A BARGAIN WITH MR BILLIONAIRE

I shrugged off my coat and hung it on the rack, the air around me was tense but I ignored it, blowing into my palms for warmth. I could hear the familiar sounds of the kitchen which instantly lifted my mood. I was starving and the chef was certainly whipping up something delicious.

I stood beside my dad as he scrolled through The New York Times on his Tablet. I really have never understood the joy these adults get from reading the news, if anything, I'd rather watch than read.

"Dad, I wanted to speak to you about our new clients from the Russian Fintech company, I was thinking perhaps I could-" I was cut of my the clipped nail cutting tone of my step mother.

"Your father hasn't told you?" Both I and my dad turned our heads in attention to her, he appeared as confused as I was.

"Told me what? I don't think he has mentioned anything about the Russians, is there a problem dad?" I asked, turning my attention back to him.

He opened his mouth but she was quick to cut him off as well.

"Not at all my darling, it's just that your sister Audrey would now be in charge of that project. You can go do whatever it is you usually do, she will handle it."

"Audrey? Audrey doesn't know shit about the company and she would only make us lose a whole lot of money," is what I was going to say but somehow, I never seem to find the voice to say things like that in the presence of my step mother.

My heart sank as her words registered themselves. I had worked so hard to finally earn my place in the family business, and now they were just taking this away from me?

"But... but why? I've been working so hard, these are my clients." I started, turning to my dad.

"How come? I was the one doing the follow up on these clients from the onset, it's my project. I have invested money into this." I managed to force out, taking a gulp.

"Money from the company, might I add." Audrey chirped in, joining us in the sitting room.

"MY Money" I corrected, starting to get slightly ticked off.

I had spent the last three months doing nothing but studying the market and the build up that surrounds this company. This was my gig, my client, my investment.

I already had a one on one meeting with the CEO two months ago, what were they talking about.

"Please, just tell me what I did wrong. I'll do anything to fix it. I just want to make you happy and I'm thinking of the growth of the company. " Audrey looked at me with a blank expression on her face.

"Sophia, it's not about what you did wrong. Just...." he sighed.

"I have spoken with the CEO of the company already, and I made him understand that he would be doing business with someone else. He seemed a bit reluctant at first, said he liked your business etiquette but I was able to convince him that the person taking over was basically the same person as you, given that she's your sister," his gruff voice sounded although he barely raised his head from the screen of that tablet.

I couldn't help but snort, I and Audrey, basically the same person? I loved my sister but we were nothing alike.

"Okay dad." It was certainly not okay.

Audrey gave me a smile to which I returned with a half hearted one of my own. My stepmother took a seat with Audrey right behind her, mimicking her actions.

I looked to each of them raising a brow in question. Why were they seated like they were about to gang up on me.

"Have you spoken to David today?" My dad asked, finally dropping his tablet and paying full attention to the rest of the world.

"Uhm....not really, just some texts here and there, why?"

"Call him, call him and tell him that we're waiting for him." My step mother chirped in.

I looked to her with confusion evident on my face but went ahead to dial David's number.

"Hey, where are you?" I said immediately he picked up.

"Oh hey Soph, how are you? I was going to call you later" He replied with a forced chuckle.

"Well uh, I'm at home and my step mother said to tell you that they are waiting for you, you didn't mention that you were meeting them."

He was silent for some seconds before sighing softly. "I'm sorry baby, I've been so busy these past few days, I must have forgotten I didn't mention it to you. Let them know I'm close though, I'm driving now so let's hang up now, okay?" He said kissing his teeth.

He did that mainly when he was lying.

Lying about what though? There's no big deal if he was not on the way yet, they can just talk whenever he comes by.

Shrugging my shoulders, I turned to relay his words to them before excusing myself to go upstairs and freshen up.

Entering into the small room that I've been using since I was 14, I locked the door behind me.

I walked to where my shoes were kept, I crossed my legs on the floor and pulled out a dusty shoe box from the bottom. I opened it to pull out the one single thing I had left of my mother. It was an old photo that had faded out on the edges. A beautiful woman was carry a 5 year old me in her arms, we were both smiling widely at the camera when the shot was taken.

I pushed the shoe box to the left side of my thighs held the pictures in my hands.

Closing my eyes, I just lay there. Me and my mum, a beautiful duo.

*****

"We cannot keep putting off on telling her when I and Audrey have been agreed to marry in a few weeks. Sophie needs to know and she needs to know now, I have to call off the wedding."

Audrey? Marry? Wedding? Was my sister getting married?

The words were not so clear since I was still on the staircase but I had heard enough to have me speed walking down the remaining flight of stairs.

I could hear my dad talking in a hushed tone when I got to the bottom of the stairs, he only did that when he had to say something he should not be found saying.

"Whats happening to whose wedding?" I asked, everyone's attention turned to me in no time. My dad looked pale with fear. I have never seen him look this way.

"Sophie, David's parents have instructed him to call off the wedding today. It's tradition for their first son to marry a first daughter and not the second one." My step mother started condescendingly without giving a care in the world.

"Plus, you don't have a mother to even get you through the preparation process. I and David are getting married Sophie," Audrey finished, crossing her leg on the chair.

My ears were ringing, did she just say what I thought she said or am I hearing things.

"You must be mistaken, Audrey. We decided to put a hold on the wedding, it has nothing to do with his parents or my family, right David?" I asked with a small laughter.

"Don't be delusional Sophie, you know that the first daughter was going to marry the only son of the Nelsons Family. I, am the first daughter, I honestly don't know why you bothered bringing yourself so low to try to change David's mind, you tried to seduce him into marrying you. He told me that you even tried getting pregnant just to trap him in the relationship. What a conniving bitch." Audrey spat.

My head was spinning. What was she talking about? I have been dating David for five years, we were engaged now and everybody knew that, and that included all the blogs that my stepmother paid to carry the news.

The headline flashed through my eyes: Daughter of the Woods to be married to the Nelsons' heir. And just like that, it clicked, there was no mention of my name, no pictures of us. "You don't need a swarm of paparazzi everywhere you go, now do you darling?" My step mother had said when I asked her. I had wondered to what use it was since most people knew I and David were a couple, but I didn't question her. She only wants what's best for me.

I spun my head to look at the man I had spent the last 5 years of my life loving but he immediately dragged his eyes to the ground. Air left my lungs, he knew all this while. When he made me have an abortion because his parents would not want pregnancy controversy surrounding their family name, he knew. When I almost lost my life at the island he took me to recover for over two weeks, he knew. When we talked about where we would spend our honeymoon, he knew.

David knew all about this when he watched me almost bleed out after that abortion.

My fiancé knew this whole time that I wasn't the one he was getting married to. The first tear dropped from my eyes. My whole world was falling apart.

My step mother Elise smirked at me, she was not even attempting to hide her content.

I turned to my last hope. Please dad, I beg you. I tried pleading with him through my eyes. For a split, I saw his resolve falter but one look from my step mother had him looking away from me.

"It would be best for you to end the relationship here Sophia, although there's nothing quite left of it anymore. We wouldn't want anything messy getting out to the public. The Woods reputation is not one to be toyed with." My step mother said, the visible puff her chest that appeared whenever she spoke of the family's reputation quickly appeared.

"Mother please, I'm sure I and David would sit to talk an-"

She cut me off by holding a hand up.

"David?" She called his attention, causing him to perk up.

"I'm calling off the engagement Soph" I winced at the nickname he frequently called me. It sounded like poison to my ears now. "I'm getting married to Audrey."

The large sitting room suddenly felt too small to contain the five of us, six if you include David's PA, Robert, he was standing at the corner of where David had previously sat. I had gotten so accustomed to Robert that he was almost family. But right now, I couldn't breathe.

Staring into his eyes, I searched desperately for it. Anything, a flicker of regret, uncertainty, perhaps the love she could always see so glaringly in David's eyes. Anything that would help me fan the flame of hope I was starting.

They were blank, empty, emotionless. It was like I was looking into a completely different pair of green eyes. This can't be my David.

Shaking my head, I took a step back. Then another and another, I was almost toppling over my own feet when I turned around. In a flash, I grabbed my keys from the top of a statue where I had previously dropped them and dashed out.

My car had narrowly escaped getting bashed as I blew through the wide compound to the gate. The men at the gate scrambled to open the gate and get out of the way as I blared my way through.

I took a last look at the mansion through my rear view mirror and kept looking as it reduced in size just before I took a turn into the highway. It disappeared from my view making me let out a breath in relief. I wished more than anything that this was a dream, if it was then I desperately wanted to wake up.

Perhaps if I rammed my car into that truck, I would quickly be snapped out of the dream.

I shook my head bitterly, this was no dream.

What is going on?

I had no idea where I was going, or what direction I had been driving in for the past thirty minutes. Tears were streaming down my face, I considered taking a hand off the steering wheel to wipe it off then decided against it. I felt like a fucking joke so might as well look the part.

"I don't care what my parents think, I love you and I'm going to get married to you." That was what he had said to me when I last confronted him with this topic. It was the weekend before he asked me to marry him almost a year ago now, about 10 months. Now that I think about it, that was probably a forced response from him to stop me from asking those questions.

"What if your father cuts you out of the company for good because of that? What happens to your dreams, qll the plans you have for yourself?" I had asked him as he drew circles with his fingers on my thigh. "I think it's better we convince your family to scrap the first daughter thing so they can approve of us." I had ended cautiously. I hated getting him angry.

"I don't care about them Soph, I care about you, what matters is this, us. I'm getting married to you with ot without their approval." He swooped down for a kiss that had me melting into him. I was hopelessly, foolishly in love.

Tears clouded my vision by now.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

My whole body was shaking, I almost missed a sharp turn and quickly pulled the car to a quick stop.

"He told me that you even tried getting pregnant just to trap him in the relationship." Audrey's voice ringed in my head.

"What a conniving bitch"

I laughed bitterly. When I learned I was pregnant, I had calculated the day I conceived.

5 months ago, I was selected as a representative from the Management to oversee the meeting we were to have with some clients flying in from Dubai the following day. I didn't want to spend the night at home while I crosschecked the presentation the team had put together and made sure I was on track. So I booked a room at the hotel the meeting was to be held.

David had come to my hotel room that night, drunk after a heated argument with his father concerning his dropping out from Business school. "What's the point? I'm going to take over the company from my father regardless of whether I finish school or not." He would always yell whenever I tried to convince him to finish his last year.

In seconds, he had pushed me to the bed and attempted to undo my robe, I held his hands to stop him.

"You're drunk David."

"No I'm not baby, I'm just a little tipsy but I promise I'm in my right senses," he said placing wet kisses along my neck.

We had sex without a condom that night.

When he found out I was pregnant, he has asked me over and over how it was possible. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. How did this happen? We were careful, at least I know I was. Did you stop taking your birth control pills? You aren't supposed to get pregnant Sophia." He kept pacing and muttering. I stayed mute, said nothing about the night he didn't use a condom, the night I got pregnant.

I should have known then. That's not how any man would react to hearing your fiance was a month pregnant. But, he should have been happy, a little surprised since it was unplanned but happy regardless. Sex was a norm in this age and time, nobody cares what you do, how you doing it, who you do it with, and not even when or where you did it.

But for some reason, his very educated modern age parents were not going to be happy with my getting pregnant before we got married. "We can just make plans to get married sooner than we had said we would. That way, it wouldn't be a problem" I kept my words in my head at that time of course, I couldn't say it to him so he wouldn't get mad.

I let out a small laughter, how could I be so stupid?

"You're my sunlight, I love you now and forever. Until the sun doesn't shine..." he would say.

"And the moon doesn't come up before nine", I'd always complete.

"Our love would never die", we would echo together. He would kiss me and just like that, everything would be alright. All my worries magically disappear.

Audrey was right. Delusional, that was just the word to describe me.

A loud honk broke me out of my thoughts. I pulled myself together and drove off the middle of the road, the driver blew past me, yelling profanities as she drove past.

I couldn't see her clearly but she looked effortlessly beautiful. I'm sure her fiance would not leave her for her sister.

Was that it? He didn't like the way I looked or dressed and preferred Audrey's appearance?

Audrey was always clad in mini skirts and dresses a size too small, she had on makeup for up to 15 hours each day whereas I was in a pair of slacks and a messy bun for up to 10 hours each day.

Tears sprung at my eyes when another memory flooded my head. I had caught his eyes trailing after Audrey one day that he came to the company I managed. She had just gotten her new black card registered and needed Daddy to sign it off as approved. She strutted across the glass tiles with her heels clinking at each step.

"Forgive my sister, I don't know why she always dresses like this. I'm so worried about her. Even when I keep saying it makes her look like she internationally wants to flash a part of her ass or boobs to the public, she just doesn't listen to me."

"Oh, no. There's really nothing wrong with the way she dresses, whatever makes one comfortable I guess." He shrugged in response, begrudgingly tearing his eyes away from her frame.

I was a bit taken aback but shrugged it off because like he said, wherever makes one comfortable.

I scoffed at the memory.

There were signs. There were signs staring hard at me all these while. I was just oblivious as shit so I couldn't see them.

I turned on the ignition just as my phone rang...