*Author note here* Since most people voted for a chapter a day, that is what I will be doing for these last three chapters. But for those of you who were looking forward to a mass release- I will plan on doing that when I lock the chapters that follow these three. It'll be probably be 5 chapters released at once or at least that is the plan right now. With at, please go ahead and enjoy the story*

The two weeks had ended up going by quicker than Samuel had honestly thought that they would. He had a lot to keep himself busy with between his friends and family that it almost felt like there was not enough time between his time back with them and his upcoming birthday when he would be getting ready to leave again. This time for a much longer period of time. ​​

There was only three days left until his birthday which was causing him to feel a mixture of excitement and nervousness. He was worried about how his parents were going to react to meeting Lena for the first time.

His parents had been thrilled that he came back early, slightly less so that he and Lena were going through with the engagement at least to this point, but they didn't try to dissuade him from the decision even after he had tried his best to as honest as possible about what type of person Lena was.

They weren't thrilled to hear that she harsher than they had imagined her to be despite knowing that she would be the one to take over after her father retired. Samuel supposed that they presumed she would at least be someone with better manners and who was of a kinder nature being a girl.

Lena didn't seem to be concerned about what they thought of her. At least not by the way she addressed the matter when he talked to her about it on call. She kind of brushed it off and said it something that they could deal with once they met her on his birthday.

She hadn't had a lot of time to talk with him on call since he left. She was likely to text him because it was easier than trying to fit in time for a phone call that could take anywhere from ten minutes to over an hour depending what they talked about or rather what Samuel talked to her about.

Lena was just as quiet if not more so over text and phone that she was in person. She would ask him a few questions about how things were going, but compared to the lengthy replies that he would provide her with, she sent back replies that were no more than two or three lines long and very straight to the point.

Samuel had asked her about that as well when they were on a more recent day. He was wondered if she didn't enjoy talking or if that was just her preferred way to communicate.

"It's because most of the time I text with people it's work and business related. Family I see everyday so unless something is taking longer than expected or I won't be coming back for the next, I don't bother texting or calling them. Friends are something I am sure you saw for yourself that I don't really have so I'm not used to holding casual conversations with people." was the reply that she had given him. It sounded like an honest and reasonable response to his question.

"If I really didn't want to talk with you, I would've must never given you my phone number or I'd ignore you when you tried to call or message." it felt like she was trying to give reassurance about the situation even though her tone didn't particularly hold a reassuring note to it.

"But how would I know that you're not ignoring me when you go hours without talking to me?" He countered, mostly as a joke, but pushing the situation further at the same time to make sure that she was being genuine with him.

"Sammy-boy, trust me, when I am ignoring someone, it'll be quiet obvious. Especially if they don't get the point when I stop replying to them. I prefer to make it very clear for those who don't understand based upon my silence."

"Fair enough, but I would still like to work on communication after these next few days are over. Especially if we are going to get officially engaged. I would expect to know like your family where you are and what's going on if you suddenly have to disappear." He told as he laid back on the head. He heard her make a noise that sounded like either a muted sigh or scoff.

"Isn't that an unspoken expected change to the dynamic? Of course I would tell you even if you didn't ask me to. Some things I just haven't been able to do because my father wouldn't allow it until after he was certain whether I was going to agree or not. The less you knew until then, the better for safety reasons."

"What about my family?" He then asked, curious to know where they would fit into everything.

"They'll be kept in the dark mostly, depending on what they want to do at least. My father is assuming that because you have younger siblings who are still in school for a few more years that they wouldn't want to be uprooted and moved in to the area we're in control of." She replied. It wasn't a wrong conclusion that her father had come to.

"Once they're old enough to go to college, it'll be up to your parents as to what they will want to do. Also since this an arranged marriage, they'll be getting some type of marriage gift, insistence of my father."

"You know my family isn't likely to accept something like that so easily." Samuel knew his parents would automatically reject any such thing if they hard about it as they didn't want to be indebt to Zane any more than they already were.

"That's why he won't be telling them about it." Lena explained. "He intends to do it in a way that they wouldn't know that it came from us and will most likely not reject it." She assured him.

"I need to go now though. Tell me tomorrow what I should plan on bringing with me or wearing before your birthday. I know it's not a formal things so I want to make sure that I am wearing something that will be fitting."

"I will call or text tomorrow, it isn't something that you really need to worry about that much. Anything casual that you pick to wear would be fine since it'll jut be family and some close friends." Samuel replied before they said their farewells and ended the call.

His biggest concern during his birthday was how it was going to go to have Lena come. Samuel couldn't say not to her wanting to show up since their engagement would be made official the week after that, but it still worried him about how it was going to go with his family.