Semua Bab Black Ties and White Lies: A Billionaire Fake Engagement: Bab 61 - Bab 70

ARCHEROur gazes collide the moment I walk through the door. Winnie looks so afraid, sitting there in the large office chair perched in front of her father’s desk with her shoulders drawn inward as if she’s closing in on herself from shame.“Good morning, Archer,” Spencer, Winnie’s father, says. Even though my focus is on her, I can see him stand up and come around his desk from the corner of my eye.She stares at me, her full, pink lips parted in shock as she watches me closely. I force myself to rip my gaze from hers, knowing I have no business staring at her for longer than necessary.My eyes meet the man I’ve been told was an enemy of my family my entire life. We’ve attended plenty of events together. We may run in the same circle, but the Moores and the Bishops avoid each other at all costs whenever possible.Due to my great-grandfather being screwed over by Winnie’s great-grandfather in what was supposed to be a partnership, there’s been bad blood between the families. It’s a ba

“You’ll do no such thing,” my dad interrupts, his nostrils flaring angrily.Archer pulls his legs together as he sits up higher in his chair. Our thighs no longer touch, and I try not to think too hard into why it feels cold from the loss of connection.My eyes focus on my dad as I try to plead my case with him. “It could work. Maybe something happened, and if I just talk to him and see what that is, he’ll change his mind…” My words don’t come out as confident as I intend them to. I have no idea what Blake would do if I spoke to him. He isn’t the man I thought he was. Not if he’s doing this. But it doesn’t hurt to try before having to resort to marrying a man I was raised to hate.Archer gives one shake of his head. “No.” He lets the word hang in the air between us for a moment. I’m sure he’s used to people listening to him without any explanation. He’s the only child of Timothy and Penelope Moore. He’s the heir to the entire company. His entire life, he’s probably been told how impor

Archer’s posture is rigid as his eyes roam my face. “I don’t know if your silence should be answer enough or if I should be worried about whatever argument is brewing in your head.”His comment makes me smile. I wasn’t expecting him to have so much personality. But then again, I don’t know him at all. He only attends parties every now and then. And even when he does, he is a mystery to all. I expected him to be dry and boring. Maybe he is most of the time, but he at least has more personality than I first imagined.I guess people could probably say the same thing about me, too.“What I’d give to read your mind,” he mutters.My eyes find his immediately, finding his face pinned into a mask of indifference. The way he said it so quickly and quietly…I’m wondering if I was supposed to hear it at all.“One year. We’ll talk divorce after the holidays,” I confirm, hating this is the position I’ve put myself in.“No. We’ll discuss our marriage after the holidays. Some people stay in arranged

“One more thing.”“Yes?”“Call every bridal store in Manhattan and set up an open account for me. My future wife needs to buy a dress.”“On it,” he says, clearing his throat after it breaks at the end slightly.He stands there, staring at me like he has no idea who I am.“Luther?” I drag out his name slowly, running my hand along the blank piece of stationery in front of me.“Yes?”“That’ll be all.”Luther nods and scrambles out of my office, leaving me to write a letter to my future wife.CHAPTER 8WINNIEMy hands shake as I stare down at the letter in my lap. I’ve read it word for word countless times since it was first dropped off at my apartment last night. I’d been lying on my couch, replaying everything that’s happened to lead me to that moment, when there was a knock on my door.Winnie,We don’t know each other well, but I want this wedding to be everything you want it to be given the circumstances. I have started an account with every bridal store in the area. I’ve given them

ARCHERI’ve never been a man that worries about much. I haven’t ever needed to. One simple snap of my fingers—one command of my voice—and people do what I want. It’s the weight my last name holds. Not only that but the persona I’ve built for myself from a very young age.But as the aging woman at the organ begins to play the soft tune of the song Winnie will walk down the aisle to, for the first time in I don’t know how long, I feel incredibly nervous.I’ll never admit to another soul how much she’s been on my mind since the moment I left her family’s headquarters yesterday. I haven’t even admitted to myself how much she’s plagued my thoughts since yesterday morning. If I pretend long enough, I can trick myself into thinking it’s only because I know this woman is about to be my wife.I’ve never had to share my life—my space—with anyone else. That’s got to be the reason she’s drifted into my mind more times than I could count.Or maybe she has a pull on me that I don’t want to face.I