Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Adler has experienced tons of crazy things ever since he started going to college. As he was a pampered young master in his grade school days and a reserved young man when he was in high school, he became a wild man when he finally got his liberty to decide for himself and authorization of his actions when he got to college. Among all the senseless things he had discovered, he was often overwhelmed, occasionally surprised but rarely intimidated while to those that he had done, he felt guilty to some, enjoyed most of them, sometimes guilty while enjoying doing them at the same time. But compared to all the senseless things that he had done, he couldn't find anything more ridiculous, and flabbergasting compared to suddenly meeting your bride, especially on a rainy Sunday morning while suffering a massive hangover.

"I'm your fiancée." As soon as the woman's pale lips conjured those words, Adler's jaw to drop down to his carpeted floor as soberness took over his system, abandoning his hangover behind. He couldn't muster what he was currently feeling, it somehow felt like a combination of uttered surprise, confusion, and dismay and it felt worse as his aching body wasn't in the mood to read the situation and cooperate with his brain and he automatically thought that he heard her wrong.

"I-I'm sorry. I think I heard you wrong, can you please say it again?" he asked, stuttering while convincing himself that he might really have heard her wrong. He silently prayed, faithfully hoping that he heard her wrong.

"I am your fiancée. I'm Carylle Kaye Melendez, Don Miguel Augusto Melendez's daughter. We met on my dad's birthday three years ago." She repeated and he wished he was deaf.

Adler felt his world crack and crush to small pieces, turning into debris and powdery pieces that could be easily swept by a gust of wind. It's done. It's the end. His life as a bachelor is coming close to an end and his life as a father and an old man is coming close. He wanted to rub the bridge of his nose in vexation but stopped himself as the woman might find it rude. But at the same time, she relieved his wonders. No wonder she looked familiar, she's Don Melendez's daughter, the man whose wife made a promise of the womb with his mother that their children will get married. He remembered the time they first met on her father's 55th birthday. He was a fresh graduate at that time and was given a six-month break by his family before they let him work in their company, rendering him to have much time to spare and rest from college's hellish claws of stress and breakdown machines.

He remembered the time when they met and thought that the woman looked completely different compared to that time, he remembered her striding gracefully with a confident yet humble look on her face. Among the sea of people, she was the one who seemed to emit a strong ray of light that harms his eyes, like a divine being sent down to heaven and walking on the rough grounds of the Earth. She looked like an innocent angel who was too pure for the real world and a graceful succubus who snatches men's attention with her graceful beauty. One could obviously see that she was raised and groomed to be a rich man's perfect trophy daughter. That was also the first and last time he saw her, until today. But more than that, it doesn't change the fact that her coming is a mark that his single, free, and no commitment life trial is close to expiring. Though, he wasn't single, to begin with.

The woman's doe-like eyes looked at him as she was about to cry. He read the reaction, she thought he doesn't believe her because he acted bewildered. "If—If you're doubting my identity, I ca—"

"No, no need." Adler cut her off before she could speak further as her voice was getting thick and her eyes started to slightly water. He didn't want to see her cry and also upset her on their second meeting. He sighed inwardly, pushing all the mixed emotions out of his chest, reverberating it before slowly lifting lips into a wide and welcoming fake smile, the same smile he shows to his clients when attending meetings and conferences. "I was wondering why your face was somewhat familiar, turns out you're my fiancée. Come in, it must have been freezing outside." He stepped aside and opened the door wider, giving her enough space to come inside.

"Thank you," she said in a small voice, lowering her head a bit as if she made a slight bow, then turned her back on him and grabbed the two large suitcases behind her, Adler was about to open his mouth and stop her as he wanted to help her but he was too late as the woman dragged them as she set a foot inside the building then went on to his couch, placing them aside before sitting down. He then decided to offer help instead when moving the luggage inside her room.

Adler noticed the way her back curved, sitting only on 1/3 of the couch, her back and tailbone barely near the backrest with her knees and heels together side-by-side and her feet slightly slanting, doing a Duchess Slant while resting her left hand in the crease between her thighs and putting her right hand on top of it. She really was raised to become a proper lady, not like he minds however she sits though but it was too inconspicuous not to notice that despite being extremely damped, she still looked graceful.

Damped, Adler thought as he pursed his lips, and a thought immediately came across his mind. "Hold on, one second," he told her before turning on his feet and heading back to his bedroom with quick yet profound footsteps.