Third Person's POV
" Sir here's the reports you had asked for" Mr Norman, Benjamin's secretary passed the file to his boss who was now busy attending a conference call. While still on the call, he signals Mr Norman to put the file on his desk. After placing the file, Mr Norman excused himself and retrieved to his cabin.
He gazed at the busy city below him through the see-through window of his office while still attending the call. It was already 7 pm most of the citizen would already be back at home and relaxing but for working gave him more content.
Feeling his back muscles turning stiff, he stood up from his expensive leather chair and made his way to the glass panel to have a better view scenario outside his building, which was turning dark and moody. He slide both his hands into his pocket and kept staring at the city, still actively listening to his investors through his Bluetooth
After an hour or so, the call ended and, he took the file and started leafing through it. The front page had the picture of his to be wife.
Jacqueline Valentina Knight
He uttered in a hoarse voice as his fingers, caressed her name. She was his fiance right now. Fake one of course. The fact that she had signed the contract even after him telling about all the clause, disgusted him. Of course, he wanted to use her as a tool to get away from the entire marriage talk for a year or so, but he wasn't being entirely selfish either. Right?
He offered her money as compensation. Though she acted as if she was a non-money-minded person, deep down he knew that she was nothing but a gold digger. She was just good at pretending to be someone she wasn't.
And he wasn't a fool to believe all that crap. He might have used her father to make her agree to this wedding, maybe he was deceiving her but he knew that she ain't innocent also. She can fool his parents but not him.
He exactly knew what girls like her were made off. Cunningness, deception and dishonesty. Every single quality which he hated in a human. So, he knew what she was up to. If she thought she could deceive him with her clueless looks and innocent eyes than she was wrong. Very wrong. Benjamin Douglas Russo was not someone to be played with.
When his eyes fell on her for the first time, he got intrigued and fascinated by her. Her rejection made him thought that not the entire female population was materialistic. Though his ego got damaged by her rejection, she earned his respect.
However, when he heard his parents say she had agreed for the wedding, the respect he had for her turned into a complete disdain. She was just another girl who was playing hard to get. And when he thought about the nerves she had to play him, his mind started to fill with rage.
However, as everyone says, Benjamin isn't a man who acts on his impulses. His moves are calm and collected. And thats what made him more fearful because one will never know what runs in his mind. It made him more dangerous and people always thought twice before speaking to him, afraid of getting on his bad side. Because that was something they avoided at all course.
And thinking that I mere girl tried playing him irked him to no end. So, he decided to use her to his advantage. After all, she was the one who had brought this upon herself. Hence, he saw no reason why he shouldn't make use of the opportunity knocking on his door.
So, he immediately picked the contract that he had prepared long ago before meeting her and just asked his lawyer to add her name in the contract. He made sure the contract favoured him more compared to her. And she had signed the contract even after him telling her about all the clauses. She didn't care about the money, the time she would be stuck in this marriage and even about her self respect. She claims to bare all that for her father. But he couldn't buy that reason.
Plus, he wasn't interested in knowing her reasons as well. She was just another deal for him. Hence, brushing all his unwanted thoughts, he preponed his engagement and wedding wanting to get it done and dusted as soon as possible. The sooner they get married, the sooner he gets to end the contract.
And he did everything according to his personal preference. Though their wedding was a contract, only he and his lawyer knew about it. No one else knew about it, well of course except the girl who had signed the contract. So, to outsiders, it was a legit wedding and his family and his company had a reputation that they needed to maintain. And this marriage would surely be all our news. So, he can't have his to be wife look like a hobo.
Hence, he made sure there was no inconvenience when it came to the way he presented her to the outside world. She appointed beautician and stylish to make her look presentable. And what irked him again was the fact of her being a brat and bending to his rules. And every single time, he had to blackmail her using the contract that she had signed to get the work done.
Even their engagement party felt like a headache to him. She was always hell-bent in giving him a hard time. She acted as if her life was going to end when he was about to slide the ring into her finger. And look on her face during their engagement, though a fake one, made him feel irritated. Can't she just pretend to smile for the sake of the media? He can't help but ponder over the fact.
And right after the engagement he saw her excusing herself from the crowd and sneaking somewhere. During that day he had his eyes solely on her, watching all her moves with his calculating eyes. And when he saw her trying to remove the ring that he had just slipped, he felt his blood boiling. She was testing his patience.
Can't she wait until she gets home to remove the ring?
The media people were everywhere and what if one of them got a snap of this scene and publish it the next day in the news? His family's name and reputation would be tarnish just because of a foolish girl. But he again showed no signs of anger and stood there composing himself.
The next day, he visited her and trusted one size smaller ring into her finger. And of course, she didn't make it easy for him to do that. But he again brought about the contract and threatened her. So, she had no choice but to oblige.
He saw her face twisted in pain as he roughly squeezed the ring into her finger. And he felt no remorse. That was her punishment for what she had done last night and now she would be able to take it off either. After getting his job done, he smirked and left her place.
Now thinking back about the whole, he felt like there was something off about the way she acted. She was money minded. No doubt in that but she was definitely repulsed by him which to him was an utter shock. Because he knew he was nothing but repulsive. And there is a reason why the entire female population of the country was behind his back.
But she was not interested in his look and even that he wasn't sure whether she did that to play to get. What if she had a lover? And thats why she isn't interested in him. If that's true why agree to this marriage? Maybe she wishes to get married after the contract ends?
As they neared to the date of their wedding, a lot of questions raised in his mind concerning her. He wanted to know every single thing about her before they got pronounced as husband and wife. Fake of course. But he felt the need to know about her was increasing as the days passed by.
So, here he was now, skipping through her file reading through every single detail about his to be wife with uttermost concentration. He got to know that she was still a student and when he saw her age he almost felt like choking. She was just 21. But she was already in University doing her last two years in Business Management.
She had very few friends and her academics appeared praiseworthy. She was a scholar and was a very bright student.
Her mother had passed away and her father was taking care of her ever since. She was a daughter that her father was very proud of and he got to know that she was aiming to take over her father's company after completing her degree.
Interesting fact...he thought and smirked.
But out of all the info, he was more interested to know about her personal life. He skipped pages and straight away when to section that he was keen on knowing about. About the affair that she was currently involved in. After all, she was going to be his wife, fake wife but, still, he needed to make sure that she wasn't going to tarnish his family name with her love affairs after the marriage.
And when he turned to the page, his eyes went wide seeing what was written on it. Till date, she had never dated anyone and that page looked pretty much blank.
Maybe she hadn't found someone who is rich enough to satiate her greed for money. He scoffed and closed the file getting tired of the contents in the file. His head started aching due to the amount of work he had done for a day. Hence, he didn't to call it a day and head home, bring the file along with him.
I will read it when I am free, he thought and started walking away from his office, wishing to reach home and crash on his bed.