He wants to be the CEO and she wants to start her dream company. For that to happen, Nathan and Linnea have to get married. But what if the two of them can barely stand one another? In order for each of them to achieve what they want, they need to put their differences aside and tie the knot. Are they going to survive living under one roof for a whole year or are they going to set each other on fire? Can love find its way between them? Read to find out!
View More“Honey, I need you to dress up tonight and be ready by eight. We’re having guests and I want you to look presentable,” mum tells me. Not exactly something I want to hear the moment I come back home from work. “Also, please wear your contact lenses, not your glasses. You look more beautiful without your glasses and they make me feel like you always have your head dug in your laptop. You know, all geeky and smart.” Here’s my mother’s definition of ‘presentable’. A lady shall wear a dress and heels, put on make-up and have her hair done in order to look presentable. Oh, and if a lady wears glasses like how it is in my case, then she needs to ditch them.
“And who are the guests?”
“The Rodriguez.”
I can happily dig a hole in our backyard and bury myself in it. I don’t have a problem with the whole family, but a certain member never fails to make me desire nothing more but to punch him.
The Rodriguez and the Henderson—my family— have been friends since God knows when. Malory Rodriguez and my mum have been friends since high school, and they were the reason behind the friendship of dad and Mr. Rodriguez. Malory and mum thought that their children would also be besties, but oh how matters wound up. Nathan and I can barely stand one another. Ever since we were kids. To him, I’m a geek and a nerd. To me, he’s an asshole who can barely keep his dick in his pants.
He is friends with my brother though. One of his best friends if I need to be specific.
Nathan’s reputation is no secret and I happen to be a girl who doesn’t fall at his feet. Perhaps that’s why he can’t stand me. Also, I’m not his type. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those I’m-not-like-other-girls girls. I dress up whenever I want and I know how to look ‘presentable’ whenever I need to be, but when I’m at work, I opt for a comfy look. The look that mum despises.
“Is Nathan coming?” I ask her and she nods. “Then, I can happily meet them in my pajamas,” I say, standing up.
“Yeah, this won’t happen.” She glares at me.
“Fine!” I mutter before scurrying to my bedroom. I just need to nap for thirty minutes before having dinner with the devil.
Today has been exhausting, but I have to work hard. I’m doing my best to succeed on my own because there’s no other option. I chose a profession that has nothing to do with the family’s business, so they decided to give me a hard time. Not that hard if I’m going to be honest. I still live under their roof and they give me money, but not enough to start my dream business.
I’m a software developer. I don’t need to dress up every day for my job, but my mum doesn’t get that. I wish she could understand that I’m not a super model. To my mum, only men choose my career and not just normal men, the ones who usually smell. Her words, not mine. No matter how many times I tell her I don’t appreciate the way she speaks about my job, she ignores my comments.
Look at your hair, it’s a mess! Mum’s words play in my head once I close the door. I approach my mirror and sigh. To me, nothing is wrong with the way I look, but the way mum looks at me makes me think otherwise.
My hair is thrown in a messy updo that I cannot dare to call a messy bun, but I thought it looked cute in the morning. My mum doesn’t approve of any messy updo. The word ‘messy’ horrifies her.
I look at my outfit and I like to believe that I look fine. My dark blue skinny jeans are clean and so are my white tank-top and my red plaided shirt. However, telling her I was at work and this outfit was suitable for my day was not enough.
You went to work like that!? What kind of a woman are you, dear?
Her words play in my head, and I close my eyes. The way she treats me hurts and I do my best not to let it show. It’s not enough that I’m a math prodigy. It’s not enough that I graduated at the age of eighteen from MIT. It’s not enough that I’m incredibly successful at the age of twenty-two. I guess I will only be enough for her when I start dolling up.
She thinks I’m exhausting myself for nothing, but she doesn’t understand that I won’t stop until I achieve my dream. I won’t work with my family and take the easy road like they all once suggested. I want more.
You see, my family owns one of the biggest import-export enterprises in the USA. They specialize in importing and exporting construction materials. However, I have always been the geek in the family. Programming is my passion and one day I’m going to be the owner of the biggest security software programming company in the world. Unfortunately, programming has nothing to do with trade, so my family decided to let me pave the way for myself because I chose something other than the family’s business.
I started my career first year in college, and now I am twenty-two, earning myself a good life being a freelancer. The most important thing I learned is not to be bound, either to a job or to a relationship.
Projects that take less than a month are my favourite; they also tend to pay well, so it’s a win-win situation. Nothing brings me more money than the security enhancement projects I do for huge companies. They always say that there are no loopholes in their system, but that’s not true. One time I found false financial records in their system and these records could have driven the enterprise towards absolute bankruptcy. Thanks to me, I saved the day and I walked away with $250,000.
Realizing that I have no time to nap. I go to my bathroom and take a shower. I need to get ready for this dinner.
I put on an olive-green dress that is an inch above my knees. The V-neck shows my collarbones, but it displays nothing of my cleavage. I’m not going to give Nathan something to gaze at for the whole of the night. I love how the skirt of the dress isn’t tight. I have always been insecure about my hips that I tend to hide them with flowy dresses.
I let my hair fall down my back in its natural waves; something my mum won’t like, but I don’t care. It’s not like it’s frizzy, I appreciate my natural waves. After applying a minimal amount of make-up, I go downstairs. Just when I take the last step of the stairs, the doorbell rings. They have always been punctual.
“I can’t wait to see you bickering with Nathan,” my brother teases me like the child he is that I stomp on his foot with my heels. Sometimes I wonder who the older one is.
“Don’t test me, Henry.” I glare at him.
Mom and dad walk to the door, and we follow behind them. Dad opens the door and shakes hands with Uncle Gabriel. Of course, Mum and Malory hug one another, then Malory pulls me into a tight hug.
“You get more beautiful every time I see you!” she gushes, and I smile as I hug her back. She usually boosts the self-esteem that mum occasionally destroys.
“Thank you, Aunt Malory.” I grin as I pull back, then my grin falls when I see Nathan in front of me.
Here comes the devil.
We are actually married, yet we’ve taken this whole repeating-our-wedding thing incredibly seriously. Nathan wasn’t joking when he said he wanted to give me the wedding of my dreams. I thought he would oppose the theme I have always wanted, but surprisingly, he liked it. A winter-themed wedding. When I talked to the wedding planner about everything I had in mind, she showed me amazing pictures that I fell in love with. I loved how Nathan didn’t throw everything on me. He was there every step of the way. He was there while choosing the decorations, during the cake-tasting, and choosing the venue. He tried to be there when I was shopping for the dress, but as I said, we took everything seriously. If he saw the dress before the wedding, it would be bad luck. I think we both have had our fair share of bad luck and I wasn’t going to risk anything. Luckily, Henry and Zoey had their wedding three months before our wedding anniversary, so we managed to have o
“Babe, there’s something I want to talk to you about.” I look up from the book I’m reading and meet Nathan’s eyes. The surgery was ten days ago and it was a success. None of us is facing any problems. Well, medical problems, because I’m dealing with another problem called Nathan. He has been so protective. He doesn’t let me do anything and even when he’s at work, Malory stays with me and she’s just as bad as her son. He has alarms for all the medicines I need to take and he even monitors what I eat. But I can’t be mad at him for taking care of me because if I were in his shoes, I would be just as bad as him. “what is it?” I wonder. He’s sitting in front of me on the couch. “Madelyn wants to meet you.” I frown. I don’t know a Madelyn. “Your biological sister.” “Oh,” I mutter. “Why would she want to?” There’s nothing that connects us except for the woman who gave birth to me. I can’t even call her a mother. She’s a monster that I have zero compa
She’s going to be okay. I know she is. But that doesn’t prevent me from worrying about her. She is in surgery. She has just entered the operating room. The doctors told us that this may take up to eight hours. What would they do for eight hours? What am I supposed to do until she’s out of surgery? Wait? Pray? “You’re going to pass out if you stay like that,” Thalia says, handing me a cup of coffee. “I can’t just calm down. What if a complication took place and they couldn’t find a solution? Have you seen Grey’s Anatomy? Complications happen out of the blue! When you least expect it! A woman once died because of hiccups and another one died because the resident forgot to check her throat and there was soot in there!” I exclaim. “Can you guarantee that they won’t make mistakes?” “Wow… She made you addicted to the show and it ruined you,” Thalia comments, and I frown. Am I going out of my mind? “Linnea is going to be more than fine. She’s our fighter. She has be
I wasn’t the only one who was tested. Zoey, dad, Nathan, Thalia, Asher, and I all got tested, but I was the only one who turned out to be a match. “There are no dangers on her life, right? She’s going to walk out of this surgery in good health, isn’t she?” Nathan asks the doctor. “She’s not going to walk out of the surgery all fine. She will need time to recover, but her liver will grow back to its normal size in about a year. It will function normally though after two to four weeks,” the doctor explains everything to my worried husband. “I will be fine. Stop panicking.” I look up at him. “It won’t hurt to be more sure,” he mumbles. “I also have to let you know that there will be a scar that will fade by time, but it may leave a trace. You can always get it fixed through plastic surgery though,” the doctor says. “I don’t care about the scar. I just want Henry to be okay,” I say. “We will run some tests and if all is well, we wi
I have been too caught up with Nathan to ask about Henry. I feel like a horrible sister. But my world completely stopped the moment my eyes fell on my husband. I was petrified of losing him or having him terribly hurt, so when I saw him in front of me, I was finally able to breathe. Asher told me that my parents, Zoey and Malory were here. Are they with Henry now? I have millions of questions running through my head right now and I don’t know if I should dump them all on Nathan. “Baby, sit down,” he says, gently pulling me to sit beside him on the bed and I do. “Henry and I were in the car. We were running some errands before coming to pick you up. Yes, I’m at fault, I was on the phone, but I swear I was still paying attention. The phone was even connected to the car. somebody was driving their truck quickly and they weren’t paying attention. They passed the red light and they crashed into us, sending our car flipping in the air.” A gasp escapes me as Nathan recounts
“What happened to them?” I gulp, wrapping my cardigan more around myself. I think my heart may stop at any given moment because of how fast it is beating. “There’s been an accident,” Thalia reluctantly says and my breath hitches in my throat. “We don’t know how they are. We found out first by total coincidence.” “When did it happen and how are they?” I feel sick and I want to cry. “I was on the phone with Nathan and one minute he was talking to me, telling me that he was on his way with Henry to pick you up, and next thing I heard Henry yelling and there was a loud crash. This all happened less than two hours ago. They have been admitted to the hospital and your parents are there and so are Malory and Zoey,” Asher answers all my questions. “Take me there, please. Now.” Tears are already brimming in the corner of my eyes. They have to be okay. I can’t afford to lose any of them. No, this can't be happening. Not after everything we have all been
“You seem happy,” my therapist smiles at me when I walk inside her office. “I am!” I grin, sitting down on the couch. I’m getting out tomorrow. I was supposed to be staying for a month, but I ended up staying for forty-five days based on my request. I was even more strict with myself regarding my use of my gadgets. I was allowed to freely use them after the first two weeks, but I decided to minimize my use for them as much as possible. I only used my phone when I wanted to make phone calls. “You know, I still can’t believe you chose to stay here for more than the period assigned for you,” she tells me and I shrug. “It was my choice to come here. I truly wanted to get better. If I had left after only one month just like how we originally planned, I would have been lying to myself.” “Your honest desire to get better really warms my heart,” she tells me. “So how are you feeling today?” “I feel fine. Really fine. It doesn’t hurt to breathe or to w
“Why did you leave?” I mumble, bringing myself before him. His handsome face is gloomy and his eyes aren't as bright as they usually are. “It's a familial moment, I thought I should give you some privacy,” he says, causing a crease to appear between my eyebrows. “You’re family, Nathan,” I say, wrapping my fingers around his arm. “You’re my family and I… I love you.” It’s been a while since I said those words. My words seem to be foreign to him as if he didn't believe I'd say these words again. “I love you as my husband. The man I married. The man I want to build a family with,” I add, feeling the need to be more specific because it seems like he’s in a state of disbelief. “Wait… so we’re not getting a divorce?” he says and I shake my head, smiling a little at him. “You’re not moving to the UK?” “It’s so cold for me. I prefer Miami,” I grin and he laughs, pulling me into his arms and twirling me around, causing me to squeal. “I love you, Linnea
“I know your gadgets are your life, but this is temporary. Just for the first week, yeah?” Nathan says and I just nod. I want to get better. I want to heal, so I will do anything to get better. “It's just for a month. I guess I will manage,” I say, taking a deep breath. The only thing that makes me feel at ease is that I can check myself out whenever I want. I also despise how I will get no visitors during my first week there. I packed many books with me to kill time. They say there will be many activities we can do there, but I still like to bring my own entertainment items. I came back five days ago. I talked to my mum once on the phone, assuring her that I was okay. Nathan has been keeping his eyes on me, making sure that I won't do anything stupid. Honestly, I haven't gotten the urge to act foolishly ever since I came back. “Your parents are here,” Nathan tells me when the doorbell rings. Anxiousness fills me upon hearing that. I'm supposed to be
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