Phoenix Sterling

I really hate it when my parents tried to set me up with the woman of their choice. I don't understand why they really want me to settle down as soon as possible when I'm only 26 years old. I'm the youngest out of the Illicit and why am I supposed to be the first one to settle down.

I don't want to settle down.

After I asked my chauffeur to send Lorena back to the hotel, I decided to have a word with my mother.

"You know now that I have a girlfriend so could you please stop trying to set me up with Lorena?" I asked her and she drank her tea slowly.

"Mother, I really like Lana and you can't treat her coldly like what you did in my office. She's my girlfriend so you shouldn't act like that."

"I don't believe you, Phoenix. You asked her to be your girlfriend last minute right? I've been watching you closely these days and you never went out with her." She said and I sighed.

"Mother, I'm still young and I'm not planning to settle down just yet. How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not going to.. settle down anytime soon." I said seriously and she suddenly smirked.

"Very well.. we won't force you to settle down but.."

"What? Please don't make me do ridiculous things!" I sighed.

"You know your cousin will have her wedding next week and the family planned to have a vacation together in Maldives. Why don't you bring Lana with you? Let's spend a week together and maybe I'll consider taking my hands off from your love life, darling." No shit sherlock.

"Mother, I'm still young and please stop th-"

"Do you know why me and your father keep trying to set you up with women?" She asked and I raised my eyebrows.

"You want grandchildren and that's it.." I said and she chuckled.

"I'm so thankful for you, Phoenix, my son. You've been working so hard to get where you are now. You've been working non-stop since you're 17 and you've done so much for me and your father."

"You know why I did that." I said and my mother grabbed my hand.

"Yes, you wanted to save your father. You did everything just to keep him alive."

"I can't live without you both so.. it was worth it." I said as I looked down to the plate in front of me.

"You've been working non-stop for the past 9 years and you're a billionaire now. Me and your father really want you to be happy and having a family is the most wonderful feeling ever." She said as she squeezed my hand.

"Mother, I'm happy now. I'll be more happy if you and father stop setting me up with a lot of women."

"If your definition of happy means sleeping around and get drunk, I will slap the shit out of you." There she goes again with her thick british accent.

"Mother, I'm young. You know my friends and I still love working."

"I really like your friends, Phoenix. I really do but the one thing that I hate about them is that.. you all are workaholics and.. playboys.." She sighed and I chuckled.

"You only live-" I stopped when she glared at me hard.

"Why don't you like Lorena? She's beautiful." She asked and I rolled my eyes.

"Phoenix Andreas Sterling!" She hissed.

"She loves my money, mother. I bet she's already plotting how to kill me once you force your son to say I do." She sighed and nodded.

"Very well, I'll get rid of her but.. you have to promise me to bring Lana to Edeline's wedding." She said and I nodded.

"Deal, I'll see you next week then."

After a long lunch and talk with my mother. I went straight back to my office to do my work again. I decided not to think about my mother's invitation for Lana because I rather make excuses than begging Lana to go and pretend to be my girlfriend.

Suddenly my secretary walked into my office and she gave me a report about the investigation for dangerous chemicals in Lana's beauty products.

"Mr. Sterling, we already did the investigation two times to make sure that the ingredients inside those products and the results showed that there's no acid. Mr. Castroff did change some ingredients but it was clear. There's no acid or other dangerous chemicals in those products." My secretary said and I checked the papers to see the results.

"Lana knows about this fact?" I asked and my secretary nodded.

"She knew and her team is still figuring out how that acid could be in those bottles."

"Check their CCTVs and ours, we might find something from there. Please make sure no one knows about this investigation except you, me and the investigation team. I want to know who dares to do this." I said seriously as I read through the result.

"Yes, Mr. Sterling." She said and I gestured her to go out from my office.

"Oh Mr. Sterling, I forgot to.. mention this but Ms. Castroff already gave your employees who got hurt a lot of money to cover their work and the damage that they got. She apologized again yesterday to them."

"Okay, thankyou for letting me know." I said and she smiled before walking out from my office. I turned my seat around and looked out the window to see the beautiful view of the Eiffel tower.

My phone rang and I picked it up right away.

"Hello."

"You're free?" Angelo asked me.

"I'm busy, ask Adrian." I said as I turned my seat around again.

"He's busy dating." I laughed at Angelo's statement.

"Dating who?"

"Lana Castroff." My eyes widen that second.

"He's dating?"

"Yeah, they're having lunch and apparently.. coffee date too." That mother F. I ended the call and immediately dialed Adrian's number.

"Yes, Phoenix my darling." Adrian answered immediately.

"Where are you?"

"I'm at the office?"

"You're with Lana?" I asked straightforwardly.

"I told you not to call me that." I heard Lana said in a not so friendly tone.

"I need to talk to you."

"You better reduce that settlement."

"I've got more to offer." I smirked.

Lana Castroff

I walked into Phoenix's office with his secretary and she asked me if I want tea or coffee. I told her the water will be just fine and she told me to wait for Phoenix for about 5 minutes because he's still in a meeting. I sat down on the sofa and laid back for a second.

I'm really tired of dealing with all of this alone. When will my father comeback because I'm ready to kill him for leaving me in the middle of something like this.

I bet he's with her again.

The door opened and Phoenix entered the room with his secretary. His secretary gave me a bottle of cold water and Phoenix asked her to leave us both alone.

"Ms. Castroff.. I have a proposition for you." I raised my eyebrows when he said that.

"I don't think I will like this." I said and he sighed.

"I know you won't but.. I have a better deal for you to cover that."

"What do you want?" I asked as I crossed my leg. He took a really deep breath and he looked at me seriously.

"I want you to marry me." I looked at him and blinked a few times.

"I know it sounds crazy but.. I have an offer for you and it will surely gives you more benefits." He said and I tried to take a really deep breath before answering him.

"Mr. Sterling, I'm sure that you're aware that we both currently under a lawsuit agreement. My products hurt your employees and I don't think marrying you even though it's just for show will make people believe our relationship." I said calmly trying to process everything slowly.

"I'm aware of that, Ms. Castroff. The thing is that nobody has to know that we're married except for my family of course." He said and I sat up straight opening my water bottle aggressively.

"What do you mean? So nobody will never know that we're married?"

"That's true."

"So what's the point of marrying then? We won't show it off to the public anyway." I said as I laughed nervously.

"I don't want my family to bother me again and arrange me with the women of their choice. I will make sure that no one except our family know about our relationship." He said proudly about his plan.

"Mr. Sterling, I don't think I want this arrangement. I rather pay you the settlement in a full amount than have to deal with you." I said smiling widely.

"You haven't hear about my offer yet.."

"I don't need to hear it. How about you ask Julie for it? I bet she will do it for the money. She's a commoner.. remember?" I said as I got up from the sofa.

"I will drop the charges, I will help your product become more well known and I will gladly use your product in all of my company." He said as he gestured me to sit down again.

"We're doing great on our own, Mr. Sterling. We don't need your help." I said as I grabbed my bag.

"How about I'll give you one million euros?" He offered and I sighed.

"The idea of us marrying will only help you not me." I said as I pointed my finger at him.

"Ms. Castroff, I guess.. I have to blackmail you then.." He said smirking as he got up from his seat. He suddenly walked towards the door and locked it making me a little bit anxious.

He took out his wallet and he showed me a card that says Illicit on it. He's proving himself as the member of The Illicit. The Illicit was known to be the strongest foundation of Europe. They're really good at business and make connections with a lot of countries. They're clearly a part of the elites who has a lot of privilege in every corner.

"Ah.. you know the Illicit huh?" He said and I bet he's judging by my reaction.

"I can tell everyone that you are the member of Illicit." I said seriously and looked at him coldly.

"No matter how much you're going to scream outside, no one would listen." He said as he walked closer to me.

"I don't have any other choice to blackmail you, Ms. Castroff. I have to say this desperately because I really need you to play this role." He said as he closed the gap between us.

"You know how powerful I am right? I can crush your business easily and your family legacy will be gone in a snap. I suggest you accept my offer and get the benefits that you will get than rejecting the offer." He said in a serious tone. His eyes was burning in flames showing that he's not playing games.

I can say that he's crazy. He didn't even give me room or time to think. He was busy blackmailing me and I just.. couldn't believe that I'm in this situation.

"Can you give me time to.. think?"

"I'm afraid, I can't." He said and I sighed.

"Mr. Sterling, marriage is a real deal for me. I can't just randomly marrying you. You can find another woman who would gladly help you in this situation." I said nervously and he shook his head.

"We will enter the marriage secretly and we will have a divorce secretly. I will guarantee you that, you can act like you never got married before." He said like it wasn't a big deal for him. I'm starting to have a headache all of the sudden.

"We will only act as a married couple when my family's around, you don't need to worry about that. I will give you freedom to date around and just.. enjoying life like you're single. Don't mind me because I won't mind you either."

"Mr. Sterling, I still don't think that this is a good idea." I said.

"I will help your business more and as a reward.. I will give you one million euros." He added and it made me want to smack the shit out of him.

"You can't think or decide this later." He said and suddenly I remembered about my father. Maybe this is one of the ways to piss him off. Maybe this will teach him something.

"Fine, I'll marry you."

Phoenix Sterling

"But on one condition.." She said as she took a step back and sat down on the sofa.

"What?"

"Let me stay in your house but with seperate rooms." I raised my eyebrows completely amused by her condition.

"That's easy, I will gladly grant your wish."

"You want to pleased your parents and I want to pissed off mine. I hope you can cooperate with me when it comes to that." That made me wonder if she hates her parents.

"No one can know that we're married and don't even wear the wedding rings on a daily basis except when we're meeting our families." She said and I nodded.

"That's easy for sure. Anything else?"

"How long should we do this?" She asked.

"Maybe 7-8 months, I think it's enough for my parents to leave me alone." I said as I sat down on the sofa across her.

"But I want you to play the role of a good wife. I want you to make my parents love you so they will leave me alone." I added.

"It won't be hard." She said and I let out a breath of relief.

"My mother asked me to bring you to Maldives this Saturday for my cousin's wedding. We will be staying there for 8 days or maybe less than that."

"Okay.. so are we going there dating or married?"

"Married couple, we will surprise them with our marriage there. We can sign the legal documents as soon as possible. I'll buy us rings to convince them." I said as I took out my phone writing it down on my notes.

"Okay." She said as she looked up to me without any emotions.

"I'll call you for further information." I said and she nodded.

"No one will know about this except us right? Only your family and mine then.. we can get divorce too quitely."

"Yes, that's true. I will make sure no one leak it to the media or trying to sell this kind of information to anyone." I said seriously and she got up from her seat.

"Very well." She said as she put her hand in front of me.

"Good." I smirked.

After that conversation, I made a contract myself for this matter because I don't want anyboby else to know about us being together. A day after that, I prepared a room fornher to move in with me and the contract done. She signed it without reading it and I wonder what's going on in that head of hers.

We both prepared a lot of documents for our marriage and we went to registered our marriage together. Everything was done perfectly and there's no flaw in it. We both got married officially without anyone knowing about it except us both for now.

We looked at each other after we both finished signing the legal papers. She put her hand in front of me and I shook it. I pulled out a small black box out from my pocket and opened it. She looked at it without any emotion.

"I think it's too big.. we're not real and you will have to sell that later on." She said as she looked at me raising her eyebrows.

"It's a statement, Lana. I'm a billionaire so I have to give my wife the biggest ring that ever existed." I said proudly and she just put her left hand in front of me. I slipped the beautiful diamond ring to her and she sighed.

"I hope it will go smoothly for the both of us." She said and I caressed her hand. She looked at me and tried her best to smile. I always wondered.. if something is bothering her. She seemed to have a lot of things going on in her mind.

"We will go to Maldives the day after tomorrow so.. be ready." I said as we walked out after registering our wedding.

"Yeah, I know."

"When will you move in?" I asked as I opened my car door.

"Tomorrow." We both got into the car and I quickly started the car driving it out from the building.

"Very well."

"Your wedding ring?" She asked.

"At home, don't worry."

I thought dealing with Lana would be difficult but it was an easy deal. She accepted it and I still can't believe that I'm married now. Not technically married with love but still married to someone so I could get my parents off. I will make sure that no one knows about this relationship except our families. She agreed to that too so that's easy.

I gave the both of us freedom to be with someone else. We both won't be staying married forever, we're doing this for show so if she or I happen to meet someone in the middle, we can freely date them.

I'm a little nervous actually. I hope she can act smoothly in front of my family without being awkward.

"You and Finn.. you like him?" I asked her in a careful tone.

"I loved him but I decided not to go for him anymore. He has a low taste in women and I rather not be with a man like that. Besides he's rude to me so.. I'm not the type of woman who will stick around and wait like an idiot." I can say that I was surprised hearing her answer. I was expecting her to be obsess with him.

"Julie is not that type of woman, Lana. You shouldn't judge people without knowing them."

"I hate commoners, they don't deserve to hangout with us." She hissed.

"Why do you say that? You know that there's a lot of good people out there who's not wealthy like us." I said as I stopped at the red light.

"My mother left us for a low class commoner, she abandoned me and my father for that man. She's living in poverty when she can get everything that she wants in this world." That's the reason why she.. hates commoners.

"She left me and my father when I was 2 years old. She didn't even try to get in contact with me and I hate my father for keeping in touch with her. She's basically having an affair with that man and my father. I can say that my father is stupid for going back to my mother when he can have other good woman who's the same level as us." I turned to her and grabbed her hand.

"You don't know the reason why he's like that, Lana. You can't judge people without hearing their side of the story." I said and she shook her head.

"Just drive, Phoenix." She said as she pulled her hand away from me.