The Blackmail® [Complete]

Chapter Eleven

I stretch and open an eye. Sunlight was slipping through the mint green curtains, stripping thin slats of light across the rumpled sheets. As I reach for my phone to check the time, I hear the sound of a throat clearing. Immediately, I look towards where the sound had come from and find Ovian stretched out on my sofa. Our eyes meet and hold for about ten seconds before I break contact and look at my phone instead.

8am, what is he doing here at this time? I am about to get out of bed and remember that in my exhaustion after my bath last night, I had slept in just my panties. Damn!

"Good morning to you too." Ovian says and to my consternation, he came to sit on my side of the bed.

"What are you doing here this early?" I ask, scooting further into the bed and pulling the sheets higher up to my chin.

Feigning a hurt expression, he says, "Can't a man come to see his fiancee?"

"What? I'm not your fiancee. At least not yet."

"Not according to today's papers." He says and extends a couple of newspapers towards me.

I groaned. I had forgotten about our society debut last night. Careful not to show any other part of my body apart from my shoulders, I take the newspapers from him and quickly scan the headlines. 'Charlotte Hawthorne is Alive!' In another paper, it reads, 'The Prince is Engaged Again to Charlotte Hawthorne.' I drop the papers and sigh.
"Ovian, we need to talk."

"Yes, we do. My father-"

Shaking my head, I say, "I know all about Princess Clarissa."

He looks at me, and says, "Okay? What about her?"

"When I asked you about Charlotte, you said she had been a friend but I have come to realize that she was more. You both were in love and bethroted to each other. But because your father may be forcing you to marry Princess Clarissa, that's why you accepted my proposal so quickly."

He got up and clapped his hands. "Bravo! You are quite the detective. You know, I never pegged you for someone so smart. You always appeared like someone who didn't have brains to-"

"Stop it Ovian! I will not be used or become a pun in your foolish plans with your family."

"Oh, what did you just say? When you blackmailed me into marrying you, you didn't realize you were messing with my family?"

"I am sorry I did that. I was desperate for a different life but now, I want out." He began to laugh.

Speaking louder than his laughter, I continue, "I want out Ovian. I will destroy all the pictures I have and promise to leave you alone. I will return everything back and leave with only my own things. I will sign-"

"Oh, you think I don't know that you don't have any pictures? My pretty Tania, I knew from the moment your brain began to form the blackmail that you were a gold digger. What you don't know is that while you were in the hospital, I had sent my people to your apartment block to find out if anyone knew who we were. Unfortunately for you, nobody did. When you were making your proposal, I was making a plan of my own and you fell right into it."

Tears were threatening to fall down my cheeks. I have involved myself with a maniac. Someone who would not hesitate to kill Taylor and I. Oh Taylor what have I gotten you into? I bury my head in my hands.

He came back to the bed and sat down next to me, "This is what is going to happen. The two of you are going to play it just as we had all planned. You will pretend to be Charlotte and marry me-"

"For how long?!" I shout.

"For as long as I want! For as long as it takes!" He shouts back. "You will be my wife and do everything I tell you to. The moment you or Taylor try anything, I will erase you from this lavish life just as easily as I brought you in it."