CHAPTER 44: CHAPTER 44 GETTING MARRIED

*CADEN*

Two days after Jerome’s arrest, I got a call from Mason in the early hours of the morning.

“Jerome’s dead. He was poisoned.”

Alarmed, I raced to the police station to confirm that myself.

I was beyond shocked to really find out that he had really passed.

“How?”I asked Mason.

He looked around the police officers, carefully. It was obvious he didn’t know who to trust in here.

He gestured at me and we walked out of the building.

“They said they’ve checked the CCTV. It seems someone had served him food which was poisoned but they can’t identify who as the footage between 6:pm to 9;pm was cleared out.”

“It seems his employer had a police officer working for him.”I pointed out.

Mason nodded.”It only means we’re dealing with an high profile person because an ordinary person cannot get the police to do something like this.”

“Vanessa.”I reminded.

“When we did our investigations on her, we just found her to be a really spoilt brat and the daughter of business mogul, Timothy Brown. For now, she’s our number one suspect, as she could have the connection to do something like this.”

I nodded in comprehension.

It seemed I had to reveal who I was soon. I felt Alora was also being targeted because they feel she was easy to get rid of.

But if Alora had the Ford Group by her side, it could scare them off.

Then again, should I continue staying by her side as her bodyguard after I reveal my identity?

It wasn’t as if I could stay by her side as anything else.

Or could I?

I grimaced.

We had kissed on the hospital bed. Though she’s mentioned nothing about it after that day but I kept wondering if it meant nothing to her.

“Caden.”Mason called, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I shook my head and turned to face him.”Sorry, you were saying?”

“Well, it was if I knew something might go wrong, I cloned the phone I found on Jerome before handing him over to the police.”

I grinned.”That means we still have a lead.”

“It’s just that he used a special software on his phone. I found the texts he frequently exchanged with his clients. I even found the ones he had discussed about Alora with his client. He just named the clients by number. So I couldn’t trace them.”

I deflated.”Seriously?”

“But don’t worry, we ain’t giving up. I reached out to my friend who’s a software engineer and he said he could crack a code to trace the sources of the messages, just that, it would take some time.”

I sighed.

“For now, with Jerome’s death, I think his employer would want to lay down for a while before thinking of how to strike again. Still, we can’t relent on our protecting services until this is solved.”

I nodded.

I’d do anything to keep Alora safe.

Even if I had given up an opportunity I had actively pursued for a year, I believed it was worth it.

Mr Russo had stopped answering my calls and I know he wouldn’t want to do business with me again.

But it was okay. Alora was safe and so it was more than worth it.

I just have to figure out another way to make my company go global.

****************

*ALORA*

It was now almost a week since I almost got thrown off a rooftop.

I had spent that week at home, not having the zeal to do anything.

My phone rang out.

I glanced at it, it was my mom.

Sighing, I picked up.

“Hello, mom.”

“Alora, dear, Mrs Rita and I set up the blind date for tomorrow.”

I teared up hearing her voice.

When I was almost thrown off the rooftop, I had imagined how she’d feel, losing me.

I was all she had.

Oh mom.

With the news of my attacks kept away from the public, I couldn’t even bring myself to tell my mom about it.

She’d be so worried.

“You should meet him at Roka restaurant, at 2:pm, so what do you say?”

She sounded so excited. I couldn’t say no to her.

In fact, I felt I hadn’t done much to make her happy lately.

“Okay, I’ll go.”

Not that anything was going to come out of it, I’ll just go to make her happy.

“Yes!”My mom squealed.

*********

The following day, I got dressed and headed out of the house.

Caden was standing by the door of the car.

“You don’t have anything on your schedule today.”He said to me.

“Yeah, I know. I’m just going on a blind date.”

He looked shocked.”A blind date?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

I know he saved my life and we kissed.

But that was just because of the heat of the moment, nothing serious.

Did he take it serious?

My stance on men hadn’t changed. I wasn’t willing to get attached to anyone.

He couldn’t possibly have gotten attached, right?

“Do I need to explain myself to you?”I asked, coldly.

His lips parted and then he sighed.”No.”

***************

I got to the restaurant before my blind date.

I glanced at Caden who was standing by the door at the far end of the restaurant. He didn’t say a word in the car.

And he still looked very upset.

“Alora Harper?”I looked up to see a man smiling at me.

He was fairly good looking.

“Damon Hudson, Mrs Rita’s son.”

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.”He got seated and we placed our orders.

An hour passed by of the two of us eating and getting to know each other.

He was a graduate from Harvard and was now managing his family’s business.

“My mother keeps wanting to arrange a marriage with you as soon as possible. I don’t know if it’s because both our mothers are good friends, they think we’d make a perfect match. But to tell you the truth, I have no zeal to get married at the moment.”

I stared at him and replied.”I feel the same.”

“But my mother is really on my neck about this, she has a surgery coming up and she said she’d not get operated if I don’t get married.”

Oh, and I thought my mother was on my neck, he has it worst.

“So I was thinking, since we’re on the same page, and to get them both off our backs, let’s get married.”

I instantly choked on the water I was drinking.

He quickly stretched out some tissue to me.

“Get married?”

“Yeah, I know it sounds crazy. But let’s just get married to make them happy, we could stay married for a month at most. My mom would have had her surgery by then. And after a month, we’d announce our divorce, tell them we could no longer stand each other. I believe that would definitely get them off our backs, they’d be too ashamed to matchmake us again or arrange any marriage for us, they would finally let us do life on our own pace.”

That sounded crazy and at the same time, he had a point.

If I should give my mom a call and tell her that I wasn’t interested in marrying this man, she’d go ahead to look for another man for me.

But if we both pretended to really be married and get divorced after a month, it’d prove to my mom that an arranged marriage wasn’t for me.

I had not the slightest interest in this man so I could see this as business.

“I’m in.” I agreed.

Damon and I started to make plans almost immediately. Because of his mother’s surgery, we had to get married as soon as possible.

As the blind date came to an end, I couldn’t find Caden at the door anymore.

Instead, Hanks was waiting for me. He informed me that Caden had left.

I didn’t know why but I had a feeling of dread when I thought about him.

My mother on the other hand was overjoyed when she found out that I had accepted what she wanted.

*************

“You’re getting married?”Oscar asked, surprised.

I nodded.”It’s nothing serious though.”

He scoffed.”Marriage is some serious shit, my dear.”

And then I explained to him the nature of this marriage.

“No one else has to know, okay? I want this to look as normal as possible until it’s over. I had wanted a small wedding but my mom kicked against it. According to her, her only child is getting married and so she wants the best. So make the announcement.”

Oscar looked at me, skeptically. “I know you love your mom and the marriage isn’t meant to last, but this is still a big deal.”

“I already thought it over. A month is just four weeks, before you know it’d be over. So this isn’t a big deal to me.”I shrugged.

“Make the announcement; also, don’t mention the groom’s name yet, I want the fans speculating.” I said, I was excited about the attention though. “Send out invites too.”

Oscar nodded.