Have We Met Before?

Lexi

I turned, shoving my hand to my face as I got up from the bed. I blinked rapidly, trying to remember where I was when a slight pain stung me.

"Ahhh," I groaned, pulling the blanket away. I was completely naked underneath and alone. A slight headache hit me as I furrowed my brow. I pushed my hands to my temples, massaging to relieve the pain when last night’s memories came rushing back.

The moans and grunts, the pain and then the pleasure... I finally did it.

I jumped away from the bed. There had to be one more confirmation: the blood.

"I would have preferred if this wasn't a virgin-breaking encounter." The voice of the stranger echoed, and my weird act, starting from the moment I walked up to him and kissed him in the bar, made me shrink in horror.

I wouldn’t have done that in my right frame of mind. Alcohol does have its price.

"Now, where on earth is the stranger?" I asked, noticing how quiet the room was. I picked up my stuff, ready to shuffle into my stained clothes when I saw neatly folded clothes on the table.

I pushed myself, amidst the pain, towards the clothes and found a note on top.

*I MADE SURE YOU AREN'T PREGNANT LAST NIGHT SO DON'T FREAK OUT IF YOU GET SICK OR SOMETHING. NICE MAKING YOUR ACQUAINTANCE, KITTY*

I turned the note to see if there was anything that could possibly link me to the man we both didn't know our names. I chuckled slightly at the fact that we would never meet again.

A few minutes later, I was able to sneak back into my room through the back door. Whatever luck I had since last night was a really nice one. Now was the time to say no to an arranged marriage.

Not long after changing into my own dress, I folded the clothes belonging to the blue-eyed stranger and put them in my closet.

A slight knock on my door drew my attention from the closet, and I closed it, going to the door and opening it.

"You're not one to stay behind closed doors, Alexia." The extremely annoying voice of my sister echoed, her eyes wide with mockery.

"What do you want?" I asked Alisha. She's older, and we look so identical. That's why I'm walking into the marriage meant for her as the first daughter.

"You were not in your room this morning, Lexi. I knocked countless times but got no response."

"And what if I don't want to be disturbed? Can you just leave me the hell alone?" I sneered, anger surging through me already. My phone rang, and she pushed me away from the door, picked up the call, and placed it to her ear.

"What the heck, Alisha?" I walked up to her and snatched my phone from her. Cassie was the one calling. "You have no right to invade my privacy!"

She had always been this rude. Mama and the rest of the family never saw anything wrong with her. That's why I had to pay the price for her and my father's carelessness, invoking the wrath of Ethan Blackwood, the real estate lord.

Alisha was Father's deputy chairman in the company. She's twenty-four, whereas I'm twenty-two.

A few days ago, Alisha's team bought a property every real estate CEO was obviously interested in, not excluding Blackwood, the unknown man of the well-known BEA Group. He had already won the bidding at the auction a few months ago, and Alisha bought it in our family name. How she pulled the strings is still a mystery to us all.

The only way for him to get the property back, as we cannot pay for it, is for me to marry him, the man no one knows. Rumours had it that he's extremely old and ugly. Those were the reasons Alisha pushed the man into my arms.

"I wanted to know if you left home at all last night. You cannot do anything silly, anything that will incur the wrath of Mr. Blackwood."

I scoffed. She invited the wrath; I'm to pay for it. That's so rich coming from her.

"Alisha, leave my room," I ordered calmly, my lips twitching in a slight smirk. My family doesn't know what to become of them soon. I'm not a girl who obediently follows orders.

Sometimes I wonder if my parents really birthed me. Alisha had been the lovely child of the Grant family since I grew to know right from wrong. Alisha and I have never been the sisters we were supposed to be.

"I will leave. I don't intend to stay a second here. Father seeks your presence since you have decided to lock yourself in until this minute. Mr. Blackwood will be sending his assistant to possibly pay your dowry."

"I'm not getting married to him. I won't!" I know my objections are nothing but mere noise to her and everyone else. But I still need to make myself clear. I'm not dancing to their tunes.

"Tell Father that yourself!" she barked before leaving the room.

"The witch is gone, I see," Cassie voiced from within the call. "How did it go? I have been so restless since I got home."

"You didn't hang up?" I asked, trying to calm my nerves. "Wish me well, Cassie. I'm about to go as we planned. I don't mind being thrown out of this house afterward."

"You know you're always welcome here. Call me the moment after your fate is decided, okay?"

"Yes," I replied simply before hanging up the call. I sighed, my heart beating rapidly against my chest as I carried myself through the hall to the living room.

Father, Mother, and Alisha were with someone. He had his back to me when Father called.

"Ahh! Mr. Wright. Meet my oldest daughter, Alisha Grant."

My brow furrowed in shock. Alisha?

What surprised me more was the man who turned, smirking.

"Miss Grant," he called. I raised a brow at the

familiarity.

"Have we met before?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.