Chapter 1: Marriage proposal

Peculia Joe is the second child of Mr. Henry Joe who is one of the richest man in America, with multiple IT companies in the world. After she graduated, she studied in an IT university for 3 years before she could work in one of her father's companies. This has now been 2 years since she started work and she is very pleased with it.

She has a boyfriend since High School which she is madly in love with, everyone in her family knows about him and she wishes to spend the rest of her life with him. Because her boyfriend is coming from a very poor background, Peculia asked her dad to do her a favour which was to grant his boyfriend the post of director of the company she will be working at, because she didn't want to be away from him, and he did.

Peculia has an elder brother called Alex who owns multiple enterprises. Alex has always been seen as a very strict and scary person that people usually referred to him as Ice cold, and she couldn't lie that he wasn't as cold as they say. She also has a younger sister called Klara who is at her last year in High school, she saw Klara as her only family member who always bring joy in her life because she was just as funny and entertaining as that. There has always been a good relationship between all of them even though her siblings didn't like Stephen her boyfriend. She has a bestfriend called Mandy who is also working in the same enterprise as her, they have been friends since High school and their parents have a good relationship with each other.

Today, Stephen invited Peculia to have dinner in their favorite restaurant. It was already 7pm as she arrived in their estate to get ready, she immediately went into her room, undressed, entered the bathroom and soaked into the bath tube. After she was done, she went in front of the mirror and dried her long brown hairs before combing them neatly behind, wore a long sky blue simple gown, boats and a jacket on top because of the cold outside at night. Peculia had the most delicate feature and curves a woman could ever have, a pale white body, fierce brown eyes which always made others fear her because of how sharp they were. She also had a straight nose and freckles which are mostly on her nose but some people didn't know about that because she usually covers them with makeup, full pink lips and a well-defined jawline. She was just way too gorgeous. When she left her room she saw her elder brother Alex who was actually coming to her room.

"Are you going somewhere?" He asked her curiously because of how she was dressed.

"Yes, I have to meet Stephen tonight" she replied and he sighed, smirked and left, she knew he didn't like her relationship with Stephen but he is the man she choosed and so all of their opinions didn't matter to her. Her personal driver led her to the place which was always so mesmerizing to her, despite being the nth time she came here. It was a 3 floor building and was near a lake, which created the perfect vibe and she was slightly surprise to see Stephen at the balcony on the 3rd floor waving at her. She loved the view from up there and she was so happy he reserved seats there this time. When she arrived where he was, she hugged him tightly before taking a seat next to him with a smile which was as bright as the sun.

"Do you like it?" was the first words he said

"I love it!" She replied almost instantly and he laughed. She loved the view but him more, he had brown messy hairs as though he just woke up which was cute she thought. Did he rush here without getting properly ready just because he wanted to see her as much as her ? Peculia's heart couldn't stay still as she drown in his beautiful hazel eyes. "I'm happy it pleases you" he said as he looked at her contemplating the view, with the cold air brushing on her face, she closed her eyes and just enjoy everything around her the positive energy, his presence and scent.

"Peculia ..." He called her name making her open her eyes, when she did she was shocked by what she was seeing, Stephen stood from his seat with a little box in hand and kneeled in front of her, she was on the verge of crying everything was blank in her mind right now, she was internally asking herself just one question which was "What will come next?" will he asked her to marry him ? He opened the box and she saw a magnificent diamond ring in it, this time around tears were already flowing down her cheeks. Then he looked up at her and said

"Would you marry me?" he finally did ask the awaited key words. She was so happy that it took her sometime for her mouth to make a sound and she said

"Yes !". Stephen put the ring in her finger and hugged her tightly before giving her a quick kiss on the lips, they were two other tables there which were occupied by people, they were watching the scene, and clapped after peculia said yes to cheer the new soon-to-be-marrying couple on.

"I love you" she whispered. After they were done with dinner, Stephen decided to accompany Peculia home with his car. When they entered in the car, Peculia tried to kiss Stephen on the lips but he stopped her.

"We shouldn't do this before the wedding" he softly told her, spoiling the mood

"why not?" she asked kissing his neck as she caressed his jaw. He stopped her by removing her hand which was on his jaw.

"We did it just once" she told him annoyed, putting her lips.

"It's a sin to have sex before marriage Lia". He told her so seriously which made Peculia let go.

"Okay" she said smiling. This has now been 8 years since she and Stephen were together. The only time they were intimate was during the graduation say because they were drunk, apart from that he never tried to touch her or disrespect her in any way and the fact that he didn't want them to have sex before marriage made her think that she was making a good choice by accepting to marry him. She was not going to tell her family members about her wedding because none of them liked Stephen anyways and she wonders why. After they arrived at the Joe's mansion, Peculia gave a quick kiss to Stephen on the jaw and left, she was so happy right now and her smile was reaching her eyes. She removed her ring and put it in one of the pockets of her jacket and went straight into her room. When she arrived, she jumped on her bed and was smiling hard, twirling left and right on it like a little child when someone suddenly opened the door, it was Klara her younger sister.

"What makes you so happy?" Klara asked curious because of how happy her sister was right now.

"Am I happy?" Peculia asked back faking to be surprised " Yes you are ! what happened ? don't hide anything from me " Klara said demanding an answer with her eyes.

"Am not hiding anything, it's just that Mandy has a new boyfriend who is super cool and i am happy for her" she lied, she didn't know why she said this but anyways she said it already.

"What a lie, I was with Mandy today and she said nothing about having a new boyfriend, you are lying !" Klara said and left the room annoyed because her sister was hiding something, leaving Peculia lying on her bed smiling like a fool

...…

After she woke up, she got ready and immediately went to work. In the company, she was working as a graphic designer with the graphic team and no body there knew that she was the director's girlfriend because their relationship stayed professional at work. Her friend Mandy was also a graphic designer and their offices were beside each other. Peculia arrived early that morning just some few employees were present. When she arrived, the few workers present bowed at her of course she was the daughter of the owner of the enterprise. She didn't really like that but whatever, after sometimes Mandy arrived and went to meet Peculia who was working on something through her computer.

"Hey" Mandy said for Peculia to notice her

"Good morning" Peculia greeted with a sunshine smile Last night Klara called Mandy to inform her of Peculia being awkwardly super excited so Klara asked Mandy to discover why she was like that because Mandy was the closest person beside Stephen to Peculia.

"Why are you smiling like a fool about?" she faked a laugh

"it is so awkward, what's going on? Do you have something to tell me…?" she asked curiously, with a faint smile, raising one of her eye brow's. Mandy was such a good actress that no one never knew when she was lying or not.

"Actually, yes" Peculia said almost like a whisper looking around her super happy to see if many people were around

"But not now, during our free time. It will be better" she said.

"Why not now?" Mandy said, suspecting something.

"There are people around, I don't want someone else to hear and the news to circulate"

"Okay" Mandy said stressing it. Mandy was tall, had short red hairs, green eyes, a black mole under her lips which were thin and pink, a well-defined facial feature and shape. Mandy was the only child of one of the richest man in England who also had royal blood, Arthur king who and so the only heiress, her parents forced her to get married when she turned adult age because she was a girl, so that her husband or child if it's a son can be the heir and inherit her father's wealth and properties but she refused, why would she have to marry or have a son to be the heir of her father when she was here ? She had asked her parents multiple times and they only said that she was a woman, if they had, had a son it could have been easier but they where unlucky and had a daughter instead. Mandy's father gave her two more years of liberty to find herself a husband or bear a son if not she shall be engaged by force to whoever he will decide. This is her last year and she didn't know what to do because she couldn't possibly pick a man at random on the road to get pregnant, she just decided to let what will happen, happen. This was fool, making engaging her to a random man so that he can be his heir ? this tradition shit was seriously fucked up. The graphic team was working on a project they had to sell to another company which was one of the richest companies in the world. They were working on a game and so they were many sections like the designer team who design the aesthetic and structure of the game. The game developing team, there they turn game design into a playable game through coding and in-engine asset creation. The graphic team those who are in charge of graphism and those who create the characters and finally the programming team who writes the game code that makes the video game functions. This has now been four months since they have been working on this game. The meeting with infinity INC company was in three days, there was tension in the company they had to finish this as fast as possible. After some hours the graphic team was done perfecting some characters so they took a break of 30 minutes. Mandy and Peculia along with some other members went down to take coffee.

"Since we started this game you would leave the company late at night because you worked more, I hope that after the meeting you shall take a rest", Anthony, one of the members said to Peculia.

"Ya, it's just that I need to cross check and correct the errors done by the younger members as I'm the team leader so …" she sight, she didn't understand why she was the team leader when there were other members more competent than her like Anthony. Mandy and Peculia went to seat at a table far from the others to be able to discourse privately at the cafeteria.

"Am listening" Mandy said taking a sip of her coffee. Peculia took in two deep breaths making Mandy think that what she was about to say was huge.

"I will soon...be someone's wife" Peculia said waiting for Mandy's reaction.