Chapter 63

63 Truth in Every Lie

“You’re back to normal now, Elena. You were so uptight before...I like you much better like this,” Brandon said as he casually placed his large hand on my back.

He smiled at me cheerfully and in that instant, I saw him as the young man that I met during the start of my university life. I closed my eyes and pushed that image away from my mind as my hand grabbed his wrist and yanked his arm away from me.

“Don’t touch me so casually,” I snapped at him coldly.

“Wah...the scary Elena is back,” Brandon teased before laughing at me.

Brandon?

The sight of him laughing carefreely very close to me on the sofa made me have second thoughts about him changing. Now that I think about it, we used to bicker and have little quarrels like this all the time while we were dating. Brandon would always find something to frustrate me just so that he could laugh when I panicked or got flustered. Those days were fun; however, that doesn’t help solve the problem right in front of me right now.

Maybe...just maybe...Brandon hasn’t changed much from our time together. Not that it mattered.

Time is ticking by. I need to get my act together if I’m going to successfully fool all those people.

“Do you have a laptop that I can borrow by any chance?” I asked.

.....

“Sure do but what do you need it for?” he asked.

“I’m going to research my enemies...” I replied without hesitation.

Everyone on the board of directors are prominent members of society. If I can get a sense of what each person is like, what they believe in, their public stance and any other random information about them, then maybe I can figure out what they’re looking to see.

...

“Surely, you’re not feeling nervous, right? You’re supposed to be a pro at this, Miss Contract Wife,” Brandon teased me.

Even though we were standing right outside the door to the meeting room where the board members are waiting for us, Brandon still had the galls to tease me. I wanted to whack him so badly.

“Brandon,” I called his name softly as I stood close to his side.

“Yes?” he replied, and I could feel his eyes on my face.

“Are you ready to be my fiancé? If you want to change your mind, now’s the last chance that you have. After this meeting is over, you’ll be stuck with me until this shameless charade is over,” I said confidently before flashing him one of my more radiant smiles.

“Wow...someone’s confident...” he murmured.

“Failure isn’t an option...when you’re drowning in debt,” I said before winking at him teasingly.

“I don’t know what trick you’ve got up your sleeve but good luck. I hope it works...for both of our sakes,” Brandon said as he grinned over at me.

I placed my hands in the crook of Brandon’s arm and nodded at him, signaling that I was ready. With a firm nod my way, Brandon pushed opened the large double door. I knew that once we entered through this door, the official start of our fake relationship and everything that came along with it was what awaited us.

We stepped through the door together into a very large meeting room and I felt all pairs of eyes on us immediately. No one said anything and the silence felt deafening. I smiled a little as I clung to Brandon’s arm. It was a good mix of acting and my natural nervousness. Hopefully, the spectators found it a convincing act.

“Brandon, it’s good that you’re able to make it,” an old man said as he stood up from his seat.

“Of course. It’s not often that the entire board of directors would convene like this. It’s an honor to meet everyone again,” Brandon said before smiling politely.

I could feel everyone’s eyes on me and wondered when I would be introduced and when I had to start performing my convincing act of being the love of Brandon’s life.

“I assume that the lady standing next to you is...” the old man continued in a kind voice.

“Yes. Sorry for the late introduction and the unease that I may have caused. This is Elena, the woman I have been dating with the intent of getting married to in the near future,” Brandon said confidently.

“Hello, everyone. It’s a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Elena, I’m Brandon’s girlfriend,” I introduced myself politely.

Although everyone should have been aware that Brandon would be bringing his girlfriend along to the meeting, for some reason, they seemed quite stunned to see me. Perhaps they didn’t truly believe that Brandon had a girlfriend at first or that he was willing to introduce his girlfriend to them.

“Miss Elena, if you don’t mind, can you tell us more about yourself? Perhaps, your background and how your relationship with Mr. Brandon started?” an old woman with grey hair asked from her seat at the long meeting table.

“Of course...” I replied in my flawlessly sweet voice.

I began introducing myself and my background covering where I went for school and university before starting to tell them how my relationship with Brandon started. The way everyone focused their attention on me when I was about to start the tale of our love, made me aware that the thing that they cared most about was whether my relationship with Brandon was real or not.

If someone were to ask me how to tell a convincing lie, I would tell them that the best lies always have the truth laced in it.

“Although Brandon and I have rekindled our relationship just recently, our romantic relationship started many years back when we were both studying at university. As you may have realized from my introduction just now, Brandon and I went to the same university, and we studied the same major which was business. Brandon is two years older than me and we met when I was a freshman and he was in his third year of university...” I said quite truthfully.

–To be continued...