Billion Dollar Lies

It was past midnight, and the relentless sound of rain lashing against the large glass window was the only thing breaking the silence of the office. Submerged in her black leather chair, she stared at the papers of her latest case with an eerie calmness. Her work as a "Fixer" had taught her that people’s deepest secrets always crawl out in the darkness of the night, and that fear is the ultimate motivator for the wealthy to pay exorbitant fortunes just to bury their scandals. Suddenly, the heavy wooden door burst open, and a man in his mid-forties rushed into the room. He was panting heavily, water dripping from his drenched coat, creating dark puddles on the floor. His face was pale and his eyes were wide with sheer terror; he kept glancing behind him as if death itself was hunting him down, despite his powerful build that hinted at his own influence. "Please... you have to help me!" he stammered, stepping toward her desk and placing his trembling hands on the wood. "They found out... if those documents don't disappear before morning, I’ll spend the rest of my life behind bars! They told me you’re the only one who can make any disaster vanish." Not a single hair on her head stirred. She looked at the raindrops sliding down his forehead, then raised her eyes with cold indifference and said, "Mr. Bijan, I believed we agreed on a meeting tomorrow. A Fixer does not work under pressure and panic... Sit down and compose yourself." "There is no time for tomorrow!" he panicked, pulling a damp leather envelope from his inner coat pocket and shoving it toward her. "Take this... everything is in here. Take whatever amount you want, just save me!" Before she could stretch her hand to touch the envelope, something happened that made the blood freeze in the panicked client's veins. The sound of luxurious Italian shoes, stepping with confident, calm, and terrifying strides, echoed through the outer hallway. It wasn't the footsteps of someone running away; it was the tread of someone who owned the place and everyone in it. This time, the door opened slowly, and a figure entered whose sheer dominance completely suffocated the air in the room. Arvin stood there, in his flawless black suit that hadn't been touched by a single drop of rain. His features were like a marble statue; painfully handsome, and terrifyingly cruel. Behind him stood his massive bodyguard, holding a closed black umbrella. Arvin didn’t even glance at the trembling client. Instead, he locked his razor-sharp gaze directly onto her. His deep, cold voice sliced through the silence: "I hate waiting... and I hate finding insects in my way." The moment his eyes fell on Arvin's face, the client, Bijan, stumbled back two steps, shaking as if he had just stared into the eyes of his own demise. "M-Mr... Mr. Arvin?!" Arvin gave a barely noticeable nod to his bodyguard. Within seconds, the guard stepped forward, grabbed Bijan by the arm with absolute, crushing force, and dragged him out of the office, slamming the door behind them—leaving the damp leather envelope sitting alone on the desk. Arvin walked with measured steps toward the desk. He pulled out the chair opposite to hers and sat down, leaning forward slightly, trapping her within his piercing dark eyes. "Now, that we’ve cleared the clutter... let’s get down to our business." She leaned back in her chair. Her heart rate accelerated slightly from the sheer weight of his overwhelming presence, but her face remained as expressionless as a sheet of ice. She smiled faintly and said, "Mr. Arvin... breaking into people's offices and kicking out their clients isn't exactly the best way to start a business relationship." Arvin pulled a contract from his coat and placed it right over the damp envelope. He spoke with absolute coldness, "I don't ask. I take what I want. The figure written in this contract buys your office, buys the client who just left, and buys you too for one full year... I need you to be my fake fiancé." She looked down at the astronomical numbers written on the paper... A billion dollars. She raised her eyes to meet his challenge, a confident smile playing on her lips. "A very high price for a lie, Mr. Arvin... Consider the game officially started."