LOVE, CONTRACT AND SECRETS

“Thank you—Hope to see you again” I flashed a smile as I waved our last customer of the day goodbye. It was finally closing hours."Finally” Lucy sighed, flipping the open sign closed.“Are you heading home now?” She took off her apron as she make her way towards me."Yeah, I told my mom I'd return early to help her out with my dad”"Oh, I see” she picks up her purse “don't you think you should take a break tomorrow?” A frown suddenly settled on my face “why?”“I don't know, with this whole thing with your dad and the bakery, you've been overworking yourself…I don't want you to break down or something”Always so worried about me I give her a faint smile, placing both my hands on her shoulders “I'll be fine, Lucia, Don't worry about me…okay?”She nodded her head slowly breaking into a smile which caused one to form on my face. It wasn't hard to admit how beautiful Lucia was, even though she never believed it. Her smile was so contagious with her bright brown eyes and freckle filled c

The clouds in the sky rumbled slightly as Duncan kept his eyes fixed on them, sipping from the glass of whiskey in his hand. He let his burdens and thoughts drift away slightly as he kept his focus on the rumbling clouds. He couldn't explain why, but he had always found peace being lost in the sky right from when he was little. He gulped down the last bit of his whiskey and walked back into his room, closing the balcony door shut; he approached his drink table, picking up the bottle and filling the glass again. He suddenly felt arms wrap around his stomach, kisses being placed on his bare back. Not saying anything, he picked up the glass, slowly pulling the arms away and making his way to his bed. “You're bored of me already?” She slowly opened up his shirt she had on, making sure to reveal herself in her lingerie to get his attention. He took and sit and looked up from his drink, assesing her with his ever cold grey eyes. His emotionless deep voice sounding the words “take off my

9pm and my mind was no difference from a rollercoaster. It's been working so much, so fast, taking away every form of sleep I could possibly think of getting. I held Mr Stones Company card in my hand, sitting quietly on my bed and staring at nothing in particular. I was torn between prioritizing my father's health alongside my only means of livelihood and prioritizing myself. What could be so bad that Mr Gail said I might end up running after a month? Was he violent? Was he into illegal stuff? Was he into drugs? I didn't mind if he was picking up women though, I just wanted the money and nothing else. Besides, I'll be out of his hair after 6 months and everything will be back to normal. My father would be healthy, my bakery will be fine, and I'll even have some money left to repay some debts and still have enough for our upkeep….my whole life would be in check. The thought of settling all the weight on my shoulder brought this internal peace that I wanted to last forever—mat

“I'm very sorry, I don't think I got that right, you did what?” Lucy asked, disbelief evident in her voice. “Signed the contract” I gave her a smile. I've been scared, since I signed that contract, I've been so so scared. The thought of leaving my dad for my mom to take care of all by herself made me so frightened. But, on the bright side, I was going to get 2.5 million soon so I should be able to get him ready for the surgery and healthy in no time. I've been glancing at my phone every now and then, the thought of Mr Stones dropping by soon to pick me up for the marriage license caused goosebumps to form on my skin….well, fake marriage license though. “So you actually went through with this?” “Are you willing to hand me 2 million dollars?” Her tongue immediately got tied, not a single word escaping from her lips “I thought as much” A text popped up on my phone from Mr Stones who I may have exchanged number with at the last minute. He was outside. I hurriedly took off

Time does fly fast when you're having fun and when the moment is something you really want to last forever. But, when it's dreadful, time is as slow as a snail trying to cross the street.It's been three days since I arrived at Mr Stones home and it's been extremely dull and gloomy.For reasons he didn't give, he made me stay home throughout the week, saying I could resume at the bakery the following week—still, he didn't give a valid reason.I always stay locked in my room almost all day, nowhere to go, no one to see and absolutely nothing to do.It felt weird trying to adapt to a place that I had no idea about, I wasn't even in a familiar neighborhood. Based on his status, the neighborhood was quiet and had very few houses around, houses I could only dream off—how do I interact with such people?In the past three days, I've gotten to see Mr Stones only once and that was the first day before he went to the office. Since then, he leaves really early and stays locked in his room when h