Charley's P.O.V.

I smirked at the annoyed man. I guess he didn't expect me to know what he had planned. “Had this been ten years ago, I would have fallen for your plan, but they say once you reach a certain age, you're more able to detect someone's bullshit.” He lifted his gun. I cocked my head to the side. “You don't want to know how I figured you out?”

“No,” he took the safety off and shot, but I quickly ran left and made my way towards him. He began to shoot rapidly but missed each time. 

I have no regrets about the expensive training sessions I had for my safety last year. It actually had a use. As I got to Sang-ook, I slashed his arm with the knife. He quickly grabbed my wrist and twisted it upwards. I yelled out in pain before he placed the gun near my head. I kicked him in the knee, causing him to yell and let go of my free hand. I kicked his gun away, causing it to shoot the wall. The loud ringing came to our ears. While he was slightly disoriented, I took the chance to try to knock him out by striking him with my palm, but he grabbed it and pulled me closer to him. I moved my face closer to him. As I saw the blush on his face, I smirked once more.

Perfect

I head-butted him.

Thirty Minutes Later

Sang-ook's P.O.V.

I opened my eyes to see what looked to be the blurry version of my bedroom. I knew this because of the black walls, unlike the rest of the house. 

What happened? 

I could have sworn that I had been in the hallway fighting Charley and then- I cringed as I felt a pain in my arm. I looked at my arm to see what looked slightly like some type of wrapping on it. The sound of a moving chair scraping across my floor came to my ears, causing me to look in its direction.

The blurry silhouette of a woman with long purple hair, dragging in a chair, came into view. “You're just waking up? I honestly didn't think I knocked you out that bad, hubby,” she said before sitting in the chair.

That sounds like-

My vision cleared. Sitting in front of me was Charley with a smirk on her face, a phone in one hand, and a knife in the other. “You know, you're quite cute when you're being your authentic self,” she said before leaning back in her chair. My brows furrowed.

I was supposed to kill her.

“Answer me this: were those people I met before your actual family, or some doppelgangers?” I scoffed and tried to move, only to see that I had been tied to a metal chair.

Smart

Out of all my years of work, she was able to knock me out and tie me up. What she doesn't know is that I know a way out of this. I began to move around my wrist, which was tied behind me. She began to scroll through her phone.

“How did you know what I had planned?” I asked, hoping she didn't notice my actions. She arched her brow and looked at me.

“I asked you a question first.”

“You did, but I am genuinely curious.”

“Then answer my question and I will answer yours.”

“They're my actual family.” She slowly nodded and began to scroll through her phone again.

“A family of murderers. That is to be expected from the Bin's. Well, something I expected. And I just know your family is going to be pissed off at our wedding. A person they expected to be dead by now, and their son. That is something they are going to hate.” It was my turn to arch my brow.

“Our wedding?” I let out a dry chuckle.

“What?” she questioned.

“You still think that will happen? I faked the engagement so you could come here.” She chuckled before she showed me her phone.

“It seems the media knows about our engagement. Because of that, marriage is the only option. Well, unless you have something else planned?”

“You dying-”

“Me dying? Are you not the one tied up right now? How can you kill me?”

“You're going to have to untie me, eventually.”

“Ah, you're right. The thing is, I don't want to. Plus, if given the chance again, you wouldn't kill me. You love me too much to do that.” My brows furrowed. “Or was that love at first sight, more of a lust at first sight?”

“You never told me how you figured out that I was going to kill you.”

“Trying to change the subject, huh?” My lips straightened. “I visited Mr. McClur in July. You know, during that time I was so ‘busy working overtime and creating my gown’. That's what you were reported by your spies, but I was doing more than that. They suck at hiding, you know that, right?” She snickered. “I mean, come on, it's so obvious. Anyway, I wanted to talk to him about the co-pay for Jocelyn’s loan that he kept the interest in.”

“Cut the bullshit. I know you are lying.” There was no doubt she was. When she is lying, she wiggles her left index finger. Charley laughed maniacally in response.

“You're right. Here's the truth. After he sent me those threatening photos of Cher, my niece, and Janie, I looked deeper into my loan and the sender of those images. The man you all hired as my assassin was so stupid. Pretending to be a loan shark to get me to come to him. He even marked the envelopes he sent with the address to his ‘office’. I then went on a deep search online and found him. Who knew that the Internet was right for once? I convinced him to let me in. I pleaded on my knees for him to spare me and not kill me. It felt disgusting, pleading to an asshole liken that, but I wanted to throw him off. He didn't care anyway, since the sick bastard had been staring at my cleavage. I took the chance while he was distracted to kill him. No more threats from him after that. Anyway, I went searching through his stuff and found out he was nothing but a middleman between your business and my cousin's loan. Meaning that your business was giving out loans, and if you don't get what you want, you send people like him to find me. The thing is that I killed your middleman, which let me know that someone else was going to come and kill me. So I took the chance to study your family and everything about them. Even the rumors. You know, you all should do some media cleaning. There are so many reports and doccuments free to the public.”

She was more cold-hearted 

than I thought.

“So if we do not get married, you will kill me?” I asked her.

“Nope,” she said before setting her phone and knife down and walking closer to me. “Why should I do that?”

“Because I will kill you when I am free.”

“Because of your love for me, you couldn't kill me in the hallway two hours ago. What makes you think you can do it now?” She moved her face about an inch away from mine. “You know what? Your love for me made you weak. Had you let me die in the garden days ago, you wouldn't have to worry about anything.”

“I do not love you. Also, I was the last one seen with you in the garden. Had I not done anything, the news would have had a frenzy.”

“Yeah, but your job would have been done. You didn't leave me to die because you love me.”

“I do not.”

“You do.” I grit my teeth. “You're pissed that I am right. You know, there is nothing bad about being in love. Especially when we are getting married soon.” She touched my cheek and moved her face just inches from mine. I could feel blood rush to my cheeks and ears. “You should be honest with yourself.” She whispered while her lips moved inches from mine. I found myself intoxicated by her. That was a problem I had for a while. And she knew that. Her lips curved up before she backed away. She swayed her way back to her chair and sat.

“What do you want from this? You have no feelings for me at all, and yet you want to get married? You could have blackmailed us, since you know our secret.” She folded her legs and crossed her arms.

“So you do love me?”

“I do not.”

“You do. Anyway, I find our marriage convenient. You can get the media off your back.”

"And what do you get?"

"A kick out of pissing you and your family off."

"So you would rather marry me because of that. You have the chance to be with anyone else-"

"And nothing satisfies me more than marrying you." My blush returned. “Not just that, but I also think you're cute. The real you, that is. You know a part of me hoped that you were being real in the days we ‘actually’ met, and maybe you were, but I knew that you were tasked by your family to kill me.” My phone began to vibrate. She stood up and walked over to it before grabbing it. “Anyway, Gabi has been calling. I left it alone because I know she will be pissed off if she hears me, which I am not in the mood for right now. You know, since you two have been flirting with each other for the past few months. I would say just get it over and fuck her already, had we not been getting married.” She placed my phone on the floor two feet away from me before grabbing her phone and the kitchen knife. By now, my face was fully red. What does she mean by that? “Anyway, I'm going to get some sleep before going back to my place,” she said and started to leave. I looked at her from the corner of my eye.

“Call off work,” I said. She stopped.

“You want me to look as though I purposely called off work so no one draws suspicion of my disappearance while you push me down the stairs and say it was an accident?” I rolled my eyes.

“No, I'm having a press conference since the media knows about our engagement.” she nodded.

“Okay. I am still going to leave you tied up in the meantime.” My eyes widened.

“Why?”

“You threatened to kill me a few times. Why wouldn't I leave you tied up? I know you love me but I don't want to die underestimating you. Anyway, I'm going to tell the maids to leave you alone and not bother you tomorrow morning. I will untie you at- what time is it that you want the press conference to be?”

“Eight am-”

“Okay, so eight thirty.” My brows furrowed. “What, sweety, did you not think I would know your schedule by now? There is so much I know that you I know about you. Even your relationship before Gabi-” I lunged forward.

“Bring her up, and I will kill you.” She scoffed.

“You already brought her up, remember? At the ball. The woman you loved. The very one who you faked an engagement.”

Charley's P.O.V.

I shook my head at the angered man before opening his room door. “To think that you had a similar plan you did with Mina as you did with me just to fall in love with both of us, is crazy.” I started to leave when a hand grabbed mine and yanked me backward. My arms were lifted in a full nelson. I pushed down my elbows and broke from what I assumed had been Sang-ook's grip. I tripped him, but not before he grabbed me and took me down with him. As both of us landed on our backs, I felt the wind knocked out of me. 

My knife

My eyes caught it in my view a few feet away from me. I turned myself over and crawled to get it. Sang-ook grabbed my legs and pulled me back to him. He flipped me onto my back. I kicked him in his chest and crawled back towards the knife. I grabbed it and turned myself on my back, only for him to get on top of me and try to pin my arms. I tried to slash him, but he grabbed both of my arms and pinned them down on both sides of me.

We began to catch our breaths as anger ran amongst us. Staring into his eyes, I could see fury. There was no doubt he wanted me dead. Especially after mentioning the last woman he wanted to marry. “You're- dead,” He said in between breaths. The thing is, I didn't want to die to him. Especially when that is what he wanted. I pulled back my legs before wrapping them around his waist and using them to flip him over. In surprise, he let go of my hands. Once he was on his back, I planted myself on top of him. I smirked as I saw his enraged expression. I pointed the knife at his neck.

“More like you're dead.” He glared.