Sentenced to Marriage by MadlainQ

Saved | opened my eyes and laced the bright sun rays creeping through the window of a familiar hospital room in Aren’s clinic. It tooka while before my brain fully acknowledged that | was sate. Once | did, | let out a soft exhale along with a few tears. | was lying still as the memories flashed back before my eyes, makingwonder what had happened and how I had found myself in the clinic. | thought of sitting up. I lifted my head and instantly welcomed an overwhelming headache.

“Miranda said that you shouldn't move.” | heard Chris's voice and saw him leaning overa second later. “I can pull up the bed if you want to sit.” His lips curled into a faint smile.

| nodded, looking at him numbly and processing why he was in my room. As he pulled my bed up so | could sit, | took a closer look at him. He was wearing a black T-shirt and a pair of combat pants, but even the dark fabric couldn't hide the dried bloodstains-proof of the fight. Only then did | realize that it was his voice | heard just before | passed out. “Thank you,” | mumbled, tugging at the hem of his shirt.

He stretched his lips into a grin, but his eyes reflected nothing aside from concern. He grabbed my hand, took it away from his shirt, and put it on the bed. “Don’t mention it,” he said softly.

My mouth was dry like a desert. | reached my hand to get a glass of water that stood on the bedside cabinet, but Chris was first.

“I'll do it. You shouldn’t move your hands too much.” I raised my eyebrows, wondering why he mentioned my hands until | looked at my wrists covered by bandages that already had stains soaked with blood.

Chris followed my gaze and put the glass back on the bedside cabinet. “Stay still! I'll get Miranda!” He rushed to the door.

“It doesn’t hurt,” | muttered.

“Of course, it doesn’t! Miranda gave you the strongest painkillers she could!” He frowned while opening the door.

“If your wounds get infected, Aren will kill both Miranda and me!” Hearing my husband’s nput a smile on my face, but that smile disappeared as | recalled lan Haskett's words. Was there any truth in what he’d said? | didn’t want to believe it. | had known for a long tthat Aren was a player. He could have been cruel and cold, but taking advantage of a weak girl or hurting her physically didn’t sound like him at all. “Cora, honey, how do you feel?” Miranda burst into the room with watery eyes.

“Good...” | stretched my lips into a thin smile. “Aside from the headache, it’s fine.” Chris closed the door behind them and stayed in the corner of the room. Miranda sat by my bed and took out fresh bandages from the medical box she brought with her. “You had a mild concussion. There are sbruises on your back, chest, and legs, but your wrists... | don’t know what that fucker put on those handcuffs, but | seriously wish someone put the sthing on his dick,” she hissed, gently unwrapping the bloody gauze.

“I don’t get it...” I looked at her, confused. “Was there something unusual on those cuffs? | knew they were sharp-edged but...” | froze as | looked at my unwrapped from bandages wrists.

Except for the multiple small cuts, my wounds looked like they were burned by schemical substance. It looked disgusting, but the worst part of it was that these cuts didn’t seem to heal.

“I know how it looks....” Miranda patted my head. “That fucker must have put sbleach on the cuffs. Each tthey tore or cut your skin, it infected your wounds. But don’t worry, Aren is getting special ointments to help your skin heal faster. There won't be any scars,” she said, a comforting smile crossing her lips.

“Aren...” | muttered mindlessly before looking at Chris. “Where is he?” “He is coming today. He should land in New York in about two hours,” he said.

“Then... why are you here?” “Aren had a bad feeling and he orderedto cback from Paris yesterday to keep an eye on you,” he explained. “It seems that | cback just in time...” Chills ran down my spine, thinking about what could have happened if Chris hadn't cback sooner. My mind was still in a frantic state, gathering the pieces of information together, but there was something | needed to know.”What about Benjamin?” | asked anxiously. “Oh, he'll be fine,” Miranda answered. “He got injected with a heavy dose of sleeping drug, but he is already conscious.” “The security guards found him lying by the car right by the parking lot's entrance,” Chris added.

| nodded and sighed in relief. Miranda plugged in another drip of painkillers. They madebemused, but my other choice was to feel the skin on my wrist as if it was constantly burning. Obviously, | would rather lose my focus than writhe in pain... Once Miranda finished treating my wounds, she left my room, tellingthat | should get srest. Chris followed her, but | stopped him before he walked out the door. “Please... | need to know what happened yesterday.” He stared at my pleading eyes for a minute and finally sighed, surrendering. “Fine, but are you absolutely sure that you are ready to hear it?” | fisted my hand and gave him a confident nod. | didn’t want to go back with my thoughts to everything that Haskett wanted to do to me, but the uncertainty was killing me.

Chris sat on my bed, his fingertips gently touching mine. “My plane landed a little after 10 PM. | called you just to check if you were at the penthouse, but you didn’t answer. Then | called Neil, and he toldthat Benjamin was just about to take you home. But when Benjamin didn’t answer his phone, | rushed straight to the Lan Diamond Tower. As soon as | informed Neil and the security, they started checking the footage. Thankfully, one of the cameras caught the moment of your attack, and then another one registered the car plates. In the meantime, | gathered the team and informed Aren and Jack. You have no idea what | felt when we found the car’s location and we were on our way there...” He exhaled in a rush and then clenched his jaw and closed his eyes.

| smiled nervously and placed my hand on top of his. “But you saved me, Chris... You saved my life...” | muttered. | was surprised by the way his emotions surfaced. It was the kind of reaction | would expect from someone who had feelings for me, but that couldn't be the case, right? A few seconds later, Chris cleared his throat, givinga brief grin. “Anyway, | took a team of six, sharp ammunition. The plan was to eliminate everyone, except for Haskett. Aren wanted him alive for questioning...” Chris paused before a cold smirk crossed his mouth. “But | bet that he just wanted to kill the fucker with his own hands.” He glanced at me, checking my reaction, but I only nodded. | had sunk into Aren’s world long ago. | had witnessed people getting killed in front of my eyes, and | had been threatened with killing at least a few times already. Perhaps Chris thought that | would be shocked to know that when he and his team had cto rescue me, they had been ready to kill, but the truth was, | didn’t think those people deserved to live.

“So, what happened when you found the place where Haskett brought me?” I inquired anxiously.

Chris gently grabbed my hand, anger surfacing in his expression. “We found you on the last floor of an unfinished office building. When my team and | barged inside, | saw one of those fuckers trying to hit you... I lost it. | shot him in the head without realizing that his stinking body could crush you when it collapsed. | was so mad that | nearly shot that fucker behind the camera, despite promising Aren that | would keep him alive... I'm sorry if you got hurt because of my stupidity,” he said, lowering his head. | let out a soft chuckle. “Are you kidding me? | agree that having this fucker onis an experience | wish to erase from my memory, but | am quite certain that getting hit by him would feel much worse.” He gavea faint smile, and | smiled back at him. Then my mind shifted to the bastard who tried to kill me. “So, what about Haskett? Do you know who that guy is, and why does he hate Aren so much?” Chris nodded, one side of his lips curving into a crooked smile. “I knew that his nsounded familiar and now | know why... Remember when | told you about Aren’s dark past? There was one girl who was particularly attracted to him. She used to follow him wherever he went, begging for his attention. At sparty, she crawled into his bed, and he didn’t reject her. The next day, he treated her coldly, while she imagined that they would beca couple. When Aren told her clearly that it was never going to happen, she tried to commit suicide just to get his attention. Her nwas Natasha Haskett; she was lan Haskett’s younger sister,” he said.

I looked at him, perplexed. “I don’t get it. You toldthat she tried to commit suicide and didn’t succeed... So why did her brother claim that she was dead and that Aren killed her?” Chris shook his head. “I don’t know. | did a little research and found out that Natasha left our university after the whole suicide attempt incident. She studied in Rand even graduated with honors, so it didn’t seem like there was something wrong with her. Even so, she killed herself two years ago, and, for sreason, her brother was convinced that Aren was her suicide motive.” | listened to his words and suddenly froze. “Why did you say that her brother WAS convinced? ” | smiled nervously.

“Yeah, about that...” Chris scratched his head, a reluctant grimace painting his mouth. “I promised that | wouldn't kill Haskett, and | didn’t. But as we were leading him out of the building, we noticed a sniper on the nearby roof. The whole team took cover, but we weren't the target... The sniper gave only one shot, an extremely accurate one-he shot lan Haskett in the neck and killed him on the spot.”