Fated attraction

CHAPTER FIVE—ANYA

A uniformed butler showed me to the private room where Justin was already waiting for me. At the sight of him, I nearly froze. He was looming over the table where he sat. He was well-suited with a rolex that sparkled in the dim light. He stood up as I approached and came around to pull out my chair. Being so close to him was always conflicting: on one hand, I was drawn to him and on the other hand, I was so afraid of him.

“If you are going to fire me, please do it already. I’m so tired of the suspense,” I said. I had sent him the digital format of my marketing campaign and he had requested this meeting to discuss it with me but I was so sure that he hated it and he was about to fire me. Justin’s brows raised curiously when he heard me speak.

“You think me a monster, Ms. Anya. It’s a little hurtful,” he said. I shrugged.

“Well, everyone knows your reputation. I know you’ve fired more experienced people for less. So, I am just preparing myself for worse,” I said, steeling myself. He smiled, his perfect white dentition flashed me. My eyes were drawn to those lips – oh, what I wouldn’t do to kiss them. I shook my head to dispel the thoughts. What was it about him that made me so…hopelessly attracted to him?

“As a matter of fact, Anya, you do not know a thing about me. But that’s okay because I don’t know a lot about you either. I just know that you are perfect for my plan and if you could just listen to me, you might finally understand why I asked you out here today,” he said. I nodded obediently. He pulled out a file from his briefcase and tossed it at me. I flipped it open. It read: ‘MARRIAGE CONTRACT’ with my full name inscribed under the bride’s signatory. I was confused. I looked up at him. Justin readjusted himself on the chair, staring at me with intensity.

“I’m sorry, what is this?” I asked.

“A proposition that will change your life. You see, when I ran into you the other day at the elevator, something clicked between us. It was almost as if you were the solution to my problems. The more I looked into you, the more I realized…The universe must have sent you my way. In all these years, I have been searching for the perfect bride and I haven’t managed to find the right person. I haven’t clicked with anyone until I met you. There is something special about you, something that calls out to me,” he started saying but I wasn’t understanding exactly what he meant.

“I don’t get it,” I whispered.

“I want you to be my wife,” Justin said. He spoke with certainty, as if he knew that I would agree with him. It was his arrogance that held my attention.

“Marry you? Why would I marry you?” I asked. My heart was pounding fast. At first, it felt like a joke and then like a really bad joke. Why would he want to marry a girl he just met? He wasn’t just significantly older than I was, but he was my boss and I was practically a stranger to him.

“I can make it worth your while. Listen, I’m not asking you to fall in love with me and expect to be swept off your feet. This is a business proposal. You see, I have to be married in order to get my inheritance from my family. The woman you saw the other day in my office, her name is Iris. She’s the one my grandmother chose for me but I don’t know if you noticed that I don’t really care for Iris. The last thing I want is to be drawn into an unhappy marriage with her. Instead, I am trying to navigate around the legalese of the will by doing this my own way. I am going to choose my own bride and you are the lucky woman I’ve settled for,” he said, leaning back on the chair with a smug expression on his face.

“Why me? Why would you want to marry me? I am a strange. Until a few days ago, you didn’t even know I existed,” I mentioned in a small voice. He shrugged.

“Well, isn’t that the lovely thing about fate? And I looked into you. I know almost everything there is to know about you. Trust me, you are best of a really terrible longlist. I have to get back to work. But why don’t you look up the contract? You can get a lawyer to explain it to you. And if there’s anything you need from me, we can talk about it before we sign the contract,” he said, rising and buttoning his suit jacket.

“Why would you think that I would sign this contract? This is an insult. I don’t know what you heard about me but I am not the kind of girl who goes around marrying strangers. I believe in true love. I want to meet my future husband the old-fashioned way,” I said, stammering through some of my words. He chuckled mildly.

“Well, aren’t you silly? Old-fashioned way? You could still meet your future husband that way…just as soon as we are divorced. This is only temporary. We are not going to be married forever. And as for the reason why I think you would do this? Well, the simplest reason, of course, is money. You are drowning in debt. Your rent, your student loans not to mention the fact that your parents, back home, are on the verge of losing their lands. If you agree to my proposition, I can make all that go away. You’ll never have to worry about money again. Read the contract, Anya and get back to me,” he said. I watched him walk away, stunned and hurt.

But he was right. I do need the money but was I desperate enough to accept his proposal just for money? I looked down at the contract, flipp

ing the pages.