Apartment 46

The Cold CEO's Unwanted Genius Wife

Meng Xinyu

I stood in the darkest corner of the Pierre Hotel’s ballroom, my cheap polyester dress itching against my skin while my wristband buzzed with a DARPA Priority Red alert. In front of the city’s elite, my fiancé Bryce Calloway took the stage, not to toast our future, but to publicly end our engagement and announce he was with my sister, Chloe. The room turned on me instantly, a hundred pairs of eyes pinning me down with pity and disgust as they physically backed away like I was contagious. When I returned home, my mother shattered a crystal vase at my feet, screaming that I was a humiliation and a "dropout" who didn't deserve a cent of the family fortune. Chloe and Bryce mocked me, laughing when I told them I had a mission with the National Security Agency, convinced I was either a pathological liar or a low-level criminal. They watched in horror as a black, unmarked military helicopter descended on our backyard to extract me, yet they still chose to believe I was being arrested for drug trafficking. They saw a pathetic girl who couldn't even parallel park, never realizing I was Dr. Nova Vance, the lead physicist behind the world's first successful fusion reactor. To secure funding for my research and gain a "fortress" of a name, I signed a thirty-day marriage contract with the arrogant billionaire Roman Knight. He treats me like a fraud, convinced I’m a gold-digger who failed out of college, while I quietly run global energy simulations from his guest bedroom. He has no idea that the "loser" he’s forced to live with is the same anonymous grandmaster who has been ruthlessly crushing him in online strategy games for months. "The contract is active," I told him, looking past his expensive suit. "But don't expect me to be your maid."

Modern Mystery

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PROLOGUE

The usual hustle and bustle inside the castle was barely audible. All the maids and the guards were worried because of the feeble condition of their king.

Suddenly, a guard, taller than the rest of the men guarding the gates and the halls, march inside the door that was left open at the end of the hall.

The old man who was lying on a four poster bed, pale and sickly, continue to stare up the ceiling as he reminisce the past

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"My son, you ought to know better. You have to stay! The people needs you..."

"Mother I can't." The blonde young version of the king stared. His green eyes he inherited from his mom, shining. "The world is waiting for me to explore; its oceans roaring for me to sail over them, its abundant lands waiting to be claimed. I can't just live like this!"

"Jacob, you shan't speak to your mother on that manner!" The king exclaimed, marching inside the door to his son's bedroom.

"Your majesty, " Jacob bowed his head down as he acknowledge the king. "I would like for you to hear me out, not as the crown prince but as your son." his face is scrunch up, close to tears but he tried to be brave. He has to be brave. "Please let me explore the world and see the beauty of it. Let me go..." He hated that his voice broke but he can't help it. He is desperate.

"Enough of this crazy ideas of exploring and going out to the world. You will stay and rule here, with your family, with your people." the king stated, puffing up his chest. He look at his son and said. "I have told you to stay. Then what is the meaning of all this, Jacob?" The king ask in a low but menacing voice.

"Jason..." the king held up his hand and that silence the queen. "You know that I do not want to repeat myself, son."

A few moments passed and still, Jacob hasn't replied his father. Instead, he pick up few of his favorite books and clothes from his bed and throw them inside his luggage.

"Jacob, I am talking to you!" Suddenly the king was up on his feet and was holding his son by the collar on his shirt.

"Jason, please!"

Jacob just glared at his father, his eyes full of despair and hatred. Slowly, he opened his mouth and said, "I know that you won't allow it but I have to go. I couldn't bear to live like this anymore..."

The king let go of his collar and scream. The sound startled the guards and the maids from the halls but they wouldn't dare to stick their nose into royal business.

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