Later, about two weeks after their second meeting, the auburn red-haired girl known as Alice began speculating as to how her life turned into this shit show.
After being unceremoniously proposed by a stranger she slept with once – and currently having a baby he helped make inside her stomach – she would eventually conclude that it was just an 'ordinary cock up.'
And she would be correct.
Or, more accurately, she would technically be correct. Most of it was due to people being people. Her not on birth control, and him not having a condom. Because, if she had to be real, she did not plan to have a random make love session with a random stranger who came from nowhere.
For God's sake, she didn't even want to have a problem with another male species. Her cheating ex-boyfriend and runaway father was enough, she did not want this growing foetus given by this random stranger either.
However, Alice would like to point out that she did not want to take any example of her father. Because said father, unlike her, hadn't bothered to check in on the general well being of his child since … forever. Or what felt like forever, anyway. Heck, he was this close to aborting her in the first place, as her mother's honest story.
Besides, it would only be the most idiotic thing she could ever do to fail her gruesome degree. She would not break the law she had been studying in the last two years, just because she didn't fancy morning sickness that would surely come later on.
That being said, this was her baby, too, wanted or not. Nothing bad would befall her baby. Even if her scholarship was in danger due to the misogynists who didn't want to offer free tuition for pregnant students.
So, this future Harrison would dare to take over the world in their tiny hands.
Actually, according to the marriage certificate and several announcements in the papers and news channels, this baby would be a Fenrich. A name that made Alice's lips curled around a cherry lollipop. Don't get her wrong, it had been a while since she had any money and less worry to treat herself to a piece of candy.
One quick look into the search bar and the name Fenrich would take everyone for a roller coaster ride.
Fenrich-Knights Group was a multinational conglomerate with core businesses in retail, aviation, beverages and food chain, hotels, industrial, energy, and trading. Nothing like she had thought, when she met the man who would inherit the entire company in the future.
For all things considered, Cassius Fenrich was another case presented before her eyes. He was a man with an unquestionable load of money, living in a high tower with people that bowed down to him every time he walked. And yet, he proposed to her. Married her a week later.
Alice snickered, juggling the cherry lollipop between her lips.
"What?"
She looked at the man on the driver seat, golden brown hair slightly ruffled from the rolled-down window. If he wasn't such a jerkass, she could look at Case to please her sore eyes. "It's just funny to think about. I never thought I'd get married, but here we are."
"Rest assure, I don't want this either," he said, puffing a smoke from the rolled up cigarette.
Her nose scrunched up. "Please tell me it's not what I think it is."
"I don't have any obligation to tell you things."
"We're gonna be living under the same roof for a year," she told him plainly. "I don't want to show up to my Drug and Society class smelling of weed."
"Oh, right," he intentionally breathed a smoke of the illegal substance to her face. "I don't give a shit about your Criminology major or whatever."
"Huh," Alice knitted her eyebrow, thinking back to their second meeting in his office. "You seemed very interested after I mentioned my scholarship and study two weeks ago."
"It told me that you're pretty smart. What would my grandfather said if he know I marry a dumb girl who works scrubbing toilets in a crappy diner?"
"That's the only thing you cared about?"
Case plastered a fake smile, something she could pick up after months of staring at serial killers interrogation tapes. "Pleasing my grandfather means I get company."
"Fine, do whatever you want as long as you pay for everything."
"What a hypocrite, you only care about money."
"Because, unfortunately, we live in a world where money is everything and the system is broken. I can't pay for my mother's treatment without it."
"Poor you," Case said, feigning an apology when there was a loud crack from the way she bit into her lollipop. "Oops."
"You men are all jerkasses. I never met a decent one."
"Well, you women are all bitches. So, we're even, hm?"
It was clear through Alice's eyes that Case did not want this marriage. He did not want the child. He did not want to live in the small neighbourhood his grandfather specifically chose for them. Case did not have a choice in obeying the rules his grandfather made, so she'd milk him to ensure that she got enough money for her mother's treatment and the baby's future.
With that in mind, she was absolutely sure that Case would not care about her in the slightest.
So, she did not care either.
Of course, there were many ways of not caring, in Case's case. The first she witnessed was when he'd paid her millions to abort the baby. Or when he literally mocked her for being a gold-digger, a simple-minded girl who'd do anything for money. He might not be wrong on that front, but that was not the point.
The point, when it came to their new status as a husband and wife, was that he did not care. Like, at all.
After the car pulled over in front of a two-story building she suspected to be their new home, he did not open the door for her. Just marching on and unlocked the door.
She was left alone on the sidewalk, staring at the suitcases safely nestled in the trunk. Another crack resounded from her lollipop. If he thinks that she'd bring their suitcases inside for him, then he'd be wrong.
"Case!"
As imagined, he ignored her. She would never get along with her official, but unreal husband.