Contract with the CEO: No Falling in Love

Episode 5

...💎...

...CHAPTER 5...

...--------------------...

...*EMMA RIOS* ...

I didn't know if Leonardo wanted to strangle me or cancel the contract, but the way he looked at me before I definitively left the studio gave me the creeps.

And not the good kind.

Luckily, Gisela—yes, that was the name of the CEO's younger sister—seemed to enjoy other people's chaos.

She dragged me by the arm as if we were best friends for life, with an energy so opposite to that of her brother that I found it hard to believe they shared the same DNA.

"Well, now that the soap opera is over," she said as we walked down the hall, "I think you need sugar."

"Sugar?"

"Yes. Sugar and an orientation chat, courtesy of your favorite new sister-in-law."

"Shouldn't we wait for your brother to come out of his cave of fury before we leave?"

"Wait?" she laughed. "And miss the chance to escape while he's distracted? No way."

"Escape?"

"Yes. Let's get donuts. And if we're lucky, we can get some shopping in before he tracks you with GPS."

I looked at her in disbelief.

"Are you aware that your brother has me watched even when I breathe?"

"That's why. A little rebellion will do you good," she winked. "Besides, don't worry, I know how to handle him."

I don't know when I ended up in her car, with the cards Leonardo had given me still in my purse and my soul trembling with nerves.

But the smell of freshly baked donuts in the place she took me made any guilt disappear instantly.

"This is where I recharge serotonin when my brother starts his robot CEO phase. Working with him is unbearable," Gisela said, ordering a box of six. "Chocolate or glazed?"

"Both," I replied without hesitation.

"I knew I was going to like you."

We sat in a corner of the place. She took off her sunglasses and looked at me with a smile that hid intentions.

"So, Emma Rios… do you want to know why he chose you?"

I almost choked on my first bite.

"Choose me? Me?"

"Uh-huh," she muttered, amused. "Leonardo doesn't take random steps, especially not in something as delicate as this. And yes, I was the one who suggested you."

"What?"

"I've been watching you at the company for days," she said matter-of-factly. "I saw you that time with him at the printer."

"The printer?"

"Yes. When you were trying to make copies and the paper got stuck. You said the printer had a 'demonic spirit' and that you were seconds away from performing an exorcism on it."

I put my hands on my face.

"Oh, please."

"Relax, it was epic," she laughed. "Leonardo smiled right after you left."

"WHAT?"

"And that's when I realized," she continued, ignoring my horrified face. "Also that day when you were wearing the most wrinkled suit in the whole office, the most undone bun on the planet, and you still spoke to him without fear when he asked why the report wasn't ready."

"I told him that if he wanted magic reports, he should hire Harry Potter."

"Exactly," Gisela laughed. "Everyone goes silent when my brother speaks. You don't."

I was silent, processing the information.

So it had all started with a possessed printer and my natural talent for screwing up.

"Leonardo needed someone convincing," she continued. "The partners are on top of him, watching every step he takes. They don't trust anyone who has made their fortune from scratch. And even less someone who doesn't have a family, wife or children to 'stabilize' him."

The way she said it made me look down.

"So it's true. They don't have parents."

"They died when we were kids," she replied, this time in a soft tone. "I was ten, he was sixteen."

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Don't be sorry. He always says that the loss made him stronger. That he didn't need anyone. And... in part, he was right. He made himself."

"Alone?"

"He worked like crazy. First scholarships, then ventures, then his first company. Today he is a millionaire, but he still acts as if he is one step away from losing everything."

Gisela took a donut, turned it between her fingers, and added:

"That's why investors see him as a risk. They respect him, they fear him, but they don't understand him. And now he has to close a deal in two months that depends entirely on his image."

"And that's where I come in?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Exactly," she smiled. "He needs to look stable, balanced… in love. At least for half a year."

I let out a humorless laugh.

"Yeah, well, stability isn't exactly what I'm best at."

"That's why you work," she said, shrugging. "You're not perfect, Emma. And my brother needs something real to remember that he's still human."

Her words left me thinking.

Between bites of donut and nervous laughter, I began to understand that behind the contract, the clauses and his bad mood, Leonardo was not just a controlling CEO.

He was someone who had had to be an adult too soon.

"You know what's the most ironic thing?" Gisela added, with a mischievous smile. "I bet my brother is already annoyed with you and needs you at the same time."

"Well, I think it's already mutual."

"Believe me," she said, raising her donut as a toast. "If he looks at you with that mix of annoyance and curiosity… you're lost."

I laughed, although deep down a part of me knew that she might be right.

And that was, in itself, dangerous.

"Okay," I said, finishing my coffee, "what's next in your 'rebellion' plan?"

"Easy," Gisela smiled as if she were planning a crime. "Shopping."

"Shopping?"

"Yes. Leonardo wants you to look like a magazine fiancee, right? So we need dresses, shoes and attitude. And taking advantage of the mess with Bianca will keep him busy all day…"

"You're taking advantage of someone else's misfortune."

"I call it 'optimizing family chaos'," she replied with a wink.

And without giving me time to refuse, we were already leaving the store with an extra bag of donuts and a mental list of stores to visit.

As we walked to the car, I couldn't help but look at the gray city sky and think:

Emma Rios, with two cards shining in my purse and above all an unlimited one.

Yes.

Definitely, this was going to be a fun chaos.

But at least I was going to do it in style.

...--------------------...

When I got to the hospital, Sofia was sitting in her bed, surrounded by magazines, flowers and a smile that made me forget everything else.

She was wearing the new pajamas I had bought her with one of the black cards from my beloved temporary husband.

"Emma!" she shouted as soon as she saw me, with the excitement of a child at Christmas. "You have to see this!"

She dragged me to the window and showed me her new private room. Everything shone, from the sheets to the cream-colored curtains.

"Look at this TV, and the view! You can see the whole city. The nurses treat me like a princess."

I smiled. That was exactly what I had wanted from the beginning: to see her happy, to see her calm.

"You deserve it, Sofi."

"But, let's see…" she looked me up and down with that curious expression that always scares me. "Where did you get the money for all this?"

I tried to laugh, but a lump formed in my throat.

"Let's just say I had a stroke of luck."

"Stroke of luck or sugar daddy?" she asked, laughing.

"Sofia!" I threw a pillow at her.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But seriously, tell me. I'm not going to be quiet until I know."

I sat next to her. I had to tell her, or at least part of it. She was my only family, the only person who trusted me unconditionally.

"I'm getting married," I finally blurted out.

The silence lasted exactly three seconds.

"What?"

"Yes… to someone very rich," I added, lowering my voice.

Sofia blinked as if trying to process it, and then let out such a loud laugh that the nurses must have heard her from the hallway.

"If I weren't in an elite hospital, I'd swear you were pulling my leg."

"I swear I'm not."

"And do you love him?" she asked with that soft voice that breaks my soul.

I swallowed.

"I'm learning," I said, lying a little bit.

She hugged me without saying anything else, and for a moment, I forgot the clauses, the contracts and the cameras that would soon follow us everywhere.

"I just hope you're happy, Emma. Really. It doesn't matter if he's rich or poor, as long as he doesn't make you cry."

Ah, if it were that easy.

Later, as I left the hospital, my cell phone vibrated. It was a message from Leonardo:

Leonardo:* Dinner rehearsal, 8 p.m. Don't be late. And don't forget to smile, Mrs. Blake.*

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, right… smile while I think about tearing out your soul."

I walked to the car waiting for me and looked at the black card in my hand.

The card that represented everything I hated and needed at the same time.

His words echoed in my head:

""You can spend whatever you want, but don't break any clauses with stupidities.""

I raised an eyebrow and muttered to myself:

"Stupidities? Oh, Mr. Blake, you'll be surprised when you see the bills."