Sophia’s Point of View
“What do you mean you can’t do this anymore?” Mr Prescott asked and for a moment, I just stared at him.
From his clipped buzzcut to those brutally honest gray eyes and a face that could have been carved from marble. Perfect, yet distant.
Reid Prescott was easily one of the most stunning men I had seen, but was that what was inspiring these new feelings?
No, it didn’t matter. I was not doing this again.
I had been stupid before with Jerry. I’d let myself be fooled by my hopes that one day, we could become something more, something different. That maybe something in my life would work out well.
And I let that dangerous hope of more cloud my mind. From there on, I had made even more errors in my judgment. From that one night stand to even this contract marriage.
So the idea that I would let myself develop feelings again, even for Mr Prescott was simply impossible.
All that mattered now to me was my child, Mom and Tina.
I looked at Mr Prescott who was still waiting on my answer.
“You asked me to give you a chance then decide if I wanted this afterwards,” I said, evenly slightly surprised at the ease with which I spoke. “And I’ve decided.”
“And your decision is to end this.” Mr Prescott said, his surprise still evident in his voice.
“It’s the best option,” I said with a shrug. “Besides, you don’t need to be married to me to have your revenge.”
The expression on Mr Prescott’s face hardened somewhat at my words.
“Did Kate say something?” He asked.
Oh. He thought this was about the talk I had with Kate in his office. If only it was that simple.
“This isn’t about Kate,” I shook my head. “This is about what I want.”
With those words, I turned away from Mr Prescott and began to walk towards the staircase to my room, my head full of thoughts.
Even though I knew he didn’t need the money he had given me so far, I would repay my debt to him and-
My train of thought cut off when Mr Prescott caught my wrist once more halting me on my tracks with more than his touch.
“Sophia.” He said in that velvety smooth voice and I just paused.
He had called me Sophia not Miss Evergreen or Sophia Evergreen but just Sophia and for whatever reason it was extremely distracting.
The sound of approaching footsteps interrupted whatever I might have said.
“Mr Prescott, your grandmother is here.” Gale, his butler announced.
Mr Prescott’s grandmother was here?
“Nana is here?” Mr Prescott echoed my surprise, his grip on my wrist easing away.
Before I could make my escape, Mr Prescott’s grandmother swept into the entryway, her arms outstretched and an almost indulgent smile on her face.
“Baby, grandma is here!” She announced and Mr Prescott flushed.
It was truly something seeing Mr Prescott, one of the most powerful men in North America being called a baby by a woman who barely grazed his shoulder.
I tried to recall anything about her from all Mr Prescott had told me but I came up short. He’d only mentioned her in passing when telling me about his time staying with his grandfather.
“Nana, welcome,” Mr Prescott said as he leaned in to hug her and plant a kiss on her cheek. “You didn’t tell me you were coming over.”
Nana slanted him a withering glance.
“So that you could make more excuses like you have been doing these past years.”
Whatever Nana might have lacked in height, she had a surplus in presence.
With her coiffed shoulder length gray hair, cashmere wrap dress and string of pearls at her throat and her steel gray gaze so similar to Mr Prescott, she commanded attention.
I wanted nothing more than to climb that staircase and get away from here as fast as I could but it wasn’t possible. Not with Nana’s sharp gaze on me.
So I stepped forward instead with a tentative smile.
“Good evening Grandmother.”
She looked me dead in the eye.
“So you are the woman my grandson married without informing me about.” She didn’t sound impressed by Mr Prescott’s choice.
“Nana-” Mr Prescott interjected but Nana merely disregarded his words with a familiar flick of her hand.
“Hush, women are speaking.” She said and I recalled what was so familiar about that movement. It was something Mr Prescott did all the time.
If Nana was angry about her grandson marrying me, then this was perfect as I also wanted out of this arrangement.
I ducked my head ready to give an insincere apology.
“I apologize, I-”
The words were barely out of my mouth when I felt Nana’s surprisingly strong arms wrap around me pulling me into a hug.
“Welcome to our family, Sophia.”
Suffice to say things didn’t go as I had planned when I told Mr Prescott I wanted to end things. Infact everything was worse now.
Nana wanted to stay with us to ‘get to know her new daughter in law’.
How long did she plan to stay? Uncertain.
Nana couldn’t find out that we had different rooms or our ruse would be up.
And that was how I found myself in my husband’s bedroom for the first time since I married him.