"Mich.e.l.le Park, I don't wanna marry you . . . " he paused .

She had a look of frozen in shock . Her expression twisted into dismay .

"I don't wanna marry you . . . just to please your parents . I don't wanna marry you just so we could continue living together . I don't wanna marry you just so that we could already have kids . I wanna marry you not because of those things . " He smiled at her . "Well, the having kids part is highly negotiable . "

She finally laughed .

He continued, "I want to marry you because I love you, and I would want to spend the rest of my life with you . I know that you highly doubt my words since we are still learning about each other, but Mich.e.l.le Park, I never doubted that my feelings for you are true . "

She was crying, wiping her tears with her hands .

"You knew I also had a past . I thought that what we had was enough to get things to the next phase . I never thought it would drive her away . Dam*, she even kept Scotch!"

Mich.e.l.le laughed, still teary-eyed .

"Mich.e.l.le, marry me . I may not be able to set up a surprise wedding like your boss, but I will always agree on what you would want for our wedding, no matter how weird it would be . " He chuckled . "I'm not asking you to marry me for me to become yours, because on the first time I laid my eyes on you, when I saw you in that meeting behind your aloof boss, I knew that I'm yours . " He flashed a warm smile . "Now, won't you say yes?"

______________________

Masaichi Xiu had a dangerous expression as he read through the report his mother emailed him .

He could not believe it . His wife was the bait!

From anger with possibly a hint of madness, his expression turned gloomy as his mind was filled with memories of his late wife .

Agatha w.a.n.g was introduced to him and his father that year . Her father had come to terms with his father both in business and in strengthening ties . Masaichi was a rather wild teenager, not in the sense of being rebellious, but on changing girlfriends with the change of seasons . One friend of his back in high school even said that if he took photos with every girl he dated, he could use them for a calendar and you could see the fas.h.i.+on trends for the seasons throughout the year . Masaichi used to laugh it off .

True, he played around, but those girls had always known that he was not serious . It has always been clear to him that being the heir to the company would mean marrying for business . It was inculcated to him by his paternal grandmother before she died . It might be because she was frustrated that his son did not marry the woman she chose that she decided to pour her remaining energy to make her grandson walk back into the right path .

When he met his wife, they hit it off almost immediately . They went skiing and visiting tourist spots . His father even left him with her and went home like a doting husband would . Since he was unaware of the story with his parents, he has always viewed his father as a loyal and faithful husband, always pacifying his mother . Before he got married, he wondered if he will turn out to be like his father .

He actually did not . Masaichi always failed to express his love for his wife in endearing gestures . However, Agatha was the total opposite of him . He could still remember her blus.h.i.+ng face on their first night as newlyweds when she told him "I'm yours now . " as she giggled .

Right now, clutching the mouse as he read the report, Masaichi Xiu was not sure anymore if any of her words were true . He had always looked at her as the jolly, loving wife he had . . . the mother of his son . Now, he frowned as he thought that everything had been a lie .