Celine had given her conversation with her father a lot of thought. It wasn't making any sense to her. She was a firm believer in love marriages. Arranged marriages weren't her thing and her father of people knew that. The offer Mr Smith had made was very mouth watering...but sacrificing the rest of her life to be with some stranger in exchange for a comfortable life sounded like a good deal at the same time sounded like a really bad decision to make.
She knew that if it were up to her father, he would have married her off immediately. She was grateful that he considered her feelings at least. She couldn't imagine if her father had given her no other option than to get married to the billionaire's grandson. She needed to talk to someone about it. She was usually busy trying to make ends meet so she had literally no friends. Well, except Zack her boyfriend, most times she wondered why he was with her. She brought absolutely nothing to the table, she was young and broke. She had big dreams for the future tho.She went to visit Zack at his apartment later that evening. At least he was someone that wouldn't want her to marry someone else for any reason at all."Hey babe" she greeted as she got into his apartment. She kissed him on the lips and sat beside him on the sofa. She shifted for a while in her seat before finally lying down with her head on his laps."Celine?" Zack called"Yeah?""Something seems off? What's wrong?"Zack had noticed her shift in her sit, she only does that when she's nervous or when she wants to talk about something. "Wanna talk?" He asks."Well yeah, I mean it's not that much of a big deal as i already said No, but it's just my dad wants me to get married to his boss's son" Celine explained.Zack cleared his throat and sat her right, in a way that they were both looking into each other's eyes."His boss? Mr Smith of Smith Group of Companies? That man is a fooking billionaire!" Zack exclaimed, excitement clearly written over his face.Celine looked at him confused as hell. She expected him to get angry at the thought of her marrying someone else and not excited."Baby, we're gonna be rich!!" He said, he stood her up and twirled her around. "You're my lucky gem!""Zack! What's wrong with you? You're happy my dad wants me to marry someone else? And by the way i said No to the proposal" Celine said annoyed.She snatched her hand from his grip and went to seat on another chair away from where he was sitting."Look Celine, I'm a college graduate with no job. I'm broke as fvck and so are you. This opportunity has been brought to us on a platter of gold so who are we to turn it down?" Zack said.He had no money at all, there were no openings in the job market and he didn't have any hope of making a living. Celine marrying a rich man's kid was a very great idea. He could work with celine and milk those people off their money. After all it's a cruel world and he was sure Mr Smith wouldn't even notice that his money was missing."Look Celine, it's our ticket out of poverty. Like no one gets opportunities like this nowadays unlike the 80's. Just one year babe. One year and you'll divorce him. Ask for half his wealth and boom! We're rich! What do you think?" Zack suggested."I think it's the darkest and cruellest thing I've ever heard. That's literally me being a gold digger. I can't marry a man for his money. There is no way I'll ever stoop so low. And here i was thinking you'll agree with me that it's a wrong idea. You know what? Fvck you!"Celine left Zack's apartment in anger. She could not believe he had expected her to get married just to dupe the poor man of his wealth.She had a night shift at a coffee shop. Yeah, she also wonders who sells coffee at night but turns out it was more than coffee, the coffee was just a cover. She was fine with not knowing what the other thing was. She wouldn't have even taken the job is she wasn't so broke and in debt.Some costumer has walked in wearing a black hoodie and sweatpants. She walked over to him to take his order."Good evening sir, what would you like to order?" Celine had asked in her most polite tone.The guy looked up to see who it was that walked up to him. His eyes were so dark and void that Celine felt like crawling into her skin. She didn't like the way this customer was scanning her with his eyes."Sir?" She called again."Shut up!" He commanded in a low voice but sounded as cold as ice.Xavier wondered who the new girl was and when these coffee freaks started hiring outsider as waiters. He was here for business as usual but this waitress seemed to be clueless and he had no time to explain who he was and what he wanted to her.He lifted his hoodie to reveal his get black hair, the light in the shop complemented his blue eyes and made the shine bright. He heard the waitress gasp. Yeah! He got that kind of reaction from ladies all the time.'who would his all that handsomeness under a hoodie?' Celine questioned in her head."Are you listening to me?" Xavier repeated. This waitress seemed to be lost in her own world and it was beginning to piss him off but he kept his cool. He thought she had seen her somewhere before tho..."I said i want to see Scar!!" He repeated.Celine quickly understood,that was the code to mean her was here for other business other than coffee.She immediately hurried off to meet the manager who would then attend to Xavier.While the manager spoke in hush tones with Xavier. Celine could not help but be distracted by thoughts of the handsome blue eyed costumer with a livid temper. She found him rude but he was damn handsome. 🥺🥺🥺🥺........."Look, James it's just a little favour. I really need this" Paul said to his friend over the phone.He had decided that he would do whatever it takes to make Celine marry Mr Smith's grandson. So he had called a doctor friend of his to request for a favour."What you're asking me to do is against my Ethics and you know I swore and oath before I was given my license" Dr James had said over the phone to Paul.Paul wanted a fake test result from James. The paper was to state that he had cancer and that he needed to undergo series of chemotherapy as soon as possible."Please James! For the sake of our friendship" Paul begged. He and James went way back to elementary school. They have been best of friends for as long as they could remember. Even when James went to Med school and Paul to Business School, they never lost contact of each other."It's only for a short while, it'll be over before you even realize and the document will be destroyed without traces" Paul promised.James coul
Early the next morning, Celine is making breakfast when her father comes out of room fully dressed for work. "But dad, you need to rest" She said with a look of disapproval. "Working is like weakening your immune system the more."Paul sighed, he didn't think this far. If he doesn't go to work it's going to make Mr Smith wonder if something was wrong. He should have told his boss of his plan before hand."I won't go after today. I just need to let them no at the office that I'll be taking a leave due to health issues" He told Celine. He couldn't think of other reasons that'll convince her to let him go except this one. "Alright dad" Celine shrugged " but at least have breakfast before you go, and also I have something to tell you" Paul sat at the table to enjoy the breakfast of pancakes and hot chocolate.Celine sat opposite her father too and watched him eat. Her emotions were like a rollercoaster as she watched him. He was the most important person in her life and she wasn't r
Later that night, as Celine was preparing to go to bed, she received a text from unknown number. The person introduced herself as Alexis and said she had been appointed by Mr Smith to be at Celine's every beck and call. More like a personal assistant.Alexis said Mr Smith had planned a date for Celine and Xavier to meet tomorrow. The date was to be at a fancy restaurant, so Alexis had asked Celine to meet her at the mall in the afternoon tomorrow for a bit of girls time before the date.Celine wasn't feeling the need for a personal assistant or even for a girls day out with some girl she had never met. She knew she couldn't back out now, she was doing this for her father.Alexis had even said Celine had to quit all her side jobs. Celine was cool with quitting all other jobs especially that one with the shady coffee shop but one job she didn't wish to quit was the one with the orphanage. She made that known to Alexis over the phone.The next day, she met Alexis at the mall. Alexis wa
Mr Smith had called Xavier into his room that afternoon, he felt like he needed to have a heart to heart conversation with him before he met Celine. Mr Smith was willing to let Xavier in on the little he knew about Celine."Wait! You mean it's not Maria you want me to marry?" Xavier had said in shock.Maria had been his friends since they were kids, they grew up together and basically did everything together. Party, drink and the likes. One the night of his 20th birthday she was also there and was like some sort of comfort to him during that period.Xavier knew his grandfather was good friends with Maria's family, so had thought in his head that he was going to get married to Maria, after all she was from a respectable family and also belonged to the high society."You want me to get married to your employee's daughter?" Xavier asked his grandfather. Some times he wondered what went on in the elderly man's head."Sit"Xavier who was on his fit before sat back down to listen to wha
Celine felt bad about how her date with Xavier had ended. She knew something was wrong but she could not wrap her head around what it was.Did she say something to spite him? She kept asking herself during the ride home.Even Alexis was confused as to what could have gone wrong. “Don’t worry Celine, he could be really hot headed sometimes” she consoled.Meanwhile, when Xavier got in his car and was about to head home, he got a text from Maria 💌 Heyy….party downtown! Wanna come? 💜 💌Of course, perfect opportunity to party away his grievances, he wouldn’t miss the chance. So off to the party he went.Maria was waiting for him by the time he had arrived.“Heyy…haven’t seen you in a minute, what’s good?” she hollered embracing him.“Yes… work and stuff” he replied “how have you been?” “Partying as usual”Xavier really liked Maria, she was his spirit animal according to him. They grew up together and she knew every single detail about him, both the good and the bad.Maria a
When Xavier got home that night, it was late and his grandfather was asleep, so they didn’t have a conversation until the next morning during breakfast. Mr. Smith naturally wanted to know all that went down during the date.“Did you kiss?” He asked.Xavier was about to swallow some tea but he poured it back into his cup upon his grandfather’s question.“What? No? Grandpa!!!”The elderly man raised both hands in surrender.“Just asking” he said “you liked her, right?”Xavier was pretty fine with her, until the point where he found out she was a gold digger. Now he wasn’t sure if he could stand her presence. He didn’t say that to his grandfather, however.“she’s a good girl.” He repliedMr. Smith nodded and continued with his meal. He was impressed that this was going well. A part of him had thought the youngsters would have a hard time getting along. Now it seems like there was nothing to worry about after all.“Any plans for today?” he asked after a minute of silence “Though
Mr. Smith was clearly the most excited about the wedding. He planned a very classy and grand engagement party. He also made sure not to invite too many guests as the wedding day was the real big deal and this engagement was just a teaser.Invitations were hand written by him and sent to only the really important people, i.e. the people of class. The engagement wasn’t going to be a quiet one but what made it special was that not just anyone could waltz in and claim to be a guest.Mr. Smith only sent out fifty invitations. He had asked Paul if he had people he wanted to invite but Paul said no. Celine too, but Mr. Smith had given her five invitation cards, making the number of guests to be expected Fifty-five.The day finally came and all preparations had been put to place. The Smith’s house had been converted into an event center for the night and it looked absolutely amazing.Celine was in a room, with a glam squad, they were getting her ready for her engagement party. Alexis was the
Alexis walked closer Maria and whispered in her ear “Susan doesn’t really have your back!”Maria was taken aback by what Alexis meant, she scanned the room and noticed Susan standing at a corner far off, she had an helpless look on her face.“What did you do?” Maria askedAlexis just shrugged and beckoned on Susan to come closer.Earlier on before the party started, Maria had called Susan into a corner and squeezed plenty wads of cash into her hands and asked her to put the wristwatch in Celine’s bag.Susan was one of the people helping Celine get dressed so it was easy for her to have access to Celine’s bag.Alexis had caught Susan trying to put the watch in Celine’s bag and had threatened to raise an alarm if she didn’t say why she was doing so.Susan told it all to Alexis, who had to think of a way to turn the tables.Susan finally got to the spot were everyone had gathered to watch the scene.“Susan, I suppose you have Maria’s watch with you, right?” Alexis asked Susan wi