Chapter Three

　　Subtitle: My Contract Marriage

　　Written by : Marvy Hyacinth

　　... Alexa's POV ...

　　Judy is so unbelievable!

　　He's a very selfish and heartless human. Humph! Anyways, it's not his fault, he was paying me as a worker. But that does not give him the right to treat me anyhow. What am I saying?

　　That rich guy is the bigger jerk. I wonder if he's really rich or its just a facade.

　　Jace!

　　Oh my God! I totally forgot about him. Its 4:32pm now. He must be really worried... I need to get home as fast as I can.

　　I walked home as fast as I could, but when I got home, Jace was asleep already. I checked the fridge and saw that he already ate lunch. I sighed in relief and brought a bowl of beef bone soup out. I checked it and thankfully, it hadn't gone sour yet.

　　If there's something I'm grateful for, is the fact that my Dad had bought this fridge two years before he met his end. I don't know how I'd cope with me and Jace eating sour food if the fridge wasn't there.

　　I snapped out of my thoughts and went to the kitchen to heat the soup up. I was so pissed off, I forgot I hadn't eaten lunch yet. Bubbles from the pot gave me a notice that the soup was heated already and ready to be served. I dished some into one of my mom's China plates and took a soup spoon along with me.

　　I went to the sitting room and sat down on a couch. I felt the foam give way under my buttocks.

　　"I understand you're fucking old, but don't do that to me. If my soup pours on me, I won't forgive you."

　　I cursed out loudly.

　　"Fuck! I'm home. I shouldn't be using fowl words around Jace"

　　I reprimanded myself and moved my mind back to the soup.

　　"Mmmh... This still tastes good even after being alive for 3 days."

　　I moaned after drinking a spoonful.

　　This would have tasted better if there was a television to watch. I laughed. Here I am thinking of a TV set when there's no money to pay for the electricity bills.

　　God, I'm so funny.

　　I finished the soup and went to do the dishes. Once I was done, I climbed up the creaking staircase to the room Jace Stays in. Its nothing great, but it's sure nicer than mine.

　　"Oh... He's sooo cute"

　　I admired and sat down beside him on the bed purring in satisfaction as my fingers ran through his thin brown silk hair.

　　"It's so soft"

　　I moaned in delight.

　　I sized him up with my eyes, he was so perfect from head to toe. As I ran my eyes from his toe up, I stopped at his chest. Everything about him was so perfect except one thing... His heart.

　　He has a failing heart. He was first diagnosed of it when he was six. It was VSA or something like that. The doctors said he needed an open heart surgery, but I couldn't pay for it.

　　My dad was still alive when it was first discovered that Jace had a failing heart. We went to a doctor immediately and the doctor said he had a home in his heart and it needed to be operated on. My dad succeeded in collecting a loan from his boss for Jace's surgery. We paid half of it to the doctor to operate on him. After the operation, Jace came out alive and my dad paid up the rest.

　　We thought everything was over till about two weeks later. Jace started fainting if he ran for too long. Sometimes, his heart would stop beating, it is a miracle he's still alive till now.

　　We went back to the doctor to tell him what was going on, but when we got to his hospital, he was gone. The doctor was nowhere to be seen. His hospital had a seal on it and when we asked around, we were told that the authorities shut the hospital down because it did more harm than good.

　　After that, my dad's world crashed, because the money was a loan he collected and he'd been robbed of it.

　　We took Jace to another hospital later on, and from the X-ray we were shown, the hole in his heart got bigger due to the bad surgery the fake doctor had carried out on him.

　　My dad was killed about a month later and dumped in front of our house. My mom followed two months after from heart failure. After much findings, I discovered that my mom's heart failure was hereditary, and Jace had unfortunately inherited it from her.

　　After they were both buried, I moved to the room they once shared and while throwing out some of their stuff, I found my dad's old diary.

　　"Strange"

　　I thought then.

　　I never knew my dad had kept a record of his life. I sat on the floor as I flipped through the pages hoping why he was killed would be on one of the pages.

　　I flipped and flipped, his diary was more of his life laments, mistakes and sufferings. I continued flipping until I got to the page two pages away from the last day he wrote.

　　What he wrote was shocking...

　　" I found the boss's secret hideout

　　and begged for a loan. He agreed

　　to give it to me and he made me

　　promise to pay it back after a

　　month. I agreed. Well, I'd do any

　　thing to repair my son's failing heart."

　　That was it.

　　Wait!

　　Boss's secret hideout?

　　What does that mean?

　　My dad was a driver to this rich man I never met before.

　　I didn't even know anything about him, but why would a rich man have a secret hideout? From what I heard, he earned his money legally.

　　I flipped to the next page. I checked the date. Weird, my dad wrote this the following month.

　　" He sent his men after me. It must

　　be because of the money."

　　"By HE, did he mean his boss?" I thought before burying my eyes in the diary in my hands and continued reading once more.

　　" I don't know what to do .I don't

　　have any money to pay him

　　back. Jace isn't even healed yet.

　　I'm so worried and this weight is

　　crushing me so bad. I can't tell

　　Lucy though. She's keeping up

　　with a bad heart. I better find a

　　way to pay back the money."

　　So my dad's ex boss sent his men after my dad huh?

　　Who is THIS man?

　　He's definitely the person my dad borrowed Jace's surgery fee from.

　　This page points towards that.

　　Curious, I flipped to the next page, which was unfortunately the last page too. This one was written 5 days later after the one I just finished reading.

　　" He sent me a letter today... I mean

　　My boss. It was an invitation to the

　　Hideout. My debt deadline expired

　　Four days ago, and with an invite

　　to come over being sent to me,

　　I don't think I'm safe.

　　In fact, I don't want to go.

　　Today's making it three days since

　　I started hiding from him. Due to

　　this, I have no way of earning money

　　for our upkeep. Dear diary, tell me what to do... "

　　I paused.

　　I checked the date and traced it backwards to the three days ago he was talking about. Then realization hit me.

　　That was the day my dad started avoiding work! And when my mom would ask him, he'd always say he was off for that day.

　　I found it strange though, even though my mom never suspected anything. My dad was on LEAVE for a whole three days. Who on earth would give his driver a three days leave?

　　I glued my eye back on the diary and continued anyway.

　　" Anyway, what choice do I have?

　　I have to honor his invite, at least

　　To see if I can buy more time. I

　　can't just stay at home and watch

　　My family die of hunger. I'm going

　　To honor his invitation. I know its

　　Risky, but I'm putting my lucky

　　Charm on you dear Diary. You

　　know so much about me, things

　　That I can't tell Lucy because of

　　Her heart condition. I love my wife

　　And kids so much, I'm going out

　　To get a future for them.

　　Till I write on you again....

　　My dearest Diary."

　　When I read the last part of the diary, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. My dad sacrificed so much, a lot that he even risked his life for us.

　　Worse is that he didn't even have anyone to talk with, my mom's condition made it a bad idea to tell her anything sad, she'd have a high blood pressure and die immediately.

　　"Poor dad, he suffered a lot"

　　Remembering these, I felt my eyelid burn with tears as I stared down at Jace.

　　" Alexa?"