Prelude

The night was cold and raining, but he stood still in front of his house, ignoring the wetness of his clothes. He stared ahead, into the dark, as those sentences from his uncle echoed in his mind.

"Your father is dead."

"As his only son, you know the rule, Matt."

"Our family will help to manage his burial, but you know the time is short. You need to do it as soon as you can. Being single won't help you, so please choose wisely."

"We can talk about this tomorrow. Come to my place at lunch."

He didn't need time to grieve. For God's sake, sadness was the last thing he could ever feel for his father. But that old man was the only reason he had a peaceful life like this. Yet it would be taken from him, sooner or later.

He hated marriage. He truly did. And he knew it would only give those bastards more power to control him.

He exhaled deeply as he ran his fingers through his hair. His uncle was right. The time was short, and he had better start soon. 

But for fuck sake, where should he start to look for a bride without being controlled by those shitty people?

*

It was raining tonight, and it seemed like a good time to sleep.

Or so she thought, until her apartment buzzed a few times. Ten, to be exact.

Was it her landlord? Or her neighbor who wouldn't stop promoting her makeup products? Whoever it was, she swore they really sucked at reading the time. She really wanted to ignore it to have some sleep, but the bell kept ringing over and over. 

So she got up from her bed, her steps as big as her anger she was about to lash out at anyone in front of her apartment. Yet when she opened the door, the only thing she could do was blink. Of course, she did not expect two big guys in suits to appear.

Did she accidentally piss off a gangster, and now they wanted to make her pay with her life? Because if they asked about money, that was the main problem of her life.

Those big guys stepped aside, revealing another person appeared behind their back. This man with gray hair, though not as big as the previous two, somehow gave her more sense of unease. 

"Hello ...." She tried to speak, but her voice trembled. 

That man smiled a little. Well, it didn't really help, to be fair, but she smiled back at him. "You're Althea Lewis, right?"

Should she be more concerned that this stranger knew her identity?

She nodded. "Yep, that's me. Althea Lewis in a flesh."

Wrong time for a joke, it seemed. None of them laughed, and the urge to go back to her room was growing every second. 

"I know it's already late, but this is an urgent matter. We need you to sign this." 

Sign what, now?

That man gave her a brown envelope, the kind she saw in the movies to cover top secret documents or something. It did not make any sense. She was just a normal citizen, a design freelancer who barely earned a minimum wage. So what was this top secret document for?

Her brow arched, full of questions. Now she was looking at the gray-haired man. "I'm sorry, Sir, but ... I don't understand. Am I in debt or something?"

The man laughed. "No, My dear. You are not. In fact, we need you to sign this so you can get the ...." He paused for a while. "A sum of money."

"Money?"

"Well, a will of inheritance, to be precise," he continued. "Your name is in his will, and we need your signature to proceed."

That definitely did not help at all. The first one was already confusing, but now ....

"Sir, I think there is some misunderstanding here," she said carefully. It must be that. She barely knew her parents—and by that she meant not at all. And now, all of a sudden, she was about to inherit something? This sounded like a scam for sure.

She shook her head slowly, afraid that she might piss these people off. But her effort was futile.

"No, it is really you, Miss Althea Lewis. You are the only daughter of Jessen-Keith Lewis. So it's natural for you to inherit all of his belongings." The man said, this time it felt like there was no room for her to refuse. "All you have to do is sign this document, and we will manage everything."

She was totally at lost. At this point, thinking might be useless, so she just did what she was asked to do. She signed the document, feeling fuzzy and confused. Everything felt so surreal and crazy, like she was in some messed up nightmare.

"Welcome to the family, Althea Lewis."

She closed her eyes, and even if she didn't really believe in God anymore, she prayed.

This better be a dream. And when I wake up tomorrow, everything will be just fine and normal.

Yes, it will.

Right ...?