Chapter 2
I hung up the phone and looked at Ethan Lewis, the secretary my dad had sent over, with a blank expression.
"Tell my dad I agree to the arranged marriage," I said.
Ethan smiled and nodded. "Good thing you made the right choice, Miss Sinclair. If you'd insisted on marrying Charles, Mr. Sinclair would have cut you off for good.
"I'll come pick you up in three days to meet Mr. Lucas Whitmore."
I walked out of the hotel where I'd been waiting to be picked up for the wedding and hailed a cab.
The driver glanced at me several times in the rearview mirror before speaking cautiously.
"Where to, miss?" the driver asked.
I sat in the back seat, the tightness in my chest fading into a numb emptiness.
Where could I even go?
Not long after my mom died, my confused grandma went out and left the gas on. The resulting fire blackened half the building, and the neighbors demanded hefty compensation, so I had no choice but to sell our property.
It was Charles who brought my lost grandma back that day.
He took off his helmet with one hand, revealing a defiant look.
"No password. Use it for now," he said.
Before I could react, he shoved the card into my hand and walked off.
After I'd finally settled everything, I tried to pay him back but couldn't reach him no matter what I did. Then he suddenly reappeared.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, giving a cocky grin to the upperclassman who'd confessed his feelings to me.
"Nope, dude, she's got a boyfriend," he said.
His platinum hair sparkled in the sunlight as he crashed into my world, bold and unapologetic.
"Be my girlfriend. Consider it repayment for coming to your rescue," he said.
For three years, I kept running after him trying to pay him back, but to everyone else, I was that clingy girlfriend.
Whenever he got into a fight and got hurt, I was always the first one there.
When he crashed his bike and broke his leg, I went to the hospital every day to look after him.
When I was about to pay him back, my grandma jumped into the river.
That night, the rain was pouring down, the river was pitch black, and I was losing my mind with worry.
Charles arrived with a thousand boats to search for her.
Time ticked by, and when I surfaced for the ninth time, shivering from the cold, he reached out his hand to me.
"We found your grandma. I've already sent her to the hospital. She's fine," he said.
He wrapped me up in his coat, holding my freezing hands and blowing on them to warm me up, his eyes full of worry and tenderness.
"Miss, are you okay?" the driver asked.
He pulled out a few tissues and passed them to me.
Only then did I realize my face was already streaked with tears.
"Keep driving," I said.
The car pulled away, and the world outside rushed past in a blur.
Last night, Charles sat by my grandma's hospital bed and finally told me the truth. "Sophie, the person your mom saved ten years ago, it was me.
"My family offered your grandma about 6.7 million dollars as thanks, but she refused. She said a life couldn't be measured in money and that your mom had simply done the right thing.
"Sophie, it's fate that brought us together. I'll love you with the same love your mom showed me, for the rest of my life."
But less than a day later, everything changed.
My heart felt like it was being squeezed tight by a wire, the pain twisting deeper with every beat.
My phone kept buzzing.
It was a video the groomsmen had posted in the wedding group chat.
On the screen, Chloe was in her wedding dress, smiling as Charles slipped the ring onto her finger.
Someone: [Forget about making the best of a mistake, this is a match made in heaven.]
Another: [Seriously, who wouldn't say you two are perfect together? Go get married already and make someone eat their heart out.]
I pressed the power button, and my icy face reflected back at me from the screen.
"Sir, take me to Iris Manor," I said.
There was something I had to get to the bottom of.