Chapter 1 The Morning After

Early in the morning, Katherine Morgan was startled when she opened her eyes to find a handsome face inches away from her own.

Overcome with panic, her first instinct was to check under the quilt. To her relief, she saw that she was still neatly dressed.

She cautiously looked back at the man sleeping next to her, feeling a mix of confusion, embarrassment, and regret.

Head throbbing, she struggled to recall what had happened last night.

Yesterday, her parents had asked her to have a conversation with her boyfriend, Darrell Clark, about wedding preparations. Little did she expect to stumble in on him fooling around with her cousin.

Katherine felt angry and disgusted at the same time. She broke up with him on the spot and fled to a bar, hell-bent on drowning her sorrows in liquor. She ended up getting drunk and going to a hotel room with a stranger.

The silver lining out of all of this was at least she didn't make any irreparable mistakes, judging from her fully-clothed body.

However, in order to avoid confronting the stranger in her bed, Katherine quietly lifted the quilt, ready to slip away before the man could wake up.

Unexpectedly, before she could even get out of bed, the door to the hotel room was opened from the outside.

An elegant old lady strode in with a cold expression.

Katherine was startled, but she could only duck her head and try to run away.

However, the old lady blocked the only exit. Standing by the door, she looked at Katherine with a frown.

That was when Katherine saw the old lady's face clearly. Recognizing her, she subconsciously blurted, "Mrs. James?"

Lainey James was stunned at first, but when she took a closer look at Katherine, she felt enlightened. Yes, this was the young girl from before.

At the age of five, Katherine had been accidentally separated from her family and ended up in an orphanage. Lainey had worked as a volunteer in that very orphanage, and that was where the two met. She had grown fond of the sensible, kind girl back then.

Later, Katherine was reunited with her family and was taken home, and that was the last Lainey heard of her. She didn't expect that they would cross paths again after so many years, let alone here, in this hotel room.

"Katherine, is that you? You're all grown up!" Lainey's cold expression softened. But then her voice took on a tone of worry. "Are you okay? Did this brat...?"

As she spoke, she turned to glare at the man in the bed.

Katherine also looked over and found that the man had woken up.

He was looking at her intently, like a beast staring at its prey with hungry, greedy eyes.

Katherine's heart skipped a beat. She quickly looked away and hastily tried to explain herself. "Mrs. James, don't worry. Nothing—"

Before she could finish, Lainey took her hand and patted it, as though to comfort her. "Don't worry, my dear. I'll make sure you're taken care of!" Lainey had been worrying non-stop about the fact that her grandson, Esteban James, was still single. Thus, when she caught Esteban with a girl who just so happened to be an old friend of hers, she decided to play matchmaker.

Lainey wore a kind smile on her face when she talked to Katherine, but when she addressed Esteban, any trace of warmth vanished into thin air. "Esteban James, look at what you've done! You're shameless enough to make your grandmother worry about you every day, and now, you even dared to hurt a good girl like Katherine. You were raised better!"

After scolding her grandson, Lainey assumed a more business-like tone as she spoke out her true purpose.

"Now that things have come to this point, you must take responsibility. You two should get married as soon as possible, lest her reputation be tarnished."

At the mention of marriage, both Katherine and Esteban turned pale.

"Grandma!" Esteban protested. But before he could say anything more, Lainey cut him off abruptly.

"You have no right to object, you hear me? You're a man, and you should take responsibility for your actions. As long as Katherine's willing, you two should get married."

Lainey was always quite the domineering woman, and Esteban couldn't do anything to refuse her. Moreover, he couldn't explain this situation clearly. At a loss, he could only turn his head slightly to shoot Katherine a warning look.

Feeling the man's oppressive gaze, Katherine felt caught between a rock and a hard place.

It turned out that this stranger was Lainey's grandson. What a coincidence!

Thinking about how her parents kept hounding her to settle down and get married, Katherine took another look at the man in bed. Lainey's grandson wasn't bad-looking, and he looked more reliable than most men. Besides, if she really did marry him, Lainey would undoubtedly protect her.

Mulling over this, Katherine gritted her teeth and made up her mind. "I'll listen to you, Mrs. James."