Sentenced to Marriage by MadlainQ

All those questions Once | saw the footage Chris had talked about, | realized that his description had been an understatement; that the Asian woman wasn’t pretty-she was beautiful. She was slender and rather petite, with gorgeous shoulder- long black hair, black almond-shaped eyes, and full lips. On the two-second recording, she looked frightened and worried with her watery eyes displaying nothing but sorrow and longing. | had never seen Lanfen, but looking at that woman's face, | was certain that | was looking at the one who had once broken Aren’s heart. Of course, | needed something that would confirm her identity, but for now, | had to put it on my very long to-do list...

We needed to move Aren back to his private clinic, putting him in the most secure wing. We had to do it not only for his safety but to minimize the potential casualties. The worst part of that night's attack was not knowing who was behind these brutal killings or what their purpose was. Was it someone who tried to verify Aren’s condition? But if it was Aren’s enemy, then why wasn’t Aren assassinated? All those questions gavea headache.

“Get ready for your training session tomorrow at six o’clock sharp,” Chris said in a commanding tone. “You will practice withevery other day before work, and on the rest of the days, you will learn how to shoot with Jack.” | didn’t dare argue with Chris. | could see in his eyes that | had given him quite a scare. He would never forgive himself if something happened to me, and now he was determined to at least givethe ability to defend myself. All | could do was accept his and Jack's offer. | knew that | kept acting recklessly, and until now | had been lucky, but what if | ran out of luck? | knew that | would never be able to escape bullets, but | needed to know at least how to dodge a punch. Strange... If someone had tolda year ago that | would be eager to learn how to fight, | would have burst out laughing. Now, the constant danger and facing death and murder had becmy reality; | was living in Aren’s Lan world, and | needed to adapt as soon as possible.

My new daily schedule required that | cback to the penthouse. | started waking up at 4:30 to prepare myself for the training session and another day at the office. All my training was in Chris's private gym, in the basement of the building he owned. It began with the toughest form of warmup | had ever had. The actual training cafter; at the moment | wished that the whole session was over. Chris taughtthe proper fighting stance, and how to keep my guard, but my body wasn’t able to handle more. My arms and legs were too weak, my nearly nonexistent, and my whole body unstretched. According to Chris, my body’s ability to move reminded him of his grandma... | decided not to comment on that. In the end, he changed my schedule again, makingget up an hour earlier to add extra tfor stretching and strengthening exercises. | already felt sorry for my poor muscles at the thought of it...

Finally, my first training session ended, and | was extremely happy to be still able to walk and move. The boost of dopamine put a bright smile on my face... which lasted until | opened the door of Aren’s office and saw the rest of the boxes of documents | needed to go through. It got even worse when Neil cto the office, givinganother pile of contracts that | needed to review and revise. It was like a pain in the ass, but | had to admit that it becslightly less difficult than when | started dealing with it a week ago. My tmanagement improved, and | even set the timer to remindthat | should eat, just in case. At seven o'clock, | was done with all the work | had planned for myself that day. Satisfied with my newly developed efficiency, | was just about to leave the office when Chris and Jack came, claiming that it was important.

“We have a copy of the autopsy reports of the guards, nurses, and doctor, and preliminary findings of the investigation,” Jack said. “The nurses were executed in the medical staff room at the end of the corridor. The young doctor was shot by the elevator, and, as the blood smudges on the floor indicate, he was later dragged to the medical staff room to temporarily hide his body. The guards were killed by the staircase; they were most likely lured there by something they'd seen or heard.” “No one from the lower floors heard anything, and the lights were out on the top floor only,” Chris interjected.

“The shooter or more likely shooters were pros. The fact that no one heard anything suggests that they used silencers. Since all the kills were done by one shot in the head, the assassins were most likely quite tall, which eliminates the Asian woman as a potential killer... but we could assthat much before anyway.” My heart rate kept rushing as | heard about the gloomy details. Yet, there was one thing | couldn’t understand.

“Why...?"” | muttered. “Why did someone kill all those people?” Chris sighed, his jaw clenching. “Our guess is that someone cleared the way for that woman to visit Aren.” “This is insane!” | exclaimed, jumping to my feet. “So six people died just so that sbitch could have quality twith my unconscious husband?!” The wry grimaces on Jack’s and Chris's faces seemed to confirm my words. “You know who that woman is, don’t you?” Jack asked.

| shook my head. “I only assthat it might be Lanfen, but | have never seen any pictures of her. Aren said that he would sendthe photos of her that he got from an anonymous sender, but he never did, and | don’t want to break into his private account...” For a moment, Chris got lost in thoughts, and then suggested, “How about a photo album from the the was studying? He must have kept spictures from the university, and if we're lucky, we will find Lanfen in at least one of them.” | nodded. “All right. | will check in his bedroom, and maybe | will be fortunate enough to confirm this woman's identity.” Jack frowned, his eyes on the ceiling as he processed the whole situation. “There is one more thing | don’t understand. Why would someone have taken so much trouble to hide the fact that this woman visited Aren just to let us see her in the footage of that one camera? Moreover, it was the only camera directed at the emergency exit, which was that woman's obvious route of escape. It just doesn’t make sense...” The more t| spent with Jack and Chris, the more frustrated | was. It was clearly tto leave the office and get srest. With so many questions with no answers, | could at least shift my energy to searching for anything that could confirm that our mysterious woman from the footage was Lanfen.

| got back to the penthouse and entered its empty space. My heart ached more with every step | took. | truly wished that he was there with me. My body started to shiver as | entered Aren’s bedroom. Going through his private things felt awkward, but it was necessary. The whole room smelled like him, and, for a moment, | felt as if he was standing right next to me, as if | could put my arms around him and feel his warmth. | missed that so much. Heaving a deep sigh, | sat on the floor and opened the cabby his desk, but | couldn't find anything aside from spapers. Then | searched the cabby his bed, but I didn’t find anything useful in questions there either. Finally, | sat by his desk, opened the drawer, and numbly took out everything that Aren had put there. Still nothing. It felt as if every single item he had in his bedroom was work-related. Frustration grew within me. | was about to put everything back in his drawer, but as | accidentally pressed the bottom, it opened, revealing extra space underneath. | gasped, seeing something that looked like an album. | reached for the book in a thick, leather cover and opened it. It was his university graduation album. The sole view sent my heart into a wild race. My hands shivered as | flipped the pages until | found a photo of Aren and Chris. They both looked amazingly handsand confident. It madesmile, even though my eyes filled with tears of longing. | ran my fingers through the page that showed my husband's face, admiring his stunning features, but each of those photos taken at Aren’s senior emphasized the emptiness and cold he held in his stare-proof of the damage Lanfen had done.

| couldn’t find a single picture of Aren with a woman in the entire album. As | flipped the final page, | felt as if | was getting closer to a mental breakdown when suddenly, | saw an envelope with more pictures inside. | took out the first one and froze, seeing the woman from the footage. She looked exactly the sas in that footage frame, except for the fact that she was smiling... She was smiling at Aren, and my husband was smiling back at her. It was the most beautiful smile | had ever seen from him. The way he was looking at her, the way he held his hand at the small of her back, it all hitlike a ton of cement crushing my chest. | had my proof. Lanfen was back, and she had just becmy worst enemy.