Chapter Seven

“What…what?” I stuttered, whipping my head in the direction of Damien, who still had his eyes on the road as if he had not uttered the most life-changing words to me just seconds ago.

“Your rent, your mother’s debt, I can help you clear them,” he said again. At the second offer, I came to the cruel realization that none of that could come for free. One thing my father taught me before he died was that humans lived off of transactions – give some, take some.

“What’s in it for you?” I asked the question that was hanging in the air the whole time, and I heard him chuckle in response.

“You’re a smart one, Lauren,” he commented.

“I’m not going to ask for much from you,” he spoke. “I’m only going to protect you from everything that’s happening. You will be taken under my wing as my fiancée to the public eye, and you will separate yourself from everything that binds you to your mother because you’re only going to get destroyed if you keep going around like