C7 Marriage

Days after his uncle's burial, Tomas met with Stephen, his uncle's legal advisor and they reviewed his uncle's property will. It was said in the will that Tomas would inherit the acres of land that his uncle left for him if he met with a certain condition.

He hadn't had time since his meeting with Stephen because he'd been swamped with work. But now he remembered everything that has to do with his inheritance but didn't know what the condition was.

"Peter!" He called his personal assistant.

"Sir!" His close assistant answered as he entered his office.

"Have you gone through the inheritance documents that was sent by Stephen, my late uncle's legal advisor?"

"Yes sir, I have" replied Peter, steadfastly.

"The inheritance of the land my uncle left to me go with conditions right?" Tomas asked to be sure

"Er...yes" replied Peter

"What are the conditions?"

Tomas looked at Peter as he hesitated to answer and from what he observed, the conditions were not nice ones because of Peter's sudden tense stance.

"I asked you a question, Peter!" Tomas voiced out impatiently.

"It's just a condition sir, and it states that you'll have to get a wife before you inherit the land" Peter gushed out

Tomas didn't know when his jaw fell open as he was transfixed. Even though he really wanted to claim his inheritance from his uncle, he didn't expect his uncle Ben to go that far.

Forcing him to marriage even in his grave? That was just too extreme!

If not for the fact that Tomas needed the land, he totally would have brushed off the marriage thing because he didn't want to marry right now.

He didn't trust any woman enough to let her into his life or to spend the rest of his life with. The thought of marriage to him was just too ridiculous!

But why did his uncle Benjamin have to tie a massive inheritance to his marriage?

He couldn't! He just couldn't!

But then he really needed the land...

The corners of his lips lifted as a brilliant idea struck. He didn't know his uncle Benjamin to be such a shrewd fellow because he hadn't noticed that trait in him. Well, he too could play that game!

His uncle Benjamin probably wanted him to take up the responsibility as the first son to get married so his other brothers asides from Francis could follow suit but Tomas was just not ready for marriage. He worked himself like crazy and distracted himself with women every one in a while.

So if he was to get married, it'll be to a woman who repulsed him so it'll be easy for him to divorce her right after claiming the inheritance.

He'd get married to the least attractive woman he'd seen and their marriage will be on the grounds of non consummation.

It'll be easy that way.

If his uncle Benjamin thought that Tomas was going to be tied to one woman for life then he was joking!

All he'd do was to find a wife that he could easily divorce. A woman that he was not attracted to

But there lied the question... Where was he going to find such a woman? All the women he'd had a fling with were all gorgeous women who didn't even want to let him go without a fight.

So where would he...

Then the exact woman he needed popped up in his mind.

A young lady who worked as the chief curator at his museum at Los Angeles. He'd noticed her twice when he paid a visit there. She had the worst fashion sense as she always wore drab, long and big sized outfits, her hair was always tied up in a tight and prim chignon and she seemed to...hate him too.

He thought he was imagining it, like how could a nobody like her dislike a charismatic and handsome boss like him but one time he rounded a corner, he heard someone mentioning his name and he turned to see her rolling her eyes as she put on a displeased expression.

Drab, unattractive woman!

But the woman in question was incredibly good at her job as her passion and zeal had brought good sales to his museum so he had to give her credit for that, not for her looks.

She was going to be the perfect candidate for a wife because he bore no attraction to her whatsoever.

"A short marriage of convenience will do just fine" he thought out loud as his eyes lit up.

"You said something, sir?" Peter asked

He'd totally forgotten about Peter's presence as he'd been so wrapped up in his elaborate plot to inherit his properties without much stress.

"Yes Peter" he replied. "Book a flight to Los Angeles right now. I'm going to claim my convenient bride!"

********************

Amber Murphy sat on her office chair as she tapped her feet on the ground distractedly. She was tense as hell because she owed a lot of debts. The house they her late parents left to her was about to be sold out and she couldn't do anything about it.

She just couldn't lose that house because it meant a lot to her. It had the remnants of her family's memories in there and she feared that if she lost the house she'd lose the memories of her family too.

The thought of that day scared her

A few months back, she was so desperate to pay off the house rent that she took a loan to pay half of the rent and she successfully paid it but it turned out to be a loan shark that she borrowed money from.

Not only did she have to make the full payment of the house, she also had to pay off the loan shark and she didn't have that amount of money. Her monthly salary couldn't even cut it.

After several minutes of pondering, she had not one solution to her problem so she just stopped thinking about it. As far as she knew, worrying didn't solve any problems. So she just decided to focus on her work. The work that she really loved.

Right now, she stared at an unfinished portrait and she could tell what was wrong and what was right about the portrait. If she made good corrections on it then she bet it'll be a hot selling portrait.

Minutes later, she was immersed in the portrait that she paid no notice to the knock on her door.

Then suddenly, the door to her office swang open and she jerked up her head to see who it was.

Her lips parted in shock as she saw who it was.

It was her boss. The boss of all the bosses. The owner of the Gonzalez museum and so many other companies. The one and only Tomas Gonzalez.

Her thoughts were all over the place and her limbs were stiff. She couldn't stand, all she could do was stare at his sinfully gorgeous face.

She'd seen him from a distance a couple of times, not up close like this. She didn't even consider herself or her work important enough for him to meet her in her office like this.

One question lingered on her mind right now?

What the hell was he doing here and what did he want from her?