Billionaire In Disguise

Grace stared longingly at Cody's departure. It was like her hope and resolution had gone along with it. She turned her body around and walked stiffly to stop lamenting Cody's departure again. Furious, annoyed, angry, and desperate, he felt his feelings mixed up. Her head felt almost broken, and her feelings were in ruins.

Leading her steps to the place where she would complain and ask for help. Grace arrived with a bottle of wine in her hand, smiling at Jesse, who seemed to have been waiting for her for quite some time.

"What's that you brought?" asked Jesse, peering at the large glass bottle Grace held.

"Tada!" she exclaimed, holding up the bottle proudly. "I brought the red wine you like."

Jesse took over the bottle Grace handed him as if realizing its existence was another reason for his being there. "Unusual," Jesse said, placing the bottle on the table, then he moved to pick up the food he'd put on a plate. "What made you plan to drink today? When I asked you yesterday, you refused because you had work. I have to get up early; my brain needs to be in a healthy state to think." he imitated Grace's way of speaking.

Jesse smiled, pouring the wine Grace had brought into his and her glasses. Like a true sommelier, Jesse eyed his glass. Twisting the stem gracefully, she inhaled the aroma and began to taste it with a gentle sip from the rim. Then she smiled with satisfaction.

Grace did the same, but with eyes that watched Jesse closely. And seeing Jesse enjoying the wine so much was quite comforting to her. "You like it so much?" asked Grace, clinking her wine glass with Jesse's.

Jesse smiled a simple smile. "Nothing tastes sweeter and more comforting than a long-stored wine," she said, taking another graceful sip from the glass.

"Next time, I'll give you something better than this," Grace said, intrigued by Jesse's love of wine that always intoxicated her through the aroma she smelled as she sipped.

Jesse returned her gratitude with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. "Then what brings you here?"

Grace was silent for a moment. She sipped her wine in a way different from how Jesse drank it. Unlike Jesse, who was enjoying himself, Grace looked ready to get drunk and forget her emotions. "My parents asked me to get married."

"My parents, too. I guess all parents want their children to get married." Jesse replied in a crazy tone.

"But for me, it's an order. Mr. Lawrence is insisting. He'll probably use threats if I don't comply," Grace said, handing Jesse her glass so the girl could pour the thick red liquid back into her glass.

Jesse looked at her. "What else will Mr. Lawrence do?"

"I don't know." Grace relaxed her shoulders. "Maybe with my mom or with his wealth. He used to threaten me with those two things, and I wouldn't say I liked his threats. So, instead of waiting for him to threaten me, I complied. Besides, I needed to get married in the end for Mrs. Emery to feel at ease. They at least need to leave me with someone they can trust."

"More than they trust you?"

"Eng." Grace laughed, her lips pressed tightly together while her eyelids almost closed in a crescent shape. "They probably never trusted me in the first place. It seems like I've always been a worrying figure for them."

"Then what did you do?"

This time, Grace laughed out loud. She approached Jesse with a look that was beginning to resemble that of a little child. "You know what?"

Jesse laughed, rolling his eyeballs and looking the other way. He could confidently tell Grace was drunk at the moment because the girl's behavior was getting weird. "What do I know? How could I have known if you hadn't told me."

"Ah! Right. Listen, you might be surprised."

"What else could surprise me about your attitude?"

"I proposed to Cody for marrying me."

"What?" Jesse spat the drink from his mouth, even though she felt so much affection for the wine that she drank it slowly.

Grace nodded enthusiastically. "But he turned me down," she said disappointedly.

"I thought you couldn't get any crazier than you already are, but I was wrong." she gasped.

"He turned me down. The one person I thought would lighten the load of this marriage turned me down as soon as I proposed to him."

Jesse shook his head, at a loss for words. "If I were him, I'd do the same thing. I'd run and save myself from someone like you!"

Grace gave him a disappointed look. "Hey! Must you say it like that? Why do you have to make it clear!"Grace, annoyed, put down her glass rudely.

The glass that had slammed on the table was immediately caught by Jesse, who saw it in panic. "Hey! Don't slam it. It's my favorite glass. I'll keep drinking wine from it for the rest of my life. You have no idea how hard I worked to get this glass," she spouted at Grace.

She was ignoring the babble. Grace began to bury her face in the folds of her hands on the table. "What should I do? How do I get him to agree to marry me?" she asked Jesse, though Jesse was more concerned with the glass.

"Tell him you're pregnant with his child," Jesse said.

"You're even crazier than me!" snapped Grace, raising her face.

"If you're confused. You can use that method," she said without guilt.

Grace looked annoyed. She thought he had been wrong to come there and tell her. How could Jesse, without thinking about it, speak so easily, giving her ridiculous ideas that she couldn't even imagine? "You freak!" Grace smacked Jesse's head with her fist.

"Argh!" Jesse gave her a fierce look. "You ask, I answer."

"But it doesn't make sense!"

"What doesn't make sense is you can get pregnant with him. Why does it not make sense?"

"Because I never slept with him!"

Jesse paused. "You're right. You have to at least sleep with him before you can admit that you're pregnant with his child."

"Now you know what the problem is."

"Force him to sleep with you."

Grace regained her senses because of Jesse's nonsense, which made her think logically. "You're drunk."

Jesse nodded. "Yeah. With this," he pointed to Grace's bottle of wine. "Make him unconscious and then sleep with him. Make him believe you did something that night."

Grace laughed bitterly. "You made me look like a slut in front of him."

Jesse narrowed his eyes. "Now you're affected by what people think of you? Ms. Lawrence, the thing you need to remember is your goal. You're not planning to sleep with him because you want his wealth or anything else. Your goal was just to put your parents at ease. And he happens to be your choice," Jesse explained, dismissing Grace's thoughts about herself.

"But does it have to be that low?"

"You know you have high grades. Your grades won't drop just because you use sneaky measures, and he won't lose anything anyway. He's a man, and his position is always an advantage." Jesse added.

Grace exchanged glances with him. "Then you should do me a favour."