CHAPTER 9: Silly rules

It was finally Friday and Alura had made it through the entire week without being fired, without crying in the bathroom, and without poisoning Lucius' coffee.... though the last one had crossed her mind twice.

She was sitting at her desk outside Lucius' office, still in one piece.

While sorting through the afternoon's emails, a new one landed at the top of her inbox. The sender's name made her stomach drop immediately.

Lucius had sent her an email and it was very unusual, especially since he would just use the intercom if he needed to send her on an errand or request for something.

Her finger hovered over the mouse for a few seconds, then she finally clicked it before she could overthink it. Already bracing herself for another carefully worded humiliation dressed up in formal language, or even worse a sack letter. But the words that stared back at her made her blink.

"Your first week's salary will be sent to your account, along with a performance bonus. It's been a week and you're still here, which is more than I expected....Since Patricia was the only one who had stayed that long. But don't let it make you complacent. Competence should be rewarded. — L.H."

Alura read it once, then again, then a third time just to be sure her tired brain wasn't imagining things.

She looked up slowly at his office door....It was closed, as usual. Then she looked back at the screen.

Just yesterday, this same man had stood over her desk and pointed out that she had mislabeled a file by one digit.

"This kind of sloppiness costs companies millions during audits," he had scolded, as if she personally set something on fire and glared at her like she was something stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

And now he was paying her double her agreed salary and calling it a performance bonus.

"Unbelievable," she whispered in awe staring at the screen.

She leaned back in her chair, then picked up her phone, because somehow she remembered her ghost of a husband.

Lou's contact still sat at the top of her messages, mocking her. Four days. She had sent him a simple, polite message four days ago, just trying to introduce herself properly and appreciate him, but that man had left her on 'read' without a single word back.

Alura stared at the screen, lips pressed together.

Her boss -- the impossible, cold, unreasonable Lucius Hunt, had just recognized her effort and doubled her pay. Meanwhile the stranger she had legally married couldn't find five seconds to reply to a polite greeting.

"At least one of the difficult men in my life has some decency," she muttered. Then immediately felt strange about thinking like that.

She turned her phone face down and got back to work.

..........,..

Meanwhile at the Hunt estate, at Lucius' Villa. He was back from work and on his third glass of whiskey and he was running out of excuses.

His grandmother had called him every single day this week asking if he had reached out to his 'wife'. Every single day, he had given her some different excuses of "I've been busy" until even he got tired of hearing it. Grandma Mabel didn't push loudly, she had never needed to. Instead she had this particular silence on the phone that felt like a hand tightening around your ear until you did the right thing.

Lucius set the glass of whiskey down with a clink of frustration, he had to do this once and for all. He just wanted Grandma Mabel's daily calls to stop.

He opened the message and started typing. He didn't overthink it, after all he had spent a whole week thinking about it.

"We need to set some important rules."

1) This marriage is purely on a mutual basis. No romance, no affection.

2) Keep it discreet. No one else needs to know.

3) Don't contact me unless necessary, I'll handle the family events.

4) The $4 million cleared your father's debt. So DON'T ask for more.

He hit send without thinking twice, refilled his glass, and felt the particular satisfaction of a man who had just put something back in it's place.

There. It's done, she would understand the terms, and his grandmother would stop calling him every morning like a disappointed alarm clock, they could simply exist in parallel worlds without bothering each other. Exactly how he liked things.

...................

Alura was sitting on the edge of her bathtub with both feet in the tub of warm water and Epsom salt when her phone buzzed.

She grabbed it without looking, assuming it was Nessa asking about tomorrow's plans.

But it was Lou. Her ghost husband....as she fondly called him.

She sat up straighter, water sloshing over the edge of the tub and wetting her shorts. She read the message, and re read it again.Then she let out a laugh that had absolutely no humor in it.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," she muttered to herself.

'No romance, no affection' As if she had been sitting here daydreaming about a romantic relationship with a man whose face she had never seen. And worse of all the 'Don't ask for more money.' rule, Like she was some kind of scammer who had stumbled into his grandmother's tea room with a plan.

He even emphasized on DON'T. The nerve of this man.

She huffed and yanked her feet out of the water, grabbed a towel, and started typing with the kind of energy that came from a week of swallowed frustration finally finding a door.

"Understood. But for the record — I didn't ask to marry you either. This arrangement works for me. Don't worry, I won't be a burden. I'll do my part, and you do yours. That's all we owe each other.

She sent it, but continued typing.

"PS: The money went directly to the loan shark, not my father. So I'm not a gold digger. I was only desperate for help. There's a difference.

Her thumb hovered over the send button for half a second. Then she pressed it.

She placed the phone away and stared at the ceiling. Her chest felt tight, she hadn't asked for this. She hadn't walked into some arrangement hoping to leech off a rich stranger. Life happened to her, and she had to grab the one rope someone threw at her, and she refused to feel ashamed for that. She refused to be shamed for trying to survive.

"He can take his silly rules and organize them alphabetically for all I care."

..........

Back in his villa, Lucius read her reply with his whiskey halfway down his throat, when he almost choked.

He had expected silence, or maybe a nervous reply, he didn't expect a pushback.

He read the postscript twice. "PS: The money went directly to the loan shark, not my father. So I'm not a gold digger. I was only desperate for help. There's a difference."

He arched a brow, still in surprise. She seems to be very saucy. He set the glass down.

She didn't defend herself the way people usually did when they wanted something from him, using sweetness and flattery. She just stated the truth and even dared him to argue with it.

He squinted at the message, "She's definitely sharp tongued."

Then his phone rang. He already knew who it was before the name popped up.

"Grandma," he answered.

"Lou!" Grandma Mabel's warm voice filled the room like she was sitting right beside him. "Have you spoken to Lily yet? Be honest with me."

"Yes, Grandmother," he replied rubbing his left brow. "We've.... reached an understanding."

She didn't say anything at first, then she suddenly chuckled, like she was pleased with something. "Good," she murmured in-between laughs. "She's a special girl. You'll see."

Lucius resisted the urge to scoff and complain about his supposed 'wife' who apparently had a sharp mouth.

"Goodnight, Grandmother," he said and hung up before she could say anything else.

'Special.' His grandmother had described a lady he had never met, who had just scolded him through a text message, as 'special.'

Grandma must be dreaming if she thinks he would ever care about this sassy stranger he was now legally tied to.