The Stolen Heiress: Claimed by her Father's Ruthless Enemy. novel Chapter 55

Chapter 55: The business party(2).

I didn’t know why my body stiffened at that question, but somehow, I was anticipating what Alexander would say. What would he say I was to him?

"This is my... wife, Anna Steele," Alexander casually said, as though the question was something he had expected.

But his words absolutely rubbed me the wrong way. Wife? He was branding me his ’wife’ when he warned me never to speak about our ’marriage’ in public or to anyone? And to say that he was so nonchalant about the way he said it, as if it was something permanent. It wasn’t. It wasn’t even real.

I swallowed the sudden anger that kindled in my veins and forced a smile at Mr. Vanvik, whose whole attention was on me.

"You look elegant and beautiful in gold, Mrs. Vaughn," he said warmly.

"Thank you," I replied, keeping my tone as neutral as possible.

Mr. Vanvik shifted his attention back to Alexander, but not without me noticing his warm smile fading away as he addressed Alexander. He looked upset, and I wondered why.

"Mr. Vaughn, how can you be married and no one knows about it? Not a single word from the press. That is unusual, don’t you think?"

Alexander gave him that faint smile of his, which surprised me. No one had dared question his decision like this man was doing, and he wasn’t even angry about it? Just who was this man?

"I have my reasons. And besides, I wanted some privacy regarding our personal lives," he answered perfectly, and I couldn’t help but scream ’liar!’ in my head.

Mr. Vanvik seemed to think for a while before nodding in agreement. "I respect your decision. After all, privacy is a luxury in our world..." He trailed off, his tone becoming more business-like as their conversation shifted to another topic.

Shortly, they ended the conversation, and the man exchanged a handshake with Alexander before he led me away toward our table.

And as soon as we sat down, I hit him with the first question. "Why would you tell him I am your wife?" I demanded sharply in a quiet tone.

Alexander leaned back slightly, his expression unfazed. "What do you expect me to say? That you are some helpless woman I dug up from the river while she was drowning? I bet that would have sounded very pleasant."

I gripped the fabric of my dress, feeling my anger simmering to the surface. "Maybe you shouldn’t have said anything at all, or perhaps you could have added the fact that the marriage is fake and temporary. Not branding me your wife when I wasn’t and would never," I spat.

Alexander only sighed, as though he was exhausted by my words. Without responding, he picked up the wine bottle on the table and poured himself a glass.

But I wasn’t done yet.

"Point of correction about what Mr. Vanvik said..." I continued. "You didn’t buy my father’s company. You stole it. Why lie about it?"

He took a slow sip of his wine, then set the glass down carefully. "It is not a lie. It’s called concealment. If the world knew the truth about what your father did, don’t you think they would dig further?" A weak smirk appeared on his lips. How I wanted to wipe that smirk off his face. "By the time they are done, your father would be rotting in jail."

I glared at him.

He was right anyway. Exposing the truth would only destroy what little was left of my family’s legacy. It wouldn’t sound great hearing that the country’s once-top businessman was a murderer. But that didn’t make Alexander’s lies any easier to stomach.

"You are pathetic," I muttered under my breath.

Without giving him a chance to respond, I stood up and walked away.

I didn’t know where I was going, but I decided to look around the party to clear my head. The main reason for coming here in the first place.

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