PERFECT STRANGERS - Lilie Leighton

Chapter 2 - Juliette Sutton

The Veranda is supposed to be a comfortable place to enjoy a backyard landscape. The pool, the field, the lake across. And as long as our eyes can see, there were mid-century trees and all the greens that somehow made us relax. But here I am, not relaxing at all, my skin heated with anger as we sat in awkward silence while a servant poured Arnold Palmers.

"Does anyone care to share about what just happened?" My voice was hardly calm to an end. "An arranged marriage?" my eyes moved to my grandfather. "Are you kidding me?"

"The whole idea of an arranged marriage was not mine. That was your parents' idea." Phillip leaned back with his hands holding straight his walking cane. "I just knew today about that from them."

"Then you thought that the idea was brilliant." It wasn't that hard to decipher Phillip's mind. His face said it all. "Unbelievable." I threw my hands in the air.

"Don't you think so?" Pierce stepped into the conversation. "This arranged marriage could benefit both sides."

I snorted. "I thought I'm the only one in this family that only cares about money. But I never thought you'd be willing to go this far for the money."

"This is for your best," Pierce said without hesitation.

"My best?" My laugh mirrored a villain's laugh. "What's best? This is for your best. Practically, you tried to sell me."

"No one is trying to sell you, Jules." Aggravation crept into Pierce's voice.

"Yes, you are." Conrad calmly replied after taking a drink got my grandfather and my older brother glared in disbelief.

"Thank you." I appreciated his help. I looked at my grandfather and Pierce alternately while they gave Conrad a disapproving gaze.

Pierce sighed. "My point is, your lack of self-preservation was the reason why I wanted this arranged marriage to happen. Your judgment about a man always made us worried."

My voice increased a level. "So right now the problem was about someone I dated?" I blinked a few times.

"Yes!" Phillip and Pierce answered at the same time and with the same word.

Conrad cleared his throat. "They're not wrong about that one. One time your ex stole five million dollars to buy a California house for his baby mama."

My grandfather made me an intern during the double degree program and I met an associate from a partner law firm. He was not the first guy I had a relationship with, but he was my first boyfriend. Our relationship entered its first year when he asked me to lend him some money to build his dream.

I wired the exact amount he asked, then later I found out that the money was to be used to buy a house in California. He's not wrong about building his dream. I am just not part of it. But his wife and their daughter are.

"The money wasn't stolen. It was kick-him-out-of-my-life money." I defend myself. I could have taken the house as easily as turning the palm of my hand. But I choose otherwise because the amount of time, money, and feelings would waste to take the house back was not worth it. Just pretend that what happened between me and my ex didn't happen and considered that the house was a gift for them.

"How about your other ex with no anger management? I nearly buried him deep down in the ground." Conrad converted.

"It was a misunderstanding because he thought that I was cheating on him with you. Besides, he was just too hard grabbing my hand."

I could tell that my second boyfriend's anger management comes from his insecurities. He worked as a photographer and he worried about not being enough for me, considering our backgrounds were quite different. I told him a lot of times that what he does for a living doesn't matter. He doesn't need to buy me flowers, clothes, or handbags. He doesn't need to take me to a fancy restaurant.