Sentenced to Marriage

Chapter 117

My Nemesis

I froze, looking at Lanfen in disbelief. I had to admit that her story made some sense. If she truly was the target, that would have explained why she was the only one who appeared in the footage while the rest of whoever came there didn’t. Still, I had a feeling that I was missing something…

“How did you fool them?” I asked, tracing her face to catch the slightest change in her expression.

She blinked at me. “Pardon?”

“If those professionals came there to kill you, how did you manage to escape? Besides, I saw you running out of Aren’s room, and I didn’t see anyone else,” I said.

Lanfen sighed. “I know it might sound silly, but I hid in the closet in Aren’s room, hoping they wouldn’t find me. One of them even walked inside… I was afraid that he might hurt Aren, but, fortunately, he didn’t. Someone called that guy over, and he left the room, and then they all left. I waited for a while before I decided to run away from there… That’s probably when you saw me.”

I hated the way her story was believable. I was desperate to find any flaws in it, reasonable doubt.

“Do you know who those men were?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, I assume that they were hired by someone from the company called Changshou Yao. They are trying to make their way into the American market, but they keep stealing our recipes and we have threatened them with a big lawsuit…” My eyes widened at her words. “And you think that’s enough reason to kill someone?”

She laughed, gently covering her mouth before saying, “It’s big money we are talking about, and big compensation they wish they could avoid. Besides, those guys might work for the Triad, and men from the Triads don’t negotiate-they kill.”

I gave her a nervous smile. She seemed to be tough and intelligent, a woman fighting alone for her life and position. If she wasn’t my husband’s ex-girlfriend, I would admire her, but currently, the greater she seemed to be, the more she pissed me off. It was easier to fight against the villainess, an evil lady- heartbreaker, but how could I possibly fight against a hurt, heartbroken woman who had been forced to spend a part of her life in an abusive relationship? Yet, I still didn’t know what it was that she wanted…

I leaned forward on the table and smiled a bit. “Would you mind if I called you by your name? You can call me Cora if you want to…”

She smiled back at me. “By all means, call me Lanfen.”

I cleared my throat. “Then… Lanfen, what is it that you want from Aren… and me?”

Her smile turned into a wry grimace. “Honestly, when I first came to New York, I wished to reunite with Aren. I wanted his forgiveness, but I also wanted him back in my life…” she paused to see my reaction.

I struggled to remain composed. I was afraid she would say that, and I was even more afraid of the words I assumed she’d say next…

She corrected her expression, curling the corners of her lips. “But then I learned that Aren had gotten married, and I saw him in the newspaper looking happy. I would never destroy his happiness or come between him and his loved one.”

That seriously stung. His “loved one”… She made it clear that she didn’t care whether I loved him or not. All that mattered was if he loved me in return. I laughed awkwardly, pretending that I was relieved by her words.

“I’m glad to hear it,” I assured her. “I felt quite anxious with the thought that you would want to destroy my marriage…” She chuckled and nonchalantly waved her hand. “As I said, I would never hurt the one who Aren chose to love.”

I gave her my best-trained smile, pressing my hand to my chest. “I’m so relieved.”

Shit. It was time to face it. As soon as Lanfen realized that Aren hesitated whether to love me or not, she would fight for him like a freaking lioness. But seriously, I wasn’t going to stand there and watch her try. At that moment, I became determined like never before to show Aren that he would never find someone better than me, someone willing to always be by his side and fight for him. The only problem was that I had little knowledge of Lanfen’s abilities, and every time I looked at her gorgeous face I was losing a tiny ounce of confidence..

“I’m so glad that we could talk. I feel better that I could tell you the truth,” Lanfen said, smiling at me as we finished coffee. “Unfortunately, I need to get back to work now, but I hope we see each other again.” She got up from her seat, reaching out her hand.

I gave her a firm shake. “Yes, maybe we could go out for a coffee again in less awkward circumstances…” I stretched my lips into a thin smile. I would prefer to not meet her ever again, but somehow I didn’t think that was possible.

“Maybe we will repeat that once Aren is back in New York,” she tossed, taking her purse before stepping toward the exit.

I froze in realization. “Wait!” I called out restlessly. “How did you know that Aren is not in New York?”

She smiled brightly. “Didn’t you say that he left?”

I shook my head. “No, I’ve never mentioned anything concerning Aren.” She laughed and waved me off with her hand. “Well, I saw you going out of a building alone, so I assumed that he must be on some business trip.”

I chuckled and nodded, pretending that I bought her explanation. Her words raised a bright red flag. It might have been my paranoia, but everything inside me screamed that she lied. We said our goodbyes

smiling, and even exchanged numbers, but we were not going to become friends. Even as I gave her my phone number, I was certain that she had already had it before, just like she had kept track of what Aren was doing or where he went. She wasn’t as innocent as she wanted to appear.

As soon as she wasn’t around, I pulled out my phone and picked Aren’s number. My finger was just about to slide through the green phone icon when suddenly I froze. Should I truly tell him about my meeting with Lanfen? If I did, I would have to tell him what we had talked about, and I would become her messenger. If I didn’t tell him, and he found out later, I would become the envious type who couldn’t trust him. Besides, judging by the way he reacted to keeping

something hidden from him the last time, this could easily turn out bad.

“Shit… That bitch is good,” I muttered under my breath.

I decided not to tell Aren anything right away, but I was painfully aware that I would have to do it soon, I needed some advice. I needed someone to tell me that I wasn’t crazy Instinctively, I called Miranda, thinking that I could use some girl talk, but she didn’t pick up her phone. A minute later, I got a message from her saying that she had a few medical procedures scheduled for today and couldn’t talk,

“So much for the advice and the girl talk…” I sighed.

I was about to put the phone back in my purse when Jack called me. Well, I preferred to talk to Miranda, but…

“I’ve just walked out of a coffee with Lanfen,” I said instead of hello as I took the call. Jack went silent for a few seconds, before asking, “Does Aren know?”

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“Come over to my office and tell me everything.”

Twenty minutes later, I was sitting in his office and telling him everything that had happened from the moment I had walked out of the office building on Broadway. I tried not to skip even the tiniest detail, hoping that at least I would get the advice from the guy’s point of view.

“And right before leaving she accidentally said that we will meet when Aren is back in New York, just like she exactly knew that he went away,” I said, crossing my arms. Jack nodded and frowned. I glanced at him questioningly. “What do you think?” He smiled at me wryly. “She probably has a way to monitor his actions, which means that she is ready to play dirty… and she definitely wants Aren back.” My hands dropped helplessly to both sides of my body. “I knew I was right…” I groaned. He patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry. Aren is not the kind of guy who would just welcome back his ex just because she has a sad story to tell. Besides, do you believe in this melodramatic tale?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know what to believe. I wish that she wasn’t the pitiful one, but what if she is, and what if she gains Aren’s sympathy that way?” Jack gave me a crooked smile. “Aren and sympathy? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

His words made me laugh. There was some truth in what he said. Aren wasn’t an emotional type, or at least I thought so. But what if he acted differently in front of Lanfen? I shook that thought off and looked at Jack, hoping to change the subject. “So, what is it that you wanted to tell me about? You called me for a reason, didn’t you?”

Jack grinned proudly. “Yes. I wanted to tell you that we busted Chief George Richardson.”

“Wow! That’s huge!” I exclaimed and clapped my hands.

“Thank you, thank you!” Jack chuckled, bowing down. “He came with a lawyer and didn’t want to cooperate, but we played him the recording and told him that according to the state law of New York, we could convict him using the felony murder rule, convincing the grand jury that he had known about the murder, and he’d even had his part in it. Even if he hadn’t

touched the victim himself, that rule could give him a sentence just like he was a murderer.”

“How did he react to that?” I asked excitedly.

“His lawyer told him to cooperate, and he agreed to tell us everything he knew,” Jack smirked. “That’s amazing!” I shouted. “Will he testify against James Winton?”

Jack nodded. “Yes, but there’s more…” He wriggled his eyebrows and grinned wickedly. “He told us who he got the money to cover up the case from.”

I gave him a look. “Will you say it already or should I beg you?” He chuckled before clearing his throat. “He said that he had never met that guy in person, but he’d met his assistant, a short Asian guy. That person called himself…” I didn’t let Jack finish, as I already knew what he was about to say. I said it myself, “He called himself Mr. C.”