Chapter 1

Hot air hit my face as I left the studio. I quickly walked over to my car, got in and turned on the radiator. I breathed a sigh of relief as the cold air filled the car and gave me a chill that felt like I was being roasted.

Today I finished recording my third single, after which my contract with the management ended. My cell phone rings as I start the car.

"Yes, Ariana is here."

"WHERE ARE YOU?"

I pushed the phone away a little when I heard Caroline's screams, my manager and cousin is very loud and talkative more than my mother.

"I'm on my way."

"Hurry up, Ana! or you'll be replaced by another model!"

"Okay, on my way."

I stepped on the accelerator to increase the speed to get to the location where I was filming a commercial for one of the most popular Coke products.

Arriving at the set, I immediately ran toward the crew who had gathered and were working on the set for the commercial shoot.

"Come here quickly! You are going to take this!" nagged Caroline, and I just let out my horse grin. She looked like the Goddess of Death when she was mad.

After the commercial was shot, it was late into the night. Caroline came home with her boyfriend Andrew, I had a chance to see their intimate scene near Andrew's car before they disappeared in front of my eyes. I sighed heavily, I've never been in love with a man and never dated a man.

Whenever a man approached me, I considered him a friend, nothing more. As for dating invitations, I often refuse them for various reasons, I don't know, I haven't thought about having a special relationship with a man, I'm still busy thinking about my career. And again, I don't want to fall in love yet.

Once I liked a guy, but he didn't like me, he just thought of me as his little sister, my feelings were not reciprocated. Of course I'm disappointed, but what can I do? Maybe love isn't on my side. My phone rings again, interrupting my unimportant daydream.

"Mom?!"

"Where are you, honey? Hurry home, there's something I want to talk to you about."

"About what?"

"Go home first, I'll tell you when you get home."

I quickly got in my car and drove home. My mother seemed to want to talk seriously this time, suddenly my heart was pounding, a feeling of nervousness and curiosity came over me.

When I got home and parked the car in the garage, I rushed downstairs. I saw a very expensive gray Mercedes Benz parked in my large yard, I just shrugged and assumed there must be guests.

"This is Ariana, honey, come here," Mom said, making me look at her while I was still in the doorway of the main entrance to my house. I looked at my mom's guest and those eyes seemed to hypnotize me, making everything around me fade away. A handsome face looked at me and I just stared at it in silence. That look seemed to nail me to my feet.

"Ariana," my mother called, which brought me back to reality, with a slight bow I walked over to my mother and sat next to her. In front of him was a man about half a century old, and beside him was a beautiful woman who looked graceful for her age. They both smiled at me, I smiled back and nodded respectfully before sitting down.

My gaze turned to the man with golden eyes sitting in front of me, the man looked at me with a sharp gaze that made my heart beat abnormally, I hastily lowered my face to hide the nervousness that seemed to squeeze all my nerves.

"Honey, this is Aunt Ramia and Uncle Abraham, they are here to propose to you."

My mother's words are like Thor's thunderbolt, which is very powerful in the Avenger movie, I was shocked, of course, my tongue went numb.

What? Propose marriage to me?

My inner goddess was stunned on her red sofa while my senses narrowed her eyes with open mouth in surprise.

"And this is Sean, your future husband," my mom said again, I looked at the man named Sean from behind my eyelashes while twisting my fingers between my thighs. I'm nervous, this handsome man is my future husband, whether this is a gift or a disaster, but I can't say anything and just choose to be silent, my mind is debating between wanting to deny this fact and wanting to accept it.

"Auntie heard that Ariana is a singer, is it true?" asked Aunt Ramia, I looked up at the charismatic beautiful woman who smiled dubiously, I smiled then nodded.

"Yes, Auntie, I'm a singer," I replied briefly with a feeling of shock that I was still trying to suppress.

"You know, Sean likes to listen to your song, Auntie caught him listening to it," Aunt Ramia said with a witty look in her eyes, I immediately turned to the handsome man in front of me and looked at him with a surprised look, the man chuckled and Aunt Ramia giggled as well as Uncle Abraham.

When Sean's eyes met mine, I looked down again, it seemed I couldn't stare at him for very long. Damn my blushing inner goddess, shit! This isn't the time to be dazzled, even though I admit in my head that he is really handsome.

His gaze seemed to intimidate me, my whole body seemed to melt under his gaze, I was helpless under his gaze. I had never felt like this before when a man looked at me, but this man's look was different and caused a spark of strange feelings in me.

"Your engagement will take place in a week and Sean can use this time to get to know Ariana better," my mother said smiling happily, I swallowed my saliva with difficulty, my throat was suddenly dry.

Just being in a position like this makes my heart feel like it's about to explode, especially if I have to spend a lot of time alone with him, I might die young before I get engaged to him. As Uncle Abraham and Aunt Ramia left, the graceful woman gave me a warm hug, I hugged her back and gave them both a sincere smile before they left my terrace and walked to the car they were in.

"I'm sure Ariana will be able to make Sean the happiest man in the world," Aunt Ramia said, I smiled awkwardly as I heard her very convincing words.

"Tomorrow Sean will pick up Ariana to come together to Rani's birthday party," the elegant woman added again, Mom agreed and they looked happy, except for me who was busy fighting my thoughts that were still trying to digest this incident.

"Mom, are you serious?" I asked after our guest left an hour later. We were sitting on the living room couch, Mom sipping her tea.

"Honey, Uncle Abraham's family was your dad's best friend when we lived in Thailand, maybe you've forgotten, when your dad died, he promised to be part of our family if you and Sean got married," my mom said, I was stunned to hear that. Hell yeah! An arranged marriage before I was even born, isn't that fair?

"But Mom, isn't it too soon? I just got my career." I'm trying to negotiate here, but I really want to refuse. In this day and age, who wants to be matched?

"Mom is sure this is the right time for you and Sean to get married. It would be better that way, mom will be calm if you marry Sean," my mom said and I didn't have the ammunition to argue with her, I lost badly.

"Where did they come from, Mom?" I asked curiously.

"They're from Dubai, honey. Uncle Abraham is the owner of one of the oil and gold mining companies, Jahar Enterprise Holding," my mother replied, trying to be patient with my curiosity, and at that moment my mouth fell open.

 "You mean that was Abraham Al Abbas?" I asked again, making sure, my mother chuckled slightly, I know my current expression must be very silly, my mother nodded.

 "And the man sitting in front of me is Sean Valentino?!" I added and my mom nodded again, but I don't know the name, I try to remember but nothing, I only know her as one of the most famous businessmen with a series of successes in the business world.

 "And Rani?" Still about the Abraham family, I heard Aunt Ramia mention that name.

"Rani is Sean's older sister, tomorrow is her birthday and her wedding anniversary."

My mother put her empty cup on the table. I still can't believe I'm getting engaged to one of the top ten most desirable single men in the world.

 "Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

 I shook my head at my mother's question.

 "Be ready tomorrow at 5 pm, Sean will pick you up," Mom said, I nodded weakly and then said goodbye to my room.

Again I thought about Sean's figure, I pressed my chest which seemed to explode because of my beating heart.

What is wrong with me? Why is it that just remembering his look makes me feel like someone is having a heart attack?

I exhaled regularly, trying to neutralize the strange feeling that came over me when I remembered Sean's handsome face. I rolled over to change my lying position, then hugged my favorite pillow, I still can't believe what I just experienced, I haven't even thought about marriage, it's too soon.

 As I kept thinking about what happened in the living room of my house a few hours ago, I fell asleep. And that night my dreams were filled with Sean Valentino's face.