A Contract Marriage With My Boss

"Where are you," Christina asked Charles without greeting him first. Since only one day had passed since their fight, her angry voice indicated that she was still mad with Sarah and Charles. Calling them meant degrading herself, and she had no kind words to offer.

In the beginning, Charles wanted to engage in friendly talk, but his mother's attitude changed his mood. Standing up for himself, she asked coldly. "What's wrong?" He didn't want her to know where they were right now.

Noticing that Charles wanted to escape from answering, Christina changed the topic, "Emma is going back to Chicago. When are you coming back?"

Charles sneered. Two days ago, in their fight, she had told him to leave and not come back, and now she was calling him asking when he was coming back. But when thinking about Emma, he realized that she was his sister, and he had to be nice to her, so he asked. "When will she go back to Chicago?"

"The day after tomorrow. You'd better come home tomorrow morning to accompany her to the airport. Christina commanded.

But Charles refused. "I'll come back the day after tomorrow in the morning."

Christina raised her voice angrily. "You are usually so kind to Emma and escort her to any place she wants to go. But now, when she's ready to go back to Chicago, you want to wait to come back until she's gone? Is that being a good brother?"

Emma seemed to be standing next to Christina, and when she heard their conversation, she hurried to persuade her mother to come down.

Charles was about to confront his mother, but when he heard Emma, he restrained himself, not wanting to hurt her. Finally, he decided to be the bigger person and said. "It's been a long time since I left the company. A lot of work is waiting for me there that needs urgent attention. That's why I am not coming back before the morning the day after tomorrow."

"Let Sarah come back first then." Christina insisted.

Charles glanced at Sarah with hesitation. Noticing his face, Sarah felt strange and stared back at him; however, he turned around as if he wanted to hide something. "What do you want to do? I won't let her go back alone if it's not an emergency. We'll go back together."

Hearing her name from the phone, Sarah knew they were talking about her. She stared absorbedly at Charles and listened to their conversation.

"Your father would like to see her. You left without as much as a goodbye to him. Do you know what your father thought?"

Christina's voice was loud, and although Sarah didn't hear the whole conversation, she listened to the word "father" and knew they were talking about Mr. Thomas. Thinking of Mr. Thomas, Sarah became worried and pulled Charles's sleeve, asking. "Charles, what are you talking about with your mom? Is something wrong with your dad?"

Charles didn't want to make her worried and just said to Christina. "Anyway, we will come back the day after tomorrow. Until then, bye!" and ended the call ignoring his mother's yelling at the other end. Sarah asked again, curiously. "What were you talking about with your mom? Is something wrong with your dad?"

Taking a deep breath, Charles tried to minimize the situation. "It's nothing, just that Emma is ready to go back to Chicago, and my mom wants us to come back tonight, but I refuse to go back so quickly. Every time I see her, I get agitated. She just uses my dad as an excuse to make me come; that's why I ignore her."

"How is your dad?" Sarah was still worried.

"Don't worry. If something happened to him, my mom wouldn't have talked to me in this tone. She just blames me for not following her every demand." Charles responded in a whiny tone. He seemed very unhappy, thinking about his mom.

Sarah nodded and dared not insist further. They quietly took their bags and walked home.

At night, Charles had to attend to some matters for the company from his study while Sarah clipped the roses in the living room and arranged them into a vase. Suddenly her phone rang and looking at the caller ID, she saw Mrs. Thomas was calling her.

Her heart dropped immediately, and didn't know whether she should answer or not. Every time she thought about Christina, she felt guilty and panicked. She thought about asking Charles to answer but saw that he was busy with his work and didn't want to disturb him. Maybe Christina had just made a huge fuss last time out of frustration and wasn't really that bad.

Taking a deep breath, Sarah answered the phone, tiptoeing to the balcony at the same time so Charles wouldn't hear her.

Charles signed sincerely and embraced her tightly. "Sarah, I'm nice to you because I love you. Do you understand? And if you can't live without me, you can be with me forever. I will always be nice to you, just like I promised you just now!"

Sarah was still crying, thinking that she really had married the best man on the planet. She loved and hated him so much! She didn't want to be apart from him ever.

They hugged each other for a long time, walking side by side silently, until Charles's phone rang and he had to answer it. Listening to the voice on the phone, he looked unhappy. He looked at Sarah and said. "Mom, what's wrong?"

Sarah also became worried, knowing that Mrs. Thomas wanted nothing but trouble for her. Happiness comes suddenly, but it is fleeting, she thought. Her marriage was doomed to be hard. How would it end? "Hello, mom, is something wrong?"

"Why does it take you so long to answer my phone call?" Mrs. Thomas barked at her with a severe and cold voice. Hesitating for a little, Sarah looked for an excuse. "I......was taking a shower, and my phone is in my room."

"Tomorrow morning, you have to come back to Los Angeles," Christina ordered her with a firm voice.

"Me?" Sarah looked at Charles from a distance and asked again, "Only me?"

"Yes, you just come back tomorrow morning. Hurry up and don't be late."

"Why?"

"Why? Don't you know that it's your responsibility to take care of your father-in-law? What's worse, his condition got worse."