“Why don’t you work for my agency? You know that I run an agency for high-profile contract girlfriends or wives, right?” Justin asked. I guess I heard something about it before, but I didn’t know the details. Frankly, I wasn’t interested in these sorts of things and isn’t it sort of like a shady business? I was also finding it hard to believe that Justin was suggesting for me to work as a ‘contract wife’ or whatever it was called. “You mean like…become an escort? Or like a…prostitute?” I asked, unable to find a better word to use. Don’t get me wrong, I had no issues with the profession per se, but I was quite certain that I didn’t want to get into that whole business, no matter how desperate or dire my current situation is. “No! Not like that. I mean, you can sleep with the guys if you want but that’s not the main objective here. Plus, they’re asking for a contract relationship. If you haven’t realized it yet, the key is the word relationship,” Justin said before rolling his eyes
“You may not believe it, but many have found true love or something or the sort and have gotten married. Some even got married even before the contract expired. I was there at their wedding, and I cried of joy…” Justin said as he pretended to wipe tears away from his eyes. “Really?” I asked dubiously. “Who knows maybe you’ll end up falling in love again…” Justin said wistfully. Falling in love…what kind of sick joke is that? “Love? What is that…exactly?” I whispered as if I was talking to myself. I thought I was in love more than once before in my life but was I really in love? Even if that was love, does it even matter? If this is where love would lead me then, I’d prefer not to know or feel it at all. Before I knew it, I had started laughing. “Haha…I don’t believe in love…” I said while laughing. “Well, you don’t look very convinced at all. You might not realize this, and I didn’t want to say this to you like this but…there’s not a lot of jobs out there that’s going to make
“What about this? Unfortunately, the bag doesn’t come with its storage bag or box anymore so…” She said before trailing off. 12,000 dollars…I could live with that. Goodbye my dear bag, we will never meet again. “Thank you. Could you please transfer that money to this account? Oh, can you give me a thousand dollars in cash and the rest please transfer to this account,” I said. I jotted down Justin’s bank account number. Putting the money in my personal bank account might lead to it getting frozen of confiscated. I didn’t know how that worked at all but better to be careful. “Sure,” the woman said before she handed me cash. After checking that the money was settled correctly, I parted with the last brandname bag that I had and was on my way to immerse myself in a ‘normal life’ by heading to the supermarket. To save up on costs, I decided to take the train instead of a taxi. Surprisingly, I enjoyed walking along the busy street and the busy station along with everyone else. The peop
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to grab you…” he said as he quickly released my wrist. We were safe on the sidewalk, but his car was still parked there in the middle of the road. I wondered why the cops were not here yet or why every car that was passing by wasn’t honking their horns. That was when I realized the model and the probable price tag of his limited-edition sports car. Now it all made sense. What he did after made me scream. While I had my eyes on his car, the man had bent down in front of me and was starting to lift the skirt of my dress up. “What are you doing?!” I cried out in shock as I pulled the fabric of my skirt out of his hand. How dare he?! “Sorry! This isn’t what you think it is…” he started making excuses. “What I think it is?” I asked as I narrowed my eyes and glared at him accusingly. “I’m a doctor. I was just going to see your injuries. You fell so I assumed that you skinned your knee…” he explained calmly. That wasn’t what I was expecting. Maybe good guys
“Thank you for helping me. I’ll make my payment first then,” I said as I started heading towards the payment sign. “That’s ok. I’ll handle it,” Adrian quickly said. I felt the girl’s curious eyes on me, so I turned to smile down at her before shifting my attention back to Adrian. “It’s ok. You’ve helped me enough. I should go now,” I said before walking out of the emergency room. After providing my personal information to the hospital so that they could process my case and making the payment, I left the hospital to head to my original destination. While waiting for a cab in front of the hospital building, my eyes caught sight of the large metal sign of the hospital’s name. Amsworth General Hospital. It only took me a split of a second to connect the dots together. How come I didn’t realize it the first time that I heard his name? No wonder he looked familiar. Adrian Amsworth, sole heir to the largest hospital and healthcare chain in this country and probably in all other develope
“Yeah…I didn’t see him that much, but I knew you two were dating. What happened to him? I remember you guys broke up abruptly and you said something about him disappearing. Now that I think about it, there was a time when I thought you two would get married for you sure after graduation…” Justin said as he recalled his memories from the past. “He’s our man,” I stated before winking at Justin. “Huh? What?! Are you saying…” Justin said before gasping and covering his open mouth with his hands. “Yes. Brandon, the current CEO and largest shareholder of Renox, is my ex-boyfriend,” I stated. The reason why he wants me for the job is probably because…“And he probably wants me for this job because he knows that I hate him. Falling in love with him for me is out of the question. The same can probably be said about him. He’ll never fall in love with a girl he dumped before,” I surmised soundly. “Oh…now that you put it that way, it does make a lot of sense,” Justin muttered. “Umm…I see. S
The first place that I visited was a complete bust. There was nothing wrong with the room itself but the man living next door was a heavy smoker and frankly, I could smell all his tobacco. Plus, I didn’t want to live with a heavy smoker always smoking on the balcony right next to mine. The second place was not bad, so I noted it down as a possible option. After thanking the agent, I headed to my appointment with another agent at the third and last place for the day. By the time that I arrived at the third apartment building for the day, the sun was about to set. I spent a few minutes gazing up at the sky as it turned orange while I waited for the real estate agent to arrive. Honestly, I don’t remember the last time that I appreciated the small joys in life like this. Spending money on retail therapy was what I was really good at during my marriage to George and that was what I considered joyful. Now that I think about it, admiring nature and the various things around me wasn’t so bad
Suddenly, a large crowd of people came along causing a ruckus in front of the building where we were standing just now. I could feel the man tense against my body as his hand tightened over my mouth needlessly. It wasn’t like I could call for help like this. As the crowd came closer, I could make out what they were saying. “Where did he go?”“I’m sure he came this way…”“We need to find him!”“Oh my god! Where did he go? I wanted to see him up close…”“Are you sure that it’s even him?”“Of course, I’m sure. It’s definitely him!”“Sorry, boss…I think we lost him…”Is this guy some criminal on the run? Am I being held hostage right now? After a while of standing there in confusion, the crowd continued walking past the sidewalk in front of the building until their voices died down completely. My captor let out a long sigh, but he still had his hands on me. “Mhhmmm!” I made a protesting sound. “Oh…sorry…” he said as if he had just realized that he was still holding onto me. His hand
“What are you sorry about, Elena? Are you sorry for turning me down?” he asked.His cold and very calm tone made my body tremble, and I could feel myself sweating from my own nervousness. I wanted to answer him but then I realized that I didn’t know what I was sorry for. “Please let me go home. I’ll make it up to you another day,” I said to excuse myself for the day. I turned to reach for the car door and once again I felt his grip on my arm pulling me back. It was rare for Brandon to act persistent like this, and it just made me want to scream at him out of frustration. I whirled around to face him ready to do just that.“What is it that you really want?” I spat. “To have sex with you,” he replied smoothly.“You know well that that isn’t want I’m talking about…” I said through clenched teeth as my frustration quickly turned to anger. “What’s wrong, Elena? If you can do it with him in the hospital, surely, you can do it with me here in the car…” he said as he stared at me with a v
The lights turned green, and we were on our way again. Our brief yet intense conversation came to a pause. We were getting close to the intersection where Brandon would usually let me off so that I could walk back to my place. The night felt darker than normal, and I wasn’t sure if that was because of my mood or not. Not a lot of cars were on the road which thankfully made the traffic lighter than normal. “Should we go to your room? It’s supposed to be really close by, isn’t it?” he suggested seductively. I turned to give him a curious look. His sudden question came out of nowhere and it surprised me even more to find that he seemed quite serious about it. My lips curved into a smile before I automatically began laughing it off as a passing comment that didn’t mean anything. “Thanks for driving me back,” I said as I reached for the door. There was no point in delaying my departure any further. We had arrived at the spot where I was supposed to get off and so I should do exactly th
“Yes, and I like it that way as long as I’m the only one buying,” he replied without missing a heartbeat. I bit hard on my lower lip when I had to admit to myself that I had asked him the wrong question and had invited this misfortune upon myself. His hand around mine felt warm and his grip was firm as he pulled me after him toward his car. Something told me that he wasn’t kidding when he said that. I let out a sigh when I resigned myself to following him silently to his car. Fortunately, there weren’t many cars on the road and traffic was extremely light. That meant that it wouldn’t take too long for him to drop me off so that I could walk back to my place. It wasn’t like I was scared of him, but I did feel uncomfortable being in the enclosed space of the car with him alone. The revealing and brightly colored dress that I had on did not make me feel better and I wondered why I wasn’t smart enough to opt for a pair of pants and matching blazer instead. Everything might have been in
The desire that I sensed in his intense gaze made my heartbeat quicken despite the many times that I told myself silently in my head to remain calm. My lips felt dry, and my tongue instinctively moved to lick my lower lip. “Thanks for the advice, I guess. If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave so you can get back to whatever it was you were working on,” I muttered softly as I tried my best to excuse myself. “One more thing before you go,” he said to halt my departure.This time it was Brandon who got out of his seat. I turned my head around as he walked toward the worktable in the room. To my surprise, he returned with a box. Brandon came to stand right in front of me before shoving the box toward me. “What is this?” I asked with a hint of suspicion. “Open it and you’ll see,” he said without answering my question. “Ok…” I murmured while feeling slightly confused. It was so like Brandon to be mysterious about everything. With what had just happened between us, I didn’t think
Maybe, just maybe, things would have turned out differently if he hadn’t left me. If we never broke up, my life might have been better or more normal. I was very tempted to think that it was his fault that I ended up the way I was. If I had been younger and less experienced, I would have thought exactly that. That it was all because he dumped me that I was forced to marry George to save my family’s face. Back then, I was too heartbroken to think straight or resist my parent’s proposal. The man that I chose out of my own free will had betrayed me and suddenly left. I was too shocked to even face reality and the mistake that I made. It made me lose all self-confidence that I could make any correct decisions in my life and that perhaps, my parents were the ones who knew better. If I had been younger, I would have pinned everything on Brandon as his fault. However, I was no longer that young, fresh, and green. I looked up and I couldn’t hold in my giggle and ended up laughing softly at
There were many things that I needed to apologize for, and I was certain that he knew that already. It was unfortunate, but I wasn’t in a position with a whole lot of bargaining power, and he absolutely knew that as well. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he wanted to hear me say it, then I had no other choice but to say it. “That day at the hospital, I was unprofessional. Although I was supposed to be working for you, I ended up serving another client when we happened to run into each other…” I said before I pressed my lips tightly into a thin line. My throat and my lips felt dry, and I had to run my tongue along my lower lip. Brandon did not say anything, and he did not seem at all impressed at my attempt to do things his way. His eyes stared coldly at me, and I knew that he was waiting for me to go on. “This is all still kind of new for me, and yes, I know that it’s not a great excuse, but I didn’t know how to handle running into two of my clients at the same time. I panicked…” I
Just as I had expected, within the already very private space was another level of privacy when he led me to a private room. Once again, I began to wonder what exactly Brandon had planned. Although he appeared the way that he always did, I couldn’t deny that the atmosphere between us was unusually tense. I wondered if he also felt the way that I did or if I was the only one who felt unusually stiff while we were together. “Sit anywhere you like,” he instructed casually as he gestured to the large set of white sofas in the middle of the room. My eyes scanned the pristinely white and modern interior of the private room that we were in. Apart from the large sofa set that was in the middle of the room, there was a very large shiny white work desk with a matching white leather chair. Brandon must have been working in this room before my arrival because his laptop still had its lid open on the table. “I didn’t know that you liked working in shared working spaces nowadays…” I said to make
Brandon was definitely the heir to the largest chain of casinos on top of hotels for sure. Brandon never played any game unless he was the gamemaster. I have never seen him lose a bet before either in my life. George was seriously a fool to think that he could win against Brandon and at his own casino at that. So now, what game is he going to make me play?The only way to find out was to ask him. I thought that that was ironic in and of itself. If I had to pick, then I would say that I would prefer not to see Brandon. Although what happened was more my fault than his, my desire to hide away from him outweighed my rational sense and reason to want to meet him. Before I would chicken out and change my mind, I took out my phone and sent a simple text to Brandon. ‘Where and when do you want to meet me?’ I counted silently in my mind to around twenty as I stared at my phone screen. Just as I had anticipated, Brandon sent me back a reply within that timeframe. Had he been expecting for m
“About that trip to the orphanage that we were talking about…” he began before looking at me as if to gauge my reaction. “I’d still love to go if you still want me to,” I replied almost immediately. “Really?” Adrian asked with such an excited look on his face. Suddenly, he appeared much younger and a lot more innocent. Just like an excited little boy who had successfully invited his friend on a trip, he beamed a smile at me. With what had happened between us, maybe he thought that I would have changed my mind about going on a trip with him. If he was someone else, that might have turned out to be the case. However, if I was being honest, I really looked forward to going on that trip with him. It wasn’t just because it was a chance to spend more time with Adrian, but the idea of visiting orphanages felt like the right thing to do for me. Getting in contact with my past life might do me some good and help me figure out something about my sense of self and who I was. After being adop