CHAPTER 4

　WIFE MATERIAL

　　TIARA

　　I burst out in hysterical fits of laughter.

　　“Oh, my God. Oh, Lord. You always were such a zero-humor jerk. I thought you were dead serious for a minute!” It still wasn’t very funny listening to him and watching him with no grimace on his face.?

　　“It’s not a joke, Tiara. I wish it was, but it’s not,” he said in all seriousness, and I stopped laughing.?

　　“Who is this, Vincent Baker? I mean, I know who he is. All fucking universe does, but what’s your business with him?” I asked in astonishment as my father pulled a document out of the briefcase, he had brought with him. He was one hell of a... “Is that?”?

　　“This is the contract you have to sign,” my father replied nonchalantly and calmly considering the situation he was in and the situation he was putting me, his daughter, in.?

　　“The contract? Who said there was going to be a contract?” I suddenly snapped, placing my hands on my waist in protest.

　　“He did! You will stay married to him for as long as your mother’s treatment lasts, and after you divorce, you will not be entitled to a cent of his estate. This is his request”

　　“I don’t give a damn about his request. If he thinks I am after his money, I got news for him. I won’t marry him. I am not a gold digger,” I snapped in a rage so hard to control.?

　　“Tiara, this isn’t about his money or the fact that you would marry for money. It’s about your mother who, if you don’t do it...”

　　“Shut up! Don’t bring my mother into this. Don’t manipulate me any way you want. Not now, at twenty-two. I’m not a child anymore!”?

　　Dad took a long sigh then put the contract on the table with his all too known pen. The same one with which he closed all his deals. Because that’s what I was to him now. A business deal. He wasn’t interested in my mother in the slightest. All he cared about was saving his stupid money.

　　“So, I’m going to marry none other than Vincent Baker, huh?” It was too preposterous to be genuine.

　　I looked with no particular interest at the contract in front of me and there was definitely his name, written black on white, Vincent Baker, along with his perfect signature. A man I had only read about in tabloids and heard about on TV and in posts on social media. The merciless, overpowering and tediously alluring owner of the Business Forum Empire, one of London’s greatest existing corporations. He rose his corporation from nothing in ten years to the top, leaving his competitors and colleagues alike way behind. For him, business was everything and nobody and nothing stood in his way. He would eliminate anyone who dared to do it with little pomp and consideration.

　　Or that’s what I kept hearing about him because people were talking about his achievements. Especially women.?

　　Suddenly, an inexplicable rage mixed with jealousy came over me. Why did a man like Vincent Baker want to marry a woman as anonymous as me? I mean, he wasn’t the kind of man who lacked women and money. Something didn’t add up here.?

　　“Essentially, yes,” my father commented, still glaring at the contract waiting for me, so stop asking so many questions and sign the damn paper.?

　　“I wonder what his reasons are?” I voiced my thoughts from earlier, wanting to see my father’s reaction. Or if he would at least have one.?

　　“Would you like a lawyer’s advice before you sign? Looks like a prenup.”

　　“Of course, it is. It couldn’t be otherwise. If the man’s afraid I’ll take his inheritance, why bother marrying me?” I asked doubtfully.

　　“He told me he has his reasons and that he doesn’t intend to discuss them with you or me. But you can read everything before you sign if you don’t trust him.”?

　　“Oh, that is an understatement. Now why would I not trust a guy who buys himself a wife?” I asked teasingly, running my eyes over the letters that formed his name.?

　　“You could sign and hang in there for as long as it takes or you cannot sign at all and let your mother die. It is your choice, Tiara”?

　　The way he said it seemed to give me no choice. If I’d thought it through, I really didn’t have any other option.?

　　“So, he’s dragging you out of a smoldering fire and all he wants to do is blindly marry a woman he’s never met in his life?” I asked rhetorically, because I might never get a straight answer to it. And asking it so out loud somehow made it sound worse than it already was.

　　A glimpse of a smile broke across his face. “Well, ninety percent of the profits would go...” I held my hand up in front of my face.?

　　“Stop explaining. I don’t care what he does with the profits as long as he is paying for mother’s treatment” This thing was going to blow up in his face. I would see to it that this would actually happen. If he thought I’d be submissive, he couldn’t have been more wrong.?

　　And I really needed a good, competent lawyer before I signed. And that was if I could find one who didn’t know him or play golf with him in his spare time.?

　　Perhaps an unscrupulous one who would know how to sell me as a product to an unknown man.

　　With that thought in mind, I exhaled heavily. This contract seemed like an enormous weight on my shoulders. It was as if it had a conscience of its own, one so loaded that it would derail my life forever.?

　　“That means you will sign?” my father asked impatiently to put the final stamp on my existence.

　　“Does mother know?” I answered with another question, far more important for me than whether I will sign or not. But for the look in his eyes, I immediately understood. “She doesn’t… I knew it!”?

　　How stupid I was.?

　　But then father continued as if my question and concern didn’t even exist.?

　　“He wants to see you first, so he said that when you feel prepared to stop by his office to have a cup of coffee. He would always be available for you”?

　　The nerve this Vincent guy had. When I felt prepared. Who did he take me for? How helpless did he think I looked??

　　“Oh really? I marvel that such a busy man makes time for me” I kept mocking this man’s ways.?

　　“Actually, what he wants to know is if you’re... suitable wife material.”?

　　I tried to swallow and assimilate what my father had just said.?

　　“What exactly does that mean? If he thinks he has a choice, then he should choose someone else, not me.”?

　　“The places where he wanders are of particular importance and he needs someone to represent him, if you know what I mean,” father tried to explain but this Vincent’s standards only pissed me off more.

　　“That’s just too much! I am me and no one, not even Vincent Baker, can change me to his liking.”

　　But because my father said nothing, I took the contract and shoved it in my purse. “I’m going to have a talk with this man full of himself,” I said, enraged by his demands. “And I’ll tell him what I think of his damn contract, while I’m at it”