Chapter 1: Aspiring Waitress, Struggling Millionaire

“Please,” Eloise pleaded, looking into the owner’s eyes with desperation. “I make a really good waitress.”

“And yet you still aren’t a high school graduate,” the owner, a middle-aged woman with humongous pearls, grimaced at her. “We don’t accept the likes of you in here.”

Eloise pursed her lips together and crumpled the resume in her hand. “And that’s why your business is failing,” she bit back, causing the owner’s face to become red.

“What did you just say?” she exclaimed in anger. It was almost laughable how she looked so much like Barney the dinosaur—that is, if Barney was red. But she didn’t have any time to laugh since she had to run out before the owner caused a scene.

“Come back here, you little shit!” the owner yelled, but Eloise had already made her way out of the small restaurant.

She looked down to the ground and kicked an innocent little stone on the corner of the road.

“What a shitty life,” she muttered under her breath whilst taking out a piece of paper from her pocket.

“There goes my last stop,” she said, crossing out the name of the restaurant that was supposedly hiring for a new waitress. She wasn’t aware that you had to at least be a high school graduate to be qualified as one of their workers.

At this point, she had already wanted to give up. She was already working two jobs, for god’s sake! She worked in a convenience store at dawn and as an assistant florist during the morning. She wanted to try her luck to get an evening job at the restaurant, but luck wasn’t on her side.

Eloise looked down to her phone and smiled when she saw the bright smile of her brother on her wallpaper. He was the very reason why she’s working so many jobs right now. After being diagnosed with Leukemia just a month ago, he has to undergo treatment as soon as possible. But with the money she currently has, she knew that she had to take up more jobs to pay for his treatment.

She couldn’t give up, so she started walking once more, hoping to find a “hiring” sign from the restaurants in the area.

She smiled in delight when she finally saw a “hiring” sign after hours of walking. However, she quickly stopped when her phone suddenly rang.

She answered the phone with a slight frown.

“Mom?”

“Eloise,” her mom said in a worried tone.

“What’s wrong?” she immediately asked.

“I don’t know what to do, Eloise. He just suddenly collapsed and—”

“Calm down, mom,” she said, although she was feeling more frantic than ever. “Tell me what happened.”

“It’s Cameron,” her mom finally said. “He’s in the hospital right now.”

“Shit,” she cursed under her breath.

“I’m on my way.”

***

“Babe,” Vaughn greeted through the phone. “Aren’t you going to come home today?” he asked.

“You know that I have a shoot today, baby,” Alina said in a sweet voice, instantly making Vaughn smile. “I’ll go home tomorrow.”

He cleared his throat as he remembered the conversation he had with his parents just moments ago.

“Break up with that woman and start a family of your own already, Vaughn. You’re not getting any younger, and I’m sure you already want to inherit our family business,” that is what his mother had told him.

“Have you thought about what I had asked you yesterday?” he opened up.

Alina sighed. “I—I can’t, Vaughn,” she said. “I don’t want to carry your child yet. My career as a model is only starting out. I can’t ruin my body for a baby.”

He pursed his lips together but hummed in response. It was understandable. His 24-year-old girlfriend is only a rookie in the model industry, while he was already a 28-year-old with an established name as a conglomerate.

“Okay,” he said. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

“See you tomorrow, baby,” Alina said, reverting back to her flirty self. “I can’t wait to see you and probably…have some fun.”

He smirked and shook his head. He already knew what Alina’s definition of “fun” would be.

“Can’t wait,” he said before finally turning off the phone. However, even after their sweet conversation, he couldn’t get his mother’s words out of his mind.

With that, he called one of his closest friends, Xavi.

“Let’s drink,” he said without any introductions.

“What?” Xavi asked, obviously woken up from his sleep. “I was already sleeping, you little shit.”

He scoffed as he got the keys to his brand new Harley Davidson. “Call the others and meet me at the Royals.”

“Whatever, man,” Xavi said with a yawn. “I’m going back to sleep.”

“I’ll be paying,” he said as he started his motorbike.

“Well, why didn’t you say so?” Xavi exclaimed, his mood taking a turn. “We’ll be on our own way.”

Vaughn smirked as he revved up his engine. “That’s what I thought.”

He arrived at the Royals and was surprised to see that all of his friends were already there.

“What’s up, man?” Xavi greeted. “We already ordered some drinks.”

He took a cup and filled it with hard liquor, downing the liquid straight to his throat.

“Woah, slow down,” Dylan, one of his friends, said. “Why did you call all of us out to drink?”

“Same old,” Vaughn said, taking another drink.

Xavi chuckled and shook his head. “Don’t tell me—is this about starting a family again? Your parents are still on that?”

“Yes,” Vaughn said. “And I think they're serious this time. They don’t want to give me the company until I have a family of my own.”

“What?” Red exclaimed. “That’s bullshit, man! You’ve been working at your company since we graduated.”

He nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t even know.”

“Well, have you brought up the topic with Alina?” Xavi asked. “You’ve been together for two years now.”

“That’s another problem,” Vaughn said. “Alina’s not open to having a family yet. She wants to focus on her career now that bigger brands are recognizing her. And I don’t think my parents would approve of her, too. They’ve never really liked her.”

Dylan clicked his tongue. “Well, you’re right about that. Your mother practically doesn’t speak whenever she’s around.”

Vaughn sighed out in frustration as he took another drink. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I might just give up the company.”

“You can’t do that, man!” Red said. “Imagine all the sacrifices you’ve made. The company practically belongs to you. Only the legal papers are missing now.”

“Then, what do you suggest that I do?” Vaughn asked.

His three friends turned silent.

“What about this?” Dylan suddenly said.

They all turned their attention towards their youngest friend.

“You guys know about surrogates, right?”

“Yes, women that carry other couple’s babies,” Xavi answered.

“Right,” Dylan said. “And surrogates have become very common these days. You just pay them some bucks, and they’d carry a child for you.”

“Are you saying that Vaughn should get a surrogate?” Xavi asked. “That’s absurd, man.”

“I might have to agree with Xavi on this one,” Red said. “And you’re missing the important fact that Vaughn’s parents’ does not like Alina.”

“Simple!” Dylan said. “Just marry the surrogate too. Then after giving birth to a baby and having the legal papers of the company be transferred to Vaughn’s name, the two of you can just file for a divorce. I’m sure that Alina wouldn’t mind, too, since she doesn’t want to get pregnant, right?”

“You’re insane,” Red said. “But I hate that you have a point.”

Dylan smiled proudly. “This is definitely the only way to do this. There’s no other better way.”

Xavi sighed and turned to Vaughn.

“What do you think, Vaughn? I do think that it’s crazy, but what if it actually works?”

He pursed his lips together before getting up.

“I’m going home.”

“What?” Dylan exclaimed. “You haven’t even been here in an hour.”

“Just put it on my tab,” he said, bringing out his wallet and passing it to Xavi. “Bring it back to me tomorrow.”

He was about to walk away when Dylan called for him.

“Wait,” he said. “What do you think about my idea, then?”

He scoffed and shook his head. “You’re all insane.”

He left the bar without looking back and drove back home.

He was a little bit tipsy from the alcohol, but he was still well aware of his surroundings.

Just then, his friends’ words echoed in the back of his mind.

“A surrogate, huh?” he muttered under his breath.

Just then, he heard a loud beep coming from the other side of the road. He lifted his head and saw a truck heading over his way.

“Shit,” he cursed out loud, and then the next thing he knew, everything turned black.

***

“I’m here,” Eloise said as she opened the curtains to her brother’s bed. They couldn’t afford to pay for a private room, and she couldn’t feel worse about the situation.

She saw her brother hooked to an IV with a tired smile on his face.

“Sis,” he smiled, like he didn’t just collapse.

“Don’t sis me,” Eloise said, not fully closing the curtains. “What happened to you?” she asked in a concerned tone. “Are you okay?”

“Better than ever,” Cameron said.

She gently hit the back of his head. “Better than ever, my ass. Mom said you collapsed in the bathroom.”

He scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know,” he muttered under his breath. “I was showering when I suddenly felt dizzy. Must be from the cold water.”

“Why didn’t you turn the heater on?” I asked.

“It ran out,” he said. “You know that we share the heater system with other tenants. The landlady probably turned it off.”

Eloise scoffed and massaged the bridge of her nose. “I’ll talk to her tomorrow. We pay the bills on time! How could she just do that?”

On the bed next to theirs, Vaughn wakes up with a raging headache. He opened his eyes and was immediately annoyed by how noisy the bed next to his is.

He opened his eyes and looked at the worned-out ceiling of the hospital.

Why is he in a public ward instead of a VIP room?

He glanced to his right and saw a young woman and man through the curtain.

He clicked his tongue as he heard their voices resonating. His head was aching so much that he couldn’t endure their voices.

He opened the curtains and cleared his throat.

“Can you keep it down?” he said. “Your voices are being heard from the next hospital over.”

Eloise stopped talking when she heard a deep and unfamiliar voice interrupt their conversation.

She turned around and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

She was about to say something but stopped in her tracks when she saw the face of the person who reprimanded them.

Fuck, he’s hot.

Vaughn, too, was surprised when he saw the young woman turn around.

Hmm, pretty.