Chapter 2 Arranged marriage

Chapter 2

Sunshine Carter POV

'Ding' I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the alert on my phone. At first, I thought it was two million, but not until I counted the zeros, and holy molly! The realization dawned on me that there were twelve zeros. Two hundred billion dollars?

"My name is Brown Reynolds, the late CEO Knight's personal assistant..." The man who had come to the hotel earlier, said to me as he adjusted on the beautiful couch he was seated on.

"Mr. Knight died five years ago and left all of his properties in your name since he didn't have a successor..." Mr. Brown paused then dipped his hand inside his pocket and brought out a black card which he dropped on the center table and pushed it to my front.

"Your father, the late Mr. Carter was a loyal worker and a close friend to our president before he died. Mr. Knight had tried to find you for years but never succeeded, so before he died, he willed all his properties to you," He explained to me but even with his explanation, I still found it difficult to understand what was happening. How was that even possible?

"That card is unlimited and you can use it whichever way you want. You have a mansion waiting for you, and companies waiting for you to claim. I will be here to guide you if you need any help," Everything still didn't make sense to me even after so many explanations from him because this had to be the craziest shit I've ever experienced. First, it was Rayne divorcing me, and strangers showing up at the hotel, and now they were saying that I have inherited a fortune? Is that even possible?

"How did you find me?" Was the only question I could come up with.

"Eighteen years ago, Mr. Knight gave your Dad a smartwatch which was to track down his location and keep him safe. Mr. Knight had so many enemies and since your Dad was his closest, he was worried about him getting hurt..." He paused and adjusted on the couch.

"Mr. Knight had someone make the smartwatch but it disappeared after your Dad's death. We tried to track it but it seemed like it stopped working so we couldn't do it," He explained to me.

"Oh..." I slowly nodded my head, trying to digest what he told me.

"There is a condition for claiming the properties," He uttered, and I looked at him confusingly.

"Huh?"

"Mr. Knight had an agreement with a close friend of his who was a part of the progress of his success today that his heiress would marry the man's daughter," My eyes narrowed in shock and my heart missed a beat when he said that. For the next few minutes, I stared at him confusingly.

"Ar... arranged marriage?" I shrieked as that was a nightmare I didn't ever want to experience in my life. I just got out of a marriage barely fifteen hours. Mr. Brown smiled and briefly sighed.

"You have nothing to worry about, Ms. Carter. The man's son is said to be married now, so I don't think it's going to affect you... Although we can't be so sure of the future, but it's not something to be worried about now," He further explained, and I nodded briefly. Everything still felt like a dream to me. I've only seen something like this happen in a movie or book and to think that it was happening to me now.

"You should be grateful, Sunshine. Your life was going to be a living hell," I reminded myself because I didn't know how I was going to cope with a child inside me.

"One more thing... For security reasons, your identity is going to be hidden for now. Mr. Knight had too many enemies and it'll be dangerous if they find out about you..." He paused and leaned forward.

"I will work on your international passport and process your visa quickly so you can leave the country. You will be going on a two year's course in Italy to learn how to manage the business. Is that fine with you?" He asked, and I quickly nodded. I have never crossed the border of the country before and doing this would of course help me to clear my head also.

"I will work on that and speed up the process as we have not much time," He stood up and adjusted his suit.

"I will call the butler to show you around the house..." He uttered, then dipped his hand inside his pocket and brought out a business card. He dropped it on the center table.

"Call me if you need anything. I have something to deal with, so I'll be away for some time," And with that, he finally walked away, leaving me inside the living room.

After Mr. Brown left, I finally had the time to check out the living room and I must confess that it was like another planet on its own. The white and golden paint on the wall, the expensive golden couches, the chandelier light hanging on the ceiling, the flower vase, just everything screamed luxury.

"Excuse me, Ms. Mr. Brown asked me to show you around," I was merely admiring the place when I heard a masculine voice and I looked at the man standing in front of me. He was in his late forties, cladded in a black suit with a short tie clipped to the neck, his short wavy brown hair was curled on his head, and his blue eyes sparkled as he smiled at me.

"Uhm... I will just be in my room. Can you please show me to my room?" I asked him instead as I stood up, and he stared at me for a few seconds before he nodded.

"Sure, this way," He smiled and beckoned on me to follow him as he led the way. Mr. Brown was so desperate that he just engaged me in discussion as soon as I got here so I didn't have the chance to be shown to my room. Well, I was sure I would never have been able to locate it even if they showed it to me though. The house was so big and I was sure I could get lost here.

"Here is your room, Ms. Just press the alarm clock by the side of your bed if you need anything, and someone will attend to you. Excuse me, ma'am," He bowed slightly then smiled and turned to leave, but he paused and looked at me.

"The password is CAEB3526," He said to me and finally left.

I carefully inputted the code and I heard the door click from inside so I twisted the doorknob and pushed it open. My jaw dropped to the ground when I walked inside the neatly arranged room. It was big and pretty, and the bed... Wait! It couldn't be that I'm the only one that would be sleeping there, right?

"Wow!" I beamed with smile as I rushed to the bed and sat on it. It was so soft and bouncy. I lay on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, my eyes glistened with tears. I missed Rayne so much and I couldn't deny it. How could I still want to see him even after everything he had done to me? How could I be so crazy about someone that never cared about me? I must be crazy.

The sound of my ringing phone made me sit up on the bed, and my heart missed a beat when I saw Rayne's name displayed on the screen of my phone. My heart lit up in excitement as the thought hit me hard that maybe he was calling to tell me to come back to him.

"Don't be nervous, Sunshine... Don't be nervous," I patted my chest briefly and took a deep breath before I finally swiped the answer button.

"Hey," My voice quivered and my heart pounded hard in my chest as though it was going to explode.

"Did you leave the cheque here intentionally so you can have a reason to come back?" His voice rather broke my heart into pieces and I bit my bottom lip disappointedly.

"I was only being generous to have given you the money... Why didn't you take it?" His voice came out coldly and I had to shift the phone away from my ear briefly.

"Rayne..." My eyes brimmed with tears and my lips trembled as I called his name. Even though it was obvious that he never liked me for once, I was still curious about something.

"Did you never like me for once?" I already knew the answer he was going to give me, but I still asked him, anyway.

"No... You are not my kind of woman... We only had a deal together and we were going to stop at that. We never had anything special... I never felt anything special toward you," My heart wrenched painfully and a drop of tears slid down my cheek.

"So... Don't come back in the future that I owe you anything. And don't ever call my number for any reason," He stated and banged the call on me.

I did my best to win his heart in our eight months of marriage, but to him, we were only together for a deal. Maybe I shouldn't have ever developed feelings for him, maybe I should've ignored his perfection and who knows, I wouldn't have gotten my heart broken in this manner.

"You need to forget him and move on Sunshine. He is not worth it," I told myself, but as much as I wanted to, what about his seed that was growing inside me? What about our fate that has been entangled?

"Just pretend he is dead, Sunshine. You can do this alone... You can," I told myself even though deep inside me I knew that I was lying. My heart bled as I blocked his number, unfollowed him on all social media platforms, and finally deleted all his pictures from my phone, hoping it worked. I needed to move on and think of the future instead.

"You can do this, Sunshine," I assured myself...