Chapter 43
Arielle couldn’t get a wink of sleep throughout the night, she sat in her room thinking about what Luciano had told her, she still couldn’t figure out why he would ask her to marry him and what he might do if she decide not to agree with him, she knew he would do anything to make her life hell and that it would be better to just accept his offer, but she didn’t want to accept, she couldn’t do it, he was the enemy why would she marry her enemy, after hours of thinking and not coming up with a solution, she gave up and took a cold shower which helped her fall into a troubled sleep.
The next morning, she woke up to a knock on her door, without even looking, she knew who it was, who else would deem it fit to disturb someone’s sleep if it is not the devil that hunted her the night before.
“Rise and shine,”
Luciano said in a creepy singsong voice that got her up in seconds, He was dressed in a tailored, charcoal gray suit that hugs his broad shoulders and flatters his muscular physique. His dress shirt was crispy white, with a silver tie.
His dark hair is styled back in a sophisticated manner, compared to him who looked so handsome and well-presented, she knew she looked like hell with terrible morning hair, she tried to fix it with her hand but gave up after a few tries.
“What do you want from me?”
She asked glaring at him, he sat down on the chair and stared at her, she felt self-conscious with how his eyes were preying.
“Stop looking at me like that,”
She scolded.
“Like what?”
“You know what I am talking about, why are you in my room so early in the morning anyway, it’s like four am,”
She said before glancing at the wall clock, it wasn’t four am though, far from that, it was almost ten am, she clamped her lips shut blaming her inability to fall asleep last night for making her over sleep, well it was his fault, he was the one that dropped the marriage bomb and kept her awake all night considering her opinions, not like she came up with any solution.
“Arielle, it’s not four am, I have to leave for work and I wanted to know if you have answers to what I asked last night, I am being serious,”
He stated.
Arielle stared at him wondering why in heaven’s name he had thought it was okay to ask her to marry him when it was clear she had nothing to offer him.
“I don’t think you are serious though, why would you want me to marry you? What’s the logic? No matter how much I think about it, it just doesn’t make any sense, except I am an heiress and you found out about it which is why you are trying to get me to marry you before I find out, which is stupid because I can tell you that I am no heiress,”
She rambled.
“What? Where did you get all that from? How did you even come to such a conclusion?”
He inquired.
“Well, you are not giving any reasonable reason as to why you decided that marrying me was what you needed to do? Why? What’s the reason? What do you gain from this? You keep saying I will gain more? Let’s say that’s true, but how do I believe you when I don’t even trust the words you say? I am not a fool Luciano, I may look easy and weak but I am not, I refuse to be manipulated into a situation that would end up making my life worse than it already is, so cut me some slacks because I need answers.”
She fired at him, hating how she sounded out of breath.
“All the things you said don’t matter and you don’t have to trust me to do what I ask, I didn’t ask for your trust and I certainly mentioned that this is not a real marriage, it is basically a paper marriage, what’s so hard to understand there”NôvelDrama.Org: text © owner.
Luciano responded, looking at her with a stern expression. Arielle could feel the weight of his gaze, she hated him for being so manipulative and not giving a straightforward answer, what kind of business requires marriage, and how come he isn’t picking from all the women he is always pictured with, why would he choose her, she just couldn’t see herself agreeing to this no matter how enticing it might be.
“I don’t have an answer,” she said, her voice coming out weak and unsure. “I need time to think about it.”
Luciano let out a sigh and stood up from the chair.
“Really? This will benefit you a lot so how hard is it to say yes?”
He asked and she glared at him.
“I’ll think about it,” she said, her voice more confident this time. “But I need some time to figure things out, I can’t just say yes to marrying you just because you offered things that might not turn out to be true,”
She responded to him.
“What do you take me for? Of course, we will sign a contract and all the clauses will be there,”
He revealed, not like she expected anything else from him, he was a successful businessman for a reason but saying yes to a sudden marriage proposal seemed like the most stupid thing to do and she really hated to be rushed and end up regretting it.
“I have to think about it,”
She said again.
Luciano nodded, and after a few more moments of silence, he turned to leave the room. “Take all the time you need, but the time is limited until I get back from work,” he said before closing the door behind him.
Arielle was left alone with her thoughts, and she knew that she had a difficult decision to make. She needed to weigh the pros and cons of marrying Luciano, and she needed to do it fast. As she sat there, lost in thought, she couldn’t help but wonder if there was a way out of this mess, a way that didn’t involve marrying her enemy. If only she had money or the means to pay back what her parents had collected from him, then she would walk out freely from here, no matter how hard she thought about it, she just kept coming to one conclusion: marry him and get her debts paid.
Well, she spent the whole day thinking about any other solutions but there were none, the thing about being poor is, it limits your options and limits your ability to turn down certain offers and she concluded that she just has to see how everything works out.
“If I don’t like the clauses in the contract, I can always pull out,”
She assured herself as she waited for him to return from work, her mind already made up, her options were limited and she had just two choices, marry him and be free from the debt or say no and remain his prisoner forever because she knew, there was no way she could make enough money to pay back, she chose the former.