Lana Castroff
When I heard the story of Cinderella, all I could think of was stupidity. How can a poor girl like her marry a prince when the prince has a long list of beautiful and rich princesses? Disney stories are nothing but full of bullshit. They should make a realistic story because there's no such thing as a commoner marrying a prince charming or maybe a billionaire.
We have our own circle and there's no way we would be attracted to those types of people. I want to laugh my ass off for people who believe in that.
As much as I hate those bullshits, the man that I love ended up having a girlfriend who is a commoner. He was proudly introducing his girlfriend in the Winter Ball Charity event. His parents completely hated the fact that he decided to date that girl and they wanted me to be his girlfriend instead.
I'm rich, beautiful and smart. I'm the type of woman that every rich parent wants to be their son's wife.
When I found a small chance to talk to that girl, I quickly walked towards her with my glass of champagne. She was awkwardly standing there and everyone could clearly see that she doesn't fit the crowd. She was like an ugly duckling.
"You come here for us to give a charity on you?" I asked arrogantly as I stood next to her. She turned to me and she shook her head. "I'm here with Finn." She said in a small tone.
"I'm surprised that you're so confident about it. You don't belong in our radar." I said as I sipped my champagne.
"I know that clearly but I'm here for Finn so I don't care if you try to judge me." She said bravely and I nodded. I'll give her credit for her on that.
"I wonder.. how long will you last with Finn. In the end of the day, he will end up with me." I said pointed at myself.
"I will not end up with you." I turned to Finn who's already looking at me coldly. I chuckled and raised my champagne glass. He wrapped his arm around his girlfriend and walked away from me.
"You'll see." I mumbled to myself. I turned my body around and bumped into a man so hard that I fell down to the ground. I cursed under my breath and turned to the man clearly ready to get mad but I was speechless as soon as I saw those beautiful blue eyes.
He stood in front of me and gave me his hand out to help me get up. Instead of taking his hand, I decided to get up on my own. I looked at him coldly and he stood up straight.
"Sorry." He said and I looked around to see people laughing and mocking the both of us or maybe just me for falling down. I turned to him again wanting to hear him apologizing for the second time.
"I'm guessing you're Lana Castroff." He said and I raised my eyebrows.
"Who are you?" I asked and I heard people gasping hearing me saying that. I looked at the people around me and glared at them one by one. "That's rare, I guess you lived in a rural area huh?"
"Excuse me?" I looked at him in disbelief.
"I'm Julie and Finn's friend, Phoenix." He introduced himself.
"Oh.. you're friends with commoners too.. how fun!" I said rolling my eyes at him. He let out a small laugh and then he grabbed a glass of champagne from the waiter.
"She's a really nice girl so you should judge people just because they don't have a lot of money." He said and he sipped his champagne without taking his eyes off me.
"I don't like her." I smiled sweetly at him but I'm pretty sure that my eyes showed him how I'm freaking hate his statement. I was about to walk away when he stopped me by saying, "They're getting married, they love each other." I turned to him.
"Phoenix right?" I asked as I grabbed his champagne glass and drank all of it in one shot.
"They both won't get married as long as I'm alive." I said as I gave the empty glass back to him.
"You really want to ruin other people's happiness? If you really love him, you should let him be happy." He said and I chuckled.
"He won't be happy with a commoner, that's not how it works." I said by looking straight to Phoenix's blue eyes. His facial expression turned dark and I decided to get out from the scene.
"Hey! Where are you going?" My best friend, Noelle, stopped me. I sighed and turned to see Phoenix and Finn talking to Julie. It's making me more mad than I already am.
"Who's that guy?"
"Where?" Noelle tried to look at the direction that I'm looking.
"The guy with blue eyes besides Finn." I said as I looked at him and he found my eyes. He smirked at me and I turned to Noelle.
"He's Phoenix Sterling, you don't know him?" Noelle asked me in a confused tone. I raised my eyebrows.
"Why should I know him?" I asked and Noelle gasped.
"Just tell me who he is!" I hissed coldly and Noelle pulled out her phone. She was typing something on it and then she gave her phone to me.
"He's a billionaire from Italy. He owned a lot of graveyards, a shipping company, an airline and a lot more." Noelle said as I was reading his profile on the internet. He happened to come from a not so wealthy family so I guess that's why he hung out with that woman.
"I never thought you don't know him." Noelle whispered.
"Why should I know? He's not that important." I said and Noelle gave me a champagne to calm myself down.
"He's the part of Illicit and maybe that's why you should be aware from now on." Illicit?
"He's a part of Illicit? How do you know? I thought no one knew who's in the Illicit?" I looked at my best friend with my eyes almost popped out from it's socket.
"I mean.. I don't know if it's true or not but some people speculate that he is."
Lana Castroff"Ms. Castroff, there's a little bit of a problem." My secretary said as I was busy checking files. I turned to her and I got up from my seat immediately."What is it?" I asked as we walked out from my office room."There's a man by the name of Phoenix Sterling, he did have an-" I stopped when I heard his name loud and clear from my secretary."Where is he?" I asked my secretary."He's in the blue meeting room." She said and I gestured to her to stay here. I made my way towards the blue meeting room that happened to be at the end of the hallway.I opened the door and when he saw me, his lips turned into a smile. He didn't even bother to get up from his seat to greet me.
Phoenix Sterling"Who?" Angelo asked as he gave me a glass of white wine for us to enjoy. I put my phone on the table and sighed."Lana Castroff." I answered as I swirled my glass of wine."You filed a lawsuit on her company?" He asked me in a curious tone and I nodded."You know what happened so I have to take actions." I said and took a sip of the white wine. "I wonder why didn't you just expose her to the public. You don't seem nice to her.""She's the one who called Julie a commoner. I guess she just always hates them." I said and Angelo chuckled."I don't get it either why you're so nice to Julie. I didn't like her when I first laid my eyes on her." I raised my eyebrows looking
Phoenix SterlingWe ended up picking a seafood boil restaurant for our lunch. We ordered to servings of mix seafood boil. I saw her rolling her sleeves up and then she even clipped her hair into a bun to prevent her long hair from going near her mouth.I found her adorable by doing all of these.When we first met, she gave this badass attitude and even mocked Julie for being a commoner. I judged her badly because of how rude she was when we first met months ago. Our second meeting, she was pretty cold and not friendly. But our third meeting was rather interesting. She showed me how professional she is, not to mention that she's pretty responsible for all my employees.Now, she's acting all adorable and calm. Pretty different from our first encounter.
Lana CastroffAfter more than a week investigating all the products, we found no acid on every single product that we launched that day. It was weird for us to see. We did get the medical records of Phoenix's employees for it and they really contains acid inside that product.I was more than confuse at this point. I even asked my team to check it again but the result was the same.I walked to Phoenix's office building and his secretary led me his office. I brought the files with me and I saw him having all his lawyers ready. I guess I should have brought my lawyers but let's just see.I walked in and Phoenix turned to me. He gestured me to sit on the sofa beside him. I took a deep breath and walked towards him. I met his lawyers already and they greeted me politely
Phoenix SterlingI really hate it when my parents tried to set me up with the woman of their choice. I don't understand why they really want me to settle down as soon as possible when I'm only 26 years old. I'm the youngest out of the Illicit and why am I supposed to be the first one to settle down.I don't want to settle down.After I asked my chauffeur to send Lorena back to the hotel, I decided to have a word with my mother."You know now that I have a girlfriend so could you please stop trying to set me up with Lorena?" I asked her and she drank her tea slowly."Mother, I really like Lana and you can't treat her coldly like what you did in my office. She's my girlfriend so you shouldn't act like that."
Lana CastroffI walked into Phoenix's office with his secretary and she asked me if I want tea or coffee. I told her the water will be just fine and she told me to wait for Phoenix for about 5 minutes because he's still in a meeting. I sat down on the sofa and laid back for a second.I'm really tired of dealing with all of this alone. When will my father comeback because I'm ready to kill him for leaving me in the middle of something like this.I bet he's with her again.The door opened and Phoenix entered the room with his secretary. His secretary gave me a bottle of cold water and Phoenix asked her to leave us both alone."Ms. Castroff.. I have a proposition for you." I raised my eyebrows when he said that.
Phoenix Sterling"But on one condition.." She said as she took a step back and sat down on the sofa."What?""Let me stay in your house but with seperate rooms." I raised my eyebrows completely amused by her condition."That's easy, I will gladly grant your wish.""You want to pleased your parents and I want to pissed off mine. I hope you can cooperate with me when it comes to that." That made me wonder if she hates her parents."No one can know that we're married and don't even wear the wedding rings on a daily basis except when we're meeting our families." She said and I nodded."That's easy for sure. Anything else?"
Lana CastroffI brought the last box into Phoenix's penthouse and put it in my bedroom. I looked at all the boxes and stretched my arms out because it's been a tiring day moving in from my house to his penthouse.Phoenix's penthouse has two floors and he even has a private pool on the second floor which is amazing. I can't believe he's living alone in this penthouse and manages not to feel lonely most of the time.I agreed to get married to him because I want to pissed of my father. I bet one though percent on it that he will be mad at me. I'm tired of him having an affair with my own mother who already got married with her commoner boyfriend.My father must be somewhere in Europe with my mother and his secretary just informed me that he will be back by the time I'