chapter 1***MARRY ME

The doctor's words had felt like a bullet piercing through her chest.

Terminal cardiomyopathy. Last stage.

If lucky, she could live up to nine more months, but anything after that, wasn't certain.

Tiana didn’t cry at the hospital that day. She had walked out quietly, the traffic blaring around barely got to her. Everything had turned silent with nothing but a high toned ringing noise in her ear.

Sitting down in the quiet confines of her room, a book laid flat to her lap.

Her handwriting boldly written in the front page.

Things I want to do before I die.

1 Learn to drive

2 Eat the biggest cake I can afford

3 Ride a bike

4 Travel in a plane

5 Learn to swim

6 Have sex, just once. To know what it felt like, truely.

Her eyes remained fixed on number six for a long time and a pathetic chuckle left her throat.

Ridiculous. She thought, but what else did she have to loose?. She'd already lost everything in her life when a private company demolished her family's small home a year ago to build a factory, destroying every thing they owned with no compensation. 

The loss had driven her father into a state of shock and he'd gotten a heart attack which killed him, her mother, unable to bear the loss, had also passed shortly after.

Tiana had buried them both with eyes swollen from crying, it seemed she'd cried up so much then she barely had any tears left to cry for anything else.

Now, she was all alone.

And dying.

She shut the notebook with a loud thud.

That night, she'd left her house. The last bucket wish on her list brought her steps into a bar, where the dim lights were too low for anyone to see the slight tremble in her hands. 

The smell of smoke and alcohol forced her to scrunch her nose the moment she entered. The feel of the thin dress on her skin suddenly felt too light, too exposed.

She'd never been in such a place before and for a moment, she considered turning around. Her eyes scanned nervously around and that was when she saw him.

Slumped at the end of the bar, was the most beautiful man she'd ever seen. His neatly tailored suit jacket was slightly loosened, his tie undone, disheveled hair covered eyes that resembled the ocean, he looked like the epitome of perfection.

Currently fixed on his second bottle of  whiskey. Tiana gulped as her feet led her to him.

He was exactly the kind of devilish beauty she'd read only in novels, dangerous yet, alluring. The kind one was meant to run away from.

“ Is this seat taken?"

she asked, her voice surprisingly steadier than she intended.

Not waiting for a response, she daringly pulled out the chair across him, sitting herself down.

He looked at her, the dark and intimidating glare in his eyes made her gulp, but instead of showing any signs of nervousness, she grabbed his glass and downed the half filled whiskey, hissing immediately at the tight burn it left down her throat.

A faint chuckle reached her and she noticed a smirk by his lip, as if he was amused by her action.

" Tell me...."

He began with a slight tilt of his head but Tiana was taken aback by the deep sound of his voice, it did something to her, something she wasn't sure she could identify.

" What is someone who looks like sunshine itself, doing in a place like this at such an hour?"

She blinked at his question

Sunshine?

Was he talking about her blonde hair?

She almost laughed. If only he knew how darker compared to the sun her life was.

Adjusting her posture, she sat up straighter.

"I'm on a deadline you see” she said honestly.

“ And there's something i want to do before it's too late" 

Seconds passed and he remained silent, almost like he was studying her. Something flickered in the blue of his eyes but as quickly as it came,it left.

“ What kind of thing?"

He asked.

Tiana paused at his question, the scent of his cologne and whiskey enveloped her. She hesitated but a second later, her lips parted and with her next words, the rest of what happened had been a blur in her mind.

He had taken her to his penthouse. 

There had been no sweet words shared between them, simply a clash of intimate desire.

His hands, broad and skilled, had mapped her skin as if memorizing a brail writing. 

He had touched her like he was trying to forget something.

He remembered the sounds of her uneven breaths, the innocent and inexperienced advances she had made on his body.

The way she'd clung to him like she was scared to let him go but when dawn came.

She disappeared.

Vince had woken up to an empty bed with no trace of the woman who had laid there last night.

He noticed there were some cash bills by the side with a note. Picking it up, it read

Payment for your service

His brows furrowed and for a second,he almost laughed at the insult.

One night of passion with a stranger, whose name he didn't even know. 

The only thing he could recall was, the memory of her golden hair, like rays of the sun.

×××

Four hours later, Vince had been summoned to his father's estate where he was met with a devastating arrangement.

“  You have six months” Mr Clement Donovan said to his son while sliding some documents across the desk.

“ If you are unable to enter into a legally binding marriage and provide an heir for the continuity of the Donovan legacy, you will be disowned, you will lose the Donovan name and everything that comes with it"

Vince laughed at his father's words but unlike the previous times when they were simply empty threats, this time, he saw the certainty in his father's eyes and could tell he was more than ready to pull through with his words.

" Sign these documents....You have six months, find a suitable woman and produce an heir, or loose everything "

FOUR MONTHS LATER.

With each passing week, his father pressed in on him. Women had been paraded before him, heiresses, diplomat's daughters, women of high society, but Vince had yet to choose.

On a busy afternoon,seated at the back of his car, while heading to a meeting, his driver took a sudden and violent swerve. A shriek was heard as the car came to an abrupt halt.

"What happened? "

"Sir...s.. someone, i think i might have hit someon..."

Vince was already out of the door before his driver finished but his steps froze when he saw the figure laying against the concrete, a pool of familiar golden locks sprawled around her.

When she was taken to the hospital, she was taken for an emergency surgery and after hours of laying unconscious, when she finally awoke, her eyes were blurry and her head hurt from the medications given to her.

The faint sight of a man standing stiffly by her bed came into focus, his coat was stained with something.

 Was that ... blood?

She blinked, trying to clear her vision to see his face clearly 

He looked down at her, meeting her confused eyes, he uttered something that took her completely off guard.

"Marry me”