Her Unexpected Love Story

Emma's POV

"What do you mean I'm getting married, dad?" I question my dad, tears running down my face fast and hard. I haven't ugly cried like this in years but right now, I didn't care how ugly I looked. All I cared to understand was what my dad meant by I was to get married in two months.

"I realize how sudden and unexpected this news comes, sweetie, but it's what needs to be done," he replies me, taking gentle strides towards me.

I step back. Usually I like the comfort of being in my father's arms, but not today. Maybe not ever again. Not with what he's saying to me right now. "This is so unfair!" I shriek really loudly as I begin to pace round the living room where my mum, dad and I stood as they broke the news to me.

At this point I was livid. I don't think I'd ever been this angry before in my life, and especially towards my parents, but today I was. I was upset, confused, and especially furious at them.

"How could you let this happen, mum?" I stopped pacing and faced my mum with my hands placed on my waist and my eyebrows raised, tears still streaming down my face freely.

"Honey, there was no other option. Would you have rather your dad went prison?" She responded to my question with a face full of empathy. I knew the correct answer to that question, but in that moment I didn't care.

"Yes!" I all but said quietly. "Why couldn't he have opted to go to prison? Why did he have to sell me off to Liam Henderson?" I yelled.

"I did not sell you off, Emma. Never you repeat that statement ever again," my dad replied sharply without giving my mum a chance to respond to me. At this point he and I were in a staring contest with each other, none willing to break contact and look weak in front of the other.

Right from when I was a kid, my dad's mother had always told me I acted just like my dad did when he was younger. She'd tell me how we had similar reactions to particular situations and how we had the same temper. She'd say, "I wonder how arguments go down with you both at home". Truly she was right. My dad and I did have the same temper and today proved it.

I wasn't going to back down from the stare though, and he knew that. He eventually gave up and relaxed his shoulders. "Emma, I truly am sorry for this. I'm sorry that this is the reality of your life right now, but this wedding, this marriage, it's happening. Whether you like it or not. The deal has already been made".

"I hate you, dad. I really do".

Of course I don't and could never hate my dad but that was what I was feeling in that moment. I felt nothing but hate towards him.

"I know you don't mean that, my love," my mum said to me as she approached me and engulfed me in a tight hug. That was what I needed but didn't realize. That hug. I immediately melted in her arms and slid to the floor, clutching my stomach because I felt sick to it all of a sudden.

"I just got my first job offer, mum. I was supposed to move to New York by the end of the month. Why this? Why now?" I say in between sobs, my voice shaky. "It's not fair. I've worked really hard," I continued as I was able to get my voice back to a steady pace.

"I know, sweetie, and I promise this isn't going to be a forever thing. It's for three years and then you could get a divorce and do whatever you want with your life. I'll make sure it doesn't exceed these three years my darling. I assure you that", she strokes my hair and caresses my back as she whispers her words softly into my ear as an attempt to calm me down.

It works but my mind fixates on one part of her statement.

Three years. I'm going to be married to a man I don't know, a man I don't love, a man I have met just once in my entire life, for three years. Three good years of my life down the drain, just like that. Why me? Who did I offend? I think to myself. I'm quickly broken out of my thought cycle, however, as I feel my father's hand on my shoulder as he squats next to me on the ground.

"I blame myself completely for this, Emma, trust me, I do. I know I should've listened to your mother and my advisor, but I didn't and it fucked me up".

I shoot him a quick glance to show I heard his language loud and clear.

"Excuse my language," he continued. "I messed up and I want to make things right. My going to prison would only put you guys in a very difficult position and I don't want that. Knowing the Henderson family, especially the father, Samuel, locking me up won't be enough for him. He would make sure whatever moneys I have in any accounts would be frozen by the bank, and our assets would be seized," he ends with a tone that's supposed to sound convincing, but it of course wasn't working.

Why wasn't it working? Because my whole mind was fixated on the fact that I get married in two months, to a man I don't know, and for three years.

"There's really nothing you want to say right now that's going to make me feel any better, dad," I wiped off my tears and picked myself up from the ground. "As you've said, it's a done deal. This is my life now and I get it. But just know that I-"

I get cut off by the loud ring of my father's phone.

"Hello," he says as he puts the phone up to his ear. "It's for you," he tells me as he looks at me with an emotion I can't quite comprehend and hands the phone to me.

"Hello?" I question with my brows furrowed.

"Hello love," the person on the other end responds with a deep sultry voice I almost instantly recognize.

Emma's POV

It was him. Liam Henderson. My soon-to-be husband.

He was the one on the other end of the phone call.

"Hello, Liam," I said in a sharp voice to show my distaste for the fact he just called me 'love'. Usually, I like pet names. But him calling me 'love' in this instance irritated me to my core.

"What do you want?" I asked. At this point, my parents had stepped out of the living room to give me some privacy to talk to him.

"Is that any way to talk to your future husband, Emma?" He asked with such a deep, dominant voice that made my body tingle for a second.

"Anyway," he continued without giving me a chance to answer his question. "I want you to come to my office tomorrow. We have things to discuss concerning this marriage."

I was shocked. I was taken aback.

There was no way he just spoke to me like that. Who does this man think he is?

"I have things to do tomorrow. I can't make it," I replied sassily, making sure he was able to sense the attitude I was trying to pass across.

"Don't make this any more difficult than it has to be, Emma. Come to my office by ten tomorrow morning. Once you get in, tell the receptionist your name, and you'll be directed to where to go. See you then," he says with a tone of finality and ends the call.

No way that just happened.

I stood in that same spot for a good five minutes trying to grasp what had just occurred before heading into the dining room where my parents were to hand my dad back his phone.

"What did he want?" My mum asks as she stands up from the chair she was on and walks towards me.

"He wants me to meet him at his office tomorrow, but I'm not going," I said with a straight face, ready to march back out of the dining room.

"You have to," my dad stands up, points a finger at me and says. "If he wants you to be at his office tomorrow, then that's exactly where you're going to be tomorrow. No excuses".

I hate when my dad points his finger at me. It means he's serious, and he's not about to entertain any backtalk. This is all happening because of his own silly mistakes, and I'm the one paying for them. Yet he's talking to me like I'm the problem. I really can't deal with this man sometimes.

He walks past me and heads upstairs to his room, leaving my mum and I standing in the dining room watching his retracting footsteps.

"Don't worry about him, sweetheart. He'll come to his senses eventually and realize that you're the one doing him a favor and not the other way around. It's all going to be okay," my mum tells me reassuringly while squeezing my shoulders before heading upstairs to join my dad.

I let out a sigh and headed up to my room to pick out an outfit for tomorrow. I have no luck picking out something, so I FaceTime my best friend, Samantha.

"Girl, you wouldn't believe the morning I've had," I said to her as soon as she picked up.

"Talk to me. What's going on?" She asks, giving me her full attention.

I let out a small laugh at how she's positioned herself to make sure she hears everything I'm about to say. If there's one thing Samantha loves, it's gossip. This wasn't even gossip but the way she positioned herself like I was about to tell her some juicy gossip was sending me.

"Okay. Let's start from the top," I began. "Sammy, I'm getting married".

"What!" She shrieked. "How? To who? When? How is this happening right now?" She throws multiple questions at me at once.

"Calm down. Take a breath," I told her, letting out a small laugh. I may have been laughing, but nothing was funny. The thing is, if I didn't laugh at that moment, then I'd cry, and I didn't want that.

I go on to explain to her everything that happened this morning and end with the fact I was trying to pick out an outfit tomorrow but to no avail.

"So just this morning alone, you've managed to find out that you're getting married and your whole world, as you know, is about to turn upside down? Got it," she says with a look of pity on her face. "I'm so sorry you're going through this, babes. I wish there was something I could do. I do," she continued.

"It is what it is at this point. I've accepted my fate, and I'm just going to go along with things till it's over. Three years. It's for three years, and it's done," I told her, trying to reassure both her and me, even though I knew the reassurance wasn't in any way working for both of us.

We go on talking for hours, which she uses to help me pick out an outfit, talk about how fine Liam is even though she didn't like him because of this arranged marriage of a thing, and give me general updates on her life.

By the time we're done, it's past dinner time, so I sneak down the stairs to grab something to eat while avoiding my parents because I wasn't about to have any more conversations with them today about this marriage or anything in general. I had nothing to say to either of them at that moment.

I went to bed rather early, and before I knew it, it was morning already. Dragging my feet to get up, I eventually took a bath and got dressed, ready to have my little meet and greet with Liam.

I headed out of the house past 9 am, not realizing his office was an hour's drive away from my parent's place. With the construction and traffic on the way, I ended up arriving at the office by past ten thirty.

I headed straight to the receptionist and did as Liam had told me yesterday- I told the lady my name and almost immediately got attached to someone who led me to Liam's office, but he wasn't there.

After waiting for him for almost ten minutes, I heard the door of the office slam open.

Startled, I got up, spun around, and was faced with a 6'2 tall glass of hotness. Seeing him looking so good in a suit caused the hairs on my hands and the back of my neck to stand, but they fell immediately after he spoke.

With an emotion that resembled anger and irritation folded into one, he looked at me and nearly spat out what he wanted to say.

"You're late".

Liam's POV

It's been a few weeks since my dad mentioned that I had to get married to Emma Livingston.

I was honestly fine with the idea of getting married, it's not like it was going to stop me from doing the things I do on a regular. I just had to be more careful.

What I didn't understand was why my father thought it necessary to use this marriage as a debt collection method. It was crazy.

"Dad, this marriage is unnecessary. He owes us money. He should pay," I said to my father with my arms folded across my chest, sitting across from him in his home office.

"We don't need that money. You, on the other hand, need a wife. You're beginning to attract a lot of public attention and it's not positive. You know this and it needs to be fixed. I won't allow your terrible public image to become an actual threat to this business," he says pointedly.

One thing about my father is that he's always going to look out for the company first. It's how he's always been. He grew up poor and struggled to put himself through law school till now, becoming one of the biggest names in the legal industry. So, he sees this company as his first child and would always be willing to do anything to keep it alive.

"I understand," I said with a tightened jaw.

He rarely ceases to mention my negative run-ins with the press. In this case, however, it was a simple night out that took a bad turn, but because one dumb reporter captured the night on camera, he has been extra hard on me.

"All this aside, you are thirty years old, Liam," he continued with a tone seeping with disappointment now.

"You're always gallivanting from one woman to the other and that needs to end. You're too old for all this. Hopefully, this marriage will teach you a thing or two about life and what it's like to become a family man. God knows you need it," he ends, his face filled with displeasure.

I ran my hands down my face and let out a sigh of frustration.

"Alright, dad. You want me to get married? I'll get married," I said, and made my way out of the room.

I headed into the living room and texted my best friend, Ryan.

Me: 'Dude'

Surprisingly, he texts me back almost immediately.

Ryan: 'What's up?'

Me: 'I'm getting married'

Ryan: 'What do you mean you're getting married?'

Me: 'It's a whole thing man. I'll call to explain later'

Ryan: 'Alright. No problem'

I fling my phone across the couch and turn the television on when I hear my mum call-out my name.

"Liam, darling, where are you," she asked while making her way down the stairs.

"I'm in here," I shouted back, turning off the television.

"Judging by the look on your face, I assume you revisited the marriage conversation with your father?" she asks me as she leans on the door frame of the living room with her arms folded across her chest and a smile of amusement plastered across her face.

She enjoys this for some reason. She likes that I'm getting married. It amuses her.

"Yes," I responded with a subtle eye roll.

"Roll your eyes at me again. I dare you," she says as she walks over to sit next to me on the couch.

I guess the eye roll was not that subtle.

"Sorry," I muttered under my breath.

"Listen, Liam. I believe this marriage thing will help you. You need to get your priorities in order and this should help you do just that. I know this isn't the most conventional marriage, and neither is it the type of marriage you'd have expected to have, but just use this as an opportunity to prepare you for your real marriage later. And who knows? She could end up being the love of your life," she says, smiling and wiggling her brows.

"Why are you so excited about this?" I asked with furrowed brows.

"Because Emma is a pretty girl. Plus, if you guys fall in love for real, you'd have beautiful kids. I want that for me".

"For you?" I let out a little laugh.

"Yes, for me". She laughed. "You're my only child, and you're already thirty years old. I need grandkids. I'm not getting any younger, you know," she said.

"Wow. Okay mum," I said, shaking my head at her.

"Have you even spoken to Emma yet?" She asked.

I simply shook my head to signify no. It was at that point it dawned on me that not only had I not spoken to Emma before, not just about this whole wedding thing, but I'd also never met her before, and it's crazy considering how long our parents have been in business together.

"Well, I think you should give her a call. Introduce yourself. Let her speak to who she's about to get married to. She deserves that much".

"Okay, mum. I hear you".

She nods and leaves the room.

I picked up my phone and scrolled through my contacts looking for her number as though I had it. I saw her father's number and decided to place a call to him instead.

He picked up.

"Hello, Mr. Livingston," I said into the phone as soon as he picked up.

"Hello," he says in response, clearly unsure of who he's talking to.

"This is Liam Henderson. I'd like to speak with your daughter, Emma, please".

"It's for you," I heard him say to Emma in the background.

"Hello?" she asks with the most beautiful voice I've heard in my life.

"Hello, love," I said in response.

She goes silent for a while before responding.

We speak for a while, and it ends with us set to have a meeting by 10 am the next day.

Judging from her voice, I can already tell she's beautiful, so, to an extent, I'm looking forward to meeting her.

After ending the call with her, I call Ryan and give him a download of the events of the day. He, of course, lambasts me for not telling him of the marriage plans sooner, but it ends with him mocking me about it.

We talked for a while before I headed home and went to bed, thinking about who Emma Livingston is.