ILLICIT Love, Unexpected Marriage

Lana Castroff "Ms. Castroff, there's a little bit of a problem." My secretary said as I was busy checking files. I turned to her and I got up from my seat immediately. "What is it?" I asked as we walked out from my office room. "There's a man by the name of Phoenix Sterling, he did have an-" I stopped when I heard his name loud and clear from my secretary. "Where is he?" I asked my secretary. "He's in the blue meeting room." She said and I gestured to her to stay here. I made my way towards the blue meeting room that happened to be at the end of the hallway. I opened the door and when he saw me, his lips turned into a smile. He didn't even bother to get up from his seat to greet me. "I was expecting to see your father but I guess talking to his daughter is even better." He said arrogantly. "What's wrong?" I asked as I sat on the chair across him. "I'm suing your company." He said in a serious tone and I looked at him disbelief. "Sue my company? What? We didn't do-" Before I could complete my sentence, he put a file in front of me and asked me to read it. I opened the file and my eyes couldn't believe this. I looked up to Phoenix and he smirked at me. "I was quite nice for not exposing it to the public.. just yet but I'm guess your father didn't tell you about this huh?" He asked and I looked down to the files again. "Or maybe.. your father is currently running away right now as we speak." He added and I got up from my seat slamming the file to the desk angrily. "Are you doing this because of what happened 3 months ago?" I asked, looking at him raging in anger. "Ms. Castroff, I'm not that immature. I'm here because of that." He pointed at the file and I closed my eyes trying to breath properly. "I will have my lawyers come here tomorrow and we can talk about settlements." He said as he got up from his seat. I was speechless because a lot of things and my mind was trying to process everything slowly. "Don't worry, I won't make you.. a commoner." He said before he walked out from the room. I sat down and my eyes just blankly stared at the ceiling. I immediately took out my phone from my pocket. I dialed my father's number and he didn't pick up. I kept calling and calling but he didn't pick up. I immediately walked back to my office and asked my secretary to call my father's secretary. I need to have a word with her. "Ms. Castroff." I gestured her to sit down on the sofa and I walked towards her. I slammed the file that Phoenix gave me earlier to the table in front of her. "His company is suing us because his staff got an infection from our product! What exactly happened?" I asked and she kept looking down to the ground not knowing what to say. "Where's my father? Is he running away?" I asked angrily. "I don't know, Ms. Castroff. He told me that he won't be coming to work for about 4 days or maybe more." Shit! "Did he make any changes for that product? Because there's no way that Phoenix Sterling's employees will get such infection!" I was pissed and I wanted an explanation from my father as soon as possible. "Your father did purchase some products that are more cheaper than the original products. I remembered he was mentioning to me about something scented but that's all, Ms. Castroff." She said in a sad tone. "You both take me to the factory now!" I hissed. I grabbed my phone in the table and the files from Phoenix. My secretary drove me to the factory and my father's secretary tried to read through the lawsuit that Phoenix gave me. "I want you to give me Phoenix Sterling's phone number." I told Vira, my father's secretary. She immediately opened her work phone and sent his phone number to me. I saved it in my phone as we arrived at my soap factory. I got up and walked inside to ask the employees there for the changes that my father made recently. They brought me to the gallons and gallons of new scented oil for our beauty product. "I want details on this product and what's the new thing that my father changed?" I asked and the led me to the coloring product that we used. "Ms. Castroff, we checked the production of products that Mr. Sterling's receive." My secretary said as she gave me her iPad. Apparently the products that Phoenix received was made around 2 weeks ago. He received the products about a week ago. So my father already changed everything. "I want you to pull back all the products that we produced with the new ingredients. I want the test team to do another test on it." I said as I gave the iPad back to my secretary. "Yes, Ms. Castroff." "I want every product already here by tomorrow and check all the people that purchase our product recently if they have any infection like Phoenix Sterling's employees got." I said with a hint of an angry tone. My employees quickly do as they told and I dialed Phoenix's number. I walked out from the factory hoping that he would answer my call. "Hello." "Mr. Sterling, this is Lana Castroff." I introduced myself. "You want me to cancel the lawsuit?" He asked in a cold tone. I rolled my eyes and completely hated this man. "No, but I would like to send some of my employees to check on your employees' condition. We want to know the cause of it." I said nicely or maybe trying to be nice. "Very well, you can come to the West Hospital tomorrow at 1 o'clock." "Okay, thankyou." I ended the call and sighed.

Phoenix Sterling "Who?" Angelo asked as he gave me a glass of white wine for us to enjoy. I put my phone on the table and sighed. "Lana Castroff." I answered as I swirled my glass of wine. "You filed a lawsuit on her company?" He asked me in a curious tone and I nodded. "You know what happened so I have to take actions." I said and took a sip of the white wine. "I wonder why didn't you just expose her to the public. You don't seem nice to her." "She's the one who called Julie a commoner. I guess she just always hates them." I said and Angelo chuckled. "I don't get it either why you're so nice to Julie. I didn't like her when I first laid my eyes on her." I raised my eyebrows looking at him. "At least you're not being rude to her." "I never thought Castroff Beauty products will have this incident because they're one of the top brands out there for beauty. Somehow it's hard to believe that they have something going on in their products." Angelo said and I glared at him. "They do have one of the best brands, that's why I bought it but it turns out like this." I hissed. "Hello dicks." I turned to see Adrian walking into the room and he sat down on the sofa beside me. Sometimes I really doubt that this man is a Prince of Denmark. The youngest of all of them too. He's the immature one and will always troll around. "Chance and Dean are out of town and I'm bored." He said as he grabbed a new glass of wine on the table pouring himself some. "How's the airlines going?" I asked him and he gave me a thumbs up. "It was doing okay. We just need to buy more airplanes to expand the business." He said as he sipped his wine. "But I thought you already bought 13 airplanes last month." Angelo asked and he shooked his head. "I need a bigger airplane for international flights." He said as he put his glass on the table. "Interesting." Angelo said, chuckling. "How about you? Suing Castroff?" Adrian smirked looking at me. "Yeah, you know why." I said simply and Adrian gave me a cheeky look. We all know that he's up for something with that look. "Lana Castroff is something and she's the type of woman that I will date or maybe have fun with. She's hot." He smirked looking at me and I shook my head. Adrian is a playboy, just like his brother Carter back in the days before he settled down. "She mocked Julie, a commoner." Angelo said and Adrian laughed. "That's hot." Adrian said and I shook my head disapprovingly. Adrian suddenly leaned his body forward to me. "If you don't want to go after Lana, I'll be.. happy to have her." Adrian said and I raised my eyebrows. "Why do you ask me? I don't like her so feel free to.. have her." I said and sipped my white wine. "She's your type, Phoenix. I'm quite surprise that you haven't make a move on her yet but I guess it's my time to shine!" Adrian smirked and laid back to the sofa again. After that, I went back to the office to continue to work. I have a lot of things to do and I have to go to Spain next week for an important meeting. I guess tomorrow, I'll be seeing Lana again for her to investigate what's wrong with her products. The next day.. I got out from my car and found Lana already standing there in front of the hospital entrance with her team. I told my secretary to showed her team in. I walked towards her and she gave me a polite smile. "Mr. Sterling." "Ms. Castroff." I gave her a nod. My secretary led her team into the hospital and we both were left alone. "Today, we took all the products that might have an unidentified ingredients so people won't get hurt." She said and I was quite surprised to see her pretty professional despite our encounter yesterday. "I want to personally apologize to you." She said as her eyes met mine. Another surprise of her apologizing, I thought she won't apologize judging by her attitude on Julie. "My team met your lawyers earlier this morning and I was hoping if you could give us time to investigate a little bit more." "Very well, I will give you time to investigate and you know that I'm not dropping the lawsuit. I will never." I said seriously especially on my last sentence. "I understand completely. Our company should have been more careful and we will discuss about the settlement sooner after we investigate further." She said without taking her beautiful blue ocean eyes off me. She was very professional and I really like her work ethic. "For what I know, it contains hydrochloric acid." I stated and her eyes widened. "Acid? That's impossible!" She gasped and I can see that she didn't see this coming at all. "Why would it contain that? Shit!" She immediately walked into the hospital. "Take me to your employees, please." She turned to me and I nodded before leading her towards my 7 employees that's currently hospitalized. She walked into the first room and she gasped seeing the burn on my employee's hand. Lana introduced herself to her and she immediately apologized. She didn't even think twice to apologize and she even told my employee that she will take care of all of her hospital bills and she will give her money for the damage. And again.. I was surprised. She ended up saying the same thing to the other 6 employees. She felt so bad and never stop apologizing to the victim of her products. As soon as she's done apologizing to every single victims, she called someone and asked them to check on the dangerous chemical on her products that she pulled back to her factory. She walked back and forth in her highheels and not to mention that she was wearing a blazer dress that made her look really professional. She has her hair on a ponytail making her look neat and intimidating. Her red lipstick was like a statement to people that you shouldn't mess with her. After she finished her phone call, she walked towards me. "We're currently investigating if there's a possibility of acid being inserted in our products and I want to apologize one more time for all the damages. We will contact you further more for the settlement." She said with her eyes looking straight to mine. "Very well." "I will pay all the hospital bills and give them more money for the damages that they got. I promise you that this-" She stopped when we both clearly can hear her stomach grumbling. "I.. I promise you that this won't happen again in the future." She continued as she avoided my eyes completely embarrass. "I'm assuming you haven't eat lunch, wanna have lunch together?" I asked and she turned to me blinking her eyes multiple times like I was possessed. "Sure."

Phoenix Sterling We ended up picking a seafood boil restaurant for our lunch. We ordered to servings of mix seafood boil. I saw her rolling her sleeves up and then she even clipped her hair into a bun to prevent her long hair from going near her mouth. I found her adorable by doing all of these. When we first met, she gave this badass attitude and even mocked Julie for being a commoner. I judged her badly because of how rude she was when we first met months ago. Our second meeting, she was pretty cold and not friendly. But our third meeting was rather interesting. She showed me how professional she is, not to mention that she's pretty responsible for all my employees. Now, she's acting all adorable and calm. Pretty different from our first encounter. She put on the apron to prevent the sauce dripping on her dress. Not only that, she put on the plastic gloves completely ready to eat seafood boil. "Why are you.. laughing?" She raised my eyebrows when I chuckled looking at her. I didn't even realize that I was laughing at how adorable she was. "You're so ready to eat." I said and she looked down to her apron and she nodded. "So.. can you reach your father today?" I asked curiously and she shook her head. "I don't think he's running away from this case." She sighed and she looked blankly to the table. I raised my eyebrows seeing her reaction on that statement. "Where did he go?" "You don't want to know and please let's not talk about my father. If you need anything, just contact me." She said in a sad tone and I nodded. I don't want to be disrespectful to her decisions. When I was about to ask her, the waiter came with out order. She poured the seafood on the table and her eyes widen. I can tell that she's excited for the food. She grabbed the potato first and ate it slowly since it was so hot. "This is so good!" Her eyes widen after she took a bite. She was looking at me excited and she even squealed before taking a crawfish. I felt a loud thump on my heart seeing it and I couldn't help but looking at her most of the time. "Eat up.. it's good." She said as she put a crawfish in front of me. I grabbed it and started peeling it. I took a bite and it was good. The seasoning was so good. She started peeling some shrimp and eating it deliciously. I followed her pace and started to eat a lot even more. I saw her struggling to crack the king crab. She was trying so hard to use the scissors to crack the crab. I took the scissor from her hand and the crab too. I cut it for her and thanked me while smiling sweetly at me. She ate it slowly and I couldn't stop being amuse by her. "How's Finn?" She asked. "He's doing good with Julie." I said and she rolled her eyes when she heard Julie's name. "His taste in woman is annoying." She hissed as she kept peeling crawfish and shrimp without eating it. "Julie is a nice girl, you shouldn't judge her that way." I said as I took a bite of the king crab. "Don't tell me you like her too? This is not a disney movie where the commoner just gets the prince." She sighed as she looked at the pile of the pelled crawfish and shrimp. She ended up giving it to me instead of eating it. "I don't like her but she's nice. She might not have all the money in the world like you but she's nice." "Where did Finn find her? From the streets?" She snapped and I don't really like this side of her. She was judging people really hard. "Julie is actually my employee." I said and her eyes widened. She was going to say something but she immediately closed her mouth. She ate the king crab again. "I heard that you're one of the Illicit, is it true?" She asked and I shook my head. No one knows who the Illicit are, people know they exist but never know who's a part of it. We rather stay that way instead of going public. "Who said that? I mean I wish.. I am." I said pretty much lying. "I wonder if Finn is a part of it." Finn is absolutely not a part of it. Finn might be my friend but sometimes I don't like him for some reason. He just makes me mad sometimes. "Honestly, I don't really like someone talking bad about someone so I rather not hear you talking bad about Julie and Finn." I said in a nice tone and she looked at me with an unreadable expression. She ended up keeping eating and peeling everything without stopping or eating. "I hope we can settle all of this fast, I couldn't stand being in one place with you. We will end up hating and killing each other in the process if we keep meeting up like this." "We have lawyers." I said simply responding to her rant about hating on me. "I rather speak to you directly to get this settlement fast." She said in a cold tone. There you go again, she really can make people like her in a second and hate her right away. "Hello Phoenix." I turned to see Adrian appearing out of nowhere. Some people gasped when they saw him but Lana didn't even react that much. "Fancy seeing you here." I said sarcasticly. "You got a friend?" Adrian smirked as he turned to Lana. "Adrian, this is Lana Castroff. Ms. Castroff, this is my friend Adrian Nielsen." I introduced them both and Lana smiled to him. "You want to join us?" Lana offered and I can't believe that she's being nice right away. Adrian nodded and sat beside me. He put the plastic gloves on and started eating the peeled crawfish and I can't believe that he can be this comfortable the second Lana offered him to join. "I'm quite surprise to see a prince going around town." Lana said as he turned to Adrian smiling. I guess she can be sweet to other people except me. "I was visiting my friend nearby and I saw Phoenix's car." He wanted to see Lana so bad that he stalked me. "Nice to meet you, Your Highne-" "Please, I don't like being formal. Just call me Adrian." Smooth Adrian.. smooth.

Lana Castroff After more than a week investigating all the products, we found no acid on every single product that we launched that day. It was weird for us to see. We did get the medical records of Phoenix's employees for it and they really contains acid inside that product. I was more than confuse at this point. I even asked my team to check it again but the result was the same. I walked to Phoenix's office building and his secretary led me his office. I brought the files with me and I saw him having all his lawyers ready. I guess I should have brought my lawyers but let's just see. I walked in and Phoenix turned to me. He gestured me to sit on the sofa beside him. I took a deep breath and walked towards him. I met his lawyers already and they greeted me politely. "Ms. Castroff, we already have the exact amount for the settlement." One of the three lawyers said. I nodded and gestured him to continue. "We want 1 million euros for this." He said and I was not surprise. We're talking about Phoenix Sterling, a businessman and a billionaire who always deal with this things on a daily basis. "I paid for their hospital fees, I gave them more money for the damage and that cost around fifty thousand euros. I know that your company can't operate well without your employees but one million is too high." I said trying to negotiate with him. He was about to say something but his phone rang from his pocket. When he saw who the caller ID was, he immediately asked his lawyers to go. He turned off his phone instead and he turned to me. "Play along and I'll reduce the settlement." He said and as he finished his sentence, someone bursted the door open. Phoenix immediately held my hands tight when I saw 2 women walking into the office. "Pho-" I'm assuming the woman who is in her 50s is his mother. "Mother, what are you doing here with Lorena?" Phoenix asked. "Mrs. Sterling." I smiled to her politely and she rolled her eyes at me. Well that's rude. "We're having lunch together, Phoenix. Don't tell me that you forgot." She said ignoring me and Phoenix nodded. "Meet my girlfriend, Lana Castroff. This is my mother and my friend, Lorena." Phoenix introduced me to them. "I'll be waiting for you at the lobby, we're going to have lunch together." His mother immediately left the room leaving us alone. I pulled my hand away from him and he sighed. "Stay here for ten minutes before leaving my office. I'll contact you later on." He said and he walked out from the office. I sighed and sat down on the sofa. I have to wait for a solid ten minutes before going out and I don't know why I have to wait. I took out my phone to check my emails when the door bursts open revealing Adrian. He was surprised to see me in Phoenix's office. "Hi.." He said as he walked to me giving me a light hug. "Hi." "Where's Phoenix?" He asked as he sat on the sofa across me. "He went out with his mother and his friend, Lorena." I said and Adrian raised his eyebrows. "That's a definition of a shit show." He chuckled but I didn't respond anything. I checked my watch to see if it's already 10 minutes or not. "You're waiting for him?" He asked and I shook my head. "He asked me to wait here for 10 minutes before leaving his office." "She's planning to marry him with Lorena again." Adrian sighed and I shrugged. I don't really care about other people's business. "Are you free now?" Adrian asked. "Why?" "I was wondering if you want to grab lunch together." He smiled to me and I nodded. "Sure." I got up from the sofa and he walked to the door opening it for me. "Thankyou." He forced me to get into his car and his chauffer can take my car to the restaurant. He asked me what I kind of food I like and don't like. Adrian is really sweet and no wonder he got his playboy title, he knew how to pleased a woman. "What did his mother say when she saw you?" Adrian asked as he stopped on the red light. "She didn't say anything, I mean Phoenix introduced me as his girlfriend." I said and Adrian turned to me with his mouth wide open completely confused. "He.. oh no.." "What? What's wrong?" I asked because his reaction seemed like I'm in a big trouble. "Did he ask you to be his girlfriend that second only or.. for the rest of.. I don't know..?" He started to drive again. "That second only, why would I date a guy like him? Even though it's a fake relationship." I chuckled and Adrian laughed. "I agree, he's such an ass." I laughed more because of his statement and Adrian suddenly gave me his phone. "We can hang out sometimes, Lana. You're kinda cool." He said and I took his phone from him typing in my phone number. "You're pretty cool too, I thought you will act like Phoenix since you both are friends." "No way, Phoenix is an ass. As for me, I have ass." He smirked and I laughed. The tone that he use was pretty much joking around. "He's a mama's boy huh?" I asked curiously. "He's not but the only thing that his family wanted was for him to settle down and give them grandkids." That's surprising. "Where's the fun is that? Settling down? In this young bachelor age?" I laughed at his statement because his own siblings were already settle down except him so I bet he got the same shit from his family about settling down. "I mean.. if you already meet the right person, why not?" "That's true but seeing my family act so stupid makes me not wanting to fall in love. I don't want to look dumb and follow my wife everywhere. I don't want to turn myself into a possessive maniac." He hissed and I laughed. "Well.. I can't wait to see you going through that." "In my second life, Lana. You'll see me like that in your second life."

Phoenix Sterling I really hate it when my parents tried to set me up with the woman of their choice. I don't understand why they really want me to settle down as soon as possible when I'm only 26 years old. I'm the youngest out of the Illicit and why am I supposed to be the first one to settle down. I don't want to settle down. After I asked my chauffeur to send Lorena back to the hotel, I decided to have a word with my mother. "You know now that I have a girlfriend so could you please stop trying to set me up with Lorena?" I asked her and she drank her tea slowly. "Mother, I really like Lana and you can't treat her coldly like what you did in my office. She's my girlfriend so you shouldn't act like that." "I don't believe you, Phoenix. You asked her to be your girlfriend last minute right? I've been watching you closely these days and you never went out with her." She said and I sighed. "Mother, I'm still young and I'm not planning to settle down just yet. How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not going to.. settle down anytime soon." I said seriously and she suddenly smirked. "Very well.. we won't force you to settle down but.." "What? Please don't make me do ridiculous things!" I sighed. "You know your cousin will have her wedding next week and the family planned to have a vacation together in Maldives. Why don't you bring Lana with you? Let's spend a week together and maybe I'll consider taking my hands off from your love life, darling." No shit sherlock. "Mother, I'm still young and please stop th-" "Do you know why me and your father keep trying to set you up with women?" She asked and I raised my eyebrows. "You want grandchildren and that's it.." I said and she chuckled. "I'm so thankful for you, Phoenix, my son. You've been working so hard to get where you are now. You've been working non-stop since you're 17 and you've done so much for me and your father." "You know why I did that." I said and my mother grabbed my hand. "Yes, you wanted to save your father. You did everything just to keep him alive." "I can't live without you both so.. it was worth it." I said as I looked down to the plate in front of me. "You've been working non-stop for the past 9 years and you're a billionaire now. Me and your father really want you to be happy and having a family is the most wonderful feeling ever." She said as she squeezed my hand. "Mother, I'm happy now. I'll be more happy if you and father stop setting me up with a lot of women." "If your definition of happy means sleeping around and get drunk, I will slap the shit out of you." There she goes again with her thick british accent. "Mother, I'm young. You know my friends and I still love working." "I really like your friends, Phoenix. I really do but the one thing that I hate about them is that.. you all are workaholics and.. playboys.." She sighed and I chuckled. "You only live-" I stopped when she glared at me hard. "Why don't you like Lorena? She's beautiful." She asked and I rolled my eyes. "Phoenix Andreas Sterling!" She hissed. "She loves my money, mother. I bet she's already plotting how to kill me once you force your son to say I do." She sighed and nodded. "Very well, I'll get rid of her but.. you have to promise me to bring Lana to Edeline's wedding." She said and I nodded. "Deal, I'll see you next week then." After a long lunch and talk with my mother. I went straight back to my office to do my work again. I decided not to think about my mother's invitation for Lana because I rather make excuses than begging Lana to go and pretend to be my girlfriend. Suddenly my secretary walked into my office and she gave me a report about the investigation for dangerous chemicals in Lana's beauty products. "Mr. Sterling, we already did the investigation two times to make sure that the ingredients inside those products and the results showed that there's no acid. Mr. Castroff did change some ingredients but it was clear. There's no acid or other dangerous chemicals in those products." My secretary said and I checked the papers to see the results. "Lana knows about this fact?" I asked and my secretary nodded. "She knew and her team is still figuring out how that acid could be in those bottles." "Check their CCTVs and ours, we might find something from there. Please make sure no one knows about this investigation except you, me and the investigation team. I want to know who dares to do this." I said seriously as I read through the result. "Yes, Mr. Sterling." She said and I gestured her to go out from my office. "Oh Mr. Sterling, I forgot to.. mention this but Ms. Castroff already gave your employees who got hurt a lot of money to cover their work and the damage that they got. She apologized again yesterday to them." "Okay, thankyou for letting me know." I said and she smiled before walking out from my office. I turned my seat around and looked out the window to see the beautiful view of the Eiffel tower. My phone rang and I picked it up right away. "Hello." "You're free?" Angelo asked me. "I'm busy, ask Adrian." I said as I turned my seat around again. "He's busy dating." I laughed at Angelo's statement. "Dating who?" "Lana Castroff." My eyes widen that second. "He's dating?" "Yeah, they're having lunch and apparently.. coffee date too." That mother F. I ended the call and immediately dialed Adrian's number. "Yes, Phoenix my darling." Adrian answered immediately. "Where are you?" "I'm at the office?" "You're with Lana?" I asked straightforwardly. "I told you not to call me that." I heard Lana said in a not so friendly tone. "I need to talk to you." "You better reduce that settlement." "I've got more to offer." I smirked.

Lana Castroff I walked into Phoenix's office with his secretary and she asked me if I want tea or coffee. I told her the water will be just fine and she told me to wait for Phoenix for about 5 minutes because he's still in a meeting. I sat down on the sofa and laid back for a second. I'm really tired of dealing with all of this alone. When will my father comeback because I'm ready to kill him for leaving me in the middle of something like this. I bet he's with her again. The door opened and Phoenix entered the room with his secretary. His secretary gave me a bottle of cold water and Phoenix asked her to leave us both alone. "Ms. Castroff.. I have a proposition for you." I raised my eyebrows when he said that. "I don't think I will like this." I said and he sighed. "I know you won't but.. I have a better deal for you to cover that." "What do you want?" I asked as I crossed my leg. He took a really deep breath and he looked at me seriously. "I want you to marry me." I looked at him and blinked a few times. "I know it sounds crazy but.. I have an offer for you and it will surely gives you more benefits." He said and I tried to take a really deep breath before answering him. "Mr. Sterling, I'm sure that you're aware that we both currently under a lawsuit agreement. My products hurt your employees and I don't think marrying you even though it's just for show will make people believe our relationship." I said calmly trying to process everything slowly. "I'm aware of that, Ms. Castroff. The thing is that nobody has to know that we're married except for my family of course." He said and I sat up straight opening my water bottle aggressively. "What do you mean? So nobody will never know that we're married?" "That's true." "So what's the point of marrying then? We won't show it off to the public anyway." I said as I laughed nervously. "I don't want my family to bother me again and arrange me with the women of their choice. I will make sure that no one except our family know about our relationship." He said proudly about his plan. "Mr. Sterling, I don't think I want this arrangement. I rather pay you the settlement in a full amount than have to deal with you." I said smiling widely. "You haven't hear about my offer yet.." "I don't need to hear it. How about you ask Julie for it? I bet she will do it for the money. She's a commoner.. remember?" I said as I got up from the sofa. "I will drop the charges, I will help your product become more well known and I will gladly use your product in all of my company." He said as he gestured me to sit down again. "We're doing great on our own, Mr. Sterling. We don't need your help." I said as I grabbed my bag. "How about I'll give you one million euros?" He offered and I sighed. "The idea of us marrying will only help you not me." I said as I pointed my finger at him. "Ms. Castroff, I guess.. I have to blackmail you then.." He said smirking as he got up from his seat. He suddenly walked towards the door and locked it making me a little bit anxious. He took out his wallet and he showed me a card that says Illicit on it. He's proving himself as the member of The Illicit. The Illicit was known to be the strongest foundation of Europe. They're really good at business and make connections with a lot of countries. They're clearly a part of the elites who has a lot of privilege in every corner. "Ah.. you know the Illicit huh?" He said and I bet he's judging by my reaction. "I can tell everyone that you are the member of Illicit." I said seriously and looked at him coldly. "No matter how much you're going to scream outside, no one would listen." He said as he walked closer to me. "I don't have any other choice to blackmail you, Ms. Castroff. I have to say this desperately because I really need you to play this role." He said as he closed the gap between us. "You know how powerful I am right? I can crush your business easily and your family legacy will be gone in a snap. I suggest you accept my offer and get the benefits that you will get than rejecting the offer." He said in a serious tone. His eyes was burning in flames showing that he's not playing games. I can say that he's crazy. He didn't even give me room or time to think. He was busy blackmailing me and I just.. couldn't believe that I'm in this situation. "Can you give me time to.. think?" "I'm afraid, I can't." He said and I sighed. "Mr. Sterling, marriage is a real deal for me. I can't just randomly marrying you. You can find another woman who would gladly help you in this situation." I said nervously and he shook his head. "We will enter the marriage secretly and we will have a divorce secretly. I will guarantee you that, you can act like you never got married before." He said like it wasn't a big deal for him. I'm starting to have a headache all of the sudden. "We will only act as a married couple when my family's around, you don't need to worry about that. I will give you freedom to date around and just.. enjoying life like you're single. Don't mind me because I won't mind you either." "Mr. Sterling, I still don't think that this is a good idea." I said. "I will help your business more and as a reward.. I will give you one million euros." He added and it made me want to smack the shit out of him. "You can't think or decide this later." He said and suddenly I remembered about my father. Maybe this is one of the ways to piss him off. Maybe this will teach him something. "Fine, I'll marry you."

Phoenix Sterling "But on one condition.." She said as she took a step back and sat down on the sofa. "What?" "Let me stay in your house but with seperate rooms." I raised my eyebrows completely amused by her condition. "That's easy, I will gladly grant your wish." "You want to pleased your parents and I want to pissed off mine. I hope you can cooperate with me when it comes to that." That made me wonder if she hates her parents. "No one can know that we're married and don't even wear the wedding rings on a daily basis except when we're meeting our families." She said and I nodded. "That's easy for sure. Anything else?" "How long should we do this?" She asked. "Maybe 7-8 months, I think it's enough for my parents to leave me alone." I said as I sat down on the sofa across her. "But I want you to play the role of a good wife. I want you to make my parents love you so they will leave me alone." I added. "It won't be hard." She said and I let out a breath of relief. "My mother asked me to bring you to Maldives this Saturday for my cousin's wedding. We will be staying there for 8 days or maybe less than that." "Okay.. so are we going there dating or married?" "Married couple, we will surprise them with our marriage there. We can sign the legal documents as soon as possible. I'll buy us rings to convince them." I said as I took out my phone writing it down on my notes. "Okay." She said as she looked up to me without any emotions. "I'll call you for further information." I said and she nodded. "No one will know about this except us right? Only your family and mine then.. we can get divorce too quitely." "Yes, that's true. I will make sure no one leak it to the media or trying to sell this kind of information to anyone." I said seriously and she got up from her seat. "Very well." She said as she put her hand in front of me. "Good." I smirked. After that conversation, I made a contract myself for this matter because I don't want anyboby else to know about us being together. A day after that, I prepared a room fornher to move in with me and the contract done. She signed it without reading it and I wonder what's going on in that head of hers. We both prepared a lot of documents for our marriage and we went to registered our marriage together. Everything was done perfectly and there's no flaw in it. We both got married officially without anyone knowing about it except us both for now. We looked at each other after we both finished signing the legal papers. She put her hand in front of me and I shook it. I pulled out a small black box out from my pocket and opened it. She looked at it without any emotion. "I think it's too big.. we're not real and you will have to sell that later on." She said as she looked at me raising her eyebrows. "It's a statement, Lana. I'm a billionaire so I have to give my wife the biggest ring that ever existed." I said proudly and she just put her left hand in front of me. I slipped the beautiful diamond ring to her and she sighed. "I hope it will go smoothly for the both of us." She said and I caressed her hand. She looked at me and tried her best to smile. I always wondered.. if something is bothering her. She seemed to have a lot of things going on in her mind. "We will go to Maldives the day after tomorrow so.. be ready." I said as we walked out after registering our wedding. "Yeah, I know." "When will you move in?" I asked as I opened my car door. "Tomorrow." We both got into the car and I quickly started the car driving it out from the building. "Very well." "Your wedding ring?" She asked. "At home, don't worry." I thought dealing with Lana would be difficult but it was an easy deal. She accepted it and I still can't believe that I'm married now. Not technically married with love but still married to someone so I could get my parents off. I will make sure that no one knows about this relationship except our families. She agreed to that too so that's easy. I gave the both of us freedom to be with someone else. We both won't be staying married forever, we're doing this for show so if she or I happen to meet someone in the middle, we can freely date them. I'm a little nervous actually. I hope she can act smoothly in front of my family without being awkward. "You and Finn.. you like him?" I asked her in a careful tone. "I loved him but I decided not to go for him anymore. He has a low taste in women and I rather not be with a man like that. Besides he's rude to me so.. I'm not the type of woman who will stick around and wait like an idiot." I can say that I was surprised hearing her answer. I was expecting her to be obsess with him. "Julie is not that type of woman, Lana. You shouldn't judge people without knowing them." "I hate commoners, they don't deserve to hangout with us." She hissed. "Why do you say that? You know that there's a lot of good people out there who's not wealthy like us." I said as I stopped at the red light. "My mother left us for a low class commoner, she abandoned me and my father for that man. She's living in poverty when she can get everything that she wants in this world." That's the reason why she.. hates commoners. "She left me and my father when I was 2 years old. She didn't even try to get in contact with me and I hate my father for keeping in touch with her. She's basically having an affair with that man and my father. I can say that my father is stupid for going back to my mother when he can have other good woman who's the same level as us." I turned to her and grabbed her hand. "You don't know the reason why he's like that, Lana. You can't judge people without hearing their side of the story." I said and she shook her head. "Just drive, Phoenix." She said as she pulled her hand away from me.

Lana Castroff I brought the last box into Phoenix's penthouse and put it in my bedroom. I looked at all the boxes and stretched my arms out because it's been a tiring day moving in from my house to his penthouse. Phoenix's penthouse has two floors and he even has a private pool on the second floor which is amazing. I can't believe he's living alone in this penthouse and manages not to feel lonely most of the time. I agreed to get married to him because I want to pissed of my father. I bet one though percent on it that he will be mad at me. I'm tired of him having an affair with my own mother who already got married with her commoner boyfriend. My father must be somewhere in Europe with my mother and his secretary just informed me that he will be back by the time I'm going to Maldives. Suck for him because I will be back in Paris and he will know that I'm married to Phoenix. "Lana." I heard Phoenix knocking on my door. "Yeah?" I answered and walked towards the door opening it. "Your appointment, they're already downstairs." Shit! We both agreed to have a fitting for our dress and tuxedo to go to his cousin's wedding. We need to match and make a statement to announce our wedding without taking over his cousin's night. "I think I have to take a quick shower because I'm sweating right now. Do you mind giving me 10 minutes?" I asked and he smiled nodding. "I'll let them know." He said and I closed the door. I quickly jumped into the shower because I don't want to have a fitting with my sweaty body. I bet the don't mind but I'm not comfortable enough for that. After taking a shower, I put on a black tank top and a black short. I went down to the first floor to see around 6 people ready to help me and Phoenix together. "Caesar, this is my date to my cousin's wedding." Phoenix introduced me to the head of the styling team. "Oh my gosh, Ms. Castroff. I've been dreaming to style you." He said as he took my hand kissing it. "I'll be the one who will thank you." I said chuckling. "Should we start?" Phoenix said and I nodded. The team started to measure my body and brought me the dresses that will fit my body perfectly. I looked at it one by one when I felt Phoenix has his hands on my waist from the back. "I think this color will suit you." He whispered to my ear giving me goose bumps all over my body. He pulled out a beautiful emerald dress. "Don't you think it will too much?" I asked as I looked at the beautiful dress. "Trust me, my family will over dress and the bride will still.. over power them." He said as he kissed my cheek. That actually caught me of guard because I never thought he would kiss me. After that, Caesar's assistants helped me to get in this dress. Caesar styled it with some accessories and I tried 3-4 more dresses before deciding to go with the first one. Phoenix already tried his tuxedo and he looked incredibly handsome. After 4 hours for fitting and trying to find a suitable hair for me, we're done. I sat down on the sofa relaxing because fitting isn't my thing even though I love shopping. "How will we announce your wedding without them being shocked and suspicious?" I asked and Phoenix sat down as he gave me a glass of water. "Well I'm planning to announce it on the after party so let's not wear our wedding ring until then." He said and I nodded. I sipped on the water slowly. "You've been hanging out with Adrian a lot huh?" He asked and I chuckled. "He's really cool and fun to be with." "Really? That's a really weird statement." He said in a weird tone and I raised my eyebrows wondering if it's a sarcasm or just a pure insult to insult his friend. "Is he an Illicit too?" I asked bluntly. "I can't tell you who's the other members, Lana. It's not a study group type of vibe." He said as he looked down the window. "I'm a little nervous." I said as I looked out the window again. I drank all of my water and sighed. "Don't be.. they will love you." "So you think marriage will solve your family problems?" I asked and he nodded. Phoenix chuckled before turning his head to me. "Oh yes, they've been dying to see me get married but I've never been planning to really settle down sooner or later. When we have our divorce later on, they will disappointed at me but they will think we have problems so.. they won't force me into another marriage again until I'm in my 30s.. I assume." I nodded and put the empty glass on the table. "We will be good at playing it, I know that." I said confidently because I think it's easy to act like someone's lovers. It won't be hard to fool everyone. All you need to do is just have your hands around them most of the time and give them a kiss once in a while and maybe stare into their eyes sometimes. "I know but don't even think about getting comfortable with me, Lana. I don't do love and shit so.. I fucking hate clingy girls." He hissed showing that he really hates the idea of settling down. "Don't worry, I'm not that type of woman. I will never long someone who won't even look at me. This will be easy as long as we both give each other spaces when we're not doing this." I said in a serious tone. "We both can date anyone we like, you can date Adrian if you want to."

Phoenix Sterling We purposely came kinda late to Maldives because we don't want to deal with people before the party. We arrived about 2 hours before the wedding and we both were busy preparing ourselves for it. "Ready?" I was fixing my tie when she came out from the bathroom looking so beautiful in her cream cocktail dress. She smiled at me and turned her body around. "What do you think?" She asked. "You look beautiful." I said because she did take my breath away. She grabbed her small clutch and she pointed at the door. "Let's go?" "Yeah." I said and I checked myself one more time at the mirror before going out. I turned to her and asked her to link her arms to mine. She linked her arm and we walked to the venue together. "I'm a little nervous." She said. "They will love you, don't worry." I said as we walked closer to the church. I saw some people that I recognized and they saw me. I wrapped my arm around her waist pulling her closer to me. "Uncle Ed!" I hugged him because it's been a long time since I've seen him. "My boy.." He said as he hugged me tighter. "Uncle, I want you to meet my girlfriend. Her name is Lana Castroff." I said as I turned to Lana. "Babe, this is my uncle Edward." "Nice to meet you." Lana said as she gave him a brief hug. "Your parents kept asking about you.. you should go." He said and I nodded. I wrapped my arm around Lana again before walking into the church. I saw a couple of my cousins and introduced them to Lana before meeting my parents. "It's really nice meeting you, you're so sweet." Lana said to my cousin, Gia. "Darling, my parents already waiting. We'll talk to you later, Gia." I smiled to my cousin and she gestured me to go. I held Lana's hand and brought her to my parents. "Mother father.. this is my girlfriend, Lana." I introduced her to them. She smiled and gave them a warming hug. "I've heard a lot of things about you, Mr. Sterling. Phoenix really adores you." Ever since we walked into this church, she's been really good at playing the girlfriend or the wife card. She's a natural and I'm really glad that I picked the right woman for this. "Really? That's pretty rare." My father turned to me and I chuckled. "Sorry about last time, Lana. I hope we could start over." My mother said and Lana smiled. "It's okay, Mrs. Sterling. I understand that you want the best for Phoenix." "The wedding will start in 5 minutes.. please be seated." We heard the announcement and my parents asked us to sit together with them. Lana sat beside my mother and I wrapped my arm around her pulling her closer to me. "Do you know the groom babe?" She asked and I kissed her cheek nodding. "He and Edeline were high school sweethearts." I said and she turned to me smiling. I saw starstruck for a second and caught out of guard when she gave me a peck on my lips. She leaned her body to me and turned her attention to the door. The wedding started and the groom, Lorenzo, walked in. He looked great in his suit and I knoew that he's ready to get married. He stood at the front and when they announced that the bride is entering the room, we all stood up. I wrapped my arms around Lana's waist from the back as we both were looking at Edeline entering the church looking so beautiful in her wedding dress with her father. "She looks.. so.. beautiful." Lana said. "You're more." I whispered but loud enough for my mother to hear. She chuckled and I kissed her cheek. Edeline walked down the aisle and now it's time for them to say each other vows. "I think I'm going to cry." She said as Lorenzo started to say his vow. I chuckled seeing Lana and can't help but gave a kiss on her lips for how adorable she was. She was biting her lips hearing the vows and cried a little. "There.. there.." I said as I wiped her tears slowly. My mother even offered tissues for her. "Thankyou, mother." I said and my mother smiled. "They're so beautiful." Lana said and I couldn't hold it anymore. I kissed her lips slowly and we both looked at each other before I sat up straight again. I felt her body tense and I held her hands tightly. We cheered happily when the priest pronounced that they're officially husband and wife. They walked down the aisle together and there's a lot of flower petals being thrown in the air celebrating the newlywed couple. I introduced Lana to my family and they love her. They really like her just like how I predicted. She really played the girlfriend role really well. We're acting like we're already dating for a really long time too. She's that good and she really knows how to make people like her. "Phoenix, let's have tea together." My father suddenly approached me. I nodded and we both followed my father towards the cafe there. We sat down as a family and I think this is the perfect time to announce them. "I actually have something to say.." I said as I turned to Lana. I held her hand tightly and then turned to my parents. "We.. got married about 4 days ago." I said and my parents' reaction was crazy. They were speechless and I chuckled. "I've been dating her for quite some time now and I felt really right. That's why I really hate when you both are trying to set me up with someone." I said trying to fool my parents completely. "She's the one. I actually popped the question about a month ago and we couldn't stay away from each other." I said turning my head to Lana. She smiled and leaned towards me for a kiss. "How could you.. not tell us first?" "I rather not because I don't want you to pressure Lana to marry me." I said and my father chuckled. "Well, I'm really happy for you both. Will you have a wedding ceremony?" "We're planning to.. in about a month but there's something going on with her family so she needs to settle down that first before we proceed with the wedding." I said and my mother got up from her seat hugging us tightly. "I'm so happy for you guys!"