Married at First Sight Episode 4

📖 The Story Continues

By the next morning, Christian Norton Jr. had returned to the glass-and-steel world where every decision obeyed him. His assistant reported that the new project had been awarded to Mr. Williams as instructed, ensuring Williams’s daughter would not appear for the blind date Grandma Norton had arranged. It was an expensive method of escaping an unwanted evening, but Christian had considered it money well spent.

His assistant was less convinced. Norton Enterprises could not continue giving away valuable business every time an ambitious family offered Christian an eligible daughter. More importantly, Grandma Norton would keep arranging introductions until he finally married. Corporate strategy could delay her, but it could not defeat her.

Christian leaned back with a satisfaction his assistant rarely saw. “Then I have some news for you,” he said. “I just got married.” The confession silenced every objection in the room. Only yesterday he had been avoiding a blind date; now he possessed a legal wife whose startled eyes remained far too vivid in his memory.

Across the city, Summer returned to work determined to behave as if her life had not become completely unrecognizable. She found Jess and recounted the confrontation at the café, including the moment she poured iced coffee over Nancy. Jess’s delighted reaction allowed Summer to laugh for the first time since discovering Vincent’s betrayal.

Summer did not mention every detail of what followed. Saying aloud that she had married a stranger would make the decision sound as reckless as it was. For a few precious minutes, she focused instead on Nancy’s ruined clothes and the satisfaction of refusing to kneel for anyone.

“Summer Cale!” Penny’s sharp voice cut across the office. Conversations died as their boss strode toward them, displeasure stamped across her face. Summer’s brief good mood vanished. Penny rarely required a legitimate reason to make an employee miserable, but today her anger felt unusually personal.

Penny accused Summer of wasting time gossiping while her performance indicators were “in the toilet.” Summer knew her work was not perfect, but it was hardly disastrous enough to justify a public attack. Before she could defend herself, Penny thrust a new assignment into her hands.

The publication wanted an exclusive interview with the chief executive officer of Norton Enterprises. Summer was to secure it. The instruction sounded simple until Jess reacted with disbelief, and Penny’s thin smile revealed that impossibility was precisely the point.

Jess explained that Mr. Norton was the youngest tycoon on Wall Street and guarded his privacy with legendary hostility. Even major publications such as The New York Times waited months for access to him. A smaller outlet had virtually no chance, especially with only a junior employee making the request.

Penny silenced Jess and reminded everyone that she had not asked for an opinion. Summer had seventy-two hours to arrange the interview or lose her job. The deadline was so unreasonable that it could only be a trap, and Penny did not bother disguising her expectation that Summer would fail.

To sharpen the threat, Penny mentioned the empty boxes in the storage closet. Summer could begin cleaning out her desk now, she suggested, saving everyone time when the deadline expired. A few coworkers lowered their eyes, unwilling to risk becoming Penny’s next target.

Summer held the assignment with numb fingers. After spending her savings on Vincent, she could not afford unemployment. The money Nancy had thrown away might have sustained her for months, but Summer had left it behind to preserve her dignity. Now that choice threatened to become painfully expensive.

She wondered what she had done to provoke this attack. The answer was forming elsewhere in the building, where Nancy had already transformed yesterday’s humiliation into a tale of unprovoked cruelty. Penny Reeve was not merely Summer’s boss; she was Nancy’s doting aunt, and family loyalty mattered more to her than fairness.

Jess gave Summer an apologetic look, silently acknowledging that the task was hopeless. Summer forced herself to examine the file anyway. If she intended to fight for her job, she needed to know everything available about the man she had been ordered to reach.

The cover displayed the logo of Norton Enterprises, followed by a list of achievements impressive enough to explain the reverence surrounding its CEO. Christian Norton Jr. had built a reputation for ruthless judgment, remarkable financial instincts, and an unwillingness to indulge the press. Nothing in the description resembled the desperate grandson who had grabbed a stranger on the sidewalk.

Summer turned the page and found a photograph. The polished man staring back wore an immaculate suit and the cool expression of someone accustomed to controlling every room he entered. She recognized him instantly, though her mind resisted the obvious conclusion.

“It’s him,” she breathed. Jess leaned closer, assuming Summer meant she had identified their impossible target. She could not know that Summer had seen that smile soften, had stood beside him before a registrar, or had heard him call her wife.

The name on the page matched the one printed on Summer’s marriage certificate. Christian Norton Jr.—the stranger she had agreed to help, the man who offered her a bank card with six zeros as its code—was not merely wealthy. He was the elusive billionaire Penny believed Summer could never approach.

Shock gave way to a fragile surge of hope. Penny had selected Christian because he was inaccessible, never suspecting that Summer possessed a direct way to contact him. Yet their marriage was a fragile bargain, and Summer had no idea whether Christian’s talk of trust extended to risking his reputation for her job.

Summer reached for her phone and stared at the number her new husband had left behind. Seventy-two hours had suddenly become irrelevant; one conversation could save her career. All she had to do was call the most intimidating CEO on Wall Street and ask whether he was willing to do his almost-stranger wife a very large favor.