The CEO's Fake Wife

Play Pretend

While Indigo and the rest of the Lucretia family members were in bed, with her father's situation unknown, Aurora took a stroll and unknowingly found the path to a garden. While walking, she didn't run into any of the servants in the house so she had no one to ask questions, nor did anyone stop her.

The garden behind the Lucretia Mansion was very beautiful and filled with varieties of flowers both common and rare. It was such a beautiful sight that it looked almost unreal.

The pathways were made up of expensive looking white jade which curved through the trimmed hedges and shrubs, the air was filled with the scent of roses, jasmine, lilies, and earth. While a marble fountain stood at the center of the lawn, softly dimmed motion sensor lights began to turn on as Aurora walked along the pathways, soft and golden, causing long shadows to appear over the gravel and trimmed grass.

It did not seem like a hidden part of the estate as the garden was close to the house itself, and the maids and servants sometimes passed, while their voices occasionally drifted through open windows.

Aurora stood near a rose bush, and folded her arms around her body, while her eyes remained unfocused. She was staring at the rows and rows of flowers but she wasn't really seeing them. Her face was a bit pale as she bit on her lower pink lips nervously. “What do I do?” She whispered to the open air. The showdown with Astrid made her realize that she didn't have a lot of support in the Lucretia Mansion but she couldn't leave even if she wanted to.

The moment she snapped out of her thoughts, Aurora heard slow footsteps coming from behind her. It was too late to be Indigo's or Melanie's and the servants won't approach her without making their presence known. “What are you doing here?” She didn’t turn around to guess who had shown up.“I was wondering how long it would take you, before you found me. Congratulations you came later than expected” She lets out a cold laugh.

Asher’s voice came from directly behind her, it was smooth and calm. “If anyone had heard you say that, they would think you were expecting me.”

Aurora turned around to take a good look at the man she had fallen in love with. Asher stood a few feet away on the jade path with one hand tucked into the pocket of his jeans like his presence in the garden was just by chance.

Aurora’s eyes hardened as she focused on his charming face, one that had caused her heart to thump faster the first day they met. “What do you want to say? What do you want from me this time?”

“You are getting too involved in things you shouldn’t.” He stepped closer to her, shortening the gap between them.

“While you lied to me in ways you shouldn’t.” She raised her head haughtily and locked eyes with him but her eyes were filled with defiance.

His gaze sharpened at her blatant disregard for him, something he wasn't used to. “Careful.” He warned her.

“No,” Aurora snapped at him, her anger finally erupting from her chest. “No, I am sick of being careful. Everyone in this house but the servants and your mother has made it a point of duty to disrupt my normal life. ”

Asher didn't give her a response, only stared at her with mirth in his eyes and that pissed her off. “My supposed husband is dead while the one I fell in love with is an asshole.”

“I don't care what you think of me, just do what you have to do and leave the rest for me”

Aurora broke into a hollow laugh. “Can you even hear yourself?”.

“All of this,” Aurora said, gesturing toward the mansion behind them, the gardens, the estate, the polished tiles of it all. “This is about property?”

Asher's mask cracked as he finally spoke up with a malevolent expression on his face. “It’s about being in charge of everything.”

Aurora stared at him, Asher had become someone she no longer recognized. “He was your brother.”

“But he was always in charge, always in the spotlight while the rest of us could bask in his shadows. He had to get out of the way.”

At first she was confused until his words hit her. “He was your brother!” She cried out to him.

“But he was becoming a liability.”

Aurora found it hard breathing while still around him but she probed on. “So what was I?” She demanded from him. “What am I to you?”

“A pawn,” he said with a matter of fact tone. Aurora became still as she listened to Asher's merciless voice. “A very useful one.”

She blinked her eyes a few times before laughing at him. “So that was all I was to you? A mere pawn piece?Very funny.” She repeated softly to herself, as if trying to bring herself to understand his words.

Aurora felt humiliated. “You used me.”

“It was a necessary action. You were not meant to matter more than anything beyond your role.”

Aurora slapped him across his face and Asher’s head turned sharply to the side with the force of it. Slowly, he looked back at Aurora.

“You are nothing but a filthy animal,” She glared at him with her voice rising. “Do you hear me? You are a filthy animal!”

“You can hate me if you like,” Asher said, stepping towards her. “It is not going to change anything.”

“I would rather die.”

“You don’t have that luxury, not anymore.” “You are not going to ruin this for me,” Asher gave her a cold smile which caused shivers to run down her spine. “Listen and listen good, Aurora's, you will not scream, you will not confess, and you will not become difficult now, not when we are so close to victory.”

“You think you can threaten me into silence?”

“I know I can do that.”

“You are an arrogant bastard, do you know that?”

“Perhaps but I have heard worse.”