The Billionaire Love Games

It was summer in Nighten City, and it was one of the hottest ones. The city was so uncomfortable to the extent that hardly anyone came out to play. “She can’t continue to live with us. For how long will I pay her bills?” Lillian asked her friend, Beth. Beth and Cecil were sisters. Cecil stuck her ear to the door and eavesdropped on the conversation between Beth and Lillian. Following a hard time in her life, Cecil came to live with her sister for a while to gain ground, and at that moment it became obvious to her that she had overstayed her welcome. But she couldn’t just get up and leave, could she? Where would she go? If she ran away, her sister, Beth, would be very distressed, and Cecil feared the consequences, so running away was not an option. Directly informing her sister that she wanted to leave, would also not end up well because Cecil had not a single penny to herself. Her sister would definitely frown at the idea. So where would she live? How would she feed and take care of herself? While she was thinking critically about her next move, an idea quickly came to Cecil’s mind. She would get married. Lucky enough, she had received a marriage proposal on behalf of a certain Gabriel Russo, by an advanced lady called, Elizabeth Russo. Elizabeth Russo was Gabriel Russo’s grandmother, and Cecil had saved the old lady’s life in the past. As a result, the old lady asked that Cecil get married to her grandson, who was finding marriage difficult, but at the time, Cecil had turned down the offer. Now, the offer had come in handy, and Cecil must act accordingly. After making calls and getting herself in order, Cecil arranged to arrive at the marriage registry in a couple of days. On the day she agreed to be at the registry, Cecil arrived on time and looked forward nervously to her new life. She had not been too long in the registry when she spotted Elizabeth Russo from a distance. The old lady, with a young man beside her, looked like she was looking for someone. Definitely Cecil. Cecil walked towards the old lady and noticed the striking resemblance the young man beside her had to her. That had to be Gabriel Russo, the man Cecil was supposed to marry. Cecil was stunned. The man standing in front of her was dashingly handsome, so how come he found it difficult to get a wife? Gabriel Russo had a heavy aura and strong personality that Cecil easily noticed. She wondered why he had such an aura as she assessed him. He stood next to a regular salon car that was not luxurious in any way, so even if he was richer than her, it was not by a distant margin. Cecil was sure of that. Another thing she was very sure of was that Gabriel Russo was a dashingly handsome man. “This is my grandson, Gabriel. He’s good for you, Cecil. You don’t imagine that I will get you a man less than you deserve after you went all out for me. If not for you, I would have been history,” Elizabeth Russo said. Cecil weighed Gabriel Russo and ignored him. All she could think of at that point was what she stood to gain from the man if she married him. She needed a place to live at such a time in her life and Gabriel Russo would offer it to her. A house. She wanted a house. Finish. The man’s cold aura was the least of Cecil’s worries, but she could not be any more excited when she saw that he had some warmth to go with it. “Grandma, you can go back home to wait for us to have dinner. I’ll handle the marriage formalities from here,” Gabriel Russo said to his grandmother. Elizabeth Russo smiled obnoxiously and mischievously, and she nudged Cecil fondly. “I told you; my boy is a nice man. He will take care of you even better than he does me,” Elizabeth Russo said to Cecil and went to the car. “I’ll wait for you two to finish. Go ahead, we'll all go back to the guests at home together,” Elizabeth Russo said adamantly. “Ladies first,” Gabriel Russo said to Cecil and made way for her to enter the building first. The hair at the back of Cecil’s neck stood as the subtle breeze from Gabriel Russo’s lips grazed her skin while he spoke. His baritone carried a vibration that made her jolt in alertness. Cecil was almost caught staring, but she quickly realized herself and walked briskly into the registry. Gabriel Russo followed behind her with steady steps. ‘’You know you don’t have to do this, right? It doesn’t matter what my grandmother says. If your heart is not in this, I think you should let it go before it’s too late,’’ Gabriel Russo said with a steady voice from behind Cecil as she walked towards the registry official. In the hall, everyone’s attention was fixed on Gabriel Russo. His aura was heavy enough to command the attention of everyone, and there was also something about him. Yes, Gabriel Russo might have had a commanding presence, but the stares and occasional bows he was getting from nearly everyone he walked past made Cecil wonder what was going on. Moreover, did he just make mention of matters of the heart? Cecil almost laughed loudly. She just wanted his house. End of story. He needed a wife for whatever reason, and she desperately needed a roof over her head for whatever reason as well. Case closed. ''No, it’s fine. I am a woman of my word. I called your grandmother and told her myself that I was willing to take the offer. The offer has been at my disposal for a long time, but I rejected it at first, until now,’’ Cecil explained. Gabriel Russo almost choked on saliva. Did she just say that she deliberately rejected him before? The nerve. No woman in the entire city of Nighten would hear of an opportunity to get married to him and dare to reject him.