"Please. Give me more time." I pleaded.
My voice sounded small in that big hospital hallway. The smell of medicine burned the back of my throat. The man in front of me didn't even blink. He was the hospital director.
"You've had time," he said.
"My mother is still inside," I whispered. My fingers were shaking. I pressed them together so he wouldn't see.
He looked past me like I wasn't there. "If the balance isn't cleared by tomorrow morning, she will be discharged."he said firmly.
Discharged.
The word hit my chest like something thrown hard. My mother couldn't even sit up by herself and this man was standing here in a clean suit talking about discharging her like she was a file he needed to close.
"Please," I said again.
Footsteps echoed behind me.
I turned and looked.
A tall man in a dark suit stood at the end of the hallway like he owned the building, like he owned the air inside it. His face was sharp, cold and steady.
The hospital director straightened immediately. "Mr. Cross, nice to see you"he said with a smile , stretching his hands for a handshake.
So this was him...
Gideon Cross.
I had heard the name before.
Everybody knew his name. He had money, power and signed deals that swallowed companies whole and left nothing behind.
The kind of man you read about in headlines and never expected to find standing five feet away while your whole life fell apart.
His eyes moved to me, like he was just assessing me.
"Is she the daughter of...?" he asked.
"Yes," the director said cutting him off. "Her father owed—"
"I know what her father owed," Gideon said interrupting him.
I orpned my mouth in shock.
He looked at me fully. "Esther Collins."
He just pronounced my name like he had always known it.
My throat went dry. "Yes?" I replied trying to understand how he knew my name.
"Three months behind on hospital payments. Huge debts with three banks and two private lenders."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"I make it my business to know things." He answered firmly.
He stepped closer, close enough that I could smell his cologne.
"Time is expensive," he said.
"Then what do you want?"I asked folding my hands.
He studied my face for a moment, like he had already made a decision and was checking whether I was ready to hear it.
"Marry me."Gideon said.
"What?"I asked in shock, I wasn't sure i heard him correctly.
"Marry me." He said in the same tone, completely calm, like he had just asked for a glass of water.
A short laugh came out of me before I could stop it. "This is not funny."
"I'm not joking." He replied.
The director quietly walked away, just like that. Left me alone with this man and his impossible words and the sound of my own heartbeat.
"You don't even know me," I said.
"I know enough."he answered.
He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a thin folder, held it out and stretched it out to me.
I took it and opened it. I read every word.
It was a contract marriage for 18 months. In public I will be his wife, attending events, appearances, smiling when required, saying nothing about his business.
In return he would clear every debt my father left behind, every bank, every lender, within 48 hours.
My mother's care would be covered in full, not just for eighteen months but permanently, irrevocable, written in black ink on page one. And in the morning the divorce papers were signed, five million dollars in my account before noon.
I read that number three times and closed the folder.
I stood there holding the contract in my hands.
"Five million," I said. "Why that much?"
"Because I need you focused. Not distracted by money problems. That amount keeps you from looking for a way out." He replied.
"What do you get?" I asked inquisitively.
"Stability." He said
"That's it?" I asked again.
"Yes for now." He replied calmly.
"You're rich. Powerful. Why would you need a fake wife?"
His jaw tightened, slightly.
"Certain people believe I am vulnerable right now," he said. "A marriage changes that."
"So you want to use me?" I asked him.
"Yes Esther, you keep asking too many silly questions" he now raised his voice.
The honesty hit harder than a lie would have.
A cold wave moved through me from my neck to my feet.
"What if I say no?" I asked him.
"Without this, your mother will be discharged tomorrow. The people your father borrowed money from don't send polite letters,do they? So choose now." He said firmly.
"You're blackmailing me!" I said almost angrily.
"Call it whatever helps you sleep tonight."he smirked.
Tears burned behind my eyes. I blinked hard. I would not cry in front of him.
"You planned this," I said. "You knew exactly when to show up."
"I plan everything in my life, now cut to the chase. I don't have all day" Gideon said firmly.
He held out a pen.
"Sign this!"
There was no softness in his tone, no reassurance, just sign this was all he said.
My name was already printed on the contract. He had known I would be here. He had known I would be desperate. He had known there was no other door.
My brain was screaming at me to run.
But run where? To who?
There was nobody to turn to, my father died while leaving a huge pile of debts and my mother? She was still receiving treatment in this hospital. I had no sibling because I was the only child...
"If I marry you, I don't belong to you," I said.
"In public you do and in private you follow the terms."he added
"And if I break it?" I asked with hot tears almost dripping out of my eyes and the rage I felt at the same time.
"There are penalties." He replied
"What kind?" I asked
"You don't want to find out." He said confidently.
I put the folder down.
"Give me the pen," I said.
He raised an eyebrow but handed one over.
I flipped to page three and found a section that said I couldn't talk to any lawyer without his permission first. I drew one straight line through it.
"That part is gone," I said. "If something happens to me, I need to be able to call a lawyer. I'm not signing that away."
He looked at the page. Then at me.
"Cross it out on your copy too," I said. "Right now, where I can see it."
"You're in no position to make demands."he said firmly to my face.
"I'm in no position to sign something that leaves me completely defenceless either." I held the pen out to him. "So which is it." I asked.
He was quiet for a moment.
Then he took the pen and crossed it out.
"Anything else?" he asked.
"Not yet," I said.
I hated him and at the same time I needed him. Both things were true at the same time with nothing I could do about either.
"You're not even pretending to be decent," I said.
"I didn't realise this was a romance."he replied
Something hot moved through my chest , something more complicated that I refused to examine because I already had enough problems.
"Why me?" I asked, in a lower tone this time.
"Because you're desperate," he said. "And desperate people don't walk away from lifelines."
That hurt me more than anything else.
Because it was true, he knew it and I knew it. Nothing either of us could do to make it less true.
"No tricks," I said. "There should be nothing hidden."
"No tricks." He replied waiting for me to sign it already.
"Every debt cleared within 48 hours."
"Yes."
"My mother's care. Even after divorce."I said trying to be sure of what I want getting into.
"Irrevocable. As written."he replied
"You don't touch me unless I say so."I said this one raising my voice out loud.
There was a pause, a beat of silence that lasted just long enough to mean something.
"Fine," he said.
I bent down and signed.
He took the contract before the ink was dry.
"It's done," he said.
Something shifted in the air, like a door closing in a room you cannot leave.
"Just to be on the same page when do I move in?" I asked.
"Tonight." He replied
"Tonight ? that's too soon—"I stuttered
"I need to see my mother first."I said
"You have thirty minutes." He replied facing the direction of the door that leads to the elevator.
"Thirty minutes, to sit beside her and hold her hand and pretend everything was fine, to say goodbye to the last normal thing in my life". I thought.
As he turned to go, he spoke.
"Esther?" He said
I stopped but did not turn around.
"You just made the smartest decision in your entire life," he said and walk away
It didn't feel smart, It felt like stepping off the edge of something very high and very dark because the ground behind me had already disappeared.
I walked toward my mother's room and did not look back.
But I felt his eyes on me the whole way.
I had just married a man I hated, a man I couldn't stand his cold attitude.
I had the terrifying feeling I had just become part of the game!