CHAPTER 1

“Marry me” 

“What!” 

“To pay off your debt , Marry me”.  

She looks at him with confusion written on her face at his words. 

 THE DAY BEFORE…   

 In a small house with two rooms , a living room and kitchen with a dining attached , Lia lived with her sister Kelly, who was on a wheelchair due to an accident that also killed her two parents. They’ve been living together alone since then. After spending all the money left by her parents on Kelly’s surgery and rehab, the only thing left was the house, which was left under Lia’s name.After losing every other property and insurance money, Lia had to quit school and pick up different jobs to provide for the basic necessities for both of them. She works at a fast food restaurant as a cashier. 

Ring!!Ring!! Ring!!! “Lia, turn your alarm off and come out for breakfast , will you!!!!” 

“Uhhhh, I’m coming!!!”  

After a few minutes Lia walks out to the dining table and sits down while watching her elder sister Kelly making breakfast.     

“What’s for breakfast?” Lia walks to where her sister was and peeped at what was at the stove .

“Sit down will you, and stop distracting me, I’ll be done soon “  

“ok!” Lia says as she takes a toast from the little pile on the plate”

 “stop eating that and grab the milk from the fridge”.

Kelly rolls her wheelchair to the dining and sets the eggs she just scrambled on the table.   

“Eat fast or you’ll be late for work again” ,  

“ It’ll be fine, I’m close to my boss, he won’t fire me” , Lia says as she sets the milk and a jar of strawberry jam on the table as well and sits down.   

After breakfast, Lia gets dressed for work and heads out.

“What time will you be back today?” Kelly asks as Lia walks out .

“Probably around 9pm, I need to stay back for a team dinner today, I’ll try to come home earlier though”.

“It’s ok I’ll be fine alone, you should have fun with you co- workers” 

“ I’ll go and get some groceries for the house later”

“ Do you have enough money with you” “ should I drop some for you? “ Lia says as she brings out her purse. 

Kelly holds her hand and stops her from bringing out the purse , “ It’s ok , I have enough “ .

 “ You sure?” Kelly nods,  

 “ Ok , I’ll be going then, if there’s anything make sure you call me , ok?”

Later that day…

“Lia , your boyfriend is here to see you” Lia’s co worker whispered to her.   

Lia raised her head and sees her boyfriend Jake standing outside the restaurant. She quickly left what she was doing and went out to meet him . Jake is a tall , blue-eyed, handsome guy, probably in his early twenties .

“Why’re you here so early?” Lia said in a hurried breath and beaming with a smile.

“I wanted to see you” Jake replied also with a smile. Lia hugged him tightly. 

“Do you want to come in?”

 “ No, I’m leaving, I just wanted to see you so I stopped by”

 “Just for a few minutes, hmm, please!!!”

“I would love to but I really just stopped by 

I have to head back to work” , 

“ I’m sorry” Jake explained as he patted Lia’s hair gently . 

“ Ok, fine then , I’ll see you later” she said giving in

“I’ll call you tonight,ok?”

 “Ok” 

“ How’s Kelly by the way”

“She’s doing fine” she replied 

 “Why don’t you come over this weekend, we could all hang out at home, she could also use the company, you know she doesn’t have any friends” .

“Uhm, I’ll see if I’ll be available that day, my company is having a change in management and there are rumors about the new boss, so I don’t know if I’ll have to work overtime”.

“A new boss?”

 “Yh, I think the chairman’s grandson or something like that “

“Ok, later we’ll see then” 

“ Yh, I’ve really got to go now or I’ll be late”

“Ok, bye” Lia said as she hugged Jake tightly. Jake kissed Lia’s forehead and left and Lia returned back to work.

Evening, that same day…..

Lia gets home and sees the front door open , she quickly enters and sees the enter house disorganized. The sofa's were out of place , the pillows were everywhere and Kelly was nowhere to be seen.

“Kelly!! Kelly!!!” Lia quickly rambled through the mess to search for her sister. 

She found Kelly in her room on the floor , her wheelchair was a bit of her distance away from her.

“Lia! Help me get my wheelchair please!”

“What happened!!” Lia said on the verge of tears 

“Lia, my wheelchair!”

“Oh!” Lia grabs the wheelchair and pulls it to where her sister was, and helps her get on it. When she sits her sister on it, she settles down on the bed and begin the questions.

“ What happened to the house? ,Were we robbed?,Who did thi..” 

“Lia, one question at a time please , I have a headache” 

“Oh , sorry. So who did this and why”  

Kelly began explaining what happened; how a few men came along with a man called Mr. Hayes. He came to collect a debt that their father owed him.

“What do you mean dad owes him a thousand dollars!!! ,how do we know that’s even true. I mean why is he here now , dad died two years ago!” 

“ According to the contract that he showed me, the due date for the payment was yesterday, so he came to collect it.” Kelly explained

 “ This is ridiculous, how are we supposed to come up with such a huge amount of money”

“ He said he’ll be here tomorrow again” 

“Tomorrow!! Oh my gawd, what are we going to do!“ Lia gets up and begins to pace around .

“Lia, calm down! We’ll come up with something ok!” 

“ We could ask for an extension of time for the payment” 

“Ok!,then I’ll call my boss and ask for a day off, tomorrow to talk to him properly” 

“Ok first lets get the house back to the way it was” Kelly stated

 “ By the way, was it those men that did the house this way”

“ No, that was me , I thought they were robbers so I threw a few pillows “ 

“ How could you try to fight them off yourself, you should’ve called the police, or me!”

“I tried to call you but I fell when I wanted to get my phone from my purse” 

“Ugh, you’re such a klutz” Lia said with a groan and they laughed it off Lia and Kelly began arranging the house back to its original state. 

The next day…

“ Thank you so much sir, I promise to work extra hours!”. 

“ He agreed to give me a day off” Lia tells Kelly after she hung up on her boss.

 “I hope they agree to give us a time extension” 

A few hours later…

Knock! Knock!

“Could they be the one at the door”Lia whispers to Kelly in a worried tone”

“maybe, go and get the door first” 

“ok” Lia opens the door and sees two men clad in black suits .

“Hello, I am Ryan Hayes and I’m here to finally collect the debt your dad owes me” one of the men said.

Lia whose hand was still stuck on the door knob, stood in awe at how handsome and clean cut the man looked.“

Won’t you let me in, or do I have to stand here all day?”

 “O- oh I'm sorry, do come in” Lia stuttered feeling embarrassed as she released the door knob“

Kelly didn’t tell me he would be this good looking” Lia thought 

The man named Ryan sat down on the sofa with his legs crossed while the other man , who was probably his bodyguard, stood at a distance. Lia and Kelly sat across from him and began talking. After they told him about the extension of the time for the payment, Ryan did not agree. 

“I’m sorry but that would not be possible”

“why though, we are not saying we won’t pay the money,we are just asking for a time extension” Lia inquired

“ I know that , but it would not be possible because the time on the contact already elapsed” he said stating his reasons

“please, we really don’t have the money to pay right now” Kelly pleaded.

After a while, Ryan spoke,“ Ok then, I’ll cancel the debt and the contract" 

" huh!” Lia looked at her sister, who also looked at her with confusion

 “I’ll cancel the contract but you’ll have to pay some other way”

“ What do you mean we’ll pay some other way”Lia asked inquisitively

“what are you thinking , little one” Ryan asked 

“Little one, who are you calling little!” Lia asked getting angry 

“I meant that I want you to sign a new contract with me” he explained

 “ What kind of contract?” Lia looked at him suspiciously.

Ryan uncrossed his legs and leaned to Lia,

“Marry me”

“ what" 

“ To pay off your debt, marry me”

 Lia looks at him with confusion written on her face.