Chapter 1

Eliana:

“Your job will be simple. You will go to the company as his secretary. I will tell Alessio that I hired you, you as a woman will do your best to make him fall in love with you and get him to marry you” Nermine said looking me in the eye. Her sky-blue eyes glistening making me gulp. I looked at the woman whose phone rang, she had made a call an hour ago and now she got another “you have one year to get everything done, if so, then your debt is paid”

“And I leave after the wedding?” I asked to make sure. Everything in me told me not to trust the woman, but I was desperate and had no other option right now. Having no job, I couldn’t take any credit from the bank, and even if I did have a job, no bank would give me the amount Andrias needs to get out of this.

“Yes, you don’t have to worry about anything after that. We’ll make sure that Alessio doesn’t follow you, as long as you don’t come back looking for him” Nermine said keeping her eyes on mine, I nodded at the woman and watched as a man in a suit walked toward us carrying a black suitcase, handing it to Nermine.

Nermine nodded at the man and he took a few steps back before turning around and heading back to where he came from. Nermine handed me the bag and I looked at her with wide eyes when she made a small opening in the suitcase, showing me the money, which I asked for “I won’t be following him, you don’t have to worry about that”

“You agree to the deal, then you get the money” Nermine said in a tempting tone, I looked at her then the bag, gulping, trying to think straight. I had to do this for my brother, Andrias couldn’t go through the pain of losing himself to jail for the money, I wasn’t going to allow him to do so. I wasn’t going to let nana go through that pain. We couldn’t afford losing her, DeLaria, our little sister, couldn’t afford losing her. The woman was her mother and father, she raised her up since she was an infant, they couldn’t lose one another, we couldn’t lose her.

“I have no other option Mrs. Nermine, I agree to the deal” I said looking at the woman who smiled at me, handing me the bag of money, I took it in my hands and nodded at her extending my hand to shake hers.

“This is my number. I will be calling you when I want you to start work” Nermine said standing up.

“You’re giving me your number for you to call me? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” I asked frowning in confusion, Nermine smiled looking down at me. Her eyes devious.

“Sweetheart, I’ll already know where to find you” Nermine said smiling, I raised an eyebrow at her but nodded not bothering to question it, the money of my brother was found. That was all that mattered to me. My big brother wasn’t going to jail.

Nermine walked away leaving me on that bench alone while I looked at the suitcase in my hand with wide eyes, wondering how I was supposed to be going home with that amount of money with me. I couldn’t simply walk with it in my hands, nor could I get on a bus. It would be too risky to even think of.

“Miss Kiara?” The man in the suit called walking toward me, my head snapped in his direction and my eyes widened when I saw him extending his hand for me to follow him “Mrs. Nermine instructed that I take you home, she is well aware that you can’t go home on foot right now”

I looked at the man getting up and walking after him, my eyes searching around me at the people who seemed to all be looking at me, I knew that they weren’t but just carrying the bag with me made me feel suspicious. I didn’t even know what I was going to tell my family about this, I was sure that Andrias had already called Anastasia and Edward to talk, Anastasia is his girlfriend, hopefully his future fiancé, she was practically my sister, while Edward was our best friend. All of us practically growing up together.

************************************************************************************

“Eliana? Where did you get the money? You don’t even have a job yet?” Nana asked and I smiled taking both her hands in mine kissing them. Her eyes were wide in surprise, but I smiled to assure her.

“Don’t worry nana, I got a job, I’ll start paying the amount with my salary” I lied, not completely, I did get a job, but I didn’t want them finding out where or how I got the money, Andrias would flip, and nana would be furious, the woman might even get a heart attack, and I couldn’t afford that.

“You got a job? When?” Edward asked frowning in confusion. I had been fired from four jobs already, either getting into fights with rude costumers when I was a waitress, or being late because I hated the job and actually wanted to get fired. Yeah, my history isn’t one to be proud of when talking about working.

“More like where?” Anastasia asked stopping Edward, I glared at the two wanting them to stop the questioning, I would tell them about it later, but I didn’t want nana worrying about this right now. More importantly, I didn’t want Andrias questioning me about it, I knew that he would eventually, but if he sees that I’m going and coming from work, then maybe my lie would be somewhat believable.

“It’s a company, I’ll start next week” I lied again, I didn’t know when I was starting. All I knew was that I was going to be ‘Alessio’s’ secretary, but how he was like, who he was, what the job was like, I was completely oblivious still waiting for Mrs. Nermine’s call, but I would manage to find a place to go to until she did call me.

“Eliana, you have no idea how much I love you” Andrias said smiling, walking toward me, he cupped my cheeks and kissed my forehead “I owe you my life for what you did right now”

“You owe me nothing, just be sure not to get yourself into more trouble, we can’t afford it anymore” I said tapping my brother’s chest twice, he chuckled and took my hand in his kissing it softly. I smiled at him, knowing that he was out of trouble at least. The rest was somewhat manageable.

“I promise I won’t and I’ll be sure to help you pay the debt the second we start having an income in our café” Andrias promised.

“You will do no such thing, just be sure to stay out of trouble, I’ll handle the rest. Okay?” I told my brother who smiled cupping my cheeks one last time, he kissed my forehead, I smiled and pushed him away “enough loving me, go and pay your debt, I’ll go shower then Eddy and I are going out”

“Where are you going?” Nana asked smiling, she trusted Edward and Anastasia with her life when it came to us, but we technically grew up together, she raised us all as her own children.

“I’m not sure really, we’re just going out for dinner” I said smiling, nana raised an eyebrow pointing at the food which she had made on the dining table, I laughed and she shook her head at me.

“Go, have fun children” she encouraged smiling, I smiled and nodded at her running to my bedroom to get my clothes, my heart racing against my ribcage as I thought of what I had done. Just the thought of what I was going to do, the fact that I took money from a stranger. It’s stupid I know, but I knew that I had no other option, I needed to protect my brother at all costs.

Taking my clothes and with that thought in mind, I walked to the bathroom and stripped out of my clothes getting inside the shower, the warm water relaxing my tense muscles immediately. I was glad that they were, I needed to clear my mind, and the warm water was one way to do it. Especially since I knew that I was going to hear an earful from both Nasia and Eddy, they were going to write my death sentence if I was going to be more specific. But I needed to get it out of my chest, I had no one else to talk to about this, I had to talk to them.

Taking a deep breath as I scrubbed the shampoo in my brown hair, I nodded to myself knowing that I was probably acting like some psycho, but weren’t our most important decisions made in the shower? It was a conviction I was sure of.

“Relax Eliana, you’ll get through this, you just have to stay calm through it”