After Helen is set up in an arranged marriage with the mysterious and proud billionaire, Ethan, she thinks she would start to live an extravagant lifestyle. Helen has to cope with Ethan's secretive and mysterious lifestyle as they fall in love. With Helen on the verge of bringing Ethan out of his shell, his first love, Sophia, appears after getting divorced and tries to tear them apart. Julian, a richer billionaire, is in love with Helen as well. He is determined to get her no matter what he needs to do. Supposed to be two, now they are four. Are they prepared for what lies in the future?
Chapter 1 An Unexpected Hookup
"Helen! Come out now, we have visitors!" Tom shouted with his croaky voice. I was displeased and I felt like snubbing him. For goodness's sake, I could wear my headphones and act like I was unable to hear him.
But I didn't because the good child in me would not allow me. I never wanted to be a good girl, but today was different. I sat up, placed my phone down on the bed gently, and stepped out. I was even curious to see Tom's visitors. They could never be mine.
OK, my name is Helen and Tom was my uncle. I can remember living with him since I could recite the English Alphabet. That could have been exaggerated, but he told me it was since I was six years old. My parents died from a fire accident in our house and I would have died too if my mother hadn't rescued me. She did but she still burnt to death. I have no memory of that incident even though I should. I was just six years old.
When I stepped outside my room, I could see Tom with two people. They looked like a couple and they were quite old. Tom was fifty-two years old, and those people looked like his age. I didn't know them and, from the way they looked around, this was their first time as well.
I greeted them and the woman was especially smiling at me. She looked really beautiful. I glanced at her bag, and it made me seize my breath for a second. I couldn't control what came out of my mouth.
"That..." I stammered. "The limited edition Sparkle bag."
The woman noticed my confusion, and she smiled to lighten my fears.
"You seem to know a lot about bags. I am a lover of bags as well. And yeah, this is truly the Sparkle limited edition bag. Only five were made in the whole world, and I was lucky enough to get my hands on one." she replied with a smile on her face. That bag was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. If she could spend that much on such an item, it had already defined that she wasn't an ordinary person. She and her husband were not in my uncle's category. My uncle was inferior.
"Get us something chilled..." Tom asked. "It is quite sunny today and the heat is of another level."
"Don't bother, please," the husband replied. "We are not supposed to drink anything chilled. If you have a bottle of wine, bring it. It is much better."
"Go ahead!" Tom replied. "Or rather, I will fetch it myself. Stay with your in-laws!"
As Tom left to get the wine, his words continued sounding in my ears. What did he mean by my in-laws? I had only one boyfriend and that was Smith. I knew Smith's parents, so what could Tom be talking about? I decided to leave and talk to Tom privately.
"Young lady!" the woman called me again. "Your name is Helen, right?"
"Yes," I replied with a faked smile.
"I am sure your uncle never told you about this arrangement. My name is Margaret and this is my husband..." the woman told me softly. She sounded loving.
"I am called Richard. I am still handsome even at this age. What do you think?" he asked carefully.
This made my heart start pounding. How on earth could my wicked uncle bring such an old man to marry me when I have an agile man as a boyfriend. I clenched my fists and struggled to talk.
"You brought your husband here... you... to find another wife?" I managed to ask. My hand was shaking, and I was sure my heart was of no difference.
"Oh!" Margaret said excitedly. She even clapped her hands. "You must have thought I wanted you to marry this old thing. No, that's not it. Richard is mine and I can't share him."
"Yes!" Richard supported. "I am handsome, but we brought someone more handsome. He is my son. He is quite shy, so he stayed back in the car. I will go get him now."
"Don't bother..." Tom said. I turned back, and I saw a bottle of wine in his left hand. He held two glasses in his right hand. That should be a skill on its own. "Let Helen go and get Ethan in the car. Both of them are going to be a couple. Get going now, girl."
My heart was beating harder and I was wavering. For goodness's sake, I have a boyfriend. I had to remain natural now and talk to Tom about it later. I forged a smile and started to go out. I wished to see the daring young man now. I could hear them conversing as I stepped out.
"She is a pretty lady..." Margaret was saying in her tiny soprano voice.
"Just like you when you were younger..." Richard replied with his bass tone. It made everything sound musical.
Whatever.
-----------
One more thing to note before I go to meet that daring young man.
My uncle, Tom, was not a pauper. He was actually rich but also the real definition of a miser. He had a lot of money, but he only spent it on charity.
Now, you would say he is generous and not a miser. Wait for the explanation before you decide about that.
What good is it if my uncle cannot provide what I need but goes ahead to donate to orphanages and galleries? It is supposed to make no sense. My uncle, Tom, is a politician and all he does with his money is to donate to his image as a politician. He is planning on becoming a member of an assembly or something.
Tom was not stingy only to me, but himself. Both of us never used to relate well, but I knew everything about him. He had a lot of clothes, but I could count the ones he bought for himself. He had rich friends who took him out shopping, and he thought he never had to buy clothes for himself. All his wristwatches were gifts from people. He was quite popular for his feigned charity work, so he had a lot of people sending him gifts. The same went for his shoes.
The most expensive thing I have seen Tom buy with his own money was a car. This car was even on the average list, and he cherished it like no other. He was frugal to a bad spot. Every politician probably had an intent to embezzle money once they got to a high position. Tom would definitely be involved in corruption when he became a member of an assembly, but I doubted if he would know what to do with all the money he would acquire.
Even the mansion we lived in was not his property. It was one of the houses my late father built before his death. The maids and security guards there were also paid by one of my father's friends all because of me.
I would say the truth when I saw one, actually. Apart from slaps, Tom did nothing more. I never starved but I lacked parental affection. In fact, I had no one to show affection to me. I lived alone and this made me thirst for a boyfriend when I became sixteen. I thought I would find love there.
And I did.
I had my first boyfriend at sixteen in high school and I had my first kiss. Things were going well until the day he invited me to his house. He wanted sex and trust me, I was ready to give it to him. But it never worked, since his father caught us while we were undressing, and he threw me out. That was the end of that relationship. It was after that I realized the foolishness I exhibited. I could have gotten pregnant and ended my dreams if we had sex.
This made me stay away from boys until I was finished with high school. I had my second boyfriend in my second year at university. His name was Gabriel, and he was a guy I have a lot of memories of. We broke up in my final year and by then, I had already had my first sex with him. I was not afraid of pregnancy since I knew all about contraceptives. I was the one who even proposed that we break up. The guy was cheating on me with his so-called best female friend.
Then I met my current boyfriend, Smith, a year ago. I thought he would be the person I would spend the rest of my life with. Both of us were more than lovers, we were soul mates.
And one daring young man wanted to end this for us. I looked into their car, but I couldn't see the inside.
Then I saw the car window winded now.
"Who is this ugly duckling?" the young man inside asked me.
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