"Sharing More With Him"

Another meeting with him was scheduled for tonight, and somehow I found myself waiting for it all day. That realization alone should have scared me more than it actually did. I kept checking my phone repeatedly even while pretending to focus on other things around the apartment. The agency message sat at the top of my screen with the hotel address and pickup time already confirmed. But despite knowing I would see him again tonight, happiness was the last thing I felt. My chest had been heavy since morning after leaving the third private school that rejected Noah.

The first school claimed they had no available spaces left for new students. The second politely suggested Noah might struggle adjusting because of his medical history and “unstable home background.” But the third school finally stopped pretending while speaking to me inside their expensive office. The woman smiled politely while explaining their academy valued children from complete influential families. She asked questions about Noah’s father, family reputation, and professional connections with the same fake smile still sitting on her face. Every answer I gave only made her expression grow more distant and judgmental. By the time I left the office, I already knew Noah had been rejected before the interview even started.

I sat quietly inside the taxi afterward while staring at the folder containing Noah’s application papers. Everything about those schools screamed perfection, wealth, and status the second someone entered their gates. Children arrived in luxury cars while parents wore expensive suits and smiled confidently beside them. Meanwhile I stood there alone answering questions about missing parents and unpaid medical history. No matter how much money I suddenly had now, people still looked at me like I did not belong beside them. Worse, they looked at Noah the same way too.

The hardest part was watching Noah pretend he was okay afterward. He smiled softly when I explained the school “just didn’t work out” and told me maybe it was too expensive anyway. Then he started talking excitedly about returning to his old public school once treatment fully ended. He acted completely normal while eating dinner later like none of it hurt him at all. But I noticed the way his shoulders dropped slightly whenever he thought I was not looking at him. Every fake smile from Noah shattered something inside my chest slowly.

I hated this city sometimes. No matter how hard someone struggled, people still judged them by family name, money, and status before anything else. Noah was smart, kind, and stronger than most adults I knew, yet none of that mattered because we came from nothing. We did not have a rich father, a respected family name, or elite connections opening doors for us. All we had was each other and the money I earned. Sometimes I wondered whether this world punished poor people simply for existing.

By evening, I stood silently inside my bedroom while getting dressed for the meeting tonight. The expensive clothes provided by the agency rested perfectly against my skin, but none of it made me feel beautiful anymore. I kept thinking about Noah sitting alone in those school waiting rooms while rich children stared at him curiously. Anger and sadness mixed together until my stomach physically hurt from holding everything inside. Then my phone buzzed with the driver’s arrival notification dow nstairs. I closed my eyes briefly before grabbing my bag and leaving the apartment quietly. Tonight wasn’t about the money, it was to clear my head. 

The location was different, I was given a dark purple lingerie set. I open to find him seating, reading a newspaper  but this time, he puts it down, his attention on me as the door close. 

“Hi” I nervously says, my body already tingling.  He didn’t smile but he nods. “What is wrong?” He asked, his eyes fix on me. I wanted to lie, I really do but i just sat on the chair, my eyes already red with anger and told him everything, from Ryan, to the reason I had joined, to school hunt. 

He asked about my mom. I paused, I had hated hearing about it.  But today, I had to talk about it. “Off with her ex before my dad. He died and she claim the insurance, even when it was stated for my school, she got married to rich ass jerk and he was beating me while she watch and did nothing”

“So, I left, but Noah, he couldn’t, I wasn’t legal. Then I found out she was slowly feeding him arsenic with other drugs, to kill him and claim his insurance, it was slow to look naturally” I mumbled, the tears slowly dropping. “His organs were shutting down, from dialysis to help with his kidney, to a whole treatment and not once did she check in on us” I broke, crying, only looking up when I heard a low whistle. 

He looked at me and then at his lap and I obeyed. “Your brother name” He asked. “Noah Hart” I replied. “And yours is Lydia” He muttered as I nod. “He will get in” He said, like it was final, done and decided. 

“No private school” I began but his hands were on my lips. “But there is a condition” He added. “You broke the rule by telling me your personal life, so i want to break one rule also”

“A meeting outside the one being arrange. I have a business trip, 3 days, i want you with me” He added. “But they are rules. You don’t leave the room no matter what and everything else will be provided” He said.

“3 days” I muttered, already feeling my body accepting. “You will be compensated” He muttered but I did not care at all. “Deal” I answer,the first time watching a tiny smile on his lip. 

“Strip now, I know you ache for me” He whispered in my ears, low, compelling. I did as he asked, stripping down, slow and deliberate, making his eyes linger a little bit more on me.