Chapter 5: The Contract

“Errr…Excuse me…” the make-up artist said to Emma pulling her from her daydream.

“You look so beautiful,” She announced, giving her chair a swirl so she was face-to-face with Lucas.

“What do you think?” She asked Lucas.

“It's okay,” Lucas replied, not missing a beat, his face as stoic as ever.

“Just okay…, I guess” the make-up artist mumbled.

Emma stared into the eyes of the man that she was going to be getting married to in a few hours. Her thoughts and emotions were all over the place. Never in her life did she ever imagine that this day would come.

“How did she even get here,” Emma pondered.

Earlier that day…

Emma was applying moisturizer when her phone popped up revealing a message from an unknown number.

She read through the message and she knew who exactly sent it. It was her boss, Lucas Anderson.

“Emma, I need you to come see me at the Anderson estate. There's something we need to discuss.”

“What,” She shrieked, knocking over the tube of moisturizer in the process.

“Why did he need her and what was the message all about, what did they have to discuss?” She pondered while dabbing the spilled moisturizer.

“I guess I have to go see him,” she mumbled out loud.

It took her not less than thirty minutes to reach the estate. It was easy to see beca

Emma felt Deja Vu as she stood in front of the gate again, she had been there before, she went there the first day she came to the city.

“Did I want him to notice me,” Emma laughed sarcastically at the thought. He didn't want her then, so why would he want her now?

Emma sucked her breath in when she walked into the estate. As she walked through the driveway, Her memories came flooding back like a rush of wind. Seven years ago, she had bolted out in anger, and now she was walking in voluntarily.

She rang the doorbell when she got to the door. There was no answer so she rang it again.

At the second ring, the door opened to reveal Lucas. He was dressed in black suit pants with a white collar shirt with his sleeves rolled up.

“Miss Smith, Come on in,” Lucas said, motioning for her to come in.

He led her to his office and told her to sit.

“Wait for me here, let me get the documents,” Lucas stated as he moved out of her sight.

Emma was nervous and she couldn't help but panic. She needed to calm down, so she shifted her attention to Lucas' office. It looked exactly the same as the one back at the office, it had the same full-height window at the back of the desk.

She calmed down a bit, but it didn't stop her thoughts. “What did they have to discuss? He had to invite her all the way because it was already past work hours.

Lucas came back minutes later with a document in his hand, he walked towards Emma before taking a pause momentarily. He darted his eyes across the document and ran his hand through his hair, causing his hair to be disheveled as if he had run his hands through it so many times.

“Here is the document, You've got to sign it today, so we can get started,” Lucas told Emma, handing the document over to her, a subtle intensity in his gaze.

Emma took one look at the document, and her eyes widened in realization, that it was a contract for their marriage. They were going to be married for a year.

She began reading the terms, her fingers tracing the edges of the paper, feeling the weight of the impending commitment.

A mix of surprise and uncertainty flickered across her face, her eyebrows furrowing in contemplation. “Could she really go through with this, especially with Lucas Anderson?” she pondered.

The gravity of the situation settled in, and she couldn't help but bite her lower lip, a subconscious gesture revealing her inner turmoil. Her gaze flicked up to meet Lucas's, searching for any hints of the emotions he might be concealing beneath his composed demeanor, but he remained calm as ever.

Emma instantly made up her mind to sign it. She wouldn't have her peace of mind, but she was going to be able to provide for her mother and Jason.

She was about to pen down her signature when she noticed a clause that said the contract would be terminated if Party A( Lucas) fell in love with the other but she signed it anyway.

“What does that last clause mean,” she asked Lucas.

Lucas paused “That's because I can't fall in love with anyone else,” he muttered with pain in his eyes.

Emma immediately caught a glimpse of the pain in his eyes and stared at him intently.

As if on cue, Lucas went back to his expressionless self. “Now let's go to Paris, we’ve got a wedding to get to Mrs. Anderson,” Lucas declared, a smirk playing on his lips.

As they both walked out of the room, Emma realized that Lucas had not answered her last question, so what did the last clause mean?

End of flashback…

“Time to try out the dresses,” the bridal consultant said excitedly, glancing at both Lucas and Emma.

Emma couldn't believe it had been five hours since she started getting ready to do all this. Maybe if it was real she would have been a little bit excited for this.

Emma glared at the man she was supposed to get married to but he was too busy looking at magazines to notice her. Emma wanted to scream “All of this is fake. That's my boss, not my husband.”

She was dragged to the dressing room to try out her dresses. Emma felt like a princess amid a sea of dresses. They all fit her perfectly but it didn't take Lucas up to five seconds to reject them all and this was starting to get on Emma’s nerves.

“What was he waiting for, the dresses were all stunning,” she screamed internally.

Emma already made up her mind to throw a fit if he rejected the dress once more.

As the curtains opened, to reveal Emma in her dress. She looked over at Lucas but he was already staring at her.

A brief silence hung in the air, disrupted only by the rustle of fabric. Emma, catching his gaze, couldn't help but notice the flicker of admiration that briefly danced in his eyes.

Emma couldn't help but smile when she noticed that he had liked the dress.

“What do you think?” the bride consultant asked, causing them to break off staring at each other.

“She's beautiful,” Lucas replied, before returning his attention to the magazine. He sounded so sincere that it was difficult to say if he was acting or telling the truth.

Emma walked back to the dressing room with hopes in her mind that she was done with everything or so she thought.

Back in the dressing room, Emma was going to pull out her dress when the wedding consultant suddenly rushed in and told Emma that the wedding was going to start soon.

Emma felt her emotions go all over the place, Lucas had talked about the marriage earlier, but now it was getting all too real.

The bridal consultant and her crew all led Emma to the entrance where she would wait for her call before she walked in.

She could hear cheer and laughter from where she stood at the entrance. “Here comes the bride,” The MC called out and the doors gently opened.

Dread filled Emma as she took the first step towards the aisle, she raised her head, and there he was, Lucas Anderson, he was her past and he was slowly becoming her present.

“Did she make the right decisions here,” she thought. All she wanted to do was to provide for Jason and her mother but was it worth her opening her heart to pain and hurt all over again?

Emma arrived at the altar, and she placed her hands in Lucas's outstretched hands.

“Do you Mr Lucas Anderson take Miss Emma Smith to be your loving wife,”

“I do,” Lucas replied, placing a ring on Emma’s finger.

“Do you Miss Emma Smith take Mr Lucas Anderson to be your loving husband,”

“I do,” Emma replied, doing the same for Lucas.