Four hours had passed and Anna still hadn't found the Steel deal contract. Then it suddenly hit her.
If it wasn't here, then it meant it was back at home, and that meant going back home. She needed to get some of her stuff too.
Although some part of her dreaded going back home and facing Sophia and Kathryn, she knew she had to do it.
She slouched onto the sofa and dialed Aidan's number.
They had exchanged contacts before he left the courthouse, and he had promised to text her his home address, which he hadn't done yet.
He picked up on the first ring.
"Hey," she said rather quickly, biting her lower lip.
Was she supposed to call him husband already?
"Hi," he replied with a low tone that made her raise a brow.
"Uhmm, am I interrupting anything, husband?"
A low chuckle escaped his lips, and she found herself smiling too.
"I'm still at work, wife," he muttered with the same sarcastic tone.
She nodded in understanding. That must've been why he hadn't had time to send the address. He hadn't called all day either, and she imagined him going back on his words.
She was willing to give him the 30%, so there was no reason to back out now, was there?
"Uhmm, I wanted to ask if you can come pick me up, but never mind. Could you send me the address? You haven't done that yet."
"Oh, yeah. Sorry I won't be able to pick you up. I'll get my mechanic to fix your car tomorrow if it's fixable."
"It's fine. Don't worry, I'll call a cab once I'm done. Just send me the address, okay?"
"Okay." He sounded different from the mischievous man she had married earlier.
It suddenly dawned on her that she had no idea what he did for work. He only told her he went to work very early, and now it was almost 6 p.m. and he wasn't done yet?
She was dead curious to ask, but she figured this was the wrong time to do that.
Her phone vibrated and she glanced at the screen to see Aidan had just sent her his home address.
Apartment 4B, 132 Willow Creek Drive, Brooksville.
"I just sent the address. See you at home then?"
"Yeah, see you at home. When will you be home?"
"I should be done in an hour or two. I need to go now, bye."
Before she could bid him goodbye, he disconnected the call and she stared at the phone with a raised brow.
Waving the thought away, she ordered a cab and packed her things to head to the family mansion. She needed to get all her belongings and also search for the Steel deal contract.
That was her first contract as the acting CEO and she was supposed to sign it that morning, but unfortunately, the accident happened, and now she couldn't find it here.
In the space of 24 hours, a lot had happened.
The lawyer didn't come in as promised and she planned to call him tomorrow if she didn't receive any message from him.
She took the executive elevator down to the lobby and found her cab waiting. She jumped in and gave the driver the address of the family mansion, relaxing her banging head, which was still wrapped in a bandage.
She didn't know when she dozed off until the driver began to call to her. "Ma'am, we're here!"
She sat up immediately and stepped out.
"Can you wait for me? I'll be back in like five, okay?" she smiled at the driver.
"Okay," he replied, and she nodded.
She really needed to get another car tomorrow, she thought.
She turned to the massive gate, staring at it for a while with folded arms, thinking of all the memories of her childhood with her mom and dad.
Now she was leaving it all. She would be staying with her fake husband for a whole year. She sighed as she stepped in.
She opened the front door and entered, only to see Sophie in Kathryn's arms. She was helping Sophie up, as though she were too sick to stand by herself.
They stared at her in silence, shocked to see her, probably because they hadn't expected her.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Kathryn asked through clenched teeth.
"I'm here to pick up my things," she commented, walking past both of them to her room upstairs.
She jam-packed her clothes from the closet into two of her boxes and filled up the third box with her bags, and the last one with her shoes.
She zipped them up and moved to her drawer to search for the contract. She still couldn't recall exactly where she had put it, but she was really hoping to find it.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. She glanced at it with irritation, knowing it was either Sophie or Kathryn.
She wondered how Sophie reacted to the news of her marriage. That must be the reason why she was so pale.
She stalked to the door in frustration and threw it open to see Kathryn standing there. She tried to walk in, but Anna blocked her way with her frame leaning on the doorway, arms folded.
"What do you want?" she asked pointedly.
"Shouldn't you be at your husband's? Or doesn't he have a home to house you?"
She smirked and was about to close the door in her face when Kathryn stuck her leg in to stop her.
She looked extremely angry at Anna's indifference.
"Sophie just came back from the hospital. Didn't you see she couldn't stand up herself?" she shouted, and Anna glanced at her briefly, then pointed to the bandage on her own head.
"Did you ask me how I got this?"
Kathryn blinked and stepped back a little, her eyes darting to the bandaged wound. Anna smiled.
"I wish Sophie good health. Now if you'll excuse me."
"Anna…" She slammed the door shut in her face before Kathryn could finish, locked it from behind, and walked back in.
Her fist pounded on the door for a while as she continued to order Anna to open up. After a while, she left and Anna continued her search until she was too exhausted to continue.
She guessed she'd have to come back tomorrow or the next day. She'd have her assistant reschedule the appointment with the Steels.
She dragged all four boxes, two at a time, down the staircase until she got to the living room, panting in exhaustion.
Sophie was still in the living room, now sitting upright all by herself. She still looked pale but better than when Anna first came in.
Their eyes locked for a second before Anna looked away and was about to wheel her luggage out when Kathryn's voice stopped her again.
"Are you ashamed to stay the night here because you don't want us to think your so-called husband doesn't have a house?"
Kathryn appeared in front of her, and Anna held her gaze, expression hard and cold.
She snorted.
"Really? This is my father's house. I can come and go anytime I wish. The outsider here is you and your daughter," she snapped in response.
Her step-sister chuckled at the words, and Anna turned to face her.
"Oh. Someone has been taking some lessons. Finally grown some nerve because you suddenly bought yourself a man? Too bad your bravado will not do anything to help you," Sophia taunted.
Anna rolled her eyes. "Get over yourself, please. You're all bark and no bite."
Sophia raised her eyebrows. "Look who's talking. You are so shameless, Annalyn. I can't believe you would stoop as low as pretending to get married. Seriously? You have always acted so high and mighty, but deep down, you are just so fucking vain, sweetheart."
Her words hit Anna right in the chest, and it made her anger rise defensively.
"You're just jealous because the company is finally out of your reach, Sophia. And my husband is real, thank you very much. You can choose to believe it or not. I don't give a fuck."
She sneered at the mention of Anna's husband, her sinister smile finally falling away.
"The company is still very much within reach, Anna. You think you have it already, but you don't. Hell, you're already finding it hard enough as it is to prove your marriage to the lawyer. You think your faux bravado is going to work on him?" Kathryn chipped in.
Anna's jaw clenched and her brows raised in suspicion at Kathryn's not-so-subtle reminder of the lawyer's obvious absence.
She was partly right, of course. The company wouldn't be fully hers until she managed to clear things and finalize everything with the family lawyer.
And she wouldn't be able to do that if the damned man kept postponing the meeting they were supposed to have.
Something must have shown on her face because Sophia's lips tugged into a smile again.
She crossed her arms as she approached Anna, eyeing her from head to toe.
"You know," Sophia said, "I honestly think the whole wedding saga is just a ploy to get Warren back. Make him feel like he was missing out on something important. That is why you hid the identity of your husband, is it not? So that when Warren comes crawling back, you would be able to act like it was what you intended all along? Because we all know this 'so-called husband of yours' doesn't even exist in the first place. You're that desperate!"
Her mother looked thoughtful for a while, then gasped dramatically. "Is that true, Anna? This is just a showoff?"
She looked both shocked and relieved. Shocked that Anna would even think of doing such a thing, and relieved that she wouldn't get the company if it turned out to be true.
Sophia shook her head and laughed. "That was not very creative of you, Annalyn. Because if there is one thing I know, it's the fact that Warren will not marry you. Not now, not ever."
Anna's insides bubbled with laughter. "Well, I'm not as desperate as people who would stoop so low to sleep with other people's men."
A deafening silence filled the air.
Were they thinking she would pretend what happened this morning never happened?
She was tempted to mention the accident too, but there was still time for that.
"You already have Warren all to yourself, Soph. I don't want him. In fact, you can go right ahead and get married to him. I'm sure that's what you want the most right now. It's alright. It's not as though you'll be able to find someone else to marry anyway," she deadpanned.
Her words were sharp like the edge of a knife, and she watched as they made their mark.
Sophia's smile fell away again, and her entire expression twisted into an unpleasantness that rivaled anything Anna had ever seen on her face.
She took several steps closer until she was standing right before Anna, her eyes narrowed with a mixture of anger and determination.
"Warren could go fuck himself for all I care, Anna. You know what I want. The company rightfully belongs to me and my mother. You are nothing but an obstacle."
Anna snorted.
"You're a bastard to my father's lineage, Sophia. And even if your mother was legally married to my father, she has always been, and she will always be nothing but a mistress. I am my father's daughter."
"And so? Did that stop him from being lonely? He married my mother because you weren't enough for him! If you were a daughter to be proud of and someone he could trust, why would he have to add a clause asking you to get married before you can get the company?"
Anna's jaw dropped slightly at how blatantly rude the words were. Sophia was wrong and she knew it. Anna knew it too, but that didn't stop the words and what they implied from hitting her right in the lungs like an avalanche.
Sophia went on before Anna could respond, dropping the final, fatal blow.
"Besides, if your mum had been a good wife when she was alive, I'm pretty sure your father would have chosen to preserve her memory forever, rather than remarrying."
A wave of rage bloomed in Anna's chest. It took over her emotions and clouded her judgment, and before she could stop to think about what she was about to do, she raised her hand and struck Sophia hard across the face.