Four: Find Me A Wife.

TEN YEARS AGO.

A plump pale girl pushed in through the doors of her classroom with her books in her hands. She made her way down to the only available seat which was next to this one boy she had an immense crush on since elementary school.

A smile crept to the corner of her lips, flashing a glimpse of the braces that caged her teeth. But when she was about to sit, her chair was pulled backwards from beneath her and instead, she fell across the ground next to her books.

“Haha. Fatty Satty!” Came the chuckles from her classmates that followed right after and she lifted her eyes to the jeering lips and the pointing fingers, knowing it wasn’t the first time this happened.

A girl her size usually fell prey to these teenage bullies and she lifted her eyes with a large pair of glasses perched upon her nose. She looked through all the faces that laughed at her until her eyes settled on the one face that didn’t.

And that was the one boy right next to her—the one who had struck out his hands for her to take. With tears in her eyes, her face flustered in embarrassment before she scurried out. She made her way to the bathroom, closing the doors behind her and then the tears fell down her face.

She hated this place.

She hated her friends and everybody here, and now the one reason she actually liked coming to school would see her as nothing but a weirdo—how everyone saw her. The poor girl cleaned her eyes but just then the stall opened to her science teacher and Ms Logan’s eyes settled on her.

“Sofia” Her teacher called her name and whilst pushing a lump down her throat, their eyes met. “What are you doing in here—“

NOW.

In the present day, now on the cusp of turning twenty three, Sofia was seated in the backseat of a stranger’s car, reminiscing on how much she had changed over the years. But none of that mattered, she realized. None of that was still enough.

It had always been a battle to love herself and she constantly felt she needed to be a certain level of pretty, smiley and a perfect size so she wouldn’t get bullied anymore. And then in highschool, she met Damien and immediately fell in love with the popular jock who she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with.

Nothing that she did however was still able to keep him.

Because replaying behind her eyes was the exact moment that Sofia had seen his hands entangled in Emma’s. Emma was her best friend and it was no surprise because she had got everything—except for Damien of course.

Sofia had Damien but then not anymore.

She was drowned in these thoughts and the solitude of the backseat as her eyes settled on a photo of them she kept in her wallet, from their first date. She couldn’t believe he could do such a thing to her after everything she had done for him. Now, not only did he betray her but he was the sole reason her entire life had changed so drastically.

It was a tragic morning that followed that night.

But it was also the same day that she met him again—Mr Oscar Baron, the man whose presence filled the car she was in. He darted his eyes to see the tears that formed in hers and Sofia wiped her eyes embarrassingly.

Her cheeks were a bright pink with bags beneath her eyes.

“Are you okay?” The man next to her cleared his throat and she nodded briskly. His voice was deep and his words were well-intentioned. Sofia recognized him as THE Oscar Baron, son of Ronald Baron whose name filled the media alongside his two brothers. Ronald was once a mayor back in Boston but that was before his name suddenly vanished after some time.

Every magazine sang the praises of both father and sons, especially one she had seen where Oscar was next to a woman for the famous French Magazine, Allurei. Francesca, she remembered her name but that was the only place she recognized him from—unfortunately.

“You were on the streets, woman” Oscar’s stoic voice filled the car and now Sofia sat in silence. “It’s been a long night” She said after a brief pause and Oscar threatened to push open the door and her eyes immediately locked into his.

“Tell me what bothers you, or i stop the car” He was genuine in the sound of his voice and she threw a look out of the windows, knowing she was near the Argon Towers and she was probably the safest here, right next to Oscar.

She pushed a lump down her throat before she ever started talking and that was because the wound was still fresh—the heartbreak was.

“I was supposed to leave town with my boyfriend for a new place so my father wouldn’t marry me off to a certain man” Sofia found the best way to summarize and a crinkle made its way between the Oscar’s eyes.

“And what happened then?”

“My father found us—found me because Damien called him. He couldn’t run away because he was secretly seeing my ex best friend but i just wish he told me” There was a crack in her voice and intrigue in his dark brown eyes.

Even he was silent after a while because that really was a lot.

“Now i have nowhere to go and i have no one to turn to, Oscar” It was the first time she said his name aloud but there was so much familiarity across her tongue. Oscar bore his eyes into hers and he pushed a lump that dashed past his Adam’s apple.

"Do you want to marry me?" He asked and Sofia was taken aback with sudden.

“Excuse me?”

Everything she said was reduced to that simple question. Simple, she wished. Shock filled her eyes because what kind of stranger delves head first into asking someone he just met for a marriage.

She cleared her throat, pinching her soft skin to reassure herself the last few days weren't a dream or some nightmare. Because ordinarily being this close to a figure like a Oscar Baron was barely believable. A ton of women would die for the man who was considered the most eligible bachelor in all of Boston years ago.

It was no surprise, with his dark glistening hair and his high cheek bones. He had barely shaven beard across his face and features that stood out. He was dressed in a blue plaided suit and his cologne embraced her even the distance between them. A breath caught the back of her throat as Sofia choked.

“What?”

He looked expressionlessly to her before she turned away. Oscar learnt her a steady gaze that navigated on her very shape and physique. Sofia was a petite girl with a short brunette hair, a lighter shade than his. Almond shaped eyes and the smoothest skin he had ever seen on a woman.

Something about her reminded him of Francesca.

And even though a piece of his heart still beat for his ex who had gotten married to his brother, the other half of him was able to recognize what a mesmerizing beauty this woman right next to him was.

“I asked, would you like to get married to me?”

“I know but i have no idea who you are, Oscar” Sofia lifted her gaze to him. “You know my name and i know yours, Sofia” Their gaze locked before he turned away.

“I was at the Bureau earlier today in search of a wife, in search of someone to take home to my father, Sofia. Do you want to know why—“ He paused and an arc carved between her delicate brows.

“Why?” Her voice broke.

“My father demands one of me because so i could inherit the most of his company and his shares, i have to find myself a wife and i’m not a brazen believer in the universe but it seemed to have led me to you” Had he not heard everything she had said because in what world would she ever agree to marry this man.

He saw a natural fear fill her eyes and urged her to be calm.

“You’re in a dilemma of yours, woman. For all i know you can’t return back there because your father would find you the next breathing second. I could help you if you agree to help me. I’m on my way out of the city, to Salem and if you stand as my wife, i swear to protect you, Sofia” Her name was gentle across his lips.

And even though it was a such a shocking idea, Sofia pondered.

“You barely know who i am” A whisper fled her lips and he let out a hard scoff—the first. “That’s a lie, Sofia” He called her again as their vehicle sped past the sign that bade a goodbye to Boston and she threw her face out of the windows.

“You should speak now before we’ve gone a far distance.”

She wondered what he meant by a lie as a lump slipped down the back of her throat. There was no stranger that gazes quite like him, breaking down every barrier and wall.

Deep down, he was right but only about the fact that she had nowhere back in Boston to return to. She had nothing left for her and nothing worth staying for. Sofia needed to afresh her life, she needed a clean slate and no matter how absurd an offer like Oscar’s sounded, it offered her that.

“There would be rules. We would make those.” He whispered.

“Whatever makes you comfortable”

“Comfortable?” She echoed with a scoff. “What about this is comfortable?” Sofia whispered to him and he smirked a bit. “It’s too much an ask, i know but i would never ask a woman who i do not deem worthy.”

“So what is about me?” Sofia saw a chance to question him and she took it by its horns. His eyes fell to her plump lips through which the question fell out from and he cleared his throat.

“What is about you?” He echoed her words.

“Do you not remember me, Sofia?” He asked with his hands falling between them and her eyes looked at them before crawling it’s way back into his large brown eyes. Those eyes, the sound of his voice became strikingly familiar in that second.

And a whisper escaped his lips. “Fatty Satty?” He called and she was roped into that memory from ten years ago—a memory of her walking out of the doors of the school with footsteps drawing close to her.

Immediately she turned around, Sofia was met with that boy that was seated right next to her. He breathed heavily, wiping those large brown eyes of his. “I’m sorry for what happened earlier” He said but Sofia was so embarrassed she didn’t spend a single second.

“Are you here to mock me too?” She raised her voice at him and the genuineness in his eyes were quenched. He stood right there, watching Sofia walk away. “Just leave me alone, Okay? Leave me alone please” She whispered and disappeared into the parking lot.

And those were the first and last words she ever said to him.

That was also the last day she saw the boy who she had such immense crush on because when Sofia showed up the next day, the chair next to her was empty. She never saw him again, whatever his name was.

Up until this moment that she was in this stranger’s car.

Oscar was that boy to whom she had said not more than a few words to ten years ago and somehow he was right next to her now. And as much as he had changed, she only recognized him then.

That smirk, those eyes, those hands.

“It’s you.” Came the shrillest whisper and a smile crept to the corner of his lips. “Does that change anything?” He asked and it did. It changed everything and Sofia looked into his palms which still laid open for hers.

“So what do you say, Sofia Winters?” She pushed a lump down her throat because she had to make a decision about his proposal that very second.

“Are you coming with me?” Mr Baron asked one last time and a deafening silence fell between the both of them.