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Zella 

"What are you saying, Dad?" 

My father coughed into his napkin, his hands trembling. He sat behind his desk, looking at anything in the room but me. 

"I'm saying we're going bankrupt, dear," He muttered, shaking his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Zella, it is my duty as your father to-"

"I don't understand," I whispered, looking at the documents he had placed before me and then back at him. He looked so weak.  

Growing up, Dad had always been my hero. He lost mom after she had Sasha and yet he had always been so strong for us both, working his ass off to provide for us and make it possible to have whatever we wanted.

Sure, there were times we could have used his presence at home, times I could have used his presence, and times I wished he didn't just leave us alone while travelling halfway across the world. No, we're not doing this right now.  

"The business in France crashed, I made some deals, and to get over the loss, we had to sell more shares. The company's value has dropped, and the stocks are worth nothing now. I could... I could face charges."

"How?" I croaked. "How could this happen? Oh my god, what about Sasha? She's still in college. How are we going to pay for her tuition? No, no, this can’t be right. We’ve always been okay. You run three companies, what about-"

Dad interrupted, shaking his head sadly. The torn look on his face only deepened, and it worried me.  

"That was before, Zella. Before the audits. Before the loans dried up. Before he took everything."

I frowned, leaning over the desk. He? "Who? Who took everything?" 

Dad lowered his gaze and said in a small voice. "Isaiah," 

A thrill shot through my spine at the mention of his name. I swallowed as scenes of us in that restroom replayed in my head. That was a few weeks ago, and I never saw him after that. He didn't show up for the usual Sunday brunch at my father's place anymore. I felt awful because I knew he was avoiding me, and I would avoid me too, if I were him. What I had done was wrong.  

"Isaiah? No. No, he’s been helping us, right? I thought he invested in your company?" 

Dad let out a bitter laugh, filled with pain. My heartbeat grew fast. No. It can't be. Isaiah King was a ruthless businessman, but he was my father's best friend for years before I was even born. He would never do anything to jeopardise my father's business.  

"I trusted him like a brother. But the contracts with him were traps, my dear. He had clauses hidden so deep that even our legal team missed them. Before I knew it, he had majority control of every branch. He's practically the owner of Carmichael Industries at this rate." 

My feet wobbled. Isaiah would never do that.  

Oh yeah, my mind mocked, and you know him so well? 

"He... He respects you too much to do that. He's been your bestfriend for over twenty years. Uncle Zay... Isaiah would... I can't believe he would do that." 

"I can't believe it either," Dad sniffed, coughing again into his napkin. My chest clenched in pain, and tears burned the corners of my eyes. "He humiliated me. You know what he said when I begged him for more time?" 

"W-What?" 

Dad reached for his phone and whipped it out. He pressed down on the screen, and the unmistakable sound of Isaiah's deep voice filled the room. 

"I'll take it all apart, Carmicheal, piece by piece. Offering you my friendship shouldn't have blinded you to the kind of man I am. I can and will ruin you in the snap of a finger, and you fucking know it. How could—"

The recording stopped playing and it felt like the earth got snatched from under my feet. I gripped the table, trying to steady myself. The tears I struggled to hold back slipped down the corners of my eyes. That was Isaiah's voice. 

That was... That was the voice of the same man I had allowed to touch me that night. The same man who had looked at me as if I were the very air he was breathing.  

That man ruined my father.  

"He's crazy," I spat. "We'll file a lawsuit! He thinks he can just do whatever he wants?" 

"He's Isaiah King, Zella. He can afford to," 

"I don't care!" I yelled. "We'll file a lawsuit and meet that wicked man in court." 

"And where do you think that leaves us? What does that solve?" Dad asked, looking like he would cry. "We'll need money to pay the lawyers, Zella. And what would a lawsuit do for Sasha? Do you think she'll be able to focus on college?" 

My shoulders slumped. He was right. I was too mad to think straight. I wasn't just angry, I was furious, hurt, and ashamed that I had let a man so ruthless touch me.  

"What now? There has to be some way out. We can't... We can't go down like this! You worked so hard to protect Mom's company. We can't let it just go down the drain." 

Dad sighed again and rose up, walking around the desk to take my hand in his. "We have to pay about 25 billion dollars to Isaiah in a year."

I almost passed it again. Twenty-five billion? There was no way we could afford that.  

"We're doomed," I whispered, the horror of everything dawning on me.  

"There's another option," he said. "But first, the wedding with Oliver is off." 

I scoffed. "Why? The almighty Isaiah King doesn't want his son marrying a pauper?" 

"No," Dad replied. "He wants to marry you himself." 

I blinked, staring at my father in disbelief, then laughed. "That's very funny, Dad. But we don't have time for jokes." 

He continued speaking as if he hadn't heard me, his voice shaking. "I told him no. But he threatened to leak the accounts and make me look like a criminal to the board members. I would have been arrested, Zella. Everything your mother built for you and Sasha...would be gone."

"What?" 

He gripped my hand tightly while nausea rose up my throat, then handed me a contract document. "The only way all of this goes away is if you marry Isaiah for a year. That's the deal he proposed. It's either this, or I go to jail, my dear Zella." 

What!? My jaw dropped