06|the contract

Brenda G

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I knew there was a mistake with my existence, and that was well confirmed by the current situation I was in.

I was schooling in the same college with Royal people?

I was so stupid not to recognize the princess who sat next to me in that class. No, I was dumb enough not to recognise Prince Jake William all this time. Who doesn't know him?

But I never liked him even before we moved to Britain, I only used to see his photos on my Denmark friend's phone, because she was obsessed with him.

I was fucked for real.

Dulcie, I mean Princess Dulcie, was my deskmate. Okay, Prince Jake William, the son to the next in line after Queen Eleanor, meaning he was the next in line after his father, and I slapped him.

No!

That afternoon I was heading home from school after a long day that made me want to run away. I needed to talk to my parents since there seemed to be something amiss with me being in an international college that the Royal family attended.

As I was approaching the bus stop, I heard the hooting of a car. I glanced back and saw a black jeep pulling up towards me slowly.

"Hope on, cute schooler." Lance, the aged man who visited our place at midnight, peeked his head out of the window, waving me over.

"No thanks," I shook my head then continued to walk off. I heard a car door shut and I knew he had alighted the car.

"Your mother talked with you, didn't she?" he asked, causing me to halt and turn to face him.

"So?" I raised a brow.

"Didn't she warn you against jeopardising her plans?" He asked while shoving his hands in his pants' pockets.

Yes, I had a talk with mum about the weird man who had declared to pick me up from school and she ended up blurting a lot.

All my life I tried to impress mom. To make her at least smile warmly at me for once. I craved her motherly love and attention. It's why I always strived to be the best student in class in order to win her approval. But poor me, no matter what I did, it was never enough. I was never enough. I was her greatest disappointment.

"What is this all about, I thought it was about the school which I managed to get admitted to, quickly."

"There is only one way to find out. Remember, you got to school in a blink, something that has never happened. And by the way, I heard you almost burned the laboratory down?"

"Who is feeding you with such information? Who are you?" I asked with raised brows.

"Get in the car!"

I sighed and hesitantly began walking to the passenger side of the door. Upon entering, I shut the door. He occupied the driver's seat, roared the car to life and zoomed off.

Maybe what I needed to do first was to find out who this man was before I get to bring up the issue of him touching me without permission.

"Where are the papers that I should sign?" I asked, I might as well see what the contract was all about to draw out my conclusions.

"They are in my office." He droned, taking a right turn that headed away from my house's location.

Twenty minutes later, we pulled up in the parking lot of an enormous house. It looked like all those Victorian mansions you see on television.

Stepping down from the car, I waited for him to turn off the engine of the car and come down.

"Follow me," he ordered, pressing a button on his phone to close the garage.

I sighed and followed. Upon arriving at the gate to his house, he put a small black remote-like thing on the gate and it clicked and then slid open.

The compound was quite large, with beautiful plants and trees decorating the exteriors as the wild orchids and lavender---whose scent wafted in the air.

We arrived at the front door and he hit a few buttons at a spot and the door opened. I awed at how everything seemed to be computerized in the house.

Leading me past the glamorous living room to his office, he slammed the door as soon as we entered.

"Sit down," he commanded, motioning to a chair and I did as I was instructed.

"Here are the papers," he dropped a file in front of me. "Go through them and sign them quickly," he said.

I snatched up the file and opened it. There was a white sheet inside containing five pages or so.

Paying attention to the main details and throwing away irrelevancy, I began to make out the main points.

It all started to piece together. How dad lost his job and the house bills escalated and all of a sudden, mom informed us that it had all been paid.

Then during that time, my dad was still job hunting, I had been sent home because I was owing the school a huge amount of school fees. I remembered staying at home for two weeks when the third week, mom took me back to school and cleared all my bills, that was back in Denmark.

Then came the time when dad caught the flu while he was still job hunting. He had infected me with it so we both had to be put under medical care. Mom had to pay our bills.

Then lastly was our new house and my new school. Mom had suggested it and she had single-handedly bought it.

"So?" I shrugged, pushing the paper to him.

"Continue reading, Brenda." he pushed the paper back to me.

I huffed and turned over the last page. Scrutinizing my gaze on it, what I saw left me partially paralyzed for a few seconds. I felt like I was being jabbed with a dagger in the heart.

Was this what the feeling of being betrayed felt like? or does it just hurt this way when you realize the person behind this betrayal was the woman that gave birth to you?

"I-No... I..." I pushed the seat behind ready to run away. "Let me out!"

"You better sign it young lady."

"No! I am not doing- get-Okay-" I ran towards the exit just to see myself leaving but the door clicked shut. "Open the door!"

"I spent millions of money here! Don't make me do worse! And, do you wanna see your dad? There...there he is" He opened the window curtain that revealed the backyard of the house where dad was. He was busy watering the flowers. He was Lance's gardener!

How was that even possible?

"No!" I shook my head disagreeing that dad had no job. Especially because I always see him off to work even at night.

"You have no choice, your family is in my hands!"

"N-no. I disagree!" I cried pushing him away from me. "This is not t-true!"

"Okay, I am opening the door. But you have to know this, you will be homeless when your parents rot in jail. I have wasted millions of money for your family, I spent a lot for you to get admitted to a national school! A school that the royal family also attend to. Get out!"

"N-no!" I cried begging him. I couldn't believe he was the reason we lived. "Please don't -'

"Get out or sign the contract!"

I was on my knees crying my eyes off and it took me minutes to realize that mum hated me for a reason. And the efforts of trying to make her see me as her daughter had now drowned.

Feeling angry, betrayed, and hopeless, I got up and took a pen to sign the contract.

I didn't see a future without signing the contract.