FOUR: A CONTRACT

SERENA

The words he spoke echoed in my ears. I looked at him in both disbelief and confusion.

I was definitely both shocked and scared at that instant. I looked at him to be sure I heard him correctly. At first, I thought he was joking but looking at him deep in the eyes, his eyes held seriousness.

"What?" I was totally confused. Gabe turned around and went to a chair. On the chair was a black suitcase. He opened it up and brought out a file. He walked back to me and handed it to me.

I took it from him and skimmed through it. The front page had the word 'contract' boldly written on it. I looked up at him, my eyes and mouth wide open.

"Wait, are you serious?"

"Hold on hold on, what is all this about?" I shook my head and waved my hands in the air, ignoring the slight pain I felt in my stomach.

Gabe walked closer to me and leaned in. "I'm only trying to help you get your perfect and desired revenge" he grinned.

"Back off" I frowned as I pushed him away. I hated his guts so much.

He chuckled and moved back.

"I'm not getting married to you Gabe and you know that" I said as I crossed my hands to my chest.

Gabe walked around my bed to the other side. "And why is that?" He asked, grinning lightly.

What did he mean by that? Why in the world would I want to marry my worst enemy? Someone I hated so much? We had never ever ever been in sync for a moment. That was how much we hated each other.

I frowned as I looked up at him. "Why would I want to get married to you?" I asked as I adjusted myself. I leaned back into the bed, making sure my pillow was placed at my back.

"Well for one, to get your revenge, which i can help you with"

"Secondly, who did you call when you were at the point of death? Me. And why was that? Because you had no other person to call. The people you trusted deeply betrayed you. And I was the only one who could save you, and I did" he leaned in with a smile on his face.

I took my eyes away from him and turned my head to the other side. I hated that he was actually right. He was always right and it annoyed the hell out of me.

"Listen" he turned around, to where I faced.

"You know that I hold a lot of power and influence and everybody acknowledges that. I can help you get your revenge in any way you want, and you will go scot free"

"All i need you to do is marry me"

"It will be a contract marriage. We will be married for just two years. This should give you enough time to get your revenge"

"And immediately after two years, we would file a divorce and go our separate ways" he explained as he took a seat close to me. He leaned into the seat, his arms crossed, looking at me for an answer.

"Hold on!" I waved my hand in the air.

"How do you expect us as enemies to agree on this? We have never agreed on anything in our entire life and you have always been a pain in the ass to me"

Gabe laughed. "I need to get married so that i can satisfy my father's wish of me getting married, and since you also seem to need my help, i think it is best if we actually try to agree on something for once"

"What do you think?" He asked.

I looked at him. He did have a point. This sounded like an opportunity to get my revenge on both Stephan and Ariel. The pictures I previously saw came flooding into my head.

The laugh they held like they were satisfied with each other. It looked like they were enjoying their time together, while I was here fighting death. My heart and fist clenched at that. All I felt was pure hatred towards them. I hated that they never allowed me to have a normal life.

I hated Ariel even more, for killing my child. I couldn't believe that my best friend of fourteen years could do this to me. I trusted her so much, and took her like my sister. She was all I had even before Stephan came into the picture. We always did everything together and I never knew she held so much hatred for me, even going as far as stabbing me, and leaving me there to die.

I looked down, and glanced at the contract in my hand. I opened it up, skimming through. A tear dropped from my eyes and into the paper. I took my hand to my face and cleaned my tears with the back of my palm.

'Now is not the time to cry Serena. You need to get your revenge!' I said to myself, determined to do everything I can to get back at them.

I cleaned the tears away from the paper, staring hard at my name. My name was right there. I was to be married to Gabe, who was my enemy, for two years.

Could I really do this? I knew Gabe was known as a ruthless and very feared person here, but would I be able to cope with his guts? We hated each other so much and even competed with our company's products.

I looked up at him and back down at the paper. I looked at the pictures on my lap, and down at the bandages wrapped around my torso.

"I will marry you" I nodded at Gabe.

"But on one condition"