Sentenced to Marriage by MadlainQ

Suspicions Did | know what | was signing for? Most likely, no. Had | imagined a life without Aren? Definitely not.

Was it insane? Absolutely, yes. Certainly, it didn’t mean that | was willing to forget the way Aren acted in front of me, but | was giving him another chance. No, scratch that - | was giving us a chance. Was it a rational thing to do? No, it surely wasn’t. | was painfully aware that it had nothing to do with having a forgiving heart, but more with my current inability to give up on him. Callfoolish and masochistic, but perhaps | wasn’t ready to leave him and still hoped that he wouldn't screw up again... The consolidating fact was that he felt guilty as if he was genuinely honest when he claimed that he didn’t wantto leave him. Again, was | interpreting his behavior in a way it could ease my mind? Of course, | was, but it didn’t mean that | was doing something wrong, right? | was walking on cloud no. 9 whenever he held my hand, and believe me, it's hard to make logical decisions while you are inside your freaking pink paradise. It turned out that after Jack and Chris had given Aren an hour-long lecture, they finally told him everything they knew about that night of the attack at the clinic. That made Aren admit that the fact that he saw someone confusingly resembling Lanfen at the party could not be a coincidence. They were all in agreement that we needed to meet and discuss everything | had seen and heard in the hotel.

| guess they had to be more than eager to hear my story since it was Saturday morning and Aren and | were going to meet at Jack’s place in Brooklyn. When we arrived, Chris was already inside, drinking coffee while sitting on the sofa in Jack’s hall-slash-dining room, which opened up to a small kitchen space. It was obvious that a single man lived there. There were no flowers or warm accessories, and most of the floor in the apartment was filled with boxes of documents.

“Cinside,” Jack invited us, grinning. “Mi casa es su casa-make yourself at home.” “Thank you, Jack,” | said, entering first and sitting on the sofa next to Chris.

| could see that Aren’s jaw tensed as | sat next to his friend, but he didn’t say anything. He just followedto the three-piece suite and sat in an armchair next to the sofa.

Jack narrowed his eyes at us. “Are you guys still fighting?” “No,” | replied, smirking. “But forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting.” Chris barely stifled a laugh, seeing that Aren was having a hard tswallowing the bitter pill. Jack decided not to fuel the fire and darted to the kitchen area to make us all a cup of coffee. As soon as the source of caffeine had been fairly distributed, Chris straightened up in his seat and locked his eyes on me. “So, Cora, why don’t you tell us what happened yesterday?” | put down my empty coffee cup on the table and took a deep breath. “First, lettell you the most important part: Max is alive and well, and the guy who kidnappedand wanted Aren dead collaborates with Mr. C.” Chris cursed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I seriously wish for this fucker to end up dead in the depths of the ocean.” “Have you seen his face?” Aren askedwith a smug smirk.

“No, | saw only the back of his head. Why?” “I made a nasty cut on his face with a wire | grabbed when we struggled under the water. Then the current threw us away on the rocks. That's when I hit my head.” he explained.

Jack clicked his tongue. “Bastards are always immune to dying, aren't they? | bet that the fucker didn’t spend his last weeks in a coma.” “Well, he sounded as annoying as before, so | guess he didn’t, but he wasn’t the main problem, ” | said with a crooked smile. “Those guys are planning something big, and they aim to bring down Aren and the whole company...” | told them about everything | heard, trying not to skip anything since everything could becimportant at spoint. When | finished, Chris leaned forward, frowning. “What was that guy’s nagain?” he asked, glancing at me. “Haskett,” | replied.

“It sounds familiar, but | can’t find where I've heard it.” He sighed and scratched his head.

“I do not recall any company owner with that name.” Aren shook his head before looking at me. “Are you sure that you heard it right?” | glared at him. “Yes, I'm sure. Max repeated the na few times, but he was oddly emphasizing it.” “Maybe it’s not a real nbut a nickname?” Jack suggested.

“It could be,” Aren agreed. “| keep good track of the recent players on the market, and I’m sure that there's no Haskett among them.” A sound of frustration left my throat. “Great... Just when | thought that | had found something useful...” Jack gavea warm smile. “Don’t think that way. At least we know that this guy owns a company, and he is most likely Aren’s business competitor. We also know that those guys are working together.” It wasn’t a big consolation, but it was something. Our meeting with Chris and Jack also brought something else: | forced Aren to agree to my further training with Chris and Jack. | knew that he wouldn't say no after the way he had messed up the night before, but I also couldnt miss his warning glare at Chris, telling him to minimize the physical contact during our sessions When we left Jack’s apartment, | couldn't help the feeling that we were missing something important. A weird kind of anxiety floodedwhen Aren and | were on our way back to the penthouse “Um could we go to the company?” | finally asked.

Aren raised his eyebrows. “It's Saturday. Why would you want to go there? “I just | need to check something.” | smiled nervously. | couldn't explain why, but | felt that | had to be there Aren sighed. “Fine We'll go to the company.” I went to the office | shared with Alan and Norton, while Aren decided to make up for what he missed when he was in a coma, working in his office upstairs. Strangely, | was less restless as soon as | sat alone in front of my computer. As | logged into the company’s system, I finally felt that | was in control. I'd been out of my comfort zone for so long that entering my security software felt like the most soothing and relaxing thing I'd been doing in weeks. Researching all possible Hasketts was the first thing | did. Fortunately, it wasn’t a very common nso | initially thought that this task wouldn't be that hard, but not knowing the first nmade the research nearly impossible. | groaned angrily, having zero probable matches after two hours of searching the net. Moreover, | couldn't find any Haskett that owned a company that could possibly compete against Lan Diamond Corporation.

“Maybe it was only a nickname...” | muttered, discouraged while staring at the screen.

The fact that | couldn't find anything about my kidnapper filledwith a new kind of frustration. | was angry at myself, thinking that | could have used my opportunity better. | should have slipped my hand with a phone through that crack in the door and snapped a few photos. If | had at least a partial image, | could have found him using the right kind of browser in no time.

Then | remembered that those people were also planning to attack Aren’s company. | couldn't tell what kind of attack it would be, but | knew that we couldn't afford to lower our guards for even a second. To ease my newly developed paranoia, | made a few adjustments to the system as a precaution. Of course, | didn’t have to wait for Alan and Norton's reactions as they were the main parts of those adjustments. They both calledon the video chat almost simultaneously.

“Mind telling, why have you just plugged our private computers into Lan Diamond Corporation's system and given us administrator rights?” Alan asked, raising one eyebrow. “Guys, | know that it is the weekend, but | have a feeling that something’s up. Remember the bait we set for the hackers stago? No one has made a move since then, but according to the rumors we spread, the gshould be almost finished by now, and ready to steal or corrupt. Please, just don’t turn off your notifications... Could you do it for me, please?” | smiled nervously and blinked my eyes.

“Cora is right. The weekend might be a good tto attack. We should stay prepared.” Norton nodded, raising his fighter’s fist to the screen.

Alan sighed. “Well, | don’t know, Cora... | have a date tonight.” | smirked. “That means you'll be online anyway, and in case something happens, your otprincesses can wait.” “Hey! | wasn’t talking about otgames!” Alan growled. | chuckled. “Oh, so you switched to porn?” Norton corrected, “Actually, he now plays porn otome.” “Fine!” Alan snapped. “I won't turn off the notifications! Happy?!” “Yes, thank you.” | gave them both a wide grin.

| felt a little better after tightening the system’s security, but | couldn't get rid of my anxiety. Even after Aren and | got back to the penthouse, my mind constantly drifted away as | processed all the possible scenarios. | acted according to my instincts and far-fetched assumptions, wondering if | wasn’t losing my mind while trying to figure out what was going to happen next. | didn’t even want to tell Aren about my suspicions. Knowing how he had reacted when | told him about Lanfen, | wasn’t too eager to share another one of my theories with him. After supper, | indifferently tossed that | was tired, and | went upstairs to my bedroom. | checked the entire system twice and finally fell asleep. The sharp beeping sound wokeup at 3 AM.

“A breach in the system...” | mumbled half-conscious, getting up and pulling the computer onto my lap. As | pulled up the screen, it flashed in a fiery red. The hacker had just attacked.