Chapter 1

“You have GOT to be out of your goddamn mind,” Eden rumbled at her father, tears filling up her eyes. She felt like her whole world was crumbling down.

“Keep talking like that and see what happens to your credit cards,” replied her father, Alfred Brown, a tall, sturdy man with no trace of emotion on his face. “You will do as I say, or so help me God, I will do everything in my power to make sure you end up on the streets.”

The words coming out of her father’s mouth cut through her like a piercing knife. 

“Let me get this straight, you want me to marry your creepy old friend? For what? For your own personal gain? What am I, a rag doll to be thrown around between twisted men? I just turned eighteen yesterday for God’s sake,” said Eden with her voice breaking at the last sentence.

“You had a life of extravagance and luxury because of me, I saved you from that sick drunk wrench you called your mother. You owe me your darn life if it comes to it. This is the least you can do to pay off your debt,” he said with a hint of anger in his voice and walked out of her room.

Eden’s life turned upside down when her father told her she had to marry a billionaire businessman Carter Schmidt. She had heard about him and she knew he was close to being fifty years old. A teenage girl with millions of dreams about finding her prince charming, suddenly told that she will be forced to marry a stranger, it did not sit right with her. Rebellion runs in teenage blood and it was exactly what she planned to do.  

She calls up her closest friends Natalia, Sophia, and Grace for a sleepover to get their help. On hearing the disturbing news from their friend, they rushed over to her place to comfort her. 

Grace Rodriguez, daughter of one of the richest tech giants in the country, is feisty and bold, with a body that surpassed all the beauty standards for women. Natalia Austen, a pretty and sweet naive girl, not very bright, is also the daughter of one of the richest men in the city, an entrepreneur with his own line of fashion clothing. Sophia Huang is an edgy and smart girl with not much interest in looking fabulous at all times like her friends. She is the daughter of the owner of an accounting firm that manages most of the millionaire’s accounts in the country. 

Lastly Eden Brown is a stunning young woman with a personality so dynamic that can easily lure anyone into falling in love with her. Charming, beautiful, funny, classy, and with just a hint of mysteriousness, just enough to draw a man in easily, Eden knows what she is worth. The only problem is that unlimited resources and extreme wealth made her lazy and she never aspired to become anything more than an entitled and spoiled child growing up. She was always dependent on her father’s money, which was enough to bear her’s and the next few generation’s expenses. It never occurred to her to go to college, nor did her father encourage her for it. She always imagined that she would spend her life looking pretty, going to parties, and shopping with her girlfriends, a basic cliche any young daughter of a billionaire would set for herself. 

When the girls got together to discuss this problem, the first thing they did, like any average person would, was G****e Carter Schmidt to assess his physical appearance. Apparently, he hid his face from the media for as long as he was in the Industry.

“Damn he must be one ugly dude to become a billionaire and stay hidden forever,” Sophia commented.

The only image of him that they found was an old black and white newspaper photograph from 20 years ago, when he made a name for himself in the metal industry. He had white hair and looked very feeble with slouched shoulders. There was no telling how he looked now, the girls assumed he looked like what any 45-year-old man would look like: old. For a second she considered the worst-case scenario, getting married to him. The thought of being with this man and sharing a bed with him made shivers run down Eden’s back. Being homeless seemed a better option at that moment. But she had something else running through her mind, a way out of this situation, one where she gets to be rich and not marry Carter. No, not getting an actual job and leaving her father’s home, something more sinister than that.

Eden and the rest pulled an all-nighter and came up with a scheme. 

“So um, correct me if I’m wrong, you mean to ‘kidnap’ a rich young man and force him into marrying you?” asked Sophia.

“That is correct, miss,” Eden replied.

“Oh right. And, once more, walk me through the process of how you’re going to do it,” said Sophia, listening very attentively to the answers.

“We go to that party on Saturday where most rich people are gonna be, we find a suitable young, rich man, we drug him and bring him to my Dad’s penthouse on the east coast.”

“Understandable. And you mean to carry them yourself?”

“God, Sophia do you ever listen? You know Grace and I got personal bodyguards who will help us carry out the whole operation, it's simple.”

“Okay got it. I just want to go on the record here and say that when all you go to jail, I will have nothing to do with this absolutely dogshit scheme of yours and I never heard about it,” Sophia said with a genuine concern that they will get caught and be reprimanded.

Natalia spoke up, “Oh my God, Sophia can you be fun ONCE? In your entire life, once, just once. That’s literally all I wanna do.”

Grace chimed in, “She’s right and if you have a better idea, we’re all ears Madam Brilliant.”

“Um, get a college degree, a job and move out?” 

“I mean yeah but then that’s going to take time and also I don’t know how long it’ll take me to get rich again soooo..” said Eden.

Sophia was defeated at this point. “Fine, I’ll help but I swear to God if we get caught I’m snitching on all of you.”