Chapter 003: The Contract

Lyra woke up next to Felix in the morning. Her bones and joints felt stiff, and her eyes were bloodshot due to the lack of sleep the previous night. The movement of Felix's arm made her turn abruptly to face him. His eyes were open now. Which gave her some form of relief. Even his oxygen mask was off. Perhaps the doctors had come in the night

"Felix." She whispered with a low concerned voice. He stared at her with frail eyes but seemed too tired to talk, so she reached for the cupboard and grabbed a bottle of water, helping him sit up a little before guiding the bottle to his mouth.

After he had his fill, she felt encouraged to go out again and continue her search for the surgery money before his condition started to deteriorate again. She got up slowly.

"Felix, I will go and call one of the nurses to look after you. I need to run along now to put one or two things together for your upcoming surgery."

But before she could leave, Felix had muttered her name softly and tiredly.

"Lyra... I'm sorry. I'm really sorry for putting you through all this stress. I wish I could just die." He said, with his face painfully folding up in anguish.

"Shhh." Lyra shushed him gently.

"Don't ever say that. You're not dying, Felix. I'm not losing you. I mean, how do you want me to survive if you die? You know I can't do without you, sweetie. If you die, then I die, too."

She sniffed, blinking excessively as she battled to fight fresh bouts of rising tears.

"Shhhhh." It was Felix's turn to hush her down, shaking his head feebly on the bed.

"Never say such a thing again, dear. You're good, you're beautiful. You will always see who will marry you again."

Lyra swallowed, feeling momentarily angered by his words.

"Why will you say that, Felix? She questioned this time with dimmed eyes and a small voice.

"I know if places were switched you would certainly do more than this. So hang in there. We will fight this and win. Hang in there, Felix."

She repeated, going over to his bed to lean and kiss his forehead before she eventually turned to leave.

After her exit from the hospital, Lyra boarded a cab to the house where she lived with Felix, a small brown compact house attended by a green lawn and an even greener garden behind it.

Lyra hurried in, took her bath, changed into one of her best dresses, put on a necklace standing to gaze satisfactorily at herself through a medium-sized mirror before marching out of the house, heading for the Cooper's Group head Office.

The moment she arrived in front of the company's automated 4-foot gate, all the adrenaline rush and bubbling energy she felt on her way had suddenly died down. She looked around vaguely, not knowing what her next step should be.

She was clueless. After a few minutes of standing there aimlessly, the gatekeeper suddenly appeared from nowhere with a knowing face, gesturing at her casually.

"You came for the cleaning job. Isn't it?" He asked with a willful smile.

"Cleaning? Oh yes, for the cleaning job. that's why I came."

She stammered while the man wrote it off as the usual first-timer's nervousness.

He opened the gate with the same smile.

"Go on, the others have started." He informed her calmly.

"Oh yes, yes. The others," she blabbered again before rushing in, still questioning herself inwardly about what exactly she was really doing. Then resignedly, she willed her legs to take her to just where she needed to go.

She passed through the glass sliding doors and roamed around the crowded first floor of the building for a while, brushing past company staff and customers like some sort of lost fugitive.

Then, instinctively, she decided to head toward the elevator at the rear end of the hall. But to Lyra's unexpected shock and apparent good fortune, Dante Cooper himself was right inside the elevator the moment she got in. And in that same instant, the hoistway doors slid closed, leaving only the both of them in the secured compartment.

An uneasy silence fell. She could feel Dante's curious eyes on her skin while the rate of her heart jumped to severe degrees. She stared intensely at her footwear for a moment, counting from 1 to 5 in her mind. On her fifth count, she threw caution to the wind and finally blurted the purpose of her mission.

"I will marry you,"

Dante appeared to gasp in surprise, and then he looked around unnecessarily to be sure she wasn't referring to someone else behind him even though it was already obvious there wasn't.

"What did you just say?" He asked, drawing his ear closer to her.

She lifted her face to him now, looking a little less tense.

"I will marry you." She repeated.

Dante screwed his face in confusion when he was sure she had actually said what he initially thought she said.

"Marry me? eh.. how did you know I needed a wife?" He stuttered.

Lyra bowed again, taking her eyes away from him.

"I heard you yesterday at the gala party."

"Oh." He exclaimed faintly.

"So you were the rat with the ringing phone, eavesdropping on our conversation?" He queried rhetorically, then he paused to let his face settle on her again.

"And why should I marry you?"

Lyra immediately looked up, staring at him with passionate eyes, hoping they were convincing enough.

"Because I'm poor and desperate and need that money." She recited, recalling all the requirements he stated yesterday.

"For what?" He asked further with a shrug.

"My hus...I mean my brother is sick and needs money for surgery urgently."

Dante observed her in silence, looking a bit unconvinced particularly because he felt she appeared too desperate. He was almost at the point of rejecting her when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He brought it out and saw his grandmother's ID flashing on the screen.

He picked up tiredly, and she was calling yet again to remind him of something he was sure he must have heard over 20 times just this month alone.

"Bring that girl, son, and get over with. Else, you're going to stand no chance against Lucas. He's taking over that position of yours if you don't sit up." She said.

He let out a tired sigh, palmed his face, and turned to face Lyra looking defeated.

"Follow me." He said after the elevator came to a stop. He walked through the slid-open doors while Lyra dallied behind him as they made for his office.

Dante's office was a large, exquisitely furnished, and airy working space with all shades of gray.

"Sit down and read through that."

He gestured at the guest seat and the document lying on the table next to it.

Lyra picked it up and schemed through it carefully. The core term stated that $500k would be paid immediately after their wedding and the balance of another $500k once their divorce is completed.

She nodded to acknowledge that she was done, and then Dante nodded back and handed her a card containing his personal phone number.

"You can take it home, go through it carefully, and keep in touch." He said.

Immediately, she got out of the company building. It felt like large scales had fallen off her eyes.

"Why would I do something like this? I can't leave Felix because of money? I would rather sell off my parent's house than get married to another man for the sake of money?" She concluded finally and ambled towards the roadside to flag down and enter a taxi that zoomed towards her parent's house.

However, on arrival at her destination, the first sight she caught was that of a large banner taped to the central wall of the building. And on it, was written one letter word in block letters.

"SOLD" Beneath it was a list of phone numbers to call for more inquiries.

Lyra gasped and stepped back in disbelief, instantly bringing out her phone to call one of the numbers. When she did, the buyer rudely informed her to direct her questions to her aunt before hanging up. Then, when she did just that, her Aunt's response was so much harsher.

"What house are you talking about? After you killed my brother and his wife, you dare call me to vomit this? You're so useless." She fumed and ended the call.

Lyra returned to the hospital looking empty, and when Felix saw her sorrowful expression, he attempted to talk but started coughing. She quickly steadied him back down and dropped the document on the couch, then she got up to her feet and muttered.

"Let me get you some water."

When she got back, Felix was already halfway through the slip. Lyra stopped to fumble with her hands nervously as she quickly tried to explain to him that she had only collected the file out of anxiety and had no intention of following up with the deal. But Felix's next response broke heart.