The Revenge Plan: An Arranged Marriage Billionaire Romance

by Piper Knox

  “Wow. With a paperweight you say?”

  “If it weren’t for you, I probably wouldn’t have been able to,” we were both startled when we heard her voice, “So thank you for that.”

  “No problem,” Ax said.

  Bryce slowly came to. He was unaware of his surroundings and jumped back when he saw where he was. He began struggling against his binds when he realized he was tied up. The police came soon after. I explained everything together with Hailey. They took our statements and took Bryce into custody. Ax bade us farewell when I asked him to stay. He said, “I was already feeling like a third wheel when Bryce was here. Him being gone will only make me feel even more of a third wheel.”

  After he was gone, I turned to Hailey. She had tears in her eyes. This was, I noticed, the first time since Bryce had come, she was now crying. I went to her and held her. Her tears fell even more. I held her tightly.

  “Nothing’s going to happen to you anymore. You’re safe with me now.”

  She hiccupped a few times. “Why me? Why am I the only one cursed with this bad luck?”

  Was she talking about what her brother had said? “Hey it’s not your fault what happened to your parents. Do you hear me? None of it is your fault.” I drew her out and held her at arm's length so I could see her face. It was tear stained and red. “Do you understand what I’m saying? None of this, what happened with Bryce, your father, your mother, had anything to do with what you did. Especially that bastard brother of yours.”

  She sniffed back some tears.

  “I need you to show me you understand.”

  She nodded. Satisfied, I drew her back into my arms. We stood like that for what must have been hours. We were both comfortable in each other's arms. I was surprised how much it had taken me to realize what I would have lost. I could have lost her. The love of my life. I could have lost the love of my life in a blink of a second. I was a fool. It took the threat of death to see what I had all this time and that I was lucky to have her in my life. I never realized until now that I loved her so much. Love. I wanted to say that word over and over again because that’s how much I felt for her. It brought me the feeling of happiness I had never felt before. All my life, while I was pursuing vendettas, making deals, amassing wealth. I thought all of that brought me joy. None of them brought me the same amount of joy as being in the arms of someone I loved wholeheartedly.

  After a while we drew back and moved to the couch. We both sat down in silence. “If you want to sleep here... If you want to, that is.”

  “I do,” her voice was almost a whisper.

  We both went upstairs. I was about to lead her to the guest bedroom. It was when I felt the lack of her presence beside me; I turned and saw her standing next to my bedroom.

  “I want to sleep with you.” We both froze at the implication, “I mean, I want to sleep in the same room as you. I can’t stand being alone tonight. I could sleep on the settee or—”

  “It’s fine. We can both sleep on the bed. I promise I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do.”

  56

  We both slept on the bed with most of our clothes on. We were tired from the ordeal and we didn’t want to waste energy by removing them. Caiden had taken me into his arms and laid my head against his chest. He was telling the truth when he said he didn’t want to do anything I didn’t want to do. Instead, we both slept together in that same bed like an old couple. We were far from it, though. We were neither old nor a couple. I turned my head toward him. Moonlight streamed into the room, creating a dark blue ambiance. I could make out most of him. His eyelashes fluttered against his sleeping eyes. They were big and made his eyes seem all the more beautiful closed. His breathing was even, which was a sort of calming presence. I drew circles on his chest in time to his breathing. The situation reminded me of something we had both shared a long time ago. Back when I was in high school and I had accidentally stumbled into his bedroom drunk. He had been drunk too and thought was his girlfriend at the time.

  “Just like the first time I fell into your bed,” I said to myself

  “Mmm.”

  I frowned. “Are you awake?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t bother opening his eyes.

  “You should have said.”

  “I just did.” His eyelids fluttered open. “You had jumped into my bed drunk with nothing but a t-shirt on.”

  “You remember! The next day you said you were drunk!”

  “I was drunk at the time and I never said I had forgotten. I mean, who could forget you, Hailey.”

  “I was sure you felt nothing for me back then.”

  He chuckled. His laugh reverberated against my cheek. “If your hand had strayed a little further up my thigh, you would have sensed the raging boner I had for you.”

  My eyes widened. “Who would have thought. The ice king had a thing for me.”

  “We all had a thing for you back then, Hailey. Now go to sleep.” His words made me feel even naughty. If he was spotting an erection back, then… I wonder if now—he swatted my hand away from his groin. “Sleep or I’ll banish you to the floor.”

  I giggled and snuggled close to him. He pulled me even closer into his arms. We slept like that.

  The following morning I woke up to an empty bed. His scent was still there, teasing my nostrils. It had been a while since I had slept so peacefully. I woke up with knots in my neck, probably from my position, but I also felt fully rested. I reached for my phone and checked the time. Fuck! I was late for work! Two hours late! I bolted out of the bed and rushed to the bathroom. I was about to open the bathroom door when I heard what sounded like arguments downstairs. Curious, I made my way there. In the kitchen were Julie and Caiden. I tried to make my presence known, but they were busy talking over each other.

  Julie was standing behind Caiden, who was busy whipping something on the stove. “Can you at least have me make the breakfast, Mr. Scott? I want to do something for her.”

  Without taking his gaze off the pot, he said, “No. I have to do this. I’m her husband.”

  “But you’ve been cooking all this time!”

  “She thinks it’s you.”

  “You’ve been the one making my meals?” They both turned to face me. Julie’s face was filled with guilt. Caiden looked like he had been caught doing something illegal.

  “Hailey.” Caiden’s spoon slipped from his grip. “You woke up.”

  “You’ve been cooking for me the entire time.”

  “It was not my decision,” Julie said, “He didn’t want you to know,” she clapped and opened her arms, “I don’t know why he didn’t want to, but I went along with it.”

  Caiden stood transfixed, staring back at me. He glared until I was feeling a little self-conscious. Then a burning smell distracted me. I glanced past the two of them and saw smoke coming from the pot.

  “It’s burning.”

  “What?” he seemed to jolt out of a memory.

  “The pot,” I pointed to the stove, “It’s burning.”

  “Oh fuck,” Caiden said as he rushed to take it off the plate. He burned himself in the process. Julie rushed to do the same, and she too burned herself. By the time they had successfully got the pot off the plate, I was laughing hard.

  “This is the first time in a looong time I’ve burned anything I must tell you,” he said.

  “I believe you. I must go to work now.”

  “Not today. They called to ask if you were doing okay and if you wanted a few days off,” he came to where I was standing and took my hand in his hands, “Your brother’s arrest is all over the news. There are reporters camped outside.”

  “It was tough for me to get in,” Julie said.

  “And you shouldn’t have since you were on your day off.”

  “Miss Hailey was threatened with a gun. What was I supposed to do? Not come?”

  “Thank you for coming, anyway.”

  “So is it settled now? I’ll make breakfast?”

  “Since I hav
en’t had your food in a while, I think it’s only fair.” She made a slight nod to Caiden as if to say, ‘I won this round’ which I thought was cute. She made the food while Caiden and I went to the living room. I noticed he hadn’t taken his hand out of mine. I didn’t mind. It felt good.

  “I didn’t know she cared for me that much,” I said sitting down, “I actually thought she didn’t like me.”

  Caiden sighed, “I don’t know when or how you gained the loyalty of my staff.”

  I frowned. Caiden whipped out his phone, “This is Bailey,” he showed me a row of text messages, “He’s been calling me non-stop since the news came out. He wanted to know if you were doing alright and which jail your brother is being held. He wants to exert justice of his own.”

  “Bailey can do that?”

  “Former cop.”

  “Ah.” It felt odd to have people who cared for me. “Tell him I’m fine.”

  “I already did. He wouldn’t listen to me.” I rolled my eyes. He laughed. His phone rang, cutting off the morning merriment we had created. He looked pissed that someone had called and was about to cut it off when I said, “Take it. It could be important.“ He grumbled something and got up. I immediately felt the absence of his presence, however small. Julie came back with a steaming bowl of a purple-looking porridge topped with berries and nuts.

  “Smells good. What is it?”

  “Sweet potato porridge. It will be good for you and for the baby.” Before I could ask how she knew, she said, “It’s obvious that you're pregnant, however, Mr. Scott let it slip. He’s so overly fussy about you, you know.”

  “Really?” my gaze wandered to Caiden, who was still busy on the phone. He sounded impatient. I traced back to Julie, “That’s something I wouldn’t expect to hear him described as.”

  “Oh, it’s true. When you came here for the first time, he made sure that everything was in shape and nothing was amiss. He even had those orchids ordered every week.” I glanced at the now empty vase, “I thought it was for you of course because we never decorated the place with flowers. Ever.” My gaze went back to him again. My heart fluttered. It could not be, could it?

  “When you went away,” Julie followed my gaze, “He didn’t sleep for five days. He was drunk the entire time. After that, he kept to the study, working all the time and crashing on the couch in there. Sometimes, I would hear him call your name.”

  I whipped my head back at her, “Are you sure?”

  “When have I ever lied to you?”

  I smirked.

  “Apart from the cooking!”

  We both laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Caiden was standing in front of us with his phone in his hand. “Nothing,” I said to him. Julie got up and said, “eat your porridge.” I nodded and took the bowl. It tasted amazing. The flavors of the fruit and the sweet potato exploded in my mouth. It was so warm, it made me feel sated and relaxed.

  Caiden took his seat next to me and watched me as I ate. I ignored him at first, but after a while I was feeling more like a zoo animal. “What is it?”

  He shifted, “I hope you’re not angry with me.”

  I was enjoying my porridge so much that I had temporarily forgotten what he was referring to. It wasn’t his little secret, was it? “About the food?”

  He nodded.

  “It’s alright. I enjoy your cooking after all.”

  “Great. Because I plan to have you stay indoors all day today. No going out for you.”

  57

  “I thought you said we were staying indoors the whole day.” My foot hit a bucket I hadn’t seen in the dark staircase, and I winced in pain.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes.”

  I wondered how far we were. Caiden was leading me down the dark stairwell to a back door. I wasn’t sure that this new adventure he came up with would beat the fun I was having with him. We had watched movies, talked, and even played a game. I wanted to stay indoors all day. Then he got a call, and then he said he had a surprise for me. And now we were rushing down a dark stairwell. We reached the ground floor, and he took my hand as he hurried past the lobby which, from the glimpse of the glass doors, looked like there were a lot of reporters outside. The door he led me through was one I had never seen before. It was small, and it opened to the back of the building. A jaguar, that looked out of place in the alley, was parked at the entrance. Caiden went to it and opened the passenger door.

  “Get in,” he said as he looked around. I glanced at him with a frown and I did as he said.

  “Where are we going,” I asked when he got into the car and started the engine.

  “It’s a surprise.”

  The car drove off in the opposite direction from where the reporters were stationed. “Can you at least tell me the general direction of where we are going?”

  “You’ll know when we get there.”

  We drove in silence. And after some time out of the city and towards the beach. I must have slept because he gently shook me awake. The smell of sea and the sound of waves crashing was the first to hit me. I opened my eyes and took in the beach's view that was in front of me. It looked familiar. It couldn’t be. I got out of the car and turned to my left where I knew I would see a blue and white two bedroomed beach house. It looked exactly like it had before, only the paint was a little lighter. I turned to Caiden, “What are we doing here?”

  “Don’t you want to go inside?” he nodded to the house, “Come on,” he said and marched to it. I was still too stunned to move. By the time I galvanized myself and ran to catch up with him, he was already on the front porch. He reached for a key under the mat and was about to insert it into the keyhole when he stopped, turned to me and said, “You do the honors.”

  I took it with shaking hands, “I thought it was sold? Dad said he sold it.”

  “It was. Then I bought it,” I unlocked the door, “And now it’s yours.”

  I almost stumbled into the room, “Mine?” He stood there so casually with his hands in his pockets while he said this. Some of the greatest surprises anyone had ever given me, and he was casual about it.

  “It’s in your name, so yes, it’s yours,” he said. I kept staring at him. I must have frozen from shock. “We could stand out here, but I’m getting a little chill from the breeze.”

  I went in. The house was exactly as mom left it. It had the same light blue and white furniture it had before. Everything was in its place as if it hadn’t been touched. I looked around. Memories of my mother and I filled my head as I took in everything. The small dining table we used to have our food. The couch we would sit on while she told me stories and braided my hair. I heard a tingling sound and my gaze went over to the window where some wind chimes were dancing in the breeze. I had given her those things as a present after I went to the local shopping center when I was a kid. She had accepted them as if she had received the best present ever.

  I went upstairs. My room was still as it was, and so was hers. I turned to Caiden, who was walking behind me the entire time. I embraced him. He was startled by my reaction, but he accepted it anyway.

  “How did you do it?”

  “Can I keep this one secret?”

  I guess if he didn’t want to tell me; it was fine. He had done more than I ever expected him to. He had given me the one thing I wanted most in my life. My mother’s home.

  58

  I wasn’t expecting to get this much of an emotional response from her. I knew she loved the house. She had spoken about it when we were kids. When I saw it on the market back when Julian put it there, I was so hell-bent on hatred; I thought of buying it and destroying it, then showing her clips of the wreckage. I was that blinded. When I heard a couple had bought it, I went to them and asked them if they could sell it. They knew how much I wanted it; they offered to sell it at double the market value. I was so elated that they had accepted that I didn’t care about the money.

  Seeing her reaction now, I knew that was the best decision I had m
ade. But it came with a consequence. She had made it clear before; she didn’t want me. Now that she had a place of her own… I withdrew her from me. Knowing that she could leave me any second and it would all be of my doing was too much for me.

  “So you like it?”

  “Yes, I like it!”

  “Since you have a place of your own now,” I swallowed. I didn’t want to be magnanimous. I wanted to keep her in the penthouse and never let her go, but I had to, “You can stay here of course.”