Lahat ng Kabanata ng THE ARRANGED BRIDE : Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

KELLAN'S POVI didn't believe in ghosts.But with the combined effort of Carl Martins and his fiancée Amanda Dawson staring at me, I might have sworn there was one staring back in their stead.Her.Olivia.I overlaid my hands on the inlaid mahogany edges a smidge too tightly, focused on anything, anything but the woman to Carl's right.I heard Carl's voice, the low hum of his words, but they faded to static. Amanda, Olivia, nodded beside him, hands delicately clasped into her lap. My gaze fell to her slender fingers, then up into her face, as if searching for fissures in the illusion.She wasn't smiling. That was the first thing I caught. Olivia always smiled-softly, teasingly, like she knew something no one else did. But Amanda's expression was polite and distant. Controlled. Maybe that's what made it worse. "Mr. Easton?"I jerked my head up. Carl Martins was staring at me, an amused, slightly irritated look on his face. "Sorry," I said, clearing my throat. "Jet lag."Carl chuckl

KELLAN’S POVA place dealing in no loud conversations, some sort of restaurant where everybody had a title and every smile was some calculated chess move, the soft clinking of cutlery against the porcelain hummed in like the underscore as I adjusted my cuffs and leaned back into the chair.Across from me sat Carl Martins, immaculate in his gray suit. There was something about him that screamed power and control, a taut inch of him, but the manner in which he sat informed me that he was not quite as comfortable as he came across. Amanda Dawson she sat quietly now beside him, her hands folded delicately in her lap.She had not once glanced my way since our arrival.“Your London expansion seems to go really well, Kellan." Smack in the middle between calm and a smirk, the smoothness in Carl's voice was a forerunner of wine sipped from the glass. "I heard BAES Enterprises are looking at trying to pace ahead of Westfield International in its acquisitions. Ambitious."I gave him a practiced

Amanda's POV"Miss Dawson, Mr. Easton is here to see you.”Her voice startled me, and the pen fell from my fingers. Really, I hadn't even noticed that I'd been standing out the office window a few minutes longer, rain beading against it in a rhythm only it knew.Kellan. Again.I straightened my posture, smoothing down my skirt as I stood, feigning his sudden appearance wasn't the least bit off kilter. It was a habit now: him just popping up with excuses veiled in charming smiles and business talk. And every time, I had told myself it wasn't significant. That it was harmless.I had lied to myself. "Send him in," I finally said, willing the air steady in my lungs.A few seconds later, the door opened, and there he was: Kellan Easton, in all his untouchable confidence. Immaculately attired in dark slacks and a fitted charcoal suit, he strode into the room as if he owned it. It was his eyes, though, that really unnerved me-that keen blue gaze never missed a thing and cut through me like

KELLAN’S POVMy heart was racing the instant the email notification just dinged into my phone-I'd waited all night for this, every nerve in the body tight and every minute like eternity. I don't have to open it-the mail at least-though I know what has come.In one smooth motion, my thumb flipped the phone open, and I felt this tinge of urgency mixed with a little trepidation, and there it was staring me right in the face: "Information on Amanda Dawson-Urgent Findings.""About bloody time," I murmured to myself as I clicked the email open.The email was short from Thomas, my PI; the attachment was endless: hospital records, bank statements, fraudulent identification documents. It was a tangle of papers documenting Carl's con. My stomach was somersaulting with each passed image.---Five minutes earlier.Thomas's voice was quick on the phone, urgent, like he couldn't get the words out fast enough. "Kellan, you're not going to believe this. Amanda Dawson is really Olivia."I sat forward

Kellan's POVThe clock on my desk was churning on with no end in sight, each second rubbing across my nerves like sandpaper. Before me lay a montage of notes and photos that Thomas had put together, pieces of a jigsaw that I just couldn't seem to work out fast enough. Amanda was trapped with Carl and I was running out of time. It's like every day was another person striking a dagger right through my chest. That was because knowing it and yet being helpless over it drove me crazy over time.I leaned back in my chair, scrubbing my hands down my face. The last time he'd seen her, her smile had been warm, radiant-a light in the middle of the chaos I'd called my life. Now, all I could think about was the fear in her eyes, the possibility that she'd lost that light because of him.It whirred crystal clear on my desk. In an instant, it had reached my ears, and I could hear my heart start to whoop. It was Thomas."Kellan," he plunged right into it, dispensing with the hellos and goodbyes. "I