"How did you know him? I mean... he was very low profile to be exact. I have never seen his face before. And I searched his name on the internet just now, they rarely had his picture in the articles. Just a few pictures of his side face but never showed his full face," Hana was weird that it was so hard to find Ashton's full face or full body pictures on the internet. That was kind of rare for someone who was rich and famous.
"He was only famous with his name. And he strictly banned the media from publishing any of his full-face pictures to the public, or else he'll sue them. You're right. He's a very low profile person. I met him a few times actually. He always hired Infinite Designs Architecture to do the designs for his boutiques and branch buildings. I guess he just loved our design ideas."
Infinite Designs Architecture was the company Samuel worked for. He was one of the senior architects in the company.
"Anyway... I can't believe that your non-blood sister is going to marry this guy tomorrow. I wonder if she even knows who he truly was," Samuel continued.
"Should I tell her?" Hana was excited by the idea but her husband shook his head immediately.
"Let that be a surprise to her. I'm sure Karl would be even more surprised to know about this later. Ashley did want to go to his wedding, right?"
"Yeah. This is the perfect rebound. Serve you right, Karl!" Hana was hyped up by the thought of Ashley pissing off Karl later. Her husband just chuckled at her reaction.
***
"To whom did you send our selfie picture just now?" Ashton asked Ashley during dinner. She was focusing on her phone, smiling and chuckling alone as she kept sending and receiving text messages from someone. She barely touched the food in front of her.
"To my sister..." she replied slowly and smiled at him.
"You have a sister?" He was stunned.
This morning, he just found out that she was an orphan. Now, she told him that she had a sister. There was so much about her that he didn't know yet, and he couldn't help but felt a strange feeling hitting him on the inside because he was about to marry this woman tomorrow.
"Not really a real one. Just like a non-blood sister. She was from the orphanage too. She's the only one that I considered as my family member apart from Sister Maria," Ashley explained.
"What's her name? And who is Sister Maria?" Ashton was getting more curious now. He focused on her while eating his food. Although he too hadn't told her anything about his family background, he thought that maybe it was time for them to be open with each other about it since they were getting married tomorrow.
"Hana Miller. It was Hana Wilson before, but she got married to an architect named Samuel Miller. So she changed her surname. They had a son named Max. As for Sister Maria, she was the one in charge of taking care of the kids in the orphanage where I lived before. Sister Maria White..."
"She had the same surname as you? Is she your real relative?"
"Not really. I was abandoned in front of the orphanage when I was a baby. No documents were found with me. Only a note was written on a small piece of paper, stating that my name was Ashley. The orphanage needed to process my identification documents, so Sister Maria let me use her surname. Thus, I became Ashley White. I really didn't have a clue who my parents are," there was a hint of gloominess inside her voice.
"We should at least invite them to our wedding tomorrow. This Hana and Sister Maria," Ashton suggested, trying to change the topic so she wouldn't be sad.
"I did invite Hana. But she said she couldn't come because her husband has to be out stationed in another city tomorrow. He was pretty attached to her and their baby, so he wanted her to come along with him. As for Sister Maria... I don't think she could come," Ashley replied.
"Why so?" Ashton wondered.
"The orphanage was too far and isolated. I could call her but still, I don't think she would be able to come. Besides, the kids at the orphanage can't be abandoned. She can't just leave them to go to my wedding," Ashley told the reason. It made sense, so Ashton didn't ask further about it.
They continued eating dinner and slept early that night because tomorrow was their big day. Ashley requested to sleep in the guestroom. She couldn't bring herself to sleep together with him even though they would be married by tomorrow. She just felt like she wouldn't be able to sleep soundly if they are in the same bed. Ashton just allowed it to respect her privacy.
The night passed and the morning sun rose again in the east. The alarm on her phone went off and Ashley woke up immediately. It was eight o'clock and her wedding would be held in two hours. She got off the bed and went to peek at the back garden from a window. A few people wearing formal attire were still doing some arrangements there.
"I'm really getting married today..." she muttered senselessly.
She took her phone and checked the date. She felt that she should at least remember the date of her wedding day.
"Fourteenth February... such a nice day to get married. It's Valentine's Day," she mumbled again and chuckled bitterly.
She didn't hate the groom. It was just that she wasn't sure if marrying him was the right choice. She started to wonder if she had been too reckless to accept Ashton's proposal before. But now, it was certainly too late for her to change her mind. Everything was ready. The only thing left was for her to submit herself entirely and just let the thing happen as planned.
Amidst her pondering alone, the bedroom door was knocked by someone.
"Miss White, are you awake? We are the stylist team for your wedding today. Can we come in now?" Flora asked kindly.
She was the team leader of the stylist team from the modelling agency that belonged to Ashton. Her whole team was summoned by Ashton that day to prepare his bride for the wedding. Everyone inside her team was wondering what Ashley looked like, considering that she managed to capture the heart of their cold, strict and indifferent Chairman, who was also a bit of a perfectionist.
Ashton always looked at all the female models at the agency disdainfully and each female model that wanted to train inside his agency must go through a body measurements check-up based on the Golden Ratio number as a scale. Those who couldn't score at least seventy per cent accuracy on the annoying scale number would not be accepted by the agency. What was more annoying was the fact that those strict requirements were only applied to the female models, whilst the male models got accepted pretty easily. At some points, there were also rumours saying that Ashton was actually gay and hated women.
Truthfully, he was just a guy who was obsessed to find that one woman who had the perfect body measurements according to the Golden Ratio number, which was considered to be the most visually pleasing measurement. That one woman who could fit the Ancient Greek beauty formula and have her body figure visually pleasing as if the body of a Greek goddess. That was the obsession that he gained after Layla left him.
Layla had always told him how much she wanted to have such a perfect body, similar to a Greek goddess, the one that fit the measurement for the Golden Ratio number. They used to check her body measurements once and she came as close as scoring over ninety-seven per cent accuracy towards the number.
For years, Layla had been the Greek goddess that conquered his heart. Until he met Ashley and found out that she matched the Golden Ratio number perfectly, with almost one hundred per cent accuracy and that blew his mind entirely. Because he was convinced that no one could ever have that number.
"Miss White? Are you still asleep? You need to wake up now. We need to prepare you for the wedding," Flora knocked again at the door, a bit louder than before.
The first knock on the door stunned her before. So when there was another knock, Ashley pulled her sense back and ran to the door, opening it slowly and peeking outside timidly at all the people she had never known before.
"Hi..." All the women outside greeted her in unison, staring at her with their hands waving at her in a friendly manner.
"Hi..." Ashley replied shyly.
"Hello, Miss White. It's very nice to meet you. I'm Flora Mills from the company. Mr Grey ordered us to come and prepare you for the wedding," Flora repeated the same information for the third time.
"Oh, hmm... I haven't showered yet," Ashley responded, feeling hesitant to let them in.
The whole stylist team chuckled and told her that it was fine and that it was the reason why they were there. They convinced her to let them in and when they entered the guestroom, suddenly the atmosphere changed as if it was a wedding studio.
Trisha and Sandra went into the bathroom and prepared a bubble bath for her. They poured a small bottle of fresh vanilla fragrant bath gel and even put a few flower petals, mostly roses into the bathtub. In ten minutes, they called Ashley to come in and had a bath.
"Just fifteen minutes inside the tub. Scrub your body everywhere and then rinse under the shower. Okay?" Trisha gave her instruction on how to bathe properly. Ashley just nodded obediently and the two left her inside the bathroom alone.
Ashley did as told and about twenty minutes later, she came out feeling fresh and smelt so good. Then, Flora checked her armpits and her legs brazenly."She didn't need waxing. Proceed to do her hair and her makeup," she said to her assistants.Someone escorted Ashley towards the vanity mirror and made her sit on the chair in front of it. Her hair was blown dry and styled beautifully. At the same time, someone was giving her face a makeover as well. Since her skin was fair, they decided to give her a simple and fresh looking face for her makeup.Lastly, she wore her wedding dress and someone helped her to put on the jewellery set for her neck and her ears."Stunning! She's done!" Flora exclaimed in satisfaction while looking at the beautiful bride of Ashton Grey in front of her. The whole stylish team was staring at Ashley in adoration too."We still have time. Miss White, if you don't mind... can we check something?" Sandra said while glancing at
"Nothing..." Ashley replied bashfully.She avoided his gaze and she could sense him staring at her nonstop. She levelled her sight only towards his chest and focused her body to move for the dance. Her mind was in chaos right now. She felt like she needed some time to process the whole thing. Her chest was pounding hard and she felt like having a panic attack. But Ashley remained calm as much as she could because she didn't want to do something that would embarrass Ashton.Only when it was almost four in the evening did the occasion end officially. Ashton was sending the last guest out before he entered the villa again and ordered all the servants to clean up and rearranged everything on the first floor to normal again."Where's my wife?" Ashton asked Martha when he couldn't find her anywhere on the first floor."I saw Madam went upstairs just now, sir," Martha replied and Ashton only took seconds to make his way to the lift, intending to go to the third
Ashley showed a meek expression and shook her head lightly, suddenly feeling scared to answer him confidently. His manhood was still in her hole, still hard, so she knew he was not done doing her yet. She felt timid to tell him to stop at that moment because she feared he might be mad at her.Although he had been acting very gentle to her all this time, she could sense that Ashton was not someone who should be taken lightly. She could feel his dominance whenever he was around her."Then, why are you crying? Is it hurting down there?" He asked gently again with his hand stroking her hair tenderly.Ashley didn't know how to answer him. It was different when she did it with Ashton compared to when she was with Karl. She could act easy and natural when she was in bed with Karl. But when it was Ashton, she felt so vulnerable as if this man could suck out her soul any moment now."I'll make it fast and more gentle, okay?" He whispered those to her as if he was concerned about her sexual pai
"My dad was a known playboy during his young age. He had a lot of mistresses. My mother was one of them, so you see... there was no possibility of getting married in their situation. She was a clever one though, she got pregnant with me, kept the pregnancy and then after she gave birth to me, she raised me for six months, making sure I'm big enough for my father to take care of me alone and then she simply went to meet my father again and demanded money in return for me. They did the DNA test and it was proven that I'm really my dad's biological child, so he paid ten million dollars to my mother and she left." "Why didn't they just get married?" Ashley asked in the middle of his explanation. "Oh, they both didn't want it. My dad wasn't really the type of man that feel enough having one woman. While my mother didn't want to be tied into a meaningless marriage. She rather be single and had her freedom and she rather chose the ten million dollars than stick around to take care of me,"
Soon after he spoke, her heart filled with guilt instantly. She realized that they both were married due to unclear reasons and what he said was true. There was no love inside their marriage."It's just some kind of reflex from my brain, I guess..." he suddenly said."What? Reflex for what?" She was confused."That obsession of finding a woman with a perfect body proportion... I knew it sounded ridiculous for me to standardize women based on that. But I worked in the fashion industry, so I was prone to have that kind of thinking. I didn't have that kind of obsession before. But then five years ago, I broke up with someone because she wanted to move abroad to pursue her modelling career. She was someone that's obsessed with this kind of thing. So when she left, choosing her career over me, I think that those Golden Ratio scale number was the only thing that make me remember her. And so now, I had this habit of checking the measurement of the female models in the modelling agency, becau
The next morning, Ashley went down to the first floor of the villa fully dressed in a burgundy formal midi dress. She saw the clothes were already prepared on the bed right after she came out of the bathroom after having a shower. Apparently, Ashton had a habit of choosing what type of clothes she should wear for the day. "Oh, my beautiful wife finally come down. Come here, honey. Let's have breakfast together," Ashton greeted her from across the dining table near the open kitchen space. Ashley approached him slowly and saw he was wearing a burgundy suit with a black shirt underneath to match her attire. His perfect strong jawline face with the trimmed beard emitted out his masculinity and his dark wavy hair was styled so stunningly that she stared at him for a while before she had a seat at the dining table. The man was eating elegantly while looking at his phone once in a while. When he sensed that she did not start eating yet, he gazed up at her. "What's wrong?" He asked, feeling
Ashley laughed at his words and shook her head, thinking that he was just joking. 'How can he be the Chairman?' She thought. She completely disregarded the idea that it might be true, although it was not really an impossible thing. But her mind had assumed that Ashton was wealthy due to his father's inheritance and probably just being one of the shareholders of AG Atelier. It did not even occur in her mind that he would be capable of establishing a fashion company as remarkable as AG Atelier. Ashton just smiled amidst her laughter, had not even felt offended that she did not believe him. Seeing him not saying anything and just staring at her, Ashley slowly put her laughter to a halt. "You're kidding, right? How is that even possible?" She said softly while focusing on his face. "And why is that impossible for you?" He replied with a chuckle. He started the company when he was twenty-two, still studying art at a local university at that time. That decision was made directly after La
'Did he only act nice just to me?' Ashley murmured her confusion internally. Her eyes slowly went down to see the news on the tablet screen as Ashton showed it to her. "The photographer made a great job yesterday. This wedding photo was the one that I liked the most," he remarked. "But it didn't show our faces," Ashley responded. "I know. That's why it's a perfect photo to be used for our marriage announcement." "Why didn't you allow the press to publish our full-face or full front body photos?" Ashley was curious to know about it since she heard well enough what Ashton discussed with his PA previously. The man chuckled and shifted his eyes to her. "I'm a businessman, not a celebrity. But the paparazzi won't leave me alone if they know what I look like. I'd been there before facing that situation back then when my father died. The media published my photos without my permission and I'd been harassed publicly by a lot of paparazzi wanting to dig up my story. So, I made a rule with