The Revenge Plan: An Arranged Marriage Billionaire Romance

by Piper Knox

  “Do you think it’s true?” I heard a voice say. It was familiar. One of the Cooper twins, heiresses to the Cooper beverage fortune, I didn’t know which.

  “Of course, it’s true,” another voice I knew well answered, it was Sophie, one of my former minions in school, “It’s all a sham, at least that’s what Ax says. Five says they won’t last a month.”

  Five as in five grand and not five dollars.

  The other girl laughed, “Oh my god! You’re on.”

  They talked about some other stuff and I held my breath the entire time, hoping they wouldn’t hear me. When they were gone, I came out feeling a little less confident than before.

  ◆◆◆

  By the time we left the reception, I was good to go. I didn’t want to spend more time with any of the people here. I was almost sleepy when we reached a large and beautiful apartment building in Upper East Side Manhattan. The doorman greeted Caiden with his first name beaming at me. He must have known who I was, and he congratulated us.

  We went into a waiting elevator and he pressed a button marked ‘P’. I slouched back against the rail. We were both facing each other. His bow tie was hanging around his neck and two top buttons of his dress shirt were undone.

  He looked like a nineteen-twenties rake coming out of a speakeasy. Not a mere patron though, the gangster kind. I smiled at the thought.

  “What’s so funny?” his expression was serious and it made me feel like a schoolgirl caught being naughty. I straightened. “Nothing,” I tried to change the topic, “How long am I supposed to be here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Here.” The elevator dinged. We were on the Penthouse floor. We got out, and I followed him into his apartment. I waved around, “At your place. How long do you want me here so we can keep up the farce of being a married couple?” He glanced at me and kept on walking. I looked around. It was almost exactly as I had imagined it. The place was the modern equivalent of what a devil’s den would be like. The walls and most of the furniture were a mix of coal gray and black with yellow lighting strategically placed behind a wall feature or under the steps. It had a sunken living room that overlooked a beautiful view of the New York skyline. Opposite the living room was a state-of-the-art kitchen, which was separated from the living room area by a granite counter. There were vases with white orchids that accented the place but felt like an odd choice for the mostly masculine apartment. It was elegant and sophisticated.

  Caiden went over to the bar that was on to the left side of the living room and poured himself a drink. He took a sip and turned to me.

  “You’ll be living,” he waved his hand around sarcastically, “here for the foreseeable future. We won’t be faking being a married couple Hailey. That was the deal.”

  “I didn’t think I would be staying with you.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  I had no answer to that except that I had mistakenly thought he wanted nothing to do with me after he had gotten his precious marriage certificate. He took another sip and began striding towards me, “If you had any other plans, I’m sorry to burst them.”

  “Does that mean,” my throat tightened, “does that mean we’re sleeping in the same bed.”

  He strolled towards me slowly, “What do you think married couples do?” he took a sip of his drink and stared at me. It was hot and unnerving. His undressing gaze made me feel naked.

  “Do we have to?”

  He took another step. He was so close I could smell the alcohol on his breath.

  His voice lowered to almost a whisper, “It’s part of the deal.” My pulse raced, “you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

  He was right about the deal. My crass father had made sure that part made it into the contract. If he had his way, he would demand the wedding bed sheets. Plus, it was better to have this part done with. It was tempting. He was tempting with his devilish look. But it didn’t feel right. I had fantasies, especially when I was young, of how my first time with Caiden would be. And those dreams were much more romantic and I would like to hold on to those instead. It would never be good between us anyway, so I might as well keep the fantasy.

  I stepped back, putting space between us.

  “Oh?” he lifted a brow.

  “I’m not ready yet.”

  “Huh. I thought I had read that wrong.” He took another gulp before finishing his drink. His mood seems to change and become colder, “Regardless, there’s a room for you upstairs. It’s the one that’s not mine. Bailey brought your things and left them there. Goodnight.”

  I thought of the conversation between him and Axel. I wasn’t ready to go to bed yet. “I have something I need to talk to you about.”

  He looked a little irritated. “What?”

  “My allowance.”

  5

  “Now?” The room felt a little unsteady, and I wanted nothing more than to crash onto the bed, and she was talking about money? “Don’t you think this is a conversation better held tomorrow when we’re both sober.”

  “I’m sober.”

  “Clearly,” I muttered. So, she comes out. Whatever feelings for her that had been brewing simmered.

  “Besides,” she said, shifting her feet. A shoe came out of her dress, followed by the other one. Her height shortened by a few inches, “This may not be urgent to you, but it is to me. You said my stuff is upstairs, right?” She didn’t wait for me to answer and instead rushed up. A few moments later she was back. She had papers in her hands. She dropped them on the table.

  “There are some adjustments I want made.” She pointed to a page with a few figures highlighted. I picked it up.

  “You want to change the allowance?” The amount was already generous. It was enough to buy a brand new wardrobe of designer clothes and shoes every month, and that's excluding the discount she was likely to get if she shopped at any of the company stores. It was more than enough.

  She nodded. “And I want the first payment as soon as possible.”

  A sour taste filled my mouth. I don’t know what I expected, but I guess I should have expected that. “Hailey, I knew your family was broke, but is it really this broke?”

  “I don’t—” she was about to say something and caught herself, “what does it matter. It’s about what I’m owed for this sham marriage, and I think I’m owed a lot more than that.” She lifted her chin, “It’s not what I’m worth.”

  “You know, the best time to negotiate was before the wedding, right? Not after? Hence the pre in pre-nup?”

  “If you refuse, I’ll annul the wedding.”

  “I don’t think your father would be happy about that.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  She was a weird one. She very well could do it, or at least leak rumors of a separation in the papers. That kind of news would be enough to make us seem like trashy celebrities who got married on a whim. It would make me look worse more than it would affect her. She was a socialite. Marrying and divorcing is what she did during lunch, I had money and reputation riding on this.

  “Fine. How much do you want?”

  “Double.”

  It was a lot, but nothing I couldn’t fork out, “Deal. I’ll have my lawyers draft a new contract. And warn them to finalize the papers before the wedding next time.”

  Her shoulders relaxed. It seems a lot was riding on this. Was she that desperate for money? No. When she was in high school, she had a habit of shoplifting. She would come from her kleptomaniac trips with inconsequential items such as cheap lip balm and dental floss she had stolen from a shop. I can’t believe I once thought it was a quirk or some need for attention. But it was who she was. A spoiled greedy little bitch. Nothing more needed to be explained.

  “Thanks,” she said, “that is all I needed.”

  “Is that all?”

  “If something comes up, I’ll tell you.”

  “Why do you need it so soon?” I had to admit I was curious.

  “Are you not going to give it
to me if I tell you?”

  “I never said that.”

  “Then I won’t tell you.” She turned and made her way upstairs.

  “As long as it doesn’t go to anything illegal like drugs,” I called out.

  She paused as she was about to ascend. She whipped her hair to face me, “It just wasn’t enough, dear benefactor. I’m the wife of the head of a fortune five hundred company. I need a wardrobe that matches.”

  “You’re that desperate for more clothes?”

  She sighed, “Are you going to continue to interrogate me or let me sleep.”

  She was hiding something. It was so obvious, but I was too tired to suss it out. “Goodnight, Hailey.”

  ◆◆◆

  The following weeks with my new wife were as uneventful as that of any newly wedded couple could get. I was busy at work with the new acquisition. Julian had been terrible at managing it, and like I had thought, Celeste could do better than it was currently doing. It needed to be dusted up and change its marketing to target the younger and overseas crowd. Its in-store experience was nice. I had to give them that. But that was the only good thing the division was doing. The rest was a shit show. We would need a large marketing budget to start with. And this was why I was leaving home early and coming back late. I hardly had any time at home, which suited me well.

  As for Hailey, I did not know what she was up to all day. She had refused her own town car when I offered her one.

  “So your lackey can report my daily habits to you? No thanks,” she had said. She had then said she didn’t need it, which was probably true. For someone who had a reputation for partying, she was always home when I left and there when I came back.

  Today, however, was going to be different. It was that day. I glanced at my phone and the clock said three o’clock. It was time to go. Layla, my assistant, raised her head from her computer when I got out of the office, “Are you leaving already?”

  “Yes.”

  She stood up and handed me the bouquet of red roses on her desk, “I knew today was the thirteenth anniversary so I,” she hesitated, “I don’t know if it’s appropriate. I wanted to do something for you.”

  The roses were beautiful and looked expensive. She was thoughtful, and she had class, that’s what I liked about her. I accepted them, “Thank you. You can clock out too if you’re done.”

  His grave was next to mom’s. Her final request before she died a few years ago was to be buried next to her son. I passed by a florist and bought another bouquet for her. When I arrived at the site, a single yellow flower lay on my brother’s grave. I made this visit every year and no one except me left flowers. It was puzzling, but it was the anniversary and maybe someone, an old friend, might have thought to pass by. Or maybe it was Ax, but I couldn’t see him leaving a flower. A face flashed in my mind. No. It wasn’t her. She never came to the funeral service and had instead chosen to stand from afar when he was buried like a guilty person. Hailey had shown me then that she hadn’t cared at all about him. He had seen her as his light. She had seen him as someone to use.

  I laid the flowers on both graves and did what I did every year. I took out a packet of gummy bears and sat against a tombstone marked Liam Scott.

  “I can’t believe I kept your stupid promise,” I said. “They taste like shit.”

  I ate the candy and told him of what I was happening in my life, “I’m this close to getting revenge on that piece of shit family. You should have seen the way they scrambled when their bullshit was exposed. They are so desperate; Julian sold his only daughter to me. The spoiled brat is my wife if you can believe it,” I paused, “I know you liked her, but trust me when I say you would have grown to hate her. I’m destroying them little by little and they think I’m their savior. Their ignorance is beautiful to watch. When I use her against them, they won’t know what hit them. But her, I’m going to save for last. She needs to pay for what she did to you.”

  I sat there for a while thinking about all how long it had been since he was gone. Most memories of him were fading and seeming further and further away. They were getting hazier the older I got. What was even sadder was that she was there in most of them? For the type of person she was, and she was a certified bully, she had loved my brother. Or at least that’s what I thought. They had hung out together ever since they were young. They had grown up together as well. He shouldn’t have fallen for him. He was a sensitive soul that could be easily bruised, and she was hard as stone. I had been fooled by her once and quickly got over it after my brother paid the price of loving her with his life. I promised myself never to go down that path with her or anyone else.

  The candy was long finished by the time I left. The sun was setting, and it was still a little early for me to go home, but I was tired.

  The apartment was silent when I got there. There were no signs of Hailey being there. She was probably wherever she spent her days; I thought as I went upstairs to my room. My body was demanding the sleep I had denied it for so long when I heard quiet noises coming from my room. Someone was in there. I marched a little faster and opened the door. It was Hailey. Her back was to me, so she didn’t see me coming in. She was bent over the bedside table. Her long hair covered whatever she was looking at. I had a pretty good idea what it was, however. I closed the space between us and snatched the shoe box she had opened. She jolted in reaction.

  Her eyes were wet, but I didn’t care. Her grubby hands were on Liam’s things, sullying my memory of him.

  “Get out.” I tried to keep my voice calm, but I couldn’t strip away the heavy emotion I was feeling.

  “I’m sorry, I saw—”

  “I said get out and never come in here again!”

  She dropped the photo she had been holding and rushed out. I picked it up and put it back into the shoe box. It was a Polaroid photo of her and I. I knew what was written behind it, ‘In this photo, we see that Hailey—’ I shoved it back into the box.

  6

  I came back from work to an empty apartment like always. Caiden worked hard. Maybe a little too hard. Not that I was complaining. It meant that we didn’t have to bump into each other often which was fine by me. I could live without having to endure his hatred for me.

  I went to the kitchen. I hadn’t eaten the entire day today, and I was feeling like my stomach would bottom out at any moment. It was a busy day at the office and I had spent the entire day trying to make sure the new funds we had gained would reach our Asian division. At least I was no longer a useless body. I had done something, even though most of that had been because of Caiden. It was his money that had made it possible. But for the first time in a long time, I felt useful.

  I opened the fridge. It had nothing I could eat. It had food, that was true, but it was stuff that needed to be cooked, boiled, grilled or whatever. All of which were skills I did not have. My stomach grumbled. I took out a banana and gobbled it in a few bites. It did nothing to my hunger, might even have worsened it. My phone chimed. I groaned when I saw the name.

  It was my brother.

  Bryce: What have you found so far.

  I rolled my eyes.

  Me: Nothing.

  The phone rang. I thought of ignoring and letting it go to voicemail. He called again. And again. The fourth time I pressed the answer button at the last second, “I said I found nothing.”

  “Are you even looking?” There was some background noise that sounded like a bunch of people in a room talking over each other, phones ringing and papers being shuffled. He was at the office.

  “Can you give me time? He leaves nothing at home.” That was a lie.

  “What about the office?”

  “I haven’t gone there.”

  “Fuck, Hailey,” his breathing was getting heavier. Oh shit. Here it comes, “You know that’s your one job, right? That’s the only reason you’re there! I fucking don’t get why you won’t bother yourself with something so important!”

  “Oh my god, calm down already. It’s still e
arly days. He doesn’t even like me, let alone trust me.”

  I could hear him taking a deep breath, but he didn’t respond.

  “I don’t even understand why he agreed to marry me.”

  “Probably some high school hangover. Wants to fulfill some fantasy. Remember, he was obsessed with you back then. They all were.” Bryce was probably talking about the boys in my class. Yes, I was popular back then, but that popularity didn’t extend to Caiden.

  “I think you mean Liam.” Bryce always confused the twins.

  “Whatever. Get that stuff H. Dad’s counting on you.”

  “Is he now?”

  “The faster you get those papers, the faster you get your inheritance. That’s what he said.” The line went dead. Fuck him. I felt like hurling the phone to the wall. But he was right, though. Dad will not give me anything unless I produce results. Tangible ones at that. An uneasy feeling settled within me as I thought of the next course of action. I looked around the apartment. Caiden had an office upstairs at the end of the hall. I made my way there. The door was closed, but when I twisted the handle, it opened. That was a surprise I was sure it was locked. I dragged my feet into the room.