Chapter 5 What are the odds

Ella's POV

Nora just called me, informing me about a man who was waiting for me in the café. My heart sank at this news, I hopped on my scooter and drove as fast as I could even breaking one of the signals. The only possibility was that the loan sharks found out where I was living and came looking for me.

The thing that terrified me the most was that Nora was there with him. What if they hurt her, they showed me no mercy and they weren't going to do it for Nora.

With a single push, the café's door swung open.

"Nora!" I scream, panting and trying to catch my breath.

"Are you okay?" Nora came running towards me and I'm glad that she's fine.

"Where is he?" I ask her.

"He's right there," Nora gestures towards a man sitting inside the café with an empty cup in front of the table.

He's wearing a suit, which looks quite good on him. He isn't scary nor does he have any tattoos on his neck. If I was being honest, he's hot and the glasses he's wearing makes him look even hotter.

I approach him and he extends his hand to greet me.

"Hello, my name's Noah," he says I shake his hand, "I've been sent by my boss, Edmund."

I give him a confused look, not sure who he was talking about.

"Edmund Fox, the CEO of the Fox and Co."

Suddenly all the memories came crashing down. Even the thought of that day, makes me want to throw up.

"What does he want from me? Is he going to sue me for throwing coffee at him?" I sneered but deep down I was feeling helpless. What if he actually decided to sue me, I would kill myself.

"No, Miss Ella. You've got it all wrong. I've come here with a proposal," he pauses for a while and then speaks again, " A marriage proposal."

My jaw drops and I stare at him in disbelief with my eyes wide open.

"Wha-, what the hell. Did your boss hit his head somewhere or is this some kind of a plan to take his revenge on me," I try to stay calm but this man is just unbelievable.

He's a lunatic, that's the only explanation of his nonsense or why else would he send his secretary with a marriage proposal who slapped him and threw coffee on his branded shirt.

"It's a long story but you don't have to worry about it. It's just a contract marriage and he's willing to offer you everything in return. You need to stay married just for a short period of time," he says and all I want to do is punch him the face.

"Tell your boss that I won't marry him, never in a million years. Even if he brings me all his wealth and kneels in front of me, I still wouldn't marry him. I won't become a slave to some rich maniac," I make it clear to his secretary that I don't want anything to do with his boss.

"Miss Ella, you-"

"You can please leave now," I cut him off. He opens his mouth to say something but decides not to.

"Very well, then. Have a good day Miss Ella," he says and leaves.

I clench my fist in frustration and annoyance. Trouble has it's own way of finding me. Didn't I have enough things to worry about and now this. I sit down and bang my hand on the table in front if me.

"Did he leave already?" Nora asks and her voice startles me.

"Who was he? He kept waiting for you so I thought it would be better for me to leave you two alone to talk," she explains herself.

"He...," I think for a moment and then continue, " He's just a customer."

I don't want Nora to get involved in any of this. She has enough problems to deal with at her new office where she works, her colleagues keep sexualizing her since she's the only woman there. I don't want her to worry about my problems as well.

"He was hot though," Nora blushes, and I jerk her shoulders to snap her back to reality. I am not going to let her get involved with anyone close to Edmund.

.............................

A loud noise wakes me up, I open my eyes to see what's happening. Aunt Maggie and Nikki are throwing my clothes and my stuff inside a bag.

I instantly get up from my bed and stop them from throwing my stuff like that.

"Stop it! What are you doing," I grab the music box from Nikki's hand, the only thing I had left of my parents.

"We've had enough of you, Ella. You can't stay with us anymore," Aunt Maggie says while throwing my zipping the bag with my clothes in it.

"But why? What did I do?" I ask, tears falling down my cheeks. I didn't know what was happening and why I was being treated like that.

"You're just full of shit Ella. Wasn't Mark enough of a trouble for you," Nikki looks at me with hatred in her eyes and I think what did I ever do to make her disrespect me like that. She doesn't even care that I'm older than her or how much I've taken care of her for the past few years.

"This is what you get for messing with Edmund Fox," Aunt Maggie jeered at me.

Edmund, that asshole. He's the one behind everything. He wants me to give up and sign the contract papers and he went this far just to get what he wants.

"Please," I beg, " Don't kick me out like this. I have nowhere to go, you know that."

"I don't care, just don't come back here," Aunt Maggie slams the door in my face. I stare at the closed door in front of me, why does all these men keep making my life harder.

I sat in front of the door for a few hours, hoping that Aunt Maggie would eventually open the door for me but it remained shut and there was only one choice for me.

I burst into Edmunds's office, he puts down the book he reading and stares at me amusingly.

"I'll sign the marriage contract," I spat out the words he had been wanting to hear.

"But under my conditions."