CHAPTER FIVE

“Mr Ferraro, this is absurd!” I blurted out as I kept reading the document in my shaky hands.

“Two thousand dollars every month for this?!” I almost shouted.

“Plus a weekly allowance of six hundred dollars, to encourage your performance,” he added.

He looked confident, like he was absolutely certain that I would like the idea. I actually did not.

At the bottom of the document was a dotted line for me to sign. He actually expects me to sign this? I thought to myself.

“I don’t think—”

“Please, Olivia, don’t give me a reply now, just think about it. I’ll give you time,” he pleaded.

“Why does it have to be like this? I could just be your girlfriend,” I told him but he shook his head.

“It has to be like this. It’s a business. You perform a task and I reward you.”

“What? I’ll be like an employee to you. That’s so strange, that’s not..,” Dare I say it, “That's not love.”

“No one is talking about love. I want you sexually, and my house needs a woman to run it.”

I felt nauseous when he said that. ‘No one is talking about love.’

“Why don’t you just marry someone?” I asked him and his face went dark, like I had said something despicable.

“Never again,” he rumbled and I felt a stab in my tummy.

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I had cried my eyes out the night I broke up with my college boyfriend. He was only my second boyfriend and I lost my virginity to him, just before finding out that he had been seeing someone else. It broke me beyond repair. I felt rage and betrayal.

None of that was even half of what I feel now with Eric.

I couldn’t say anything else until he dropped me off. I couldn’t even wave goodbye, I just hurried into my apartment, bursting into tears. I had never been so disappointed in my entire life.

How could he propose a contract like that?

My pillows were soaked with tears and I slept off with wet eyes and a throbbing heart.

The next day at work, my eyes were red and puffy from all the crying I had done. I told Kate about the whole thing and she tried to cheer me up, but I was waist deep in sadness.

“You know, Liv. It may not be as bad as it sounds.”

I looked at Kate, confused.

“It is as bad as it sounds,” I told her.

I looked at my phone and saw several missed calls and texts from him. I answered none.

“I’m gonna try and forget I ever met him. I have too much craziness in my life already,” I said and we both returned to work.

During one of my breaks, I went to the hospital to see my mom. The money for her transplant wasn’t going anywhere and her health was deteriorating. The doctor was quickly on me, rendering me with all the information I needed to know.

“Miss Jack, we need to perform the stem cell transplant as soon as possible. Your mother’s illness has gotten to a critical stage,” Dr Reynolds told me.

She was the doctor in charge and has been very helpful.

“I know! I’m saving up for the treatment,” I said tearfully.

“The sooner you raise the money, the better for her. She doesn't have much time before this is unrepairable.”

I went back home in the rain and in tears. Losing my mother was my worst fear and it was happening before my eyes. I was my Mom's only hope to survive and I was letting her down. I could not lose my mom, it would kill me. I had to do something, I had to save her. Whatever it took.

I looked at Eric’s number on my phone. I was in a dire situation and it was now or never. So, I did the one thing I never thought I’d do. I texted him.

“I accept.”

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I was at Eric’s house the following day. A red Mercedes had come to pick me up. His house was a manor, like the type of house a Duke or King would own. There were many beautiful gardens, a water fountain and a golf course. I'm sure there was more– I didn't get to see it all.

I was taken to a lounge that looked like a mini library with shelves of books at the corners. The chairs were made of leather and mahogany and I could see the wonderful view of a lake from the large window.

“Liv,” Eric called as he entered and I got up immediately, flustered at his presence.

He was in work clothes, a neatly pressed dove gray shirt and black slacks. I wondered what he looked like in casuals. I bet he'd look even hotter.

“Thank you for coming,” he hugged me and I was thrown off by the heartwarming gesture.

He carefully helped me to my seat and sat close to me. I could perceive his minty cologne and despite my disappointment at the whole situation, I still found him irresistible. He was so reserved and mature and definitely the best looking man I’ve met.

“I was scared you wouldn’t accept,” he said.

I didn’t think I would either. I thought.

“Your house is beautiful,” I told him and he smiled.

“Thank you. You’ll be the lady of it soon,” he said and my mind recalled the purpose of the visit. The contract!

He brought out the document from a book on a stool and handed it to me, with a fountain pen. I didn’t bother reading it again. I just signed on the dotted line and exhaled. I did what I had to do; for my mother.

“You will not regret this,” he whispered and I nodded, looking at my hands in my lap, I was feeling strange about signing the contract.

Eric stared at me for a moment and I was really shy under his intense gaze, when I looked up to meet his entrancing eyes, he pulled me closer and kissed me!

I have been kissed quite a few times but this felt like my very first kiss. I felt it all the way to my tummy and lower between my thighs!

Oh God. I moaned and shivered, holding onto his bulge biceps as I felt floaty, I moved closer into him and whimpered when my hand fell on the huge bulge in the fly of his pants, he was so hard and the thought of it made me so wet. I haven’t had sex in a very long while but right now, I wanted it. I wanted Eric, So, I took my hands to his belt to unbuckle it but abruptly, he ended the kiss and took my hands of his belt.

“I have a meeting now, it’s very important. We’ll talk more when I get back and finalize the entire thing. Ask for Greta, she’ll settle you in.”

He said and got up and left before I could say anything.

I turned red from embarrassment, he must think I was so cheap.

Of course he did, you just signed away your dignity, I thought sadly to myself.

I stood up to look around the place, a house I would be in charge of. I wondered what made him think I would be able to manage a house as big as his, but then I had to. I needed the money.

I jerked in shock at the sound of books hitting the ground and before I reached the corner of the shelves, someone ran out.

I gasped in shock and rushed after the person. I got to the balcony and almost screamed when I found a young girl. She quickly picked up a vase and I wasn't sure what for.

She looked scared and defensive. She didn’t look like a staff. She was wearing nice looking clothes and her skin was like glass– so smooth. She also had Down's Syndrome and it just made her look so innocent.

I tried moving forward to talk to her, but then she screamed at the top of her voice and threw the vase at my head.

“Why would you do that?” I asked her after narrowly escaping being hit by the vase.

“Get out of my house before I call my Dad on you, Thief!”she yelled.

“I'm not a thief—Wait,” I thought about it, “Did you just say Dad?”

And that was when it hit me with the greatest shock! This was Eric's daughter! He may not have been married, but he did have a child.

“What the hell have I gotten myself into?” I whispered to myself.