JONATHAN'S POV

I grabbed Danielle's hand and felt her take a deep breath against me. This wasn't how this was supposed to work. I knew how cruel people could be, and the comments I'd seen on the group chat about her were making my blood boil, since I was the one that had suggested this.

"Are you ready?"

She nodded, and I opened the stairwell and stepped out, aware of the multiple eyes on us and particularly on our joined hands. While I would have gone with my personal elevator, I ignored Danielle's protest and entered the general elevator. There was no point in dragging it out.

We entered the elevator amidst shocked looks, and the whispers began. I looked down at Danielle to see how she was taking the reaction, and smiled when I saw how relaxed she was. I watched the floors move from the ground floor, and the elevator stopped and opened to the third floor, where Julia was standing with three other women. Most of the employees in the elevator came out, leaving two women who had not bothered to hide their curiosity. 

The feeling of tension immediately enveloped the elevator, and I knew people were curious about what drama was going to unfold. It wasn't a secret that Julia could turn crazy in the blink of an eye.

She continued staring at me without a word, and I pressed the button for the doors to close. Just as the door was closing, and I started feeling relieved, she stopped the door and entered with the women. Danielle, having noticed the change in environment, had also gone tense beside me.

"Good morning, boss. I wasn't aware a special event was holding today." Julia said, pointedly staring at our still joined hands.

Danielle tried removing her hands from me, but I held it tighter. "I guess you missed the memo. Not sure how that could have happened, since someone specially helped me announce the good news." I replied. There was no doubt she was the one that had posted the announcement, even though it had been posted by an anonymous account. She was the only one vindictive and brave enough to have done it.

She smiled, "I don't know what you're talking about. Posted what? What announcement?"

Thankfully, the elevator stopped on the fourth floor, and the remaining two employees that were still in the elevator with us came out. I could recognize them as part of the planning team. The door was closing when their voices flitted to me.

"Isn't this so interesting? That's the ex and the new girlfriend."

The other woman laughed. "Did you see her face? If looks could kill."

Now that the three of us were alone, Danielle made another move to remove her hands, but I held her firmly, none of which Julia had missed. "You're kidding, right?"

I looked at her, putting on my best uninterested stare. "About what? Us?" I asked.

Julia turned to Danielle, hate very obvious in her face. "Who do you think you're deceiving? I give this your arrangement two weeks max."

Danielle stiffened, and the elevator dinged for the last floor. Danielle removed her hands forcefully and went out of the elevator with no last look at us. I turned to Julia. "What's your problem? I don't need your interference in my life; what part of that don't you understand?"

She laughed and pressed the button for the already closing doors to open. "I think this conversation should be held somewhere more comfortable, don't you think?"

Seeing no other help for it, I followed Julia to my office, noting Danielle wasn't at her table. I entered my office and sighed when I saw Julia already seated at the corner I had for important conversations. I went down the stairs and sat down, crossing my legs.

She scoffed. "Why do you look like you're doing something great? I heard both of you talking yesterday. What kind of foolhardy arrangement is this?"

I let her continue to talk, but couldn't remain silent as her reprimand to me turned to insults to Danielle. "Don't talk about Danielle like that. Since you said you overheard our conversation, you should know I was the one that brought it up."

She narrowed her eyes. "If you're that desperate to be in a relationship or get married, I have nothing against that, but not that woman. I'm not going to allow it."

"Allow it?" I laughed mirthlessly. "Who are you to allow or not allow it?"

She stood up and walked closer to me. "Have you forgotten so soon? You don't want that precious piece of information I have entering the world, do you?"

I stood up. "You won't dare it. You also have a lot to lose if you reveal that. Have you forgotten that? This involves both of us. You think I will allow you to do anything funny and go scot-free?"

"Not that woman. What do you even know about her?" She asked, breathing heavily.

"What did I know about you when we started? This isn't my first rodeo, anyway, or yours." I said, gesturing to her. "You should know more about that."

With one last look at me, she stalked out of my office, her heels making a clicking sound with her movement, leaving a sad, bitter taste in me. If I could, I would go back to rewrite my history with her, starting with when I first met her. I couldn't believe she had even thought of threatening me.

Determined to remove her from my mind, I could think of what to do later, but for now, there were more important decisions to make. Like, where exactly and when to get married to my secretary?

JULIA'S POV

I was going to make that woman regret this. Before she came, everything had been okay, and now she was trying to take everything from me, and I couldn't allow that to happen.

I walked to her front, waiting for her to acknowledge me-something I knew she was doing on purpose. After a few minutes of silence I couldn't take again, I tapped her table, and she looked at me, removing the AirPods in her ears. I narrowed my eyes; I wasn't buying that crap.

"Whatever agreement you have with him, break it immediately." She continued staring at me, and I broke. "You don't want to mess with me. I'm that person dear daddy should have been warning you about from your birth, understood?"

She dropped the AirPods she had been holding. "Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance to, as he was murdered when I was younger."

I laughed. "No wonder. You didn't have someone to teach you what and what not to do. You don't want to cross me. Nathan is mine, and anyone that tries to take what belongs to me, I will destroy."

She nodded and put her AirPods back in, and I laughed. I was going to show that silly chit, I wasn't to be messed with. I pressed the button for the elevator and entered, bringing out my phone as soon as the door closed.

Before I could dial the number, my phone started ringing. I sighed when I saw who was calling.

"What?" I snapped.

The voice on the other side laughed. "Looks like my daughter isn't in a great mood. Just what I like to see. How is the assignment going?"

I calmed myself down. Getting worked up in the presence of this man had never brought me anything good. "It's going well. It will be finalized very soon."

"You'd better make it as soon as possible; I'm running out of patience." He said and dropped the call. Taking a deep breath didn't help my anger, and so I flung my bag against the wall. I wasn't going to allow anything to stop me. I'd worked way too hard for this to suddenly lose control like this.

DANIELLE'S POV

I glanced at my phone, which hadn't stopped buzzing with messages and calls that I had intentionally been ignoring. I let out a sigh and picked it up, going through the messages that had come in.

Shoot, I checked my wristwatch and checked the time, seeing I had about twenty minutes left of my lunch hour, but I didn't let that derail me. I knew Lucas very well, and since he had promised to come to my office if I didn't show up at the café, something I couldn't let happen, I needed to meet him as soon as possible.

Still bent over my bag, the boss' office opened, and I watched as he walked towards me. I put my phone into my bag and stood upright.

"Are you going to have lunch? Let's have lunch together." He said, and I looked regretfully at my phone that had started buzzing with another message.

He studied me, as if just seeing I didn't look like I was headed to the cafeteria. "Where are you going?" He asked, his voice mildly curious.

"I have a lunch appointment I must make." I informed him, feeling the pressure of every second I spent talking to him.

"Looks like it's important. We can meet tomorrow or something." He said, making me feel guilty. It was obviously the wise decision to take, as I knew the cafeteria would be buzzing with gossip and people staining my reputation. One of the reasons I'd intentionally closed my mind off to eating lunch until I'd checked my phone.

"I'm sorry." I apologized and silenced my phone as it began ringing again. I was so going to kill Lucas. I just needed to make it to him in time, plus I wasn't really anticipating our meeting.

"It's fine. What of dinner? We have some plans we need to re-discuss since the news has already spread."

I nodded. "That will work." I wanted to ask about Julia. After her hissy fit before she'd left, I hadn't been able to ignore her, and I had a feeling she wasn't going to let me just go like that. Maybe I should have been the one to ask about past partners from him before I'd agreed to the marriage, but I didn't forget everything was going according to plan. Well, not exactly everything, I thought as my phone began buzzing again. Lucas was supposed to have accepted my decision with meekness, for crying out loud.

"You can go. Sorry for the delay." Jonathan said, and with a grateful nod, I left him standing there, my mind going to the way I could escape the company without any employee seeing me. This wasn't really a good time to explain to them. Something I knew they would want to get.

************************************************************

The elevator dinged for the ground floor, and with one deep breath, I stepped out, seeing immediately that my wish/prayer hadn't been answered. It was like I had been anticipated to arrive at that very time, with the fact that nearly everyone was there, and all eyes turned to me the moment I stepped out of the elevator.

"Please don't come to me." I whispered, increasing my footsteps, but I had to stop as two employees I hadn't seen before stepped in my way.

"What's the rush? It looks like you're running away from something when you behave like this." The man said, and I didn't miss the other employees nodding their agreement.

"I have an appointment I'm already late for." I said and tried escaping, but the woman stepped closer to me, making me take a step back. What happened to privacy, really?

"Is it true?" She asked, eyes lit up in curiosity, and I stepped back again as the remaining employees there moved around me, so I was in the middle of about thirty employees. What nonsense did people say about men not being gossips, again because about half of them were men and looked as curious as the women?

I tried feigning ignorance. "What?" and realized that was the wrong step as the fake smile donning their faces dropped. The woman, the ringleader, moved closer to me.

"You know what exactly I'm talking about." She sneered. "I've worked in this company for the last three years and never has the boss given any woman any second glance, regardless of all our advances. Maybe except Julia." She finished as an afterthought. "So, tell me, what's your secret?"

I shook my head. "Nothing." My phone buzzed again, and I felt my eyes widen. 'You're not responding; I'll soon be in front of your company. Did that jerk stop you from coming outside?' The text said.

I looked at the faces of the people around me; more than half of them, including the women, looked over twenty years older than Jonathan. It was a wonder what they thought they could use to seduce him. Their ages? But of course, since I wasn't suicidal, I didn't say any of that out.

I put on my best charming expression. "We met since college, and we've liked each other since then. When I applied for the position of his secretary, I didn't know he was the owner, since I had transferred in my freshman year and we met then. Old sparks were reignited, and now we're getting married." I explained the fake plan we'd come up with. Since we were in the same age group, it had seemed better than trying to convince people we had fallen in love in mere months.

The woman's jaw dropped, and she grabbed my hands. "That's so cute."

I batted my eyelash, trying for innocence, and made my eyes water. At this rate, I ought to be awarded for best actress. "I know. I didn't expect to meet him again. We were both each other's first love, and it's just fate and destiny that brought us together again."

The woman nodded. "I knew it. That was why, even with so many more gorgeous and better dressed women at the interview, he had picked you. My instinct never fails me." She winked at me, and I smiled back, knowing that hadn't in any way been meant as a compliment, but I couldn't focus on that right now.

The woman and the other employees, obviously uninterested since they hadn't gotten what they had wanted from me, my humiliation, I could guess, soon dispersed, and I checked my phone again. Since the last text Lucas had sent, he hadn't tried to reach me again. That was a recipe for disaster.

I dialed his number and rushed towards the entrance and stopped in my tracks.

"Danielle." I heard his voice both from my phone and physically as he was about ten feet away from me. In front of my company, where it had just been announced I was getting married to my boss. I headed towards him, and he grabbed my hands, worried.

"What's the rush? Why wasn't I able to reach you?"

JONATHAN'S POV

I dropped my phone, determined to ignore it again, but before it hit the desk, a preview of the text flashed across the screen. I closed it and focused on the coffee I was brewing when the phone started ringing. I knew who was calling, so I ignored it, picked my cup of coffee, and went towards the window that looked towards the entrance of the company.

I focused on the scene that was playing in front of me. Was that Danielle? And who was that man with her? Was he the emergency appointment she'd had? My eyes narrowed as he grabbed her hands, and I took a sip of my coffee when she detached it. From where I was standing, it looked like they were having an argument, with the man having the upper hand. 

I grabbed my phone, belatedly realizing I had moved closer to the window because I'd seen Julia's message hinting that an emergency needed my attention and I laughed humourlessly, I guess I was more curious than I thought. I gripped my cup of coffee tighter, considering going down. If they wanted to argue, did they have to do it in front of the company? The most important element in the arrangement I was entering with Danielle was making our parents have no doubt in us, and I could imagine all the rumours that could possibly flit to my parents with my 'future girlfriend' having what looked like a flirtatious quarrel rather than an argument with another man, right in front of my company.

I looked closely at what was happening. The man was now pulling away from Danielle, who was talking calmly, but judging from what I could see of his expression, she might well have been yelling. The anger I was feeling lessened, and my lips pulled into a smile as I continued watching the scene. I opened my text and saw the last text Julia had left. I studied the picture Julia had sent me, trying to place where I had seen that face before. He looked oddly familiar. 

"You don't want anybody else misinterpreting what is yours." I looked at the text and opened the text box near Danielle's name and sent her a text, knowing the exact moment she saw the text as she looked up at the window I was staring from. "I need you back at the office in the next ten minutes." As annoying as it seemed, especially since it had come from Julia, the drama that was playing was an easily misinterpretable scene that would totally ruin our contractual arrangement.

DANIELLE'S POV

I checked my text and looked up at the window my boss' office was located. "What did he need me for?" I turned to Lucas, who was still looking furious. Well, he wasn't the only one that could feel that way. I also leveled up my glare at him.

"I need to go. My boss needs me."

He scoffed. "The same one you're planning to marry? Don't you think this is his way of already trying to control you? It's just past your lunch hour. I would think he would be able to give you ten extra minutes."

I shook my head. "Let's not start this again, and I asked that we go somewhere we could sit, but you refused." I looked at my wristwatch. "I really have to go. I'll call you later or something." Without waiting for him to agree or reject it, I left him standing there and walked hurriedly into the company. Thankfully, it was still as I'd left it and there was nobody there since the lunch break was over.

I'd known Lucas would have overreacted, of course, but I hadn't expected him to overreact the way he had. I didn't need an older brother fighting my battles for me, and it was the fact that he was treating me like an invalid who didn't have the wisdom to make her own decision that really got to me. Plus the insults he never really managed to leave behind.

I came down out of the elevator and rushed immediately to my boss' office, the result being my breathing a little bit fast as I knocked on his door. I really needed to stop staying at home and start working out. I was in a really terrible shape.

"Come in." He called, and I entered.

"You called for me, sir." I said, entering his office, and went to stand in front of him.

I jumped and gasped when he hit a file on the table, but his face wasn't showing anything.

"Danielle." He called, and I jumped again. This was the first time he had ever called my name, but why did it feel like he was furious with me? He hadn't, right? There was no way he could have seen me with Lucas.

"Yes Sir." I whispered.

He took out his phone and showed me a picture, and my mind went blank. Obviously he had seen me, and that was why he had cut our meeting short.

"It's not what it looks like, sir." 

"What exactly does it look like? Look at the picture and let me know." He replied calmly, and I fought for words because he was correct. It looked very wrong. The picture had been taken right in the middle of our argument, and Lucas had been holding my hand. I remembered it was when he had brought up the fact that he still hadn't been able to get over his sister's death, and me getting married to a man he didn't know was basically the same thing his sister had done that had gotten her killed. I know. What was Jonathan so angry for, though? Wasn't it a contractual relationship?

"I remember asking you before, but I'll ask you again. Is there any old flame or somebody that will be a risk to our arrangement? I'm a very proud man, and everybody knows I don't share, so it will make no sense for me to marry a woman that has another man pinning for her." All these were said in a very calm and collected voice, but that somehow made it even more scary for me. I could still hear the edge of anger in his calm voice, and his pride kind of made his reactions make sense.

A knock sounded on his door before I could respond, making me jump, but before I could get my bearing, a woman came into the office. The woman was dressed impeccably in a blue suit and pantsuit and looked to be about sixty, but that took nothing from her beauty.

"Oh, sorry. Did I interrupt something?" She stopped when she noticed my presence.