All The Wrong Reason episode 24

🌸ALL THE WRONG REASONS 🌸
🌹 EPISODE TWENTY FOUR🌹

The next few days were a total bliss. Justin was almost
back to his usual, jolly self. They didn’t talk about his
marriage arrangement anymore and Adrienne trusted what
he said. That his choice was her and he will fight for them.
They stayed together every day. After work, she
returned to his apartment. She only came back to her own
place to check her voicemail and to get some clothes. Every
night they slept with each other, as if they lived together.

One night, they sat together in Justin’s chaise lounge
on his balcony, staring at the Manhattan view. Adrienne
leaned her back against Justin’s chest as she sat between
his legs. She rested her head against his shoulder.
”Do you love me?” Adrienne whispered softly.
“With all my heart, honey,” Justin said and hugged her
to him tightly.

“Seriously?” She smiled.
“Seriously,” he whispered and she k-ssed her temple.
“Justin…if…if you didn’t have me, do you think you
would be married by now?” she asked.
Justin sighed. “I don’t know,” he replied. “Usually…
they don’t throw you into a wedding ceremony immediately.
What happened with my Mom and my Dad…they were
introduced to each other, and then my father was told by
my grandfather to… get to know his fiancée. They had to
spend some time together.

My father had to court my Mom. Woo her so…she
won’t feel like she was forced into this fate. And even if they
didn’t fall in love, they would at least be friends when they got married.” Justin fell silent for a while. Then he added,
“They usually set the wedding a year after the meeting. So,
the couple gets like a year of courtsh¡p…a year to fall in
love. My parents…they got married in six months.”
“Six months? Way ahead of the one-year courting
period?”
Justin nodded. “My Dad couldn’t wait. He proposed to
my Mom after six months, and she said yes. It was just
formality because they were already arranged to be
married. And so they did. And here I am! Being made to
suffer the same fate.”
“You get one year to make her fall in love with you?”
Adrienne asked, her heart tugging in,side her chest. She
refused to burden Justin with just how much this bothered
her.
“Yes. Or at least become her friend, so the
arrangement wouldn’t be that bad.”
Adrienne sighed sadly. “She will fall in love with you.”
“Why do you say that?”
She stared up at him, tears shining from her eyes.

“Because you’re Justin Adams,” she said glumly. She felt
proud of him. But somehow, she couldn’t help worrying
even more. “As if the guy who wears the name tag isn’t
great enough, the guy underneath is so… so much more
worth falling in love with.”
Justin stared at her wearily. “But Justin Adams will
never fall in love with her,” he stated. “His heart is already
chained to somebody else. He wants no one else in his
present or his future.” He paused to take a deep breath.
Then he added, “I want you to remember that, Adrienne.”
Then his l-ips descended to hers and he k-ssed her
thoroughly.

Thursday evening, she went into Justin’s apartment
from work. He was in the balcony talking on the phone.
“No,” he said. “You can’t make me, Dad!”
She stopped in the living room and listened to him. He
had his back on her and he didn’t hear her come in.
“Why are you being so unfair to me?” he asked
angrily. “You love Mom! You’re married to your soul mate.

Every day of your life, you wake up beside the woman who
means the world to you! I found the woman who means the
world to me. This is not a game, Dad! I love my girl! I’m
going to marry her. And you can disown me all you want,
but I won’t change my mind about this!”
He paused for a while. Obviously, his father was
saying something on the other side. She saw Justin gripping
the rails in front of him tightly.
Then he heaved a frustrated sigh. “I’ve done well
enough for myself. I don’t need your money. My girlfriend is
a simple girl. She doesn’t need to live in your fancy world.

And I’m pretty sure I can still give her a comfortable life with
my money alone. I’m wealthy enough on my own.”
He paused again. After a few minutes, she heard him
say, “Fine! I’ll move out this weekend!” Then he hung up. He
took deep breaths and then he punched the rail in front of
him.
Adrienne closed her eyes for a moment. She felt his
pain. Justin chose her, fought for her. But it came with a
great price. His family. And Adrienne knew, unlike hers,
Justin’s family was perfect. And they were everything to him
before she came along.
She stepped forward and then she hugged him from
behind, resting her cheek against his well-sculpted back. He
took a deep breath, grabbed one of her hands and k-ssed it.
“Well, I’m officially disowned by my parents,” he
whispered.
He turned around and faced her. Tears welled up in
her eyes. She shook her head. “It shouldn’t be like that,
Justin. You can still fix this.” Even as she said this, her heart
broke for him.

He pushed a lock of hair away from her face. “The
only way to fix this is if I leave you for some brat I don’t
even know. And that’s not an option for me.”
“But Justin…it’s your family.”
“And on the other hand, Adrienne, it’s you,” he said
ruefully. “My life.”
Then he bent down and k-ssed her l-ips thoroughly.
“Justin, are you sure you’re making the right choice?”
He sighed against her l-ips. “I think I am. Because my
father just asked me to move out of the house and all I can
think about is making love to you right now.”
He cupped his hands on her thighs and lifted her off
her feet. She wrapped her legs around his h¡ps and k-ssed
him. He carried her to his bedroom and dropped her on the
bed. He took off his shirt and soon they were both
scre-ming each other’s names in the gates of Nirvana.

***
“That did not happen!” Yuan said over lunch on Friday
when Adrienne told them what happened to Justin.
“Is he okay?”
“He tries to look okay. He doesn’t want me to feel bad
about it. But I know it’s painful for him,” she said guiltily.
Still, she felt glad about Justin’s choice. She was so
happy that he’s willing to sacrifice all that he is, all that he
has for her. But Justin’s situation with his family now was no
better than hers. And she knew what it was like to have a
broken, almost irreparable relationsh¡p with family. She
couldn’t help asking herself if she did the right thing in not
giving him up.

“He really does love you.”
“Yes, but it feels like those ‘you and me against the
world’ sagas now. And I know it’s more painful for him than
it is for me. I can’t help thinking that maybe I am being too
selfish.”
“It’s not about being selfish,” Jill countered. “It’s about
being honest about your feelings. You could be saving Justin
from a lifetime of misery that this marriage to some rich
bitch will cause him.”
“I know that. I know I will do everything that I can to
make him happy. But what if she was the right one for him
all along and I was just in the way of…destiny.”
“He doesn’t seem like a guy who believes in destiny,
Yen,” Yuan said. “He’s always been like somebody who likes
to write his own. It’s his choice. The only way you could
make the load seem lighter is if you don’t make him regret
ever choosing you.”
“I thought arranged marriages are a thing of the
past,” Adrienne heaved a frustrated sigh.
“It’s a rich people thing,” Jill responded. “Gives them
the kicks.”
“That’s why the rich get richer, sweetie,” Yuan said.

“Justin’s parents just want to secure their family’s wealth
and gain more.”
“I wonder how she feels,” Adrienne said. “That girl. I
wonder if she feels as repulsed about marrying Justin as he
is.”
Jill looked at her as if she was out of her mind. “Hello!
Have you met your boyfriend? Didn’t you not know, better
than the rest of us, that he’s a god? That girl must know
who he is and must have been pulling all her influential
strings to make this marriage happen.”
“She’s lucky she’s rich!”
“Unfortunately, I’m not,” Adrienne said. “Apparently,
I’m not fit to be Mrs. Justin Adams.”
“But you are. Because Justin should be the only judge
of that. And he already made it loud and clear that you’re
going to be someday.”
Yes, she did hear him tell his father that he would
marry her. He hadn’t asked her formally, but if he said it to his Dad and it caused his father to disown him, then he
must really mean it.

“Now I understand what Justin’s friend said when I
met them. I made him give in to the pull of attraction and
made him defy gravity,” Adrienne said. “He was single for a
reason. He was already essentially engaged, so what’s the
point of having a relationsh¡p?”
“But he fell in love with you. So he had to defy his
parents’ wishes.”
Adrienne nodded. “I thought that after I broke it off
with Troy, things were going to be easy. I didn’t know that a
bigger bomb was just about fall on the top of my head.”
Her friends smiled at her apologetically. “Well, his
parents have already disowned him and you’re still going
strong. So what could be worse than that?”
At that point, she thought her friends were right. The
worst of the storm had come and all they needed to do is
just ride it out. As long as they’re together, it couldn’t be all
that bad. What could be worse than that?
Over the next couple of days, Justin was quiet.

Adrienne tried to cheer him up. He would smile and laugh
with her, but she could see from his eyes that he was also
hurting. And it just hurt Adrienne, too.
One night, they were in bed, locked in each other’s
arms. Adrienne stared up and found Justin staring at the
ceiling.
“Are you okay?” she asked him.
He looked down at her and smiled. “Yes.”
She propped up on her elbow so she could look into
his eyes.
“Justin…I know it must be difficult for you. I’m sorry.”
He car-ssed her cheek. “It’s not your fault, Adrienne.

It’s my parents who aren’t making sense to me. But if I had
to make my choice, over and over again, I would still choose
you.”
She leaned forward and k-ssed his l-ips.
“I wish I can soothe your pain. I know you’re hurting. I
know this is difficult for you.”
He drew her to him. “Just be with me, Adrienne. You’re
my source of strength. If you weren’t with me now, I don’t
think I would find the courage to fight my doomed fate.”
“I was the reason why you are breaking your parents’
hearts right now.”
“Time heals all wounds, honey. Maybe someday, when
they see how happy I really am… they would find it in their
hearts to forgive me.”
And somehow Adrienne hoped that was true. She
couldn’t believe that Justin just gave up the most important
thing to him… for her…for their love.
Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she refused to let
Justin see it. She wanted to be strong for him. But deep
in,side, she hurt because she knew, his heart was shattered
into a million pieces at this very moment.