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.

Lana Castroff

I brought the last box into Phoenix's penthouse and put it in my bedroom. I looked at all the boxes and stretched my arms out because it's been a tiring day moving in from my house to his penthouse.

Phoenix's penthouse has two floors and he even has a private pool on the second floor which is amazing. I can't believe he's living alone in this penthouse and manages not to feel lonely most of the time.

I agreed to get married to him because I want to pissed of my father. I bet one though percent on it that he will be mad at me. I'm tired of him having an affair with my own mother who already got married with her commoner boyfriend.

My father must be somewhere in Europe with my mother and his secretary just informed me that he will be back by the time I'm going to Maldives. Suck for him because I will be back in Paris and he will know that I'm married to Phoenix.

"Lana." I heard Phoenix knocking on my door.

"Yeah?" I answered and walked towards the door opening it.

"Your appointment, they're already downstairs." Shit! We both agreed to have a fitting for our dress and tuxedo to go to his cousin's wedding. We need to match and make a statement to announce our wedding without taking over his cousin's night.

"I think I have to take a quick shower because I'm sweating right now. Do you mind giving me 10 minutes?" I asked and he smiled nodding.

"I'll let them know." He said and I closed the door. I quickly jumped into the shower because I don't want to have a fitting with my sweaty body. I bet the don't mind but I'm not comfortable enough for that.

After taking a shower, I put on a black tank top and a black short. I went down to the first floor to see around 6 people ready to help me and Phoenix together.

"Caesar, this is my date to my cousin's wedding." Phoenix introduced me to the head of the styling team.

"Oh my gosh, Ms. Castroff. I've been dreaming to style you." He said as he took my hand kissing it.

"I'll be the one who will thank you." I said chuckling.

"Should we start?" Phoenix said and I nodded. The team started to measure my body and brought me the dresses that will fit my body perfectly. I looked at it one by one when I felt Phoenix has his hands on my waist from the back.

"I think this color will suit you." He whispered to my ear giving me goose bumps all over my body. He pulled out a beautiful emerald dress.

"Don't you think it will too much?" I asked as I looked at the beautiful dress.

"Trust me, my family will over dress and the bride will still.. over power them." He said as he kissed my cheek. That actually caught me of guard because I never thought he would kiss me.

After that, Caesar's assistants helped me to get in this dress. Caesar styled it with some accessories and I tried 3-4 more dresses before deciding to go with the first one. Phoenix already tried his tuxedo and he looked incredibly handsome.

After 4 hours for fitting and trying to find a suitable hair for me, we're done. I sat down on the sofa relaxing because fitting isn't my thing even though I love shopping.

"How will we announce your wedding without them being shocked and suspicious?" I asked and Phoenix sat down as he gave me a glass of water.

"Well I'm planning to announce it on the after party so let's not wear our wedding ring until then." He said and I nodded. I sipped on the water slowly.

"You've been hanging out with Adrian a lot huh?" He asked and I chuckled.

"He's really cool and fun to be with."

"Really? That's a really weird statement." He said in a weird tone and I raised my eyebrows wondering if it's a sarcasm or just a pure insult to insult his friend.

"Is he an Illicit too?" I asked bluntly.

"I can't tell you who's the other members, Lana. It's not a study group type of vibe." He said as he looked down the window.

"I'm a little nervous." I said as I looked out the window again. I drank all of my water and sighed.

"Don't be.. they will love you."

"So you think marriage will solve your family problems?" I asked and he nodded. Phoenix chuckled before turning his head to me.

"Oh yes, they've been dying to see me get married but I've never been planning to really settle down sooner or later. When we have our divorce later on, they will disappointed at me but they will think we have problems so.. they won't force me into another marriage again until I'm in my 30s.. I assume." I nodded and put the empty glass on the table.

"We will be good at playing it, I know that." I said confidently because I think it's easy to act like someone's lovers. It won't be hard to fool everyone. All you need to do is just have your hands around them most of the time and give them a kiss once in a while and maybe stare into their eyes sometimes.

"I know but don't even think about getting comfortable with me, Lana. I don't do love and shit so.. I fucking hate clingy girls." He hissed showing that he really hates the idea of settling down.

"Don't worry, I'm not that type of woman. I will never long someone who won't even look at me. This will be easy as long as we both give each other spaces when we're not doing this." I said in a serious tone.

"We both can date anyone we like, you can date Adrian if you want to."

Phoenix Sterling

We purposely came kinda late to Maldives because we don't want to deal with people before the party. We arrived about 2 hours before the wedding and we both were busy preparing ourselves for it.

"Ready?" I was fixing my tie when she came out from the bathroom looking so beautiful in her cream cocktail dress. She smiled at me and turned her body around.

"What do you think?" She asked.

"You look beautiful." I said because she did take my breath away. She grabbed her small clutch and she pointed at the door. "Let's go?"

"Yeah." I said and I checked myself one more time at the mirror before going out. I turned to her and asked her to link her arms to mine. She linked her arm and we walked to the venue together.

"I'm a little nervous." She said.

"They will love you, don't worry." I said as we walked closer to the church. I saw some people that I recognized and they saw me. I wrapped my arm around her waist pulling her closer to me.

"Uncle Ed!" I hugged him because it's been a long time since I've seen him.

"My boy.." He said as he hugged me tighter.

"Uncle, I want you to meet my girlfriend. Her name is Lana Castroff." I said as I turned to Lana. "Babe, this is my uncle Edward."

"Nice to meet you." Lana said as she gave him a brief hug.

"Your parents kept asking about you.. you should go." He said and I nodded. I wrapped my arm around Lana again before walking into the church. I saw a couple of my cousins and introduced them to Lana before meeting my parents.

"It's really nice meeting you, you're so sweet." Lana said to my cousin, Gia.

"Darling, my parents already waiting. We'll talk to you later, Gia." I smiled to my cousin and she gestured me to go. I held Lana's hand and brought her to my parents.

"Mother father.. this is my girlfriend, Lana." I introduced her to them. She smiled and gave them a warming hug.

"I've heard a lot of things about you, Mr. Sterling. Phoenix really adores you." Ever since we walked into this church, she's been really good at playing the girlfriend or the wife card. She's a natural and I'm really glad that I picked the right woman for this.

"Really? That's pretty rare." My father turned to me and I chuckled.

"Sorry about last time, Lana. I hope we could start over." My mother said and Lana smiled. "It's okay, Mrs. Sterling. I understand that you want the best for Phoenix."

"The wedding will start in 5 minutes.. please be seated." We heard the announcement and my parents asked us to sit together with them. Lana sat beside my mother and I wrapped my arm around her pulling her closer to me.

"Do you know the groom babe?" She asked and I kissed her cheek nodding.

"He and Edeline were high school sweethearts." I said and she turned to me smiling. I saw starstruck for a second and caught out of guard when she gave me a peck on my lips. She leaned her body to me and turned her attention to the door.

The wedding started and the groom, Lorenzo, walked in. He looked great in his suit and I knoew that he's ready to get married. He stood at the front and when they announced that the bride is entering the room, we all stood up.

I wrapped my arms around Lana's waist from the back as we both were looking at Edeline entering the church looking so beautiful in her wedding dress with her father.

"She looks.. so.. beautiful." Lana said.

"You're more." I whispered but loud enough for my mother to hear. She chuckled and I kissed her cheek. Edeline walked down the aisle and now it's time for them to say each other vows.

"I think I'm going to cry." She said as Lorenzo started to say his vow. I chuckled seeing Lana and can't help but gave a kiss on her lips for how adorable she was. She was biting her lips hearing the vows and cried a little.

"There.. there.." I said as I wiped her tears slowly. My mother even offered tissues for her. "Thankyou, mother." I said and my mother smiled.

"They're so beautiful." Lana said and I couldn't hold it anymore. I kissed her lips slowly and we both looked at each other before I sat up straight again. I felt her body tense and I held her hands tightly.

We cheered happily when the priest pronounced that they're officially husband and wife. They walked down the aisle together and there's a lot of flower petals being thrown in the air celebrating the newlywed couple.

I introduced Lana to my family and they love her. They really like her just like how I predicted. She really played the girlfriend role really well. We're acting like we're already dating for a really long time too. She's that good and she really knows how to make people like her.

"Phoenix, let's have tea together." My father suddenly approached me. I nodded and we both followed my father towards the cafe there. We sat down as a family and I think this is the perfect time to announce them.

"I actually have something to say.." I said as I turned to Lana. I held her hand tightly and then turned to my parents.

"We.. got married about 4 days ago." I said and my parents' reaction was crazy. They were speechless and I chuckled.

"I've been dating her for quite some time now and I felt really right. That's why I really hate when you both are trying to set me up with someone." I said trying to fool my parents completely.

"She's the one. I actually popped the question about a month ago and we couldn't stay away from each other." I said turning my head to Lana. She smiled and leaned towards me for a kiss.

"How could you.. not tell us first?"

"I rather not because I don't want you to pressure Lana to marry me." I said and my father chuckled.

"Well, I'm really happy for you both. Will you have a wedding ceremony?"

"We're planning to.. in about a month but there's something going on with her family so she needs to settle down that first before we proceed with the wedding." I said and my mother got up from her seat hugging us tightly.

"I'm so happy for you guys!"