Starting Today I'll Work As A City Lord

Second Chance Series Book One. ***** To some, marriage is a word. To others, a sentence. ***** Excerpt He unlocked his safe and pulled out some papers. He threw them on my face and gestured me to pick them up. I glared at him, refusing to listen. "Come on, pick them up" he ordered like he was talking to a pet dog. When I didn't listen he crouched down to my level and picked them up himself. "Do you know what it is? It's our marriage contract, read it!" He threw them on my face again. "I said fucking read it!" He yelled loudly. "Don't make me do something, you'll regret afterward, read it, I'll beat you if I have to" he threatened. I picked them up with trembling hands and blurry vision. I saw my signature at the bottom of the page, my breath seized as I stared at it. "Read it!" He ordered, standing tall before me. 1. I will not work. 2. I will respect my in-laws. 3. I will do whatever my husband tells me to. 4. I will take care of my husband as an obedient wife whether I am treated like a wife or not. 5. I will bear children for my husband, I won't have any parental rights over them. My husband will have their sole custody. 6. Finally, I will be ready to go to bed with my husband at his wish whether I like it or not. A single tear fell on the page followed by many others. He snatched the contract back from me. "Now you understand your place?" He asked menacingly.

"Alexia, don't take any of the company's holiday bonus boxes. You're not one of us—there's nothing for you." My manager, Kevin Davis, delivered the notice coldly, as if he were commenting on the weather—routine, impersonal. My hand stilled on the mouse. "The rest of you, come with me. We're heading to the company gala to collect your million-dollar bonuses!" My colleagues filed out in high spirits. I watched their retreating backs and answered with a bitter, "Okay." I was a contract worker. For seven years, I had always been the odd one out in the department. Our ID badges said it all—blue for full-time employees, gray for me. Time off was no different. Full-time employees had weekends; I got one day off a month. As for pay and benefits, they enjoyed meal allowances, housing subsidies, team outings, afternoon snacks, holiday gifts, year-end bonuses… I received a fixed salary of three thousand dollars a month. I sat down, opened my computer, and returned to the candlestick charts of my stocks. They didn't know that I was the company's largest anonymous individual shareholder. And they certainly didn't know that tonight, at the company gala, I would step onto the stage as the new Chairman—and my very first proposal would be to lay off their entire department.

My boss had a new boyfriend called Eugene Larson. The first day he came to the office, he put on a great show of exerting his dominance. He deleted my number from my boss's phone right in front of me. Eugene waved his phone in front of me while playing innocently. "You can talk to me about anything you need to communicate to Tina, Mr. Sanders. I'll help you pass the message to her. I don't have much sense of security, so please don't mind this. It's to avoid any misunderstanding between us." I was hoping my boss, Tina Kayden, would be able to say something fair on my behalf, but all she did was stare at Eugene approvingly and adoringly throughout the conversation. She turned to me and said, "This is a pretty good plan, Mr. Sanders. Do take good care of Eugene from now on." As there was no way for me to reject her, I was forced to add Eugene's contact to my phone. However, the moment he had my number, he flooded my phone with messages. [Mr. Sanders, is the client you're meeting tomorrow with the surname Charleston a man or a woman?] [Where are you having the meeting tomorrow? Wear something casual tomorrow. It would be best if you avoid washing your face and hair. Otherwise, I would think you're trying to seduce my wife.] [I believe your relationship with Tina is innocent. You're not allowed to betray me because I'm treating you like my buddy!] [By the way, you have an extra duty from now on. You need to remind Tina every 30 minutes to send me a message telling me that she loves me.] As I read these ridiculous messages, I laughed in anger. I put my phone on silent mode and flung it to the side before going to bed. The next morning, I woke up to dozens of missed calls on my phone.

At the contract-signing meeting, a major client casually asks our new technician if she can handle her alcohol. She immediately pours a glass of red wine over his head and says coolly, "This sort of socializing is a bad habit. I'm putting an end to it." Leon Langley, a top client who brings the company 300 million dollars in annual revenue, flies into a rage and tears up the contract on the spot. As the project lead, I bend over backward to apologize and drink with Mr. Langley until I'm hospitalized with gastric bleeding—just to salvage the deal. When I report the incident to my boss, he scolds me instead. "As the person in charge, you nearly ruined the project. Forget the three-million-dollar commission we planned to give you. Consider this a warning." After that, I put Hannah Storrie's name on the department's downsizing review list. She sneers. "I'm a top talent the boss poached at great expense. I'm not some cheap hostess who survives by smiling and drinking like you. "Firing me would be throwing the company down the drain. When that happens, you'll be begging me to come back." I ignore her. However, when the review period ends, the name on the layoff list turns out to be mine. My boss seizes the opportunity to announce that Hannah will replace me as the new sales director. "Clients are extremely important to us. You don't seriously think you're capable of landing them, do you? "Hannah's is more qualified, more tech-savvy, and prettier than you. She's clearly the better choice." I simply smile, turn around, and dial a number.

Stuck in a failed relationship and with a nice pair of horns adorning her head, Carina Fernandes finds herself in yet another mess. Her best friend's plan was simple and practical: they were going to go out for fun in a luxurious bar, where her salary as a recently graduated architect wouldn't even pay for sparkling water. However, everything falls apart, and she ends up waking the next day in the bed of an unknown Italian woman. Veronica Vacchiano was a great, irresistible little devil. And the Brazilian, bluntly and with a few screws loose, would end up tasting the poison of her “sweet and beloved” ex-sister-in-law.

Kiera Hart was a kindergarten teacher, until the day she was the only thing standing between her kids and a man with a gun. Kiera was injured and can no longer be in a classroom without having a panic attack. A year later she has just moved to New York and started a new job, a quite boring job. But before she can even settle in, her boss, William Lund needs help in a family matter… a matter that has her fake married to her handsome icy boss, a boss she was told is gay. How will Kiera handle it when she starts falling in love with her fake husband, not to mention her bond with the cutest little girl in the world, Frida.