Sentenced to Marriage by MadlainQ

Getting the evidence The clock was ticking. It wouldn't be so much better if Augustus gavethe real five minutes, but we all knew that he could cback at any time. Nevertheless, we had to proceed methodically.

“OK, we took over the surveillance cameras in the mansion.” | heard Alan’s voice in my ear.” We need to record a loop to play it while you look around the office. Cora, sit behind the old man’s desk and pretend that you are reading the contract. You need to sit motionlessly and count to fifteen, then flip the page and count to fifteen one more time.” | did everything according to Alan's instructions. By the tthe look was prepared to fool any potential security guard watching, | was left with no more than four minutes. | pulled out my phone and turned on my super-scanner apps. The guys, sitting with their computers in the car right outside the gates of the mansion, could see everything | saw on their screens. That way, there were five of us, including Aren and Neil, trying to spot anything unusual. We all figured that the easiest way to find a flash drive would be to search for it with a metal detector and pray that there wouldn't be too many metal elements in the furniture in the office.

Fortunately, the bookshelves, chairs, and a desk were mostly made of wood. Assuming the book covers wouldn't have any metal pieces embedded, my phone should lead to the drive as soon as | get near it. | started from the door and scanned every shelf, going clockwise. Every tmy phonebeeped, every one of us held our breath.. “False alarm...” | sighed in frustration. “It’s a tin wire stuck to a book cover this time.” Twas running out. My heart hammered against my chest, and my hands were starting to sweat. There were only two tall shelves left, and my restlessness kept rising. Was this whole mission for nothing? “Maybe we should change the scanner?” Norton suggested. “Perhaps a thermal scanner would be better?” “There's no tfor that, “I grunted, slowly moving my hand to scan the length of another shelf.

Suddenly, the phone slipped from my hand and dropped, sliding into a two-inch gap that separated the shelf from the floor.

“God damn it!” | growled angrily as | dropped to my knees and stretched my hand out to reach the phone.

“Breathe, sunshine.” | knew that Aren’s warm voice was meant to soothe me, but it only remindedthat | was about to fail him miserably.

It turned out that my stupid phone landed deeper under the shelf than | thought. With my head on the floor, | had to stretch the entire arm just to touch it. Cursing under my breath, | finally touched the screen, accidentally turning on a flashlight. As the phone lit the floor under the bookshelf, | noticed something strange... Each bookshelf in the room had four round, wooden blocks footing the entire construction, and yet the one block in the back of the bookshelf seemed to be made of plastic. Could it be the flash drive that we were looking for? My heart sped up, fillingwith a bit of new hope. Taking my phone with my trembling hand, | turned on the metal detecting scanner again, directing it to the weird object on the back of the shelf.

“That could be it...” | muttered, reaching my hand out for the plastic object and hoping that the bookshelf wouldn't fall onwithout one piece of support... | grabbed something that looked like a black plastic box and looked at it closely. As | turned it in my fingers, | found a small button, and when | pushed it, the USB plug popped out. | exhaled in a rush, wanting to scream, cry, and laugh at the stime. “We got it...” | breathed, exhausted from the unexpected number of exercises.

The shouts | heard in my ear almost madedeaf, but | didn’t blthem. | couldn’t wait until we could celebrate together. Now | only needed to get out of this place... “What are you doing?” | heard a cold voice behind my back | swallowed and turned around slowly while hiding the flash drive in my blazer’s pocket. James Winton was standing behind me, his hateful eyes lookingup and down.

“Um... | was invited by Mr. Augustus Winton,” | responded, fisting my hand to prevent it from trembling “You?!” Aren’s father scoffed, stepping closer. “You are here to spy on us!” He grabbed my chin and dug his nails into the skin of my face.

“Let go of me!” | screamed, struggling to push him away.

“What's going on in here?!” Augustus ran into his office. “James! Let go of her this instant!” he roared.

James chuckled coldly and stepped away, looking at Augustus. “You receive the whore who helped murder my son. | would be careful if | were you. She was sneaking around and going through your documents.” “I didn’t do anything!” | exclaimed.

“She was alone in here and she was standing by the bookshelves as | walked in!” James announced mockingly.

“Is that true?” Augustus glared at me. “I left you alone so you could read the contract!” he thundered.

“I... | dropped my phone and it fell under the shelf...” | explained, sticking to the partial truth, but James was determined to prove that | was doing something | shouldn't be.

“That bitch is a fucking liar!” He grabbed my hand and pulledto face him. “I suggest someone should search her and make sure she didn’t steal anything.” | glanced at Augustus, hoping that he would do something in my defense, but his mistrust seemed to be even greater than his will to get an investor. He nodded at his son and senta cold gaze. | kept struggling and telling them that I didn’t do anything, but they just ignored my cries. Augustus let out an angry huff and walked to his desk to press the security button.

“Let go of my wife,” Aren hissed, striding toward his father. A second later, he grabbed James's arm, nearly breaking it as he forced him to release me. “You're going to pay for this!” James roared, rubbing his hand and squirming in pain. Once | was free, Aren pulledclose, shieldingfrom the two other men in the room.

“Aren, why are you here?” Augustus nervously cleared his throat. He chuckled coldly. “Did you seriously expect that | wouldn't know where my wife is going and who is she meeting?” The old man frowned. “So you knew that | offered Cora an investment?” Aren smirked. “Of course, | knew. | was going to let her decide... and | think she has made up her mind now.” His eyes shifted to me. “Sunshine, do you want to invest your money in this man’s business?” My lips curled up in a wicked smile. | stepped away from Aren and locked my eyes on Augustus. “Mr.

Winton, | don’t think that you would do business with someone who insults you and mistrusts you. You insultedand | could easily charge Mr. James Winton for physical assault. | will not call the police today, but only because it would be troublesome. To sum up, | will not becyour investor. Have a good day, Mr. and Mr.

Winton.” Aren smiled proudly atbefore taking my hand and leadingout of the office. | heard James Winton cursing and shouting something behind our back, but | didn’t want to listen. | counted steps until we walked out of this poisonous mansion. “I'm sorry | couldn't get there faster,” Aren said as we walked toward his car. | hugged his arm, absorbing his warmth. “It’s OK. | handled it because | knew you would come.

He turned my face and examined my cheeks and chin. “This bastard left bruises on your skin,” he squeezed out through his teeth. | chuckled. “And you almost broke his arm! | think that’s enough for the punishment...” “No,” he claimed dangerously. “That is far from enough.” | smirked, taking out the black flash drive from my pocket.

“Then, | hope that we can punish all of the Wintons using this.” Aren laughed and kissedsoftly. “I just hope that whatever is on that flash drive will be enough to sentence them...”