Chapter 27

That night Aiden's grandfather got close to him and whispered a few words with a cheeky smile.

"How's it going with that little lady of yours?"

His grandfather had the delusion that he was going on well with his unknown fiancè?It was laughable.

Hearing no answer from him,the old man thought that he was just being shy.

"Aiden,bring Amelie with you when we head to the villa.It's a good chance to introduce her to the family."

Aiden paused and looked at the old man with eyes full of disbelief.There was no way that it was she,right?

The grandfather didn't notice Aiden being strange and just thought that he was probably nervous for the introduction.

"Why are you so worried about?Don't you trust yourself?I've also met that girl and she seems like a really proper and intelligent young lady.I looked her up a bit and she's quite impressive and successful for her young age.The ambition in her eyes kind of reminded me of myself when I was young."

Aiden's face was completely dark,but he didn't know what to say.

"So,you'll bring her?Let's have a dinner here first and then we can leave together for the villa."

The old man was nodding to his genius and took Aiden's silence as an agreement.

When the others started congratulating,was when Aiden finally broke off from his daze.He had been in a state of disbelief for two hours already and was bombarded by questions from his family without properly pulling himself together.

"Why didn't you tell us before Aiden?"

"What's she like?What does she do?"

"Amelie?That's such a pretty name!"

Aiden was forced to answer each and every question with also a smile on his face.

"How did you two meet?"

Remembering their first encounter he was lost for a bit.

His twin sister teased.

"Oooooh,it seems to have been quite the first meeting!"

Aiden gulped all the wine in his glass everybody around him became more excited and teased him even more.Then started to speak.His gaze was a bit melancholic.

"Different teams from all our branches were called to work on the project together.She was a member of the team from country A.The first moment I landed my eyes on her,it felt like time had stopped."Aiden was completely honest with what he had felt during their first encounter.

"During the meeting, my eyes couldn't help,but drift towards her and the fact that she stood out during the meeting didn't help."

"I didn't know you had it in you Aiden!"his older brother laughed as he hit his back.Aiden also laughed,but no one could detect the self-mocking tone in it.

"We had a welcome dinner that day and happened to meet on the balcony.I approached her for a greeting and it didn't take much for a conversation to start.I didn't realise how time had passed when I was with her until Dominick came to tell us."Aiden smiled a bit as he filled his glass and took another gulp.

"Then we had a few encounters at the company,eventually I found an excuse to invite her to dinner..." he suddenly paused and gulped his glass again to hide his expression.

"And it eventually led us to today."

Aiden's grandfather was relieved that he had left out the part where he had forced them to engage quickly.

***

"Call me on this number and give me your number so I can contact you later.We have a lot to discuss."

Amelie read the message and then the number.She silently looked at it feeling even more frustrated.One hour later she just send her number without saying anything else.

After a few minutes, she got a call.Amelie watched as the phone rang.She stood up from the sunbed and answered with a cold voice.

"Hello."

The other side of the phone was silent for a bit.Amelie just looked at the lights that emitted the pool waiting for him to answer,but a few minutes passed and only the shallow sound of breathing was heard.

Amelie's suppressed anger rose.Seeing that he wasn't planning on speaking she ended the phone call.

He was the one who had completely ghosted her after their first date and now he acted as the one offended?Please.If he thought that he was the only one with a temper then he was completely wrong.

Amelie raised her phone as if to throw it in the pool,but paused mid-way and lowered her arm again.

Tears of anger started clouding her vision.She sat down in a fetal position and buried her face on her knees hoping that her parents weren't awake to witness this pathetic state of hers.

It didn't take long for the phone to ring again. Amelie saw the number that was identical to the one on the text and just stared at it for a while.She didn't want to respond,but it would be too childish if she didn't.They were both adults and had to solve this problems like adults.

Amelie coughed a bit so she could adjust her voice and practised saying hello,but it was nasal and it sounded obvious that she had cried.

Amelie's face scrunched even more from the crying,her pouted lips trembling.She just gave up and answered the call without saying anything.Waiting for the other person to speak first.

After a few minutes of more silence,Amelie was about to end the call again,but the deep, magnetic voice she had missed and resented for more than a month spoke on the other end.

"What's this deal about our engagement?"

the tone was cold and questioning.

The feelings of longing immediately disappeared with that tone.Amelie sneered.All her filter had come off now.

Though her voice was a bit nasal she still sarcastically spoke.

"Not even a 'hello','how are you?','I'm sorry'.But then again why am I expecting basic manners from you."

A mocking tone was heard from the other end of the phone.

"You think the likes of you deserve basic manners?"

Amelie couldn't understand this weird hostility,but now she was too proud and angry to care.

"That's what I should be asking you Mr.Aiden,but now we have something more important to discuss.Let's end this thing as quickly as possible,obviously none of us wants to deal with the other."

"You're telling me this?Weren't you the one who started it all?"

"I accepted the proposal because of certain circumstances and that's it."

A laugh from the other end was heard.

"Circumstances?What could these 'circumstances' be?"

Amelie closed the microphone and sniffed because her nose was runny.She took a deep breath.For a moment she wanted to throw the phone on the pool and be done with all of this.

"The one who was about to be your fiancè was a friend of mine who is currently happily engaged and waiting to be married to her lovely, kind,polite, and respectful boyfriend.Her father and stepmother wanted to force her to marry with you.Your grandfather wouldn't agree to break the engagement unless I took her place."

Aiden was silent for a while.That was definitely something he would do.

"How do you plan to end this?"Amelie broke the silence.

Hearing the voice that was completely deprived of all sweetness and affection,made Aiden feel empty and pathetic.She wasn't planning on acting nice with him anymore but still refused to admit what she had done, being completely unapologetic.

"It's not in my hands." since she used and was still using him then he would be the one using her now.His CEO position was still unstable,he would keep her around for a while.Since they lived in different countries they wouldn't need to see eachother's faces.

That sentence cut the last string of sanity Amelie had.Even though she couldn't yell because it late at night her anger and harsh tone weren't hidden.

"What do you mean it's not in your hands anymore?"

"Isn't this what you wanted anyway?Your dreams became true,you're marrying a young rich guy.Why are you pretending to be angry?"

Amelie was speechless.She then cheerfully said.

"Lucky me!" then her tone immediately switched "Either we think of something together that will end this in the smoothest way as possible or I swear to God I will do it in the ugliest way myself!"

Her accent became stronger and thicker with each word.

Aiden was amused.The thing he loved the most was angering his enemies.He rejoiced with the others' misfortune.

"You were the one who agreed so you own it.My family already knows about you and wants to meet you.They are planning to invite you to our family vacation."Aiden paused and said slowly "You can't get out of this."