MARRIED TO DECEPTION

Chapter Four

Ava sat across the room staring at Ethan. She had finally agreed to meet with him, and he had paid for her flight to come meet him in his home in Rhode Island, Newport.

Funny how she had thought she wasn't going to be returning to Newport anymore.

She continued staring at Ethan waiting for him to say something, her mind going back to the night she had gone out with Camilla.

After she had recovered from her shock, she tried convincing her to run away, leave the country, change her identity and live as someone else, she had also said she would do the same.

Ava had actually considered it, she wouldn't have to start from scratch and she could still live a comfortable life, while still running her company secretly, but she knew Asher and Ophelia wouldn't be happy about it if she went ahead with the plan.

Camilla had been angry when she had turned down the idea, but had only accepted a bit when she had told her Ethan was handsome.

She had wanted to follow her to Newport, but she had been against it, she wanted to face Ethan Davenport, her soon-to-be husband, alone.

Her mind went back to Ethan, he was handsome, her grandpa hadn't lied about it, his deep gray eyes staring into space lost in thought, his jet-black hair glistening under the sun ray that came in through the window.

Ethan looked at her, making her shift her gaze elsewhere. She didn't want him thinking otherwise.

Ethan stared at the red-haired beauty. In as much as he didn't like the idea of getting married to her, he couldn't deny she was beautiful, he had caught her staring at him with her blueish gray eyes from the corner of his eyes.

Her eyes had been the first thing he had noticed when they had finally seen each other. They were unique and beautiful.

His mind had been on the conversation he had with Ruby, she had told him that she was probably marrying him because of his money, looking at her now. He was certain that was the reason.

He wondered why her parents hadn't come to meet him directly or why she hadn't come herself, maybe because they knew his grandpa was such a big softy, and whatever pathetic story they had told him, he would have bought it and be willing to help in any way he could, even if it meant forcing his grandson to marry someone he had never met.

Ruby had begged him not to go ahead with the marriage. Told him how he wouldn't be giving her attention like he always did.

He had considered listening to her, not because he was scared that she had been right about not giving her attention anymore, but because he knew he wasn't going to be in love with Ava, he wasn't one to fall in love with women, especially one he didn't know beforehand, and have never heard of before.

He had decided to listen to his grandpa though, because he knew his grandpa would make sure he got married to her, he always got what he wanted.

He loved his grandpa, but sometimes he felt his grandpa was selfish, wanting everything to go his way.

“Ava Morales”, Ethan said, adjusting from the position he was in to face her directly.

Ava felt herself shake slightly, her mind and eyes now fully on him. She hadn't heard him speak since she had gotten there, and his voice sounded completely different from how it had sounded on the phone. He sounded threatening, scary, making her wonder if she should just have listened to Camilla instead.

“Why do you want to get married to me, Ava?”, Ethan continued. Now he was certain he had her attention.

“Does it have to do with the fact that your parents are so poor”,“ and they think the best idea is to marry off their daughter to some stranger?”.

“Or was it all your idea Ava?”, “not wanting to work hard enough to reach a great height on your own”, “and you think the fastest way to get rich and live the life you always imagined is to get married to a rich man, who you could easily leach off from?”.

Ethan continued, his voice rising with each sentence he spoke. He knew he was sounding harsh and mean, he wanted to stop, but he hoped that somehow his mean words would give her the courage to walk away from the marriage.

Ava looked at Ethan, completely and totally shocked, she felt the tears pool at the back of her eyes, she wanted to scream, yell, tell him that he wasn't worth her time, that she didn't need his money, that she could get anything she wanted without having to ask anybody, that she wouldn't be sitting in this room listening to the words that came out from his mouth if it did not have to do with the promise she had made to her grandfather.

Taking her gaze away from Ethan and looking at her surroundings instead, she knew that if she tried to open her mouth at that point she was going to lose it, she was going to cry tons and buckets of tears, and she couldn't afford that.

She couldn't add pathetic, pretending woman to the list of things he already saw her as, and she couldn't go about spilling everything about herself, because she had made a promise, and promises were meant to be kept.

She hadn't paid attention to the room she had been in, but now she was paying attention to every single detail, she couldn't place what the room was meant to be. It had chairs lined at one corner, chairs she knew were made from the best mahogany. She could see now why he sounded the way he did. He was wealthy, but that wasn't an excuse for sounding mean.

There was a tiny bed at one side of the corner that she hadn't noticed before, a huge oak table was at another side of the room, and that table had its own chair. The walls were lined with books on one side, music gadgets at one side, from speakers to airpods, to anything at all.

At another corner there were rows after rows of different technological devices.

She caught herself getting amazed at the disarrayed yet organized room she was in.

Remembering the reason why she had started looking at the room and noticing she wasn't as angry anymore.

She brought her gaze back to Ethan. He was still saying something, but she couldn't tell what it was.

“Yes Mr Davenport”, “You are right about everything, and i can't wait to start leeching off you”. “So why don't we start planning the date for the wedding”.

She said, surprised at the steadiness of her voice.

Getting up from where she was and heading out the room, leaving him in a shocked state.