Cozying Up With the Enemy

I'm hospitalized after a car accident that nearly costs me my leg. Meanwhile, my fiancé is too busy in the room next door taking care of his first love. She's only faking a sprained ankle. From that same room, I hear Johan Rivera's mocking voice. "Raelyn? She's just a pawn the old man picked for a political marriage. She's not even good enough to be your stand-in." In that moment, something in me finally breaks. I watch the news coverage of a rising business star who's surrounded by reporters and flashing cameras. He's also my childhood friend who has pursued me for ten years. I calmly send him a message. "Christian, does your offer for a contract marriage still stand?" Chapter 1 I fell asleep amid the pain of multiple fractures throughout my leg, all while listening to the flirting coming from the hospital ward next door. In my semi-conscious state, I seemed to see Christian Goodman pacing back and forth next to my hospital bed. Later on, a banging on the door woke me from my sleep. "Pack your things and follow me back to Rivera Manor, Raelyn. Grandpa wants to see you." That was my boyfriend Johan Rivera's voice. He had always been so impatient with me. I forced myself to get out of bed and open the door for him. Upon opening the door, I was greeted with his disdainful expression. "Would you look at that? You can still get out of bed and walk around," he said in annoyance. "I guess the car accident wasn't serious, and you're just faking it." I frowned subconsciously, wanting very much to vent my anger on him. There was a sudden scream from the ward next door. "Ouch! My leg hurts, Johan!" Johan immediately became nervous, and he didn't even try to hide his reaction from me. A moment later, I watched blankly as Johan came out of the ward next door with his first love, Lucy Sherman, in his arms. "Didn't I tell you not to get out of bed and move around recklessly? I can just carry you wherever you want to go instead," Johan admonished her. As the two of them passed me, Lucy smiled with a gentle look in her eyes. "Johan always spoils me like this, Raelyn. Sorry for making such a fool of myself in front of you." Johan hugged her tightly upon hearing this and said coldly to me, "Hurry up and pack your things. I'm heading back to the manor first, so just hail a taxi later. Lucy's always been afraid of the cold, so I don't have the time to spare waiting for you." I stood alone in the corridor for a long time. It wasn't until a burst of cold air blew past that I came back to my senses. I shivered before forcing myself to hobble back into the hospital ward and sit down. I honestly didn't have the strength to pack my things. Memories flashed through my mind, making my head hurt. I recalled the first time I ever met Johan, when he smashed everything in Rivera Manor to pieces. The sight of him behaving so hysterically had frightened me so much that all my hair stood on end. I would never forget the sight, especially the moment he turned to glare at me with bloodshot eyes. Back then, he had fallen out with Scott Rivera—his grandfather—and sworn a vicious oath. "I'll never marry Raelyn Kirchner! If I ever do, I'll die a terrible death!" He was a man who was practically favored by the gods, so he probably thought that he and I were far too different from each other. The Kirchners and the Riveras used to be old-time acquaintances. After a huge fire had taken my family from me, it was Scott who took me in and raised me. The engagement between Johan and I had been arranged by our families long ago, but now, it seemed like we weren't a good match for each other. From the age of 18, I had lived under their roof for five whole years. I sighed, not wanting to continue putting up with my situation anymore. Suddenly, my phone rang—Christian was calling me. He and I were high school classmates, and he had been pursuing me ever since he first became my deskmate. However, due to my engagement to Johan, Christian had constantly been at odds with him. Whenever I got just a little too close to Christian, he would suffer bullying and oppression from Johan due to his status as a poor student. Because of that, I had always chosen to keep my distance from Christian. It wasn't until our last class reunion that Christian, who had already evolved from a poor student to a new upstart in the business world, said something to me after getting drunk. His eyes were shining when he told me half-jokingly, "Since you haven't gotten married to Johan even after being engaged to him for so many years, how about you enter into a contract marriage with me? "It'd be perfect to curb my parents from urging me to get married." I came back to my senses right then. Even though I was still hesitating, my hand had already reached for my phone. "Is your leg injury better now?" asked Christian on the other end. His voice was as charming as ever, and his first concern was my injury. Not long afterward, he appeared in the doorway of the hospital ward I was in. There was snow piled up on his head, but there was also a layer of sweat on his forehead. It was obvious that he had hurried all the way here. When I agreed to enter into a contract marriage with him, he looked as happy as a child who had just received a birthday gift. Chapter 2 After spending half a month in the hospital with Christian watching over me, I was finally discharged. He wanted to take me back to his villa, but I insisted on returning to Rivera Manor. It was because I needed to settle things between me and Johan, once and for all. Furthermore, Christian was currently facing his own crisis. His client had been snatched away by business rivals, and his company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Johan definitely had a hand in causing both incidents. As I took my place at the dinner table in Rivera Manor, I already had a gut feeling that I was walking into an elaborate trap. It was a rare sight to see Johan sitting calmly at the table. I could even see a hint of joy in his eyes. "I came over today to inform you of something, Grandpa," he declared right off the bat. "I'll be getting married to Lucy next month." In that moment, everyone in the Rivera family glanced at me. I had always been treated like an outsider under this roof, and this moment was no exception. Scott slammed his hand against the table loudly. "You traitorous brat! I advise you not to even think about following through with that plan! Raelyn is the only woman who'll get to marry into the Rivera family!" Johan's parents, Edwin Rivera and Alice Sutton, were also sitting at the table. They didn't agree with Scott and instead spoke up against him in succession. "The engagement was an arrangement decided by the previous generation of Kirchners and Riveras. It no longer holds any weight." "That's right, and Lucy makes a pretty good partner for Johan, too. The Sherman family is currently a rising star in the business world." "I think that both our families will stand to gain advantages from an engagement between Johan and Lucy." Scott left the table angrily, upon which Edwin, Alice, and Johan's gazes landed on me. They wanted me to express my own opinion on the matter. Forcing a smile onto my face, I looked at them and said calmly, "It's certainly a good thing to establish ties with the Sherman family through matrimony." My positive response seemed to reassure them, and even Johan smiled at me for the first time in a while. However, they had no idea that although Sherman Group seemed to be on the rise, they had in truth already long suffered severe losses. Their financial situation was so bad that even the entirety of the Rivera family's assets would not be able to cover for the losses. Johan thought that he shared a mutual love with Lucy. However, she was only working so hard to win his favor because she wished to use the Rivera family's assets to pay back some of Sherman Group's debt. I didn't linger at the dinner table and instead went up to the study on the second floor. My real purpose for coming here today was to obtain irrefutable evidence of Rivera Group's crimes. Scott was clinging so hard to my engagement with Johan out of a sense of guilt. That was because the huge fire that had broken out in the Kirchner Group building back then had been his handiwork. The Rivera and Kirchner families already had established business ties. However, back when something went wrong with a joint project, Scott had pushed all the blame onto my grandfather—Gregory Kirchner—and also started that fire. After all, how could a dead person refute his claims? My fortunate survival was undoubtedly the biggest remaining threat to him in this world. The Rivera family had been deeply implicated in the fire that year, and the police were still keeping an eye on them to this day. Scott didn't dare make any reckless moves, so all he could do was cling to the engagement and thus keep me within his sight. His so-called adoption of me was nothing more than a means to keep me under surveillance. Chapter 3 Taking advantage of the fact that the Rivera family members were busy arguing downstairs, I managed to obtain the irrefutable evidence that I wanted. Curiously enough, the ever-cautious Scott had left such important documents lying openly in the cabinet this time. He hadn't even locked it. As I was exiting the study, I bumped headfirst into Johan. He reached out to steady me, then glanced down at my legs. He frowned. "Why are you running around when your legs aren't fully healed yet? Just stay put and don't cause trouble for me." In a flash of panic, I hid the documents behind my back before balling them up and stuffing them in my pocket. After dinner, I followed Johan back to his residence in the suburbs. For so many years, Scott had planted me next to Johan to spy on him under the guise of cultivating our relationship for the engagement. Johan had caught on to this many times, and because of that, he became increasingly disgusted with me. He once glared at me, yelling, "Are you Grandpa's lackey or something?" He would never understand that some things were beyond one's control when living under someone else's roof. Over the next few days, I was busy running myself ragged in preparation to expose solid evidence against Rivera Group. Johan noticed something was off with me. He confronted me as I was about to leave the house for the third time today. "What have you been so busy with for the past few days?" he demanded. "You're rarely home." I originally wanted to gloss over the topic, but Johan didn't appreciate my evasive attitude and glared sternly at me. "What mission has Grandpa given you this time? Aren't you going to continue spying on me as my annoying stalker anymore?" I understood the implication behind his words. He was accusing me of neglecting him recently. I looked at him and smiled. "You don't need to concern yourself with my affairs, Mr. Rivera. You should hurry up and prepare for your wedding in half a month." Johan frowned and said unhappily, "My affairs are none of your business. Also, I honestly didn't expect you to be such a generous woman. Your fiancé's about to marry another woman, but here you are, still making sarcastic remarks with such composure." I sneered at him. "What else did you expect? Am I supposed to cry, throw a tantrum, and beg you to marry me?" Johan felt speechless for a moment, his expression turning dark and unreadable. Just then, his cell phone rang. He looked down and saw that it was Lucy calling him. He clenched his fists, exhaled, then walked past me to answer the call. Seeing that he was no longer standing in my way, I walked toward the door without a backward glance. Johan yelled angrily at me, but I pretended not to hear him. I would also no longer listen to anything he had to say in the future. My days of being dependent on others and allowing myself to be manipulated by them were almost over. Once I made the truth public, I would truly begin a new chapter of my life. By the time I finished my preparations, it was already late at night and raining heavily. I hailed a taxi, thoroughly exhausted. I was soaked to the skin the moment I got out of the car. Johan was standing in the doorway, looking at my miserable appearance. I hadn't brought an umbrella, so I shielded my head with my hands and ran toward the house. When I reached the door, I entered the password for the door lock over and over again, but the door remained locked. I could see Johan's smiling face reflected in the windows—he was making fun of me again. Every time I got on his nerves, he would always come up with ways to humiliate me. This time, however, I did not cower and beg for mercy. Instead, I turned and ran back into the rain. Chapter 4 Johan panicked when he saw me turn and leave. He opened the door and rushed out of the house, but I continued forward without looking back. Because of the rain, my high heels unfortunately became stuck in the mud that was seeping out onto the roads. I couldn't pull them out. Just then, Lucy's shrill, whiny voice rang out from inside the house. "Are you leaving me alone in the room for the sake of another woman, Johan?" she scolded. "You're not allowed to go after her! If you take one more step forward, I'll break up with you!" My clothes were soaked through, my shoes were stuck in the mud, and my aggravated leg injury was causing me unbearable pain. All in all, I looked downright miserable right now. Just as I was struggling to get my high heels out of the mud, a white light suddenly illuminated the night. A car stopped in front of me, and Christian got out of it, the rain quickly soaking through his suit. He had still been at a press conference an hour ago, defending himself against the accusations thrown at him by Johan and Lucy in front of the media. However, he was now standing in front of me and leaning down to pull my feet out of the mud. "Why are you here?" I asked, staring blankly at him as Johan's angry shout rang out behind me. "Christian? Since when did you get together with him, Raelyn? This is an act of betrayal toward me!" I turned and looked into Johan's bloodshot eyes. They looked the same as they had five years ago. In the first few years after joining the Rivera family, I lived in Rivera Manor with Scott, Edwin, and Alice. As such, I was often subjected to dirty looks from them. The household staff employed by the Riveras was extremely observant. Seeing that the Riveras disliked me, they would bully me with increasing brazenness. "She's freeloading off other people without doing any work. What a shameless brat." "Exactly. Why don't you help us with some work so that you don't look too much like a beggar?" The Riveras would turn a blind eye to the dirty, menial work that I did for the household staff. This continued until the time that the staff banded together to pour dirty cleaning water all over me. Johan, who had coincidentally returned to the manor for a visit, happened to witness that scene. It was the first time I had seen him get angry. He scolded all those staff members, kicked them out of the manor, and then took me back to live with him in his villa in the suburbs. It was also at that time that Scott assigned me to monitor him. The first thing Johan had said to me back then was devoid of any kindness. "Are you an idiot? You don't fight back even when being bullied by others. I already told you that the Riveras are all a bunch of bastards." As that was the first time anyone had ever genuinely helped me, I had stood there and looked at him blankly. "Are you… Are you helping me?" Johan had sneered and turned around at that. "Don't overthink it. They should've thought of who you belonged to before messing with you. I just couldn't stand to see them playing dirty tricks right under my nose." He was later punished by Edwin for his actions and ended up having to stand miserably in the rain. My heart had gone out to him back then, and I felt a hint of genuine affection for him. But after five years of interacting with him, I realized that he was just as despicable as the other Riveras at heart! The young man, who used to despise the Riveras' dirty methods the most, had now also adopted their ways and teamed up with Lucy to slander Christian. As I looked at Johan through the rain, his face seemed to overlap with that of the Johan in my memories. He felt both foreign and familiar at the same time. When I heard his accusations toward me, I looked at him and sneered. "You say I betrayed you? I never belonged to you, Johan. And what's more, you were the one who betrayed me first." Johan showed a rare look of confusion at my words, but quickly reverted to his angry expression. "I can give you one more chance, Raelyn. If you come to me and choose to stand by my side unconditionally, I can forget everything that happened in the past!"