Chapter 5 THE PRICE OF THE DEAL

The air was rife with palpable tension, forming a precipice from which Emma felt like she was dangling. Adrian's gray ocular orbs met hers: inscrutable, they could locate the highest calculation.

"I'll do it," she reiterated, voice sounder this time.

He scrutinized her for one last moment, closed in, his presence always commanding. "Good," he said, low-voiced and smooth but Emma was not in any mood of listening to his cool indifference. Clenching fists, she felt the desperation inside her burst out. "If this is going to happen, you need to fix it now. Injured and impatient, time will not permit.

Adrian cocked his head, and the action made a rogue grin twitch at the corners of his mouth. "Fix it now?" he asked as though he had been testing the words on his tongue.

"Heck, yes," she snapped, eyes ablaze. "If you wish to help, then help." I need that money today for my father's surgery, not tomorrow or next week. Now.

His smirk turned deeper at the sight of the sudden flicker of amusement that splashed across his face. Emma wanted to slap him but he spoke before she could say more.

"Any moment now," he said, his tone infuriatingly self-assured, "your father's medical doctor should be giving you a call.

Emma inhaled sharply. "What?"

Her phone vibrated with a single buzz that sliced through the matched silence. Emma now groped into her handbag with a heart beating a little faster to get to her phone, her eyes darting to it. Her breath caught when she looked at the screen.

Dr. Chad.

She lifted her eyes to Adrian, the mouth partly ajar in shock, but before she could say something, the tinted glass of his car window began to rise.

"Stop!" she shouted, but it was of no avail. The window was already closed, and the beautiful car was already driving away, leaving her there with her amazement.

Emma looked after the car while holding her buzzing cell phone. Waves of emotion came over her-releasing, confusing, and angry.

The buzzing of her cell phone wiped that emotion from her. She quickly answered the phone, placing it to her ear. "Dr. Chad?"

The calm voice of the doctor drifted through to her. "Miss Clarke, I wanted to let you know that your father's surgery has received approval, payment is done, and we'll soon be transferring him to the operating room."

Emma could feel her knees weaken. "What? But how? Who..." She caught herself, realization crashing down like a tidal wave.

Thus, not some anonymous donor or miracle but Adrian Cross.

"Miss Clarke? Are you still there?"The voice of Dr. Chad started to sound far away. Drowned in the thunder of her ears,

"Yes, I'm here," she managed to say in exactly that weak voice. "Thank you for letting me know."

She hung up and stared at her phone, her mind racing.

"Who are you really, Adrian Cross?"

Emma sat in the car and drove to the hospital in a daze, white-knuckled on the steering wheel. The city lights were a blur around her, and Adrian's words kept echoing in her head.

"Your father's doctor should be calling you right about now."

Not sure whether to feel relieved or angry, this had turned into something more than a mere surgery issue. Adrian had come into her life with the subtlety of a hurricane, and now everything was spinning out of control.

She entered the hospital and was greeted by the sterile smell that overwhelmed her. Her legs were heavy, and as she walked through the doors, she saw Sophia rushing towards her.

"Emma!" Sophia's voice sounded relieved as well as excited as she wrapped her arms around her sister.

Emma hardly felt the embrace. "What happened?" she hollowly asked.

"You're not going to believe this," Sophia said, pulling away from the hug. Her face was streaked with tears but glowing with hope. "Some NGO came in and paid for Dad's surgery. The docs say it's all covered, and he's in the OR right now."

Emma twisted in her gut. An NGO? She knew better.

"That's... great," she said weakly, forcing a smile.

Sophia nodded as the relief morphed into joy. "Isn't that wonderful? No idea who they are, but I'm just so grateful. What kind of people step in just like that?"

Emma bit her lip, tightening the muscles of her chest. She wanted to tell Sophia the truth, but the words stuck in her throat. How could she explain that the man who'd paid for their father's surgery wasn't some benevolent stranger, but a billionaire who had bought her compliance with the promise of saving their father's life?

"Yeah," Emma finally said, her voice strained. "It's... amazing."

Slightly frowning, Sophia sensed something was off. "By the way, Emma, are you okay?"

"I am fine," Emma retorted, lying again, still holding on to her smile. "It's just been a long day."

"You've been holding so much together for us, and now..." Sophia reaches out to touch her shoulder. "Now we don't have to worry anymore. It's all going to be okay."

The tears came pouring out of Emma. They were hot and running and could no longer be stopped. Sophia mistook this for tears of relief and brought her into another hug, whispering into her ears.

But Emma's tears were not for relief alone. They were everything she had lost, every sacrifice and deprivation she had undergone in a day.

She cried not for the fact that her father was going to undergo surgery in the end, but for the fact of having sold her soul.

With that, Sophia drew her to a chair in the waiting hall and Emma settled in heavily, senses deadened. She stared at the cold, sterile, white walls with her brain flashing all that had taken place on that balmy day.

She had consummated a deal with Adrian Cross, an almost-unknown man to whom the attraction of power seemed to wield itself as a weapon, leaving her wholly beholden and incandescently furious.

Unimpressed, she glanced at her phone, expecting a call or a message, and it was a blank slate.

Sophia, sitting happily besides Emma, doesn't care about the storm raging in Emma. "This is almost a miracle, isn't it?"

Emma shook her head in silence, and her throat was too tight to speak.

Those words from her sister were kind but cut deeper than Emma would have ever admitted. It was not a miracle but a transaction, and now Emma owed Adrian more than she could ever give back.

Now as her tears dried, a steely will began forming in her mind. She had agreed to his terms, but she would not let him completely control her. If she would play the part of his wife, she would do so on her terms.

Deep down, however, she knew the price of this bargain went far beyond money or pride.

It was about her dignity, maybe even her principles and perhaps her heart.

For now, however, all she could do was wait in anticipation. Wait for her father to come out of surgery. Wait for her to digest the gravity of her choice. Wait to find out what kind of life she had signed on for.

For from this night on, she would either find herself or soon be finding herself as the wife of Adrian Cross.