The CEO’s Strategic Bride

I’m not doing it,” James said, his voice low but firm. “You will, ” she replied in a cold voice. “You want your inheritance don’t you?” “You don’t get to dictate my life like this, it's frustrating”! He exclaimed, trying hard to control his anger. His mother’s voice followed him. “Your father had already stated all of this in his will before he passed away, which you have to make happen before the due date he wrote down alongside. The earlier you start a relationship the better, because you can't just go into marriage without courting, I'm sure you know better.” This was the pressure James had been facing for a while now, but this time around it was the peak of it all. As he decided on what he needed to do. He was already tired of his mother's nagging, he needed to put an end to it as fast as possible, caring less about how it would happen. One faithful day, while James was being driven in his car, he looked through his transparent car window, then briefly noticed someone passing by, fortunately, this person was a lady who looked exactly like a girl he had known when he was a child. Before he could take a proper look he couldn’t find her again. He doubted that it was her, but decided to assign some of his private investigators to do some search. He provided little of the information he could remember so far, such as her complete name and some unclear facial description of her. The search started and they found her, but it was where she worked. At a convenience store, James was informed ever since he had tried approaching her by always going to the shop to get unnecessary things he already had at home, however, he was never lucky to meet her on duty. They were two workers so they usually observed shifts. After a few more attempts he decided to inform his PA Henry about this, so he could sort everything out. But before this James already met with Samantha’s boss and paid him off to dismiss her from work. Because James knew too well that if she still had that job and the proposal offer was rendered to her there was are chance of her rejecting it, so to avoid all of this he did what he had to do. It all started on a Wednesday morning when Samantha was still lying down on the bed and her phone buzzed, surprisingly it was a text message directly from her boss at that moment she knew something was wrong, her heart was beating so fast it felt like it was about to leap out of her chest, her hands were already sweaty as she opened the message which says “ Good morning Samantha. I'm sorry to inform you about this unfortunately your services are no longer required anymore, due to some recent changes. Thank you for your contributions.” As reality hit her hard, She tried pinching herself to know if she was probably still asleep, but then she realized she was fully awake. For a moment she was confused and lost in thought, knowing she was struggling and drowning in debt she was utterly perplexed. Regardless she tried her best to keep her cool, she dressed up and stepped out to take a walk just to get her mind off her thoughts. On that fateful morning, she met someone, she accidentally acted before him unknowing to her that someone was sitting before her. Samantha walked into a coffee shop blocks away from where she lives, and went directly to the table where Henry was sitting, trying to carefully examine the whole place. The private investigator Henry personally assigned to tail her had already informed him she would go to the coffee shop on that particular day, but he didn't specify the time. On getting to the coffee shop She sat down on the chair facing Henry, unknowing to her that someone was sitting before her. She was deeply in thought, lots of things were going through her mind at that moment. Just then She thought out loud to herself “But I walked hard, and yet all I could get In return was my services are no longer needed, Really? That's just ridiculously unfair “ she said laughing out loud instead of being calm and feeling the sad moment. Henry, who was sitting directly opposite her, quickly looked at the picture he was holding and then looked up, it was the lady he was instructed to search for and present the marriage proposal to. James' constant pressure from his family, most especially his mother made him decide to go into an arranged marriage, but he wanted it to be Samantha who he would go into the contract marriage with. Firstly he felt he would be less concerned and would feel comfortable if it were to be someone he knew, caring less about the fact that what if she refused the proposal. Course he already tried getting in touch with her in a more natural way but every time he tried it didn't work out. So he had to entrust Henry with this assignment and to ensure she agrees he paid her boss off to dismiss her from work. Henry quietly watched the display of her drama then slowly moved his chair closer to the table “Excuse me, are you okay?”He said in a calm and welcoming voice”. I… I, yes I'm fine, so sorry for speaking loudly, I had no idea someone was seated before me” she said apologetically in a subtle tone. This was how Henry started a conversation, they both started by introducing themselves, “I’m Samantha, and you are..?” She asked with loads of curiosity in her eyes, cause he wasn't looking familiar, she asked hoping the name might ring a bell.“I'm Henry,” he said in a calm tone. Henry pulled off something James had tried to make happen but he couldn't, Henry did just in one attempt. They both started talking and Samantha, considering how dramatic she was unknowingly someone was watching was forced to explain herself.