfather’s lawyer. What the hell was he talking about? What did he mean by the will my grandfather read out to the whole family on his 70th birthday was fake? On his birthday last month, my grandfather decided to announce his will. We all found it a bit strange and unsettling when he did that because we thought he was dying and it was his way of breaking the news to us. He had given my father, his son, his plantations and villa, while he gave me the rest of his properties. The one I was most excited about was the hotel in Las Vegas. It has always been my dream to own my very own hotel in Las Vegas so I could move there and start my life anew. You could imagine my joy when he said he was giving it to me. But of course, like everything else beautiful and wonderful in my life, it came at a price; get married in less than two months and everything will be mine. I was mad at him especially since he knew how impossible that feat was for me. I had thought he just did that to punish me for what I did seven years ago and I was this close to forfeiting it, until Leon came up to me and told me he would be my stand in groom. I didn’t want him to do that for me, but when he promised that we’d get divorced after six months, I couldn’t say no. I figured it was the best way to get what I wanted while sucking it to my grandfather. Now I’m hearing that it was a fake will orchestrated just to get me to marry Leon? “C’mon, you don’t have to feel bad about it, Al. You’re not the one who deceived her.” “But I do feel bad!” he all but yelled. He sounded agitated now. “I do feel bad because she doesn’t have to marry him and now, she is.” “What does that even mean?” his companion asked frustratedly. “It means that she already owns everything so there’s absolutely no need for her to get married to him.” What the hell was Alfred talking about? What did he mean by I already own everything? “A few weeks before he read his will, he made me give her some documents to sign. It was the deed to his estates and the Las Vegas hotel and basically every other thing he wanted to give to her. He felt like he needed to make sure that she had received it before leaving the earth so he gave it to her as an early birthday present. The thing is though, she doesn’t know that the papers she signed are for the properties that he willed her. So basically, she doesn’t actually have to marry Leon to get the Las Vegas hotel because she already owns it.” I felt like all the air had been sucked out of my lungs. My body felt like it had been rammed over a few times by a bus and breathing became a little difficult. I wanted to scream, but they weren’t done talking and I wasn’t done listening. “Well, that’s even better for her! She has everything she wants plus she’s getting married to a billionaire? I don’t see why you’re worried Al. She seems to me like she’s in good hands. It’s not like she’s getting married to a stranger. He’ll definitely take good care of her.” “That’s not what I’m worried about,” Al said. He sounded anxious and almost scared and I couldn’t help but wonder what other bad news there was. “I believe they plan on getting divorced after a while. This is obviously a sham marriage. I mean, the groom is her best friend so she obviously chose him because it would be easier to call off at any moment without much trouble. But that’s where the problem lies now. Don knew she was going to ask for a divorce at some point in the future, so he added a clause to the documents she signed. She cannot get divorced, Andy. If she does, she’s going to lose everything. Both the ones she’s already inherited and the job she currently has at the company. Her spot in the family and all that she has ever acquired in this life. Basically, she’ll be poor and disowned if she ever gets a divorce.” I gasped so loudly, I feared that they’d hear me. Quickly, I ran back to my dressing room, unable to think of anywhere else to go. My grandfather, the person I admired and trusted the most in the world, wanted to screw me over. And for what? So that he can brag to his obnoxious rich friends that his grandson-in-law was a billionaire tech mogul? He wanted to sell me off just like that without even thinking of my feelings. He knew how badly I wanted that hotel and he knew no one else was going to marry me because I was damaged goods. He had planned the whole thing, and as always, trusting and believing the wrong people, I fell for his trap. I didn’t even have the strength to hold back the tears that fell down my cheeks. The door swung opened and I quickly wiped the tears away. “There’s nothing wrong, Leon, I promise. Whatever Mirabel said, she was just exaggerating.” “Yeah, you can’t really trust what Mirabel says, especially since she’s always out of her mind.” I froze, feeling the cold course through my whole body at the sound of his voice. For a moment, my body refused to move and I just remained in my sitting position. But slowly, as the time passed and I confirmed that the person in the room with me wasn’t a figment of my imagination as a result of the second-hand smoke I had inhaled thanks to Mirabel, I got up and faced them. My breath caught in my throat as I stared at him. He hadn’t changed a bit, except for the suit he had on instead of the letterman jacket and ripped jeans I was so accustomed to seeing him in. His black hair was styled backwards with gel, a little longer than I remembered it being and his hazel eyes glimmered with what my probably fazed brain misinterpreted as relief at having seen me. “Wh-what are you doing here?” I croaked. I felt my tears slide down my cheek again. I wasn’t a crier, and I hated it so much but after hearing that my grandfather wanted to sell me off and now seeing him, I couldn’t help but shed more tears. He approached me slowly, cautiously, as if scared that any sudden moves would make me flee. I doubt I would have been able to run if I wanted to. My legs were starting to feel a little heavy. “I’m here to take you with me. But,” he took the last step and was now dangerously close to me, I could hear every creak of his joints as he moved. “If you don’t like the sound of that, and you think you’ll be blamed for running away, we can always just say that I kidnapped you instead.”