Betrothed To The Cold Billionaire

*THE NEXT DAY*

My sweet sleep was disrupted due to the sound of my phone ringing. I wanted to ignore it since I didn’t want to wake up but it kept ringing and ringing. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I stood up angrily and picked up the call.

“Hello!!” I said in a gruff manner. I was angry at whomever had the audacity to disrupt my peaceful sleep.

“Good morning sleepy beauty. I guess I called at the wrong moment.” I heard Sandy’s soft voice. I removed the phone from my ear and stared at it in surprise.

When I saw Sandy’s name flashing on the screen, the anger I was feeling wiped off immediately.

“Good morning.” I answered calmly so she would know that I wasn’t angry anymore.

“I guess your night was peaceful. If not, you wouldn’t have vexed when I woke you up.”

“Well, it was. Till you decided to be the devil and disrupt it.” I muttered, feigning anger.

“If you thunk about it, I was actually an angel. Do you have an idea about what time it is?” She asked. My eyes turned unconsciously towards the wall clock at the edge of my room.

My eyes bulged out when I saw the time. It was almost eight in the morning. I stood up from the bed immediately. I was about to strip off my night dress when I heard Sandy’s voice.

“Don’t worry yourself, no matter what you do now, you would still be late.” She said like she could see what I was doing.

“How can you be so sure?” I asked.

“I am. Also, you need to just stay home today and get a lot of rest before you resume tomorrow.” She added.

“Why do I feel like you don’t want me in school today?” I asked suspiciously because the Sandy that I know would literally force me down to school any day I decide not to go.

“Have you forgotten about last night?” She asked.

“What happened last night?” I asked back.

“The picture of you and Adrian, Bianca uploaded it on the internet and it caused a huge stir.”

“She did? How come I didn’t know?” I asked in surprise. I had an idea that she would but since Grandma didn’t disturb me about it yesterday, I figured Bianca chose not to post the picture yet.

“How would you know when you were sleeping like a log of wood?”

“I wasn’t sleeeping at the time.” I argued.

“Oh really? I called you countless times but you never picked a single call. Were you ignoring me?” She asked.

“I wasn’t. Something came up between me and Adrian so I was occupied. I’ll explain the details to you later.”

“Fine. But seriously, about that photo, someone has deleted it already from the internet.”

“Really? Who?”

“I don’t know but a few minutes after it was uploaded, it was deleted from everywhere. Even the places that it was reposted, news about it and all that.” She explained.

“Really? Then I’m good to go.”

“Not so fast.. just because it has been deleted from the internet doesn’t mean that people have forgotten about it so soon.”

“So? How’s the opinion of people that I don’t even know my business.”

“It will be your business when you start loosing followers on all of your social media account.” She explained.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

“Have I stared loosing followers?” I asked in fear.

“Well, not yet. The news didn’t really go that far. All I’m saying is that you should take a break for today and work out whatever issues that are between you and your husband. Something like this isn’t supposed to be happening in the first place.”

“Well, it’s not like it’s my fault.”

“I never said that it was. I just said you should work out your problems.”

“I am trying.”

“Try harder.”

“Okay.. okay. Fine, I will. You are just so persistent.”

“I know I am but soon, you’ll realise that I’m only looking out for you.”

“I know. I love you Samdy.” I said with a small smile.

“I love you too Ariel. I need to go now, classes are starting already.” She said.

“Wait.. you’re at school?” I asked in surprise.

“Where else would I be at this time?” She asked back.

“Probably still on your way.”

“Not everyone is lazy like you Ariel. I have to go now, talk to you later.” She muttered before she ended the call without waiting for me to answer. I guess the teacher is already in the class.

I sighed and laid back on the bed. Since I wasn’t going to school, I better take that chance and enjoy my sleep. It was very hard to because anytime I shut my eyes, I recall my conversation with Grandma.

I was still baffled that she didn’t ask anything about Adrian and I since no one knows that the person kissing me that day was actually Adrian.

It made me womder if she was aware about Adrian’s real identity. Well, I doubt that. There’s no way she would be able to know since Adriam keeps a very low profile.

Besides, he already showed up in public with his ‘costume’ so I don’t think she would know. And if she actually did know, she would have told me a long time ago.

But shy didn’t she ask me anything? It surprised me and scared me at the same time. Grandma is always so unpredictable. No one easily knows what she’s thinking. That’s one trait of hers I inherited but hers is worse.

No matter what you do, you can never know what’s in that head of hers and that really scares me.

************************************

Adrain was in his study. He was staring at the picture of him and Ariel taken at the gala. Last night, he had instructed his his PR team to delete all traces of the photo from the internet.

On a normal day, he would have used it against her but since she already knows his true identity, he was so sure that she wouldn’t even flinch if he ever tries to blackmail her with it.

He kept on staring at the picture, especially at Ariel’s face and how she looked when he forcefully kissed her. One could easily tell that she didn’t want to kiss him back and that angered him.

No girl had ever acted the way she does. Though he hasn’t really been with any woman before but anytime they saw his real face, they always seemed awestruck.

They wanted him and even tried to woe him but she didn’t. She always acted like he had some kind of skin disease. She always push him away whenever he tries to draw closer to her and that made him mad.

She could follow other men around but his presence annoyed her when he’s her husband. He remembered the date that she had with that unknown man and that increased his anger.

It had been on his mind since he had that talk with her last night. So, he decided to do more research and find out who the man is. To see if there’s anything that made him better than her own husband. He was still waiting for his private investigator to send him the result.

He would have done this a while ago but he was occupied on how to teach her a lesson so it kind of skipped his mind. He was snapped out of this reverie when his phone chimed, indicating that he had just received a message.

He unlocked his phone quickly when he realised that it was a message from his private investigator. He didn’t waste anytime and clicked on the message. What the saw there was far from what he was expecting.

“Hillary Addams..” He muttered in shock as he stared at the man’s picture.