CONTRACT MARRIAGE: 365 DAYS WITH ASHTON KNIGHT

CHAPTER 1

LOS ANGELES,CALIFORNIA

AVA’s POV

After an almost three hour trip from Dallas to LA, I was expecting at least a warm hug from my parents. They hadn’t seen me in the space of three years!

But instead Mom had a worried look on her face and rushed over to me waving her phone in my face.Dad was infact nowhere to be found.

“Have you seen this!” She was asking in a panic.

“Uh..thanks for the warm welcome,” I said with a frown,my voice thick with sarcasm as I pushed my suitcases over to the side before she knocked them over.

“Ava, look,it’s your sister,” she said again with a tone of urgency as she thrusted the phone into my palm.

Right. Whenever had it never been about my sister?

I sighed deeply as I squinted my eyes at the screen after tapping on ‘Play’ to a video.

The video elapsed after one minute and I looked back at Mom’s face in confusion.

“Uh… I don’t seem to get this. It seems to be a leaked sex tape though,but of whom?”

“Your sister. Didn’t you scroll downwards? Can’t you see the comments?” Mom gave me a slightly irritated look.

My eyes widened as it fell back to the screen again.

I started scrolling through the comments and boy was it crazy!

It seemed to be a hot scandal about Olivia Miller,my one and only sister and Michael Raven,a popular movie director.Although her face wasn’t totally visible in the video, people seemed to have it connected with her.Probably because of her tattoo.

And worse, Michael was married.

I also got to see a video about Michael’s wife sending a public message to Olivia and that if she was caught,she would be severely dealt with. She called her all sorts of names,home wrecker, man stealer ,whore and the rest.

Fine,we get it.

Okay,hold up.

Why would my sister have sex with that ugly looking fatso anyway?

Forget the fact that he was rich and a movie producer and director.

He looked like King Kong!

And then there was a tape? Who filmed it in the first place? How did it get leaked?

Jesus Christ.

“Okay this is a whole lot,” I blinked and handed the phone over my mother,meeting her gaze.”When did all of these happen?”

“Well I can’t say for sure,” Mom huffed.”But it got leaked this morning.”

“First of all,where is she?”

“That’s the worst part.She left!”

“What do you mean she left?” My brows were drawn together as I waited for a response.

“She ran away I guess. Most of her clothes were gone this morning. It gets worse. She stole from us! All the money in the safe is actually gone,”

“Wait what?”

Mom ignored me,adding another bombshell.”She also stole from Ashton Knight.He was here earlier today and was in search of Olivia.He demanded a payment for the expensive Rolex watch and other accessories she stole and——“

Mom kept rambling and I didn’t get most of what she said.

I groaned.”Too much information Mom.” I put my hands on my forehead.”Can I at least take a seat first?”

“Ava,” Mom called me and sat besides me,the moment my ass touched the couch.

She sat so close,as if she wanted our bodies to merge. “You don’t seem to see the severity of the situation here,”

“Ah yes,what were you saying again?” I rubbed on my eyes. I was jet lagged and tired,craving my soft comfy bed.

“I stated that Ashton Knight was here earlier today..”

“The Ashton Knight? CEO of Fashion Frenzy?” I raised a brow.

“Yes that one,” Mom affirmed.

Ashton Knight. I knew the guy. Okay,I didn’t really know him personally and up close but I didn’t like him very much.

Rephrasing that, I didn’t like him one bit. Apart from the fact that he was a man whore, he fucking stole my designs!

Well, I would get back to that later.

First, how was he involved with my sister that she stole from him?

Just to be sure I asked Mom.

“Were they dating or something?”

“As if. The guy never dates. They had a one night stand or something and then the rest is history.”

Olivia had a one night stand with Ashton Knight! That was crazy as hell.

Well my sister was always crazy,I expected nothing less.

I was just surprised at the fact that she stole.

“Um,” I scratched the back of my head.”Since when did Olivia become a thief?”

“She’s not a thief,” Mom defended. “She just took something once.”

“That clearly doesn’t belong to her,” I narrowed my eyes at her.”That is stealing for God’s sake. And didn’t you just mention she stole from the safe too? What do you call that?”

She hesitated and then heaved a deep sigh.”Oh okay,I guess you’re right. But you know your sister,this is new! She has never stolen anything before.”

Trust my Mom to always take my sister’s side even in her wrong doing.

Yes,Olivia was not just my sister but my identical twin. The exact kind of resemblance that you could not tell us apart. Well except the fact that she now has a tattoo at the back of her neck and I don’t, and I’m an inch taller than her. Oh yes, the color of our hair.

She actually had hers dyed to blonde but I retained our original hair color.The one we were born with,Havana brown.

And she was my parent’s favorite. She had always been and I had always been in her shadow. Even when she got into trouble, she got patted on the back for it.

She was the outgoing,daring and bold type. I on the other hand was simple and liked being in my space.

The only thing I loved the most in the world was fashion designing . Yeah that was my life’s goal. To be one of the top fashion designers in the country.

And I wasn’t going to stop until I got there.

I had long stopped trying to compete for my parent’s love and attention. Even when they denied loving Olivia more, it was always obvious from the beginning.

“Where is Dad first of all?” I asked after scanning the living room.

Mom gave a dismissive wave of her hand.”He’s out somewhere,probably gambling again.”

I inhaled deeply. Yeah,that was my Dad.

Since he got fired from his job four years ago, he had refused to do anything meaningful with his life. He never held a job for long after that and then he just gave up trying and decided to be a couch potato,gambling away the little money Mom made from her florist shop.

Mom never called him out on his shit though.

And things sorta got better when Olivia finally landed a movie role.

It wasn’t really major but at least she got good pay. She was still an upcoming actress and kept on getting little supporting roles here and there. So it was safe to say my sister was sort of a star.

My parents couldn’t be prouder.

Also,they were happy to suck out the money she made from acting. They were always demanding this and that and she had to please them.

You see,that’s what you get for being the favorite. What is yours ,is theirs.

And my parents weren’t content people.

They loved money a lot. Especially other people’s money.

Well I couldn’t blame Olivia from stealing from the safe though. It was practically her own money.

“Ava,what do we do now? This is a big mess,” Mom whined,snapping me out of my thoughts.

“We?” I made a face.

“Actually, you,” she looked at me intently.”How are you going to pay Ashton Knight his 400 thousand dollars back?”

400 thousand freaking dollars! Wait,what?