Characterization

CHARACTERIZATION:

1. MARIAH THORNE: She is 26 years old with light brown hair and deep blue eyes. She stands at 5’7” with a slim but slightly curvy build. She is smart and composed, but she hides her manipulative side perfectly.

Background: She was trained by her father about finance and business, and she is surprised when her father’s company goes bankrupt and all the investors start to pull out. She gets married to the heir of her father’s rival just to save his business, and she finds a secret about why her family turned bankrupt, leading her to get revenge. She is torn between her quest for revenge and her growing feelings for her husband.

2. ASHTON LANGFORD: He is 28 years old. He’s 6’3” tall with black hair and light brown eyes. He has a toned and muscular build. He is known by the public as a ruthless control freak who doesn’t believe in love and thinks emotions are liabilities.

Background: He found out about his father’s plan to destroy the Thorne family and their business, and he secretly saved the business by becoming an anonymous investor, putting billions of dollars to keep the business up. He starts to fall for Mariah, but he has no idea that she has an agenda of her own as she believes he was behind her family’s downfall.

3. ELIJAH MOREN: He is 27 years old with chestnut brown hair and grey eyes. He’s 6’0” tall with a slim and toned build. He grew up with Mariah and dated her for a while before they broke up.

Background: He reenters Mariah’s life after she gets married to Ashton as a charming and powerful investor that could bridge the gap between the two families and save Mariah’s family from total crumble. Little does anyone know that he has a grudge against both families and starts a silent war to take control of the companies and turn Ashton and Mariah against each other.

4. CELINA MENDEZ: She is 25 years old. She stands at 5’4” with curly brown hair and bright hazel eyes. She is a little curvy. She is the woman that was set to get married to Ashton before the Langford family changed their minds and decided to get Ashton married to Mariah.

Background: She fell in love with Ashton while growing up with him, and it was an assurance that she would be the one to get married to him because of the relationship between her family and his. She’s left heartbroken when Ashton gets married to Mariah instead, and her disappointment turns into anger and a thirst for revenge against Mariah and Ashton.

5. BRENDA LANGFORD: She is 52 years old with brown hair and dark blue eyes. She is Ashton’s mother and the matriarch of the Langford family. She planned for her son to get married to Celina, but her plans arewrecked when her husband suggests that Ashton gets married to Mariah because he wants to gain control over her family. This causes her to disapprove of Mariah even before she meets her, causing Mariah’s married life to be miserable.

6. WINSTON LANGFORD: He is 56 years old with black hair and brown eyes. He is the patriarch of the Langford family and the founder of Langford Co. He is ruthless and precise with his business plans, causing him to push his son to get married to the daughter of his rival so that he gets control of the Thorne family. He doesn’t care what happens in the marriage as long as it moves in the favor of his company.

7. Other characters.

EXPOSITION: The Thorne family has always been a successful family in the business world of real estate and a force to contend with. Their biggest rival is the Langford family, holding billions in the real estate and branding out into other sectors as well. Mariah, the only child of the Thorne family, learns everything she needs to know about finances related to real estate from her father. She uses this to her advantage as she starts to get investors in her father’s company.

The Thorne family sees a significant increase in their business in just two years as Mariah joins the company, but things start to head south all of a sudden. Their investors start to pull out without explanations all of a sudden, and this causes the company to take a hit in stocks. Soon, they start to head toward bankruptcy.

One day, as Mariah still tries to get in contact with old and new investors to get the business back on track, her father returns and tells her that he has found a way for her to get the family out of bankruptcy. She asks him what it is, and he tells her that she’ll have to get married to the heir of their rival family, Ashton Langford.

After a lot of convincing, Mariah agrees to get married to Ashton.

INCITING INCIDENT: It’s the day of their wedding, and Mariah isn’t happy to be doing what she’s doing, but she’s happy that she can at least help her family get their stocks up by being associated with the Langford family. She gets married to Ashton, who also doesn’t seem happy about the marriage.

As the days pass in their marriage, Ashton and Mariah sleep in separate rooms unless Ashton’s parents come for a visit and they have to keep the image up to convince his parents that they’re getting along. Mariah soon starts to realize that she isn’t being treated well by Ashton’s mother, who soon starts to show her true colors and show that she doesn’t want Mariah to be her daughter-in-law.

Mariah decides to bear the days that Brenda, Ashton’s mother, comes around because she knows it’s only for a few hours. She tries to talk to Ashton about it once, but Ashton is cold towards her and refuses to hear what she has to say.

As Mariah tries to navigate her marriage to Ashton while still assisting her father with his business, she overhears Ashton and his father talking one day. This leads her to find out that the people behind the downfall of her father’s company are none other than her husband and her father-in-law.

Mariah is livid when she finds out about this, but she doesn’t let Ashton know that she’s found out. She moves in silence as she plots to get her revenge on her husband by using their marriage as a weapon to destroy his father’s company from the inside.

Mariah bumps into a friend from childhood that she also dated for a while, Elijah. He creates a safe space for her, and she ends up telling him about her marriage and how it’s only a public stunt to get her family back on their feet. She also tells Elijah about Ashton and how he treats her, telling him about his plan to destroy her family’s wealth.

Elijah encourages Mariah to get her revenge on Ashton, telling her that he’ll lend his help. Mariah accepts his help.

RISING ACTION: Mariah starts to have regular meetings with Elijah to discuss the details of Ashton’s business. She sneaks into his office when he’s away to get new documents to take pictures of and send to Elijah.

Just as she plots her revenge on Ashton, she is surprised when Ashton starts to treat her differently. He starts to insist that they sleep in the same bedroom even when his parents aren’t there, and this causes her to suspect that he plans to do something harmful to her. She keeps herself alert throughout the night.

Elijah starts to give Mariah instructions on what to do to Ashton and his business to destroy it. He starts to send documents for her to use to replace Ashton’s own right before he sends it to clients so that the clients will pull out of his company.

Ashton starts to get stressed when his clients start to reject a lot of his proposals, and he starts to suspect that his company is being sabotaged. He decides to start taking the proposals to the clients by himself, but things don’t change for him. He consults his father about it, and his father checks all the documents that have been rejected. This is where they find out that they have been sending the wrong documents and someone who has access to the documents have been changing them.

Ashton starts to go on a rampage at work, firing almost everyone who has access to his documents at work. Mariah starts to notice the stress as he barely gets enough sleep at night, but she doesn’t feel bad for him because she believes that he put her father through the same thing.

The tension between Mariah and Ashton starts to grow as they argue more. Mariah starts to find new ways to destroy Ashton’s company while Ashton turns to alcohol and starts to drink himself to sleep almost every night.

In the middle of a heated argument one night, the tension breaks between Mariah and Ashton as they end up getting emotional and sharing a passionate night together.

The next morning, Ashton and Mariah avoid each other as they’re embarrassed by what happened the night before. They refuse to talk to each other, and the tension between them only doubles.

Celina, the woman Ashton was supposed to marry, returns to his life with the help of his mother, Brenda as she gets a job at Ashton’s company as his personal assistant. She starts to make attempts to get closer to Ashton, but he doesn’t respond to her. Celina believes that Mariah has something to do with this, so she joins forces with Ashton’s mother to make Mariah’s life hell.

Mariah starts to get fed up of how she’s treated, and things only get worse for her when Celina finds a way to get stranded and move into their house with them. With Celina now living in Ashton’s house, she starts to create a big rift between Ashton and Mariah.

Mariah tells Elijah about Celina and how she now lives with them, and Elijah takes it upon himself to follow Ashton wherever he goes to find out if he’s cheating on Mariah with Celina as this could create a breaking news that would take down the Langford family stocks.

The more Celina stays in the house, the more she starts to turn Ashton and Mariah against each other. Mariah turns up the heat against Ashton, and Ashton grows more stressed by the day.

Mariah leaves the house to meet Elijah one day, but she is stopped in the middle of the road and kidnapped while her car is taken away. For hours, Mariah is placed in a dark and quiet room until the kidnappers send her off when they return, telling her to drive home.

As soon as Mariah gets back to the house and before she can tell Ashton what happened, Ashton gets her arrested for the murder of his father with her car. He vows to her that he’ll make her life miserable and that she’ll die in prison.

CLIMAX: Mariah tries to explain to Ashton that she didn’t do what he accused her of, but he makes it known to her that the CCTV caught her car hitting him and driving off. Mariah tells Ashton that she was kidnapped and the person in the car wasn’t her, but Ashton believes that she’s telling lies.

Mariah’s father gets her out of jail on bail, but more and more damning evidence comes out against her, and she realizes that she’s doomed and whoever set her up had set up a good plan and had executed it perfectly.

Against her father’s word, Mariah goes to Ashton’s house to talk to him about everything. As Ashton refuses to listen to a word she says, she tells him that she’ll sue him and his family for pulling out their investors and destroying their business. Ashton is shocked at this, and he asks if Mariah is blackmailing him. Mariah tells him to take it however he wants to. And as she’s on her way out of the house to leave him to think about it, Ashton reveals a bombshell of his own. He tells her that if she does anything to ruin his company, he’ll fully destroy her father’s company by pulling out all the investments he has set in place to fund it.

This is when Mariah finds out that Ashton is the investor who saved her father’s business by funding it with different accounts.

Mariah is shaken by this revelation as she wonders why Ashton would do something like that. She asks him about it, but he refuses to tell her why he saved her family’s company. Instead, he tells her that he wants a divorce as he cannot remain married to the woman who killed his father.

Mariah, too shaken to even tell him that she’s not the murderer of his father, leaves his house and returns to her father’s house. She ends up breaking down in the privacy of her room when she realizes that all this time, Ashton has been the one putting all his money in her father’s company while she was destroying his own because she misunderstood. She cries over the fact that she had shoved her feelings for Ashton down, refusing to admit that she had fallen for him a long time ago until now.

For days, Mariah falls sick and refuses to talk to anyone, including Elijah. As the sickness doesn’t let up, she decides to go to the hospital and find out what’s wrong with her. She is told by the doctor that she’s pregnant.

Just as she steps out of the hospital, Mariah gets a call from Ashton who tells her that they need to talk. As Mariah gets to the house, she decides to tell him that she’s pregnant. But when she gets to the house, Ashton gives her a divorce document to sign. He tells her that he’ll drop the charges of murder against her if they get divorced and he pulls his funds out of her father’s company.

Mariah begs Ashton not to pull his funds out of her father’s business as that’s what’s keeping her family standing. She also manages to tell him that she didn’t kill his father and that she was kidnapped, swearing to him that she didn’t do it.

Ashton tells her to sign the divorce papers, not telling her if he’ll pull out his funds. Mariah doesn’t tell him that she’s pregnant. She silently makes the decision to raise their child on her own. She takes the divorce papers to her house where she breaks down again.

Mariah finally decides to sign the papers and send them to Ashton to get the divorce process started, but she doesn’t tell her parents about it as she doesn’t want them to worry. She starts to seek new investors for her father’s company, working hard without telling anyone about it. She meets up with Elijah, and he agrees to invest in her father’s company on the condition that she cuts all ties with Ashton permanently and agree to a partnership with him.

Mariah, desperate for her father to get his business back in the game, agrees because she believes that Elijah is just looking out for her. What Mariah doesn’t notice is that in the contract, there’s a hidden clause stating that she would be signing over 60% of her father’s company to Elijah.

Few days later, Mariah experiences severe cramps and bleeding. She is rushed to the hospital, where the doctors tell her that the stress she’s going through is a threat to her pregnancy. She is admitted and put on bed rest as they warn her that any more emotional trauma and stress could cause a miscarriage.

Left with her thoughts in the hospital, Mariah realizes that she hasn’t found out who actually kidnapped her and framed her for the death of Ashton’s father’s murder. When it hits her that a murderer is walking freely, she decides to find out who it is.

Mariah starts to dig into the hit-and-run case of her father-in-law. She contacts the police for the CCTV footage and realizes that something doesn’t add up when she watches the footage. From the video, the woman in the car sits differently from how Mariah usually does in the car, and the woman in the car appears to be significantly shorter than Mariah. This is when Mariah gathers money and hires a private investigator.

The PI discovers that her car didn’t go the same way she would usually go to whenever she went to meet with Elijah and her car was diverted in the middle of the road. The PI also traces the car to a certain coffee shop, where he goes to ask the barista about the woman who had entered the shop. The barista confirms that the woman is a regular named Celina.

Mariah is shocked to find out that the person who had planned her kidnap and had taken her car to kill Ashton’s father is none other than Celina, Ashton’s personal assistant.

Mariah tries to get in contact with Ashton, and the message is read but Ashton doesn’t reply. Immediately, Mariah receives an anonymous text that threatens her, stating that if she doesn’t stop digging, she’ll lose more than her husband and will lose her baby as well. Someone out there knows that she’s pregnant, and she believes it’s Celina. She’s terrified but also angry that Celina threatened her child.

Meanwhile, Ashton has been feeling hollow ever since the divorce papers were signed. He throws himself into work, but he can’t seem to focus. James, his friend, notices and tries to confront Ashton about it. Ashton admits that his mother, Brenda, has been bothering him for weeks, telling him to divorce the woman who killed his father. Ashton also admits that he doesn’t think Mariah killed his father.

James, suspicious of Brenda’s influence in her son’s decisions, starts to investigate her. He discovers financial records showing that Brenda has been receiving monthly payments from an offshore account for the past few months ever since Ashton and Mariah got married. The account traces back to a company owned by Elijah. James digs deeper and finds out that the same account has been funding someone in Ashton’s company, Celina. He tells Ashton about it immediately.

Ashton is devastated to find out that his own mother conspired against his marriage.  He confronts his mother who partially confesses that she was angry about the arranged marriage and felt as if Ashton was being controlled, and Elijah offered her money to help separate them. She claims not to know about the hit-and-run frame job done against Mariah. She’s lying about this, and Ashton doesn’t fully believe her.

Ashton rushes to Mariah’s father’s house, but he doesn’t find her there. Her father, furious, tells Ashton that he’s done enough and that Mariah will be finalizing a deal with a new investor. Ashton asks who the investor is, and her father admits that it’s Elijah. Ashton’s blood runs cold.

Meanwhile, Mariah is at Elijah’s office to finalize the investment papers. As she’s about to call, her PI calls with urgent news, but Elijah takes her phone and tells her he doesn’t accommodate interruptions during business. Mariah’s instincts scream at her, and she excuses herself to the bathroom in the office building. She decides to leave the office through a back exit.

As Mariah rushes to her car, Elijah catches up to her in the parking garage where he finally drops his friendly façade and tells her that she was shooosed to divorce Ashton, destroy his business, and come back to him. He confesses that he’s always wanted her, even after she broke up with him all those years ago, stating that he’s done everything to separate her from Ashton.

It’s revealed that Elijah was also involved in framing Mariah for the hit-and-run to poison Ashton against her. He also paid Celina to seduce Ashton, but it failed. Celina was the one who saw the message Mariah had sent to Ashton’s phone, and she had deleted it. That’s why there was no reply even after it seemed as if he had read the message.

Elijah’s final nail in the coffin was supposed to be taking over her father’s company from the deal they were about to finalize so he would have the power to make her return to him, but it failed because she had decided to run off instead.

Elijah tries to force Mariah into his car, telling her that she’ll come with him until she sees reason. Mariah fights back, scratching and clawing at him as she screams for help. Just as Elijah grabs a hold of her, Ashton appears as he was already on his way to confront Elijah in the office. He tackles Elijah, and they fight brutally as Mariah calls 911 and goes to get the security officials at the office.

Security and police finally arrive, and Elijah is arrested. As he’s taken into the police car, he keeps screaming that Mariah belongs to him and nobody else. In his rage, he confesses everything he’s done for her.

Ashton reveals to Mariah that the police have also arrested Celina, who was caught trying to flee the country, and his mother as well because she knew about the murder of his father. Before Mariah can react, she collapses from the stress.

Ashton rushes her to the hospital, holding her hand as he begs her to hang on. Barely conscious, Mariah confesses that she’s pregnant and that the baby is his. Ashton breaks down at the news, begging her not to leave him and apologizing over and over until they get to the hospital, but Mariah turns unconscious.

Mariah wakes up in a private hospital room where she finds Ashton asleep in the chair beside her bed. The doctor confirms that both Mariah and the baby are stable, but she needs total rest for the next few weeks. When Ashton wakes up and sees Mariah awake, he breaks down crying, causing Mariah to cry as well.

Ashton apologizes to Mariah, telling her that the reason why he invested in her father’s company was because he knew what his father was planning and he hated it. Mariah also confesses to him that she has been the one sabotaging his business plans ever since she found out. They both apologize to each other as they embrace each other.

Ashton confesses that he fell with her a long time ago when he realized that she was the only one who stood up to him and refused to be intimidated. He was terrified of being vulnerable so he hid behind a cold exterior. Mariah confessed that she fell in love with him a long time ago as well.

Ashton pulls the crumpled divorce papers out of his jacket and admits that he couldn’t file them. He rips them up in front of her, promising her that he’ll spend the rest of his life making it up to her and being the father and husband that she and the child deserve.

Mariah tells him that she needs time, and Ashton accepts it.

FALLING ACTION: Elijah, Brenda, and Celina are charged with murder, kidnapping, fraud, and attempted murder. Celina takes a plea deal and testifies against Elijah. They’re all sentenced to prison. Brenda apologizes to Ashton, but he doesn’t forgive her.

Over the next few weeks, Ashton and Mariah spend time together as he takes her hospital appointments and cooks for her at home. They start to get back on track, building friendship first. Mariah keeps having nightmares about the kidnap, and Ashton holds her whenever she wakes up.

Ashton takes Mariah out on a date where he asks her to marry him again with a ring and a proper proposal. He tells her that he wants them to start again, not because of their family but because they choose each other. Mariah agrees to get married to him, and they kiss.

DENOUEMENT: Mariah and Ashton have a small and private wedding ceremony with only close family and real friends in attendance. Mariah is seven months pregnant at this time, and they vow to always be with each other and believe each other.

Ashton and Mariah decide to sign a merger between their families’ companies to create a new venture. Mariah and Ashton grow the company together, and with their plans and strategies, the company thrives and becomes a powerhouse in just weeks. The business world and everyone in it is shocked at just how effective they are together, stating how their marriage to each other was fate from the beginning.

Mariah’s father starts to warm up to Ashton, and Ashton sneaks out to meet him for parenting advice as Mariah’s due date draws closer and closer.

Mariah goes into labor 2 weeks early during a major business presentation. Ashton abandons the meeting and takes her to the hospital as he refuses to wait for an ambulance. After hours of labor for Mariah and nervousness for Ashton, their daughter is born. They name her Sophia. Ashton falls apart when he holds his baby for the first time, vowing to do better than his father did and love her and Mariah with all his heart.

Ashton is obsessed with being a father as time goes by, and he’s oergect at it. He changes diapers and does midnight feedings just so Mariah can get a good night’s rest. He and Mariah find the perfect balance between work, family, and each other. They visit Ashton’s father’s grave together and get some closure as they try to find a way to move past everything that has happened in the last year and a half.

As the days pass, Mariah and Ashton’s real wedding anniversary draws nearer. As they celebrate it, Ashton surprises Mariah with a private art studio and library made just for her, five minutes away from their house. Mariah also gifts him a brand new car that he’s been talking about but hasn’t had the time to go test out.

The first birthday of their daughter, Sofia, arrives. The party is a small and intimate event just like their wedding, but with fewer people this time.

On the day of the birthday, Mariah receives a text from an unknown number showing pictures of Ashton cheating on her. She confronts Ashton about this immediately, and he tells her that the pictures were forged and he has no idea who the woman in the picture is.

Out of frustration, Ashton decides to trace the phone number. The phone number goes back to Elijah who has snuck a phone into prison and is still bent on destroying the marriage between Ashton and Mariah by editing fake pictures and sending them to Mariah.

Ashton takes matters into his own hands and goes to the prison to confront Elijah about it. Elijah tells Ashton off and tells the prison guards to seize everything that Elijah has access to in prison. Elijah is placed on strict watch and can’t contact Mariah anymore.

Ashton returns to his wife and assures her that he has taken care of everything. They finally get the chance to start things over without anyone coming between them anymore.