Without a way

"Excuse me?"

People who were having dinner in other tables, all turned their eyes at once towards the way the loud voice came from. They all saw it was a girl, dressed in a complete black casual outfit, had stood up while shouting out, looking all furiously towards the man sitting in front of her.

"Miss Juan, please! Sit back and calm down," Irvyn stated with a low voice, keeping the same depth he usually has.

"And how the hell am I supposed to, huh? You keep going on with the same rubbish again and again, do you think I have such a free time to come here, and listen to you sprewing bullshit? How jobless do you think people are?" Yvette snapped out totally, not caring about her surroundings or the awkward gazes people were giving to her or to him.

"You know what? I am the one at fault here. I shouldn't even come in the first place. What did I think, we will be having some nice dinner and that's it?" she stood up at once, and turned to leave.

"Wait a second, Miss Juan," Irvyn stopped her in her tracks, raising his voice so loud that anyone present in the restaurant could hear them. Well, they would've heard it anyway, since they all had their attention at these two people for a while now.

Yvette turned her head towards his direction, not moving an inch from where she was standing. And she chose to keep quiet, letting him talk.

Taking the cue, he cleared his throat a little before saying, "Sure you can walk away from here. You have that right to decide for yourself. But, before that," he propped up his hand, and Josh sitting just beside him handed him another paper. He kept that paper on the table, to the side where Yvette was sitting, and tapped on it to draw her attention. "Pay me back the money I gave you. Or, to your aunt, to be precise. Since the entire transaction was indeed under her name."

Yvette stood there, frozen like ice. She couldn't get an ounce of energy in her legs, instead she felt like the ground under her feet was slipping off slowly, as her feet were about to give in.

"W-what?" her voice trembled, expressing how nervous she had suddenly become.

That was when Josh stepped in. He took the paper in his hands, and started reading it out loud enough for Yvette to be able to hear. "Miss Yvette, according to your aunt, you have 5 million dollars of loan on you. As Mr. Irvyn Collins gave that amount of money to her under the condition that you will be getting married into the Collins family, as a bride of Mr. Irvyn Collins."

"And did I, ever, agree to any of this shit?" Yvette asked, her voice sounded desperate yet powerless.

"Your aunt did, as your legal guardian." This time, Irvyn responded to her. Eyes fixated on the girl, he spoke as if he was talking about some kind of business deal.

"You can always choose to deny the agreement, but I am afraid in that case, you ought to face the legal consequences straight to the court. Or if not, you can always pay the amount right now." Saying all those hurt Josh really bad, as he was able to see how shaken that young girl was. But to keep his professionalism, he had to maintain a straight face while spewing all those words out of his mouth.

"T-then, give me some time at least! I should get a bit of time to pay those, right?" Yvette hurriedly spoke up. She has been saving up some money from her part times in a bank account, so if she manages to get a few more months of time, she can get out of this mess.

"Two days, that's all you are getting," Irvyn declared, shattering the last bit of hope Yvette had. And with his final words, she even lost the sight of the last glimmer of light.

Yvette looked down at the table, the paper still on top of it, and the empty box where to put the signatures in, seemed like it was mocking her miserable state. Her vision blurred, and soon a few teardrops fell on top of the paper, making the signature box slightly wet.

She might be helpless, she might be too modest to talk back against the people causing her trouble. Be it her aunt, or his son, or the guy in front of her right now. But no matter how modest or gentle she is, she wasn't someone stupid, and she clearly understood that without her agreeing, he wouldn't let go of her. So she apparently has no other way out of this.

"I really don't have a choice, do I?" she let out a dry laugh, as if to mock her own state, and picked up the pen lying beside the paper for a while now. Her hands felt stiff, and it was shaking like a old man shivering hard in a cold winter night. With this one signature, everything would be changing in her life. Her surroundings, her status, her lifestyle. But the most important thing that will change was her chance of finding happiness. She barely made it out of the trauma, the misery she got from Glen. And what an irony, she is going back to the same face again, and with this one sign, she would be handing her entire life to someone, who was a practical stranger to her, a much older man than her. By this, she would be allowing him to toy with her life however he wants, and after getting bored, he might throw her out in the thorny, lonely, painful world of hers, and she wouldn't even have any say in that.

She knows all this, and she can see her life from today onwards. But, then again, does she have any choice? Did she ever have any?

Was there any choice, when she went out with Glen? Was there any choice, when he ghosted her completely, only to be back with the news of him getting a fiance? Was there any choice, when her parents left her all alone, with a cruel aunt and a pervert cousin and a huge debt?

There wasn't. There wasn't any, and there never would be any.

It was bold of her to assume that she might get to live a life in her own terms, on her own decision.

She let out a chuckle, which startled Irvyn. Irvyn glanced at her, and found her gripping on the pen tightly on her palm. And after a while, the uncontrollable shake in her hands completely stopped, and she scribbled her name on the papers.