Even so, Helen had always kept him company quietly at his side. However, since that night, he felt that he should give Helen some recognition. He could still remember how massive the puddle of blood was after the sex.
Helen leaned against his chest. She lowered her eyes slightly and let out a shy moan. She liked
Cormac and had stayed by his side as his secretary all these years. She had lost her virginity several years ago, but she couldn’t let Cormac know that. She knew too well how much a man cared about taking a woman’s virginity. Therefore, she had spent a large amount of money that night to find and convince a local girl who was still a virgin to give herself to Cormac instead. After the girl left, Helen then took her place to pretend it was her that night.
“If you like the clothes here, you can buy more of them,” Cormac said lovingly, stroking her hair.
“That’s for VIPs. You can’t go in. Please go to the one on the right,” the salesperson chided Loredana.
In such an upscale boutique, they set apart every changing room from each other and there was even a separate section of changing rooms for the VIPs.
Besides the changing room itself, there was a separate lobby for friends to rest. Loredana grunted in response and headed to the room on the right. As she was changing, she still thought of the man and woman. They had mentioned the Flores family.
Could it be that the man was…
After trying on the dress, Loredana stepped out of the changing room and once again looked toward the changing room where the man and woman had been speaking. The door was tightly closed.
“That dress suits you well. It matches your temperament.”
The salesperson had good judgment and taste in fashion; she could pick clothes that fit her customers by just looking at them. The long pale blue dress Loredana wore made her skin look even paler. The ribbon around her waist highlighted her slim figure. She was underweight, but it just made her look more delicate.
Feeling satisfied with the dress choice, Garrett went to pay for the dress. He then only realized the dress cost nearly five thousand dollars. However, since it was the Mendelsohn family she was going to meet,
Garrett gritted his teeth and paid the money. He then turned to Loredana and spoke to her in an icy voice.
“Let’s go.”
Loredana had felt his cruelty for many years, both as a child and after he abandoned her, yet his indifference still made her uncomfortable and caused her heart to ache. She lowered her head and followed him to the car.
After an uncomfortable ride in silence, the car soon stopped at the main entrance of the Flores villa.
The chauffeur opened the door for Garrett. Garrett got out of the car and Loredana followed close behind.
Standing in front of the villa, Loredana was in a trance for a few seconds. While she and her mother had been struggling to scrape by because of her brother’s condition, her father was happily living in a stylish villa, enjoying life with the other woman. Loredana couldn’t help but clench her fists.
“Why are you still standing there?”
Having sensed that Loredana was not following him, Garrett turned and saw her stupefied expression as she stood at the entrance. Loredana hurried after him. Hearing from the maids that the Mendelsohn family still hadn’t arrived, Garrett let Loredana wait in the living room.
They placed a piano near the French window in the living room. It was a Seidel piano and was made in
Germany. The price was exorbitant. Her mother bought it for Loredana’ fifth birthday. Loredana liked piano since she was a baby and started learning piano when she was four and a half years old. After
Garrett had sent them away, Loredana hadn’t had another opportunity to play. She couldn’t help but reach out and touch it, feeling familiar and excited at the same time. She lightly pressed a key and a melodious tinkle rang through the room. Because she had not played it for a long time, her fingers were very stiff.
“Who allowed you to touch my piano?” a clear and angry voice called from behind.
Her piano? Loredana turned and saw Annabelle Flores standing behind her, fists clenched. Loredana remembered Annabelle was one year younger than her and recently turned seventeen. She had inherited her mother, Beulah Shawn’s, good looks. Though the way she had contorted face made her looked quite ferocious at the moment.
“Your piano?”
Beulah and Annabelle had destroyed her mother’s marriage and spent the money that was supposed to be theirs. And now even Loredana’ piano had been also theirs? Loredana slowly clenched her fists and kept on telling herself not to act on impulse. She still had to wait to regain the things that rightfully belonged to her and her mother. She had to endure it! She was no longer the little girl that only knew how to cry after being abandoned by her father eight years ago, she had grown up!
“You’re… Loredana Flores?” Annabelle only then remembered that today was the day the Mendelsohn family was arriving and her father had brought Loredana and her mother back here.
Annabelle could still remember Loredana’s pitiful look when Garrett was sending them abroad. She knelt on the ground and wrapped her arms around Garrett’s leg, begging him not to send her away.
“I’m sure you’re thrilled that you were able to guilt your farther into bringing you back,” Annabelle scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest and staring at Loredana with contempt. “You shouldn’t be happy though, as the reason Dad brought you back was only so you would marry the son of the Mendelsohn family instead of me. It’s said that the son—”
As she spoke, Annabelle covered her mouth and jeered. She couldn’t help but gloat over Loredana’
misfortune that she had to marry a disabled man. Marriage was a huge life event. Having to marry such a man would mean the rest of her life was ruined.
Loredana frowned, but before she could say anything, a maid walked in.
“The Mendelsohn family is here.”
Garrett welcomed them personally at the door and led them into the living room. Loredana turned and saw a man in a wheelchair being wheeled inside. He had defined facial features and a charming look.
Even though he was wheelchair-bound, nobody showed him any contempt.
Seeing his face, Loredana realized he was the man who was flirting with the woman at the boutique.
Was he the eldest son of the Mendelsohn family? Back at the changing room, she had seen quite clearly that he could stand up when he put her arms around the woman. He hadn’t been using her for strength at all either. What was going on?
While Loredana was still figuring out why Cormac was pretending he was disabled, Garrett called her over.
“Loredana, come here. This is the eldest son of the Mendelsohn family.” He then bowed in respect and a maid brought over a chair so Garrett could be the same height as Cormac. “Mr. Mendelsohn, this is Lola.”
Garrett felt sorry that a dignified man with such charming looks had become disabled.
Cormac’s eyes fell onto Loredana and gauged she was still at a young age. Noticing how skinny Loredana was, most likely from malnutrition, he wrinkled his eyebrows. This was a marriage arranged by his late mother. As a son, he could not break the promise in good conscience. And it was because of that, he spread the word that he could not be detoxified and had become paralyzed after being bitten by the venomous snake abroad, just to make the Flores family change their mind. However, the Flores family didn’t do so.
Cormac fell into silence and his expression fell. Garrett thought Cormac was dissatisfied with
Loredana and quickly explained. “She’s still young and has just turned eighteen. If she could have a good life, she must be a beauty.”
Cormac sneered to himself. He couldn’t tell whether Loredana was a beauty or not, but he did sense
Garrett’s peculiar behavior, and the fact that he wanted to marry his daughter to him so much he didn’t even care that he was a “cripple.”
With an icy look, he lifted one of his eyebrows. “I was injured during my business trip abroad and I’m afraid I can no longer walk. I can’t fulfill a husband’s duty—”
“I don’t mind that,” Loredana replied instantly.
Garrett had promised her that as long as she surrendered to the marriage, he would return her mother’s dowry. Even if it meant marrying Cormac and getting divorced the next day, Loredana would agree to that. With a moment to ponder everything, Loredana had understood Cormac’s true desires. He could stand, yet he chose to sit on a wheelchair and she guessed it was because of the woman
Loredana had seen him with. He didn’t want to keep his promise to his mother and wanted the Flores family to terminate the arrangement. Yet, he hadn’t expected Garrett was willing to sacrifice his one unloved daughter to fulfill the promise.
Cormac narrowed his eyes and gazed at her. A chill ran down Loredana’ spine from his gaze and bitterness coated her tongue. Why would she want to marry him? If she didn’t agree to the marriage, she would most likely be sent away again and would never retrieve her mother’s fortune or her piano.
Loredana pulled up the corner of her lips and forced out a smile. She was the only one that knew the bitterness behind the smile. “We’re destined to marry each other since we were children. Therefore, no matter what happens to you, we’re already married. There’s a reason ‘in sickness and in health’ is in the wedding vows”
Cormac’s eyes grew darker and Loredana had to resist the urge to shrink away. Cormac had to admit that Loredana was good at talking.
Garrett, not sensing anything amiss, carefully asked, “So, regarding the wedding date—”
Cormac’s expression changed in a split second and went back to looking calm and demuring.
New Book: Beginning with a Daring Encounter
Celsie was tired of being labeled as an introvert, workaholic, and dull virgin by her friends. Determined to prove them wrong, she made a bet that she would do something daring on her 25th birthday. Now that the day had arrived, it was time to fulfill her promise. On her daring to-do list, there was one task: a one-night stand with someone.
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