The Contracted Wife

Chapter 1

Aoife paced back and forth in the small dimly lit room, she could feel the bile rising in her throat as the seconds dragged on. Her mind kept flashing back to her brother, Tavish, if he knew what she was about to do he would absolutely murder her. He was the one that always pushed himself overboard to make sure that bills were paid and they had enough to make ends meet, after his accident Aoife struggled with the medical bills because Tavish’s health insurance was stopped since he wasn’t working and his job let him go. She took out loan after loan to try and cover the expenses and even worked three part time jobs on top of trying to finish her last year of college at the beginning of his coma when they had told her that they were hopeful that he would wake up soon. Now, three years later and even with her crappy medical insurance she still couldn’t afford the loan payments, her monthly expenses, and the medical bills that still poured in like a steady rain.

She wished that her parents had thought more about their children if something had ever happened to them because when they both passed away in a car accident they left Tavish and Aoife virtually penniless. Tavish had switched out of full time college and did all of his classes part time in his senior year to take care of her while she finished her freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school. Tavish was seven years older than her and he was always there for her when she needed him, and now that she was the one that needed to be there for him she was drowning.

Aoife looked at the clock it was fifteen of six, she took a deep breath and let out a shaky sigh, at six o’clock the auction would begin and she absolutely couldn’t turn back now because the money that was paid for her would go toward her mountain of debt and towards her brothers’ never ending hospital bills.

“God, Tav is going to kill me when he finds out what I have to do.” She turned and went to go look in the small mirror that was in the room, her long red hair hung just above her waist in loose wavy curls and her large gray eyes looked bloodshot from lack of sleep. She glanced down at herself in the mirror at the outfit that was chosen for her by the company, it was a long white dress that was tailored to fit her every curve and accentuate her body in all of the right places and drive a man wild with lust.

A knock on the door startled her “Yes?” she wasn’t even sure if her quiet voice was audible to the person on the other side if the door.

“Miss Campbell, we are ready for you to head to the stage now.” The auctioneers assistant’s voice came from behind the heavy wooden door and Aoife could feel the color drain from her face as she walked toward the door and slowly pulled it open and stepped out into the brightly lit hallway and followed the small woman down the hall towards the large double doors at the end of the hallway.

“Our next lovely young lady is just about ready to come to the stage,” Aoife’s hands shook as she heard the auctioneers’ voice boom over the sound system as the doors swung open to the far side of the stage that was hidden by the curtain. She saw his face turn towards the doors as she walked through them and made her way closer to the edge of the heavy curtain “Let’s please give a warm welcome to Miss Aoife Campbell!” She heard her name and a large round of clapping started as the auctioneer waved for her to come stand next to the podium.

Slowly she made her way toward the center of the stage and as she did she was acutely aware of how form fitting her dress was, as she stood next to the podium she couldn’t help but fidget with her hands anxiously as the auctioneer began to talk again “Miss Campbell is a lovely twenty-seven year old woman with gorgeous long red hair, light gray eyes, she has her bachelors degree in hotel management. Miss Campbell currently works for the Quinn Hotel chain as the Seattle chain’s second shift Assistant Manager, she has an older brother and in her spare time she volunteers at the local animal shelter. Let’s start the bidding for Miss Campbell at one-hundred thousand dollars!”

Aoife saw the paddles raise in a flash bringing the current bid to four-hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, as the auctioneer began the count to close the bidding a loud voice rang out from the back of the large room “nine-hundred thousand dollars!” the room went silent and everyone could hear Aoife’s breath catch. Aoife’s mind began to race, her debt and the medical bills for her brother only totaled to four-hundred thousand dollars, that gentleman in the back of the room was severely over bidding for her.

The auctioneer cleared his throat and began to count “ONE! TWO!” everyone in the audience was murmuring about how much money that was and how no-one could out bid that high of amount and Aoife began trembling as the counting came to a close “Last chance.. Sold to participant 17!” The auctioneer motioned for Aoife to walk to the left side of the stage where the rest of the women that had gone before her were waiting.

Aoife couldn’t focus on anything else, her mind was racing with what had just happened. That extra money was going to be more than enough to pay any other medical bills that came up for Tavish and she may even be able to get him that surgery he desperately needed that would hopefully help wake him back up again. However, there was the matter of who exactly was the person that had spent nine-hundred thousand dollars on her and a pit began to form in the middle of her stomach as she faintly heard the auctioneer wrap up the event by directing all of those that had bid to pay at the cashier window and his assistant would bring the correct woman out to them.

“Ladies, come with me please.” the voice of the auctioneer’s assistant broke Aoife out of her thoughts and brought her back to reality. The woman were ushered back into a room next to the cashier window where the participants stood and waited in line for their turn to pay. Aoife sat in the chair she was directed to and stared at her hands while she nervously twirled her fingers around each other.

Slowly other the women were called out until she was sitting alone in the room for what seemed like an eternity, finally she heard the door knob turn and the door slowly opened “Miss Campbell, please come with me.” She looked up towards the doorway and standing up she slowly walked towards the woman while her whole body trembled.

Standing next to the cashier window was an average sized middle aged man with salt and pepper colored hair wearing a suit, Aoife was directed towards him and he held out one of his hands to the assistant who handed him Aoifes’ suitcase. “Good evening Ma’am, my name is Malcom. My boss sends his apologies but he left earlier at the close of the auction so that he could have things ready for you at the mansion.” Malcom gave her a small smile and directed her to the exit of the building and there was a small black limousine waiting for them. Malcom opened the door to the limousine for her and made sure that she was situated before closing the door and placing her suitcase into the trunk before he proceeded to the drivers door and they departed off towards their destination.