I shut the door of the study behind me, my lips curled up as I sauntered my way to my room.
I had the urge to sing my favorite song and enjoy this little moment of triumph, but then I took a deep breath. I had to be a few steps ahead of her.
Back in my room, I locked my door securely. I wouldn't want to take chances anymore.
I lifted my bed and pulled out a box beneath it. With a small key I had around my wrist like a bracelet, I unlocked the box and retrieved another phone.
I booted up the phone, and within seconds, notifications flooded in. I dialed Linda's number.
"Hey, using your private phone? Aren't you in the Nortons' home?" Linda teased.
"I am. Can I get my hands on Oswald Dallas' details?"
"What? Oswald Dallas?" she queried.
"Sure."
"Ella, tell me the truth, why are you looking for him?"
"There's nothing going on," I said calmly. I couldn't bring myself to tell her I was being plotted against to be married to him.
"Ella, everyone in Crown City knows what a heinous and terrible reputation he has, and for you to look for him at this time…."
I rubbed my brow frustratingly. With Linda's attitude, I was sure I wouldn't be able to hide this.
"My family arranged for me to marry him," I said as though I was talking about the weather.
"What?" she screamed in surprise and shock.
Imagining how wide her eyes and mouth would be made me chuckle softly.
"Are you still smiling?"
"I shouldn't be crying now, you know." I smirked.
"So?"
"I asked my sister to arrange the meeting, but then I had to be steps ahead," I explained softly.
"You what? Ella, aren't you seeking death?" she asked, the worry in her voice making my heart flutter softly.
"I have my plans," I assured her.
After pondering for a while, she relented. "Alright."
I was certain the Nortons' family was keeping their tabs on me... so I had to be careful.
After a brief chat, the call ended. I changed the phone to silent and set it down on the bed.
The faint hum of a car reached my ears. I walked to the window and glanced through the curtains… Bruce's car was leaving the mansion.
My lips curled softly. Staying up to this moment, I guessed he must have met with my father to make good their plans about frustrating my life and making me crawl.
I guessed I had to go to bed early. I definitely needed all the strength for what was to come.
Just as I placed my head on the pillow, my phone buzzed with a new notification.
I picked it up; it was from him. "Are you okay?"
A soft smile curled my lips. Busy with the Nortons' affair, I hadn't had the time to talk to him.
My hand flew across the keypad as I typed out a quick response. "Good, just want to sleep… there's a lot to do."
I read it several times, making sure it was correct and wasn't giving out too much information. My thumb pressed the send button.
His response came immediately. "Sleep well, and don't fret over it."
I read the response a few times and sighed as I hit the pillow.
***********"
Bruce's POV
Watching her walk out of the hall without a glance backward, my fists clenched, my chest tightening.
I had expected she would cry and beg, maybe ask me not to leave, maybe ask for a chance to correct her mistake, but she did none.
Her head was held high, her shoulders squared. Maybe it was the tension, maybe it was her pride, but I knew I had already lost the right to ask.
I wanted to go after her, but I couldn't. I had to suppress that feeling. Weakness was not an option at this time.
When I handed the microphone to the MC to continue with the programs of the engagement party with Phina, I stepped outside and called my men to keep an eye on her.
I wouldn't want her to be hurt, but then, at the end of the night, they returned with a report I least expected—they lost track of her.
What?
How could they lose track of her when she was just walking?
She hadn't boarded a taxi; how was it possible?
All through the night, I made call after call to the places I thought she might have gone, but she wasn't there.
I tried to call Linda, but on second thought, I couldn't. She had never accepted the relationship between us.
She had always held her guard up against me, even as Stella tried to mediate.
Surprisingly, Phina called to inform me she was back at the house the next day and in a new customized dress.
She expressed her bitterness about her looks, which got me thinking.
I had always known Phina to be selfish, too conceited, and jealous of everything about her—an attribute Stella never knew of.
She had always been jealous of her confidence, her quiet beauty, her grace.
She had always been reminded that she was adopted and had no place in the Nortons' family.
Even though Stella wasn't born a Norton, she carried herself with a strength that made people forget she didn't belong.
And that strength… had once drawn me to her.
We had started off well, but then trouble struck, and the George Group stood on the verge of bankruptcy.
The Nortons became our only chance at survival, but Stella had nothing.
No inheritance.
No stake in the company.
Nothing the Nortons could offer me through her.
Phina, on the other hand, was the heiress and she owned thirty-five percent of the family's holdings.
Bound to choose between responsibility and love, I had to look at the brighter side of life.
I couldn't let the George family legacy crumble. I would have no place to put my face. With that, I had to think of ways to have both sides.
But then Phina presented herself, and with no better opportunity than this, I accepted her. We started off while she gave me everything Stella couldn't give.
"Where do you think she is coming from?" I asked her.
"Definitely from a man's home. The strawberries on her neck couldn't be fake," she answered.
The report made the veins in my body pulse with fury.
How dare she spend the night with another man?
Over the years I had been with her, she had been so religious that I didn't have the chance even to share a kiss with her.
Neither did I have the opportunity to feel her beneath me. I had tried to make her drunk and possibly call it a wild night, but she always had the excuse she couldn't drink.
She had also asked for a chance to visit the club, but then I couldn't bring myself to let her go and be seen by other men.
It was known by everyone that the Nortons had two daughters, but just a few knew who the second daughter was.
"Are you there?" she asked, her voice snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Are you sure it wasn't her makeup?" I probed, but the response was the same.
"No, it's impossible.
No man would take her away from me.
No one… she is mine, and she is mine," I whispered through gritted teeth.
"Bruce, what is yours?" Phina asked, and then it dawned on me, I hadn't ended the call. I rubbed my brow frustratingly.
"Never mind," I clipped, but then I could hear suspicion taking root in ways I didn't like.
We spoke for a while before I ended the call. Yet fury blazed in my heart.
"I have to see her," I said to myself.
With one click from the speed dial, I dialed James Norton's number immediately and scheduled a family get-together with them.
With my perfect excuse of familiarizing ourselves after the abrupt change of fiancée last night, James agreed.
I arrived earlier than I should; my heart raced with questions.
What do I expect?
How do I meet her?
What do I tell her?
Is she really with another man?
The more I thought about it, the more restless I felt, but then I prayed earnestly.
Just when my patience began wearing thin, she stepped into the living room. My breath hitched, my groin bulged, my lower abdomen tightened.
She was wearing a black dress that contrasted with her fair skin; every curve was hugged perfectly.
Her lips were inviting that I had to lick my tongue around my lips, my heart pounding wildly against my chest.
I barely registered what she said as my eyes were glued to her as she spun on her heels, her ebony wavy hair fluttering behind her.
I couldn't help imagining how it would look spread out on the pillow while she moaned beneath me, my gaze trailing after her as she disappeared into the hallway.
My rod hardened , but then James coughed lightly and I retracted my gaze from her. "Let's go for dinner." He said.