My Billionaire First Love

Chapter 1: The end of everything. Whitney’s POV The shouting was what woke me up. A sharp broken sound that ripped that ripped through the quiet of the nightit was two in the morning . My parents never shouted in our house, problems were usually met with quiet sighs and worried whispers. But this was different. This was loud and scary. My stomach twisted into a tight knot. I pushed back my warm comforter and came out of the bed. The wooden floor was cool under my bare feet. I tiptoed to my bedroom door and pressed my ear against the door to listen. “We'll loose everything, Ami! Everything!” it was my dad’s voice,but it was rough and ragged ,a sound I’d never heard from him before. “The house, the cars,the business will be stain on our name!we'll have nothing!” There has to be another way! My mum cried out ,her voice choked with tears. “ we can't ask her to do that . It's not right!” Do what? My heart started to beat a crazy rhythm against my ribs. Ask who?Me? I had just finished college a month ago. I had come home to our small town,ready to figure out my life. I thought the hard part was over. What was this now!. I was supposed to be looking for a job,or maybe dating someone nice ,like my forever crush Tommy Blackwood. “I said there is no other way Ami!” my dad yelled, and I heard a loud thump like he had slammed his hand against the wall. I flinched,jumping back from the door. My whole body was trembling. “Charles Collins is the only one who can save us. He’s the only one with enough money to make this all go away. And his price…..his price is Whitney”dad said. The air left my lungs in a whoosh. Price? I wasn’t a piece of furniture! I wasn’t a car to be sold! I was a person! My name is Whitney Pastel a twenty-one years old girl. And I liked reading and sunny days and the smell of rain. I wasn't a price! I stumbled back from the door, my legs feeling like jelly. I collapsed onto the edge of my bed, hugging my knees to my chest. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like a heavy weight was sitting on my chest. Charles Collins? I knew that name. Everyone did. He was in the business sections of newspapers, a billionaire from New York City. He was way older than me,serious, and always looked angry in pictures. “How can I marry such a person?” I cried out. To be sold to him like a toy? This couldn’t be happening. This was a bad dream. I stayed like that for a long time, shaking until the house fell silent again. But the silence was even worse than the shouting. It was a scary, heavy silence. When the sun finally came up, filling my room with anatural brightness. I dragged myself out of bed. I got dressed slowly, my hands fumbling with the buttons on my shirt. I walked downstairs to the kitchen. The scene was all wrong. My mom was at the stove, making pancakes. The smell should have been comforting but it just made me feel sick. My dad was sitting at the table, reading the newspaper, but his hands were gripping it so tightly his knuckles were white. They were pretending. Pretending it was a normal morning. “Good morning sweetheart" mom said. Her voice was too bright, like a lightbulb about to blow out. Her eyes were red and puffy. I didn't answer. I just sat down at my place at the table and stared at the wood grain. My dad slowly folded the newspaper. He cleared his throat making a loud noise in the quiet kitchen. “Whitney…your mother and I….we need to talk to you about something important. I just stayed still staring at the table, I didn’t want to look at him. “This business…” he began, his voice shaky. “Its in big trouble. Very big trouble. I made some bad decisions. We owe people…a lot of money. More than you can imagine.” I finally looked up. My mom had turned away from the stove,her shoulders slumped. She was wiping her hands on her apron over and over again. “There’s a man,” my mom said softly, coming to sit next to me. She tried to take my hand but I pulled it away. She flinched. “A very powerful man from New York. Charles Collins. He’s…he’s offered to help us. To make all our money problems disappear. Forever.” I felt a cold dread trickle down my spine. “How?” I whispered, my voice barely audible. My dad looked down at his hands. He couldn’t meet my eyes. “In return…he wants to marry you” The world stopped. The clock on the wall stopped ticking. The birds outside stopped singing. Everything literally just froze. Marry him? The man from the newspapers? The angry old billionaire? “Stop!” Mum yelled “he's not old”. “He's eighteen years older than Mr how's that not old.” I yelled “No” I said,the word coming out as gasp. “No! You can’t be serious! I don’t even know him! I won’t do it!” “It's not a choice Whitney!” my dad said, his voice rising again, losing its fake calm. His face was pale and desperate. “It's the only way! He will pay all our debts and give us more money than we ever had!You’ll live in a huge penthouse in New York City!You’ll be rich!You’ll have everything!” “I don't want everything!”I shouted, standing up so fast my chair screeched against the floor and fell over with a crash. “I want my life! I want to choose who I love! I want to be happy! Don't you guys care atall what I want?” My father stood up too, his face hardening into something I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t a kind dad anymore. It was the face of a scared, trapped man. “Whitney, if you say no the bank takes this house in three weeks. They take the cars. Your mother’s jewelry. Everything Whitney.” And don't forget your sister who's education needs alot of money. “We will be living on the streets. Is that what you want? To see your mother and me homeless? Is it?” His words were like punches. I looked at my mom. She was crying silently, tears streaming down her face. She wasn’t arguing for me. She just stood there crying. Like she was helpless, or maybe she was. I felt the fight drain out of me. They had trapped me. There was no way out. If I said no, I would be dooming my whole family to poverty, and they would never forgive me. The guilt would crush me. But if I said yes, I would be dooming myself to a life I didn’t want. I felt like I was falling. Like the floor had disappeared from under me and I was tumbling down a deep, dark hole. I looked around the kitchen, at the familiar walls,the chipped cookie jar, the photo of me and my sister Clara on the fridge. It was all about to be gone. I was all alone . No one could save me. A single hot tear escaped rolling down my cheek. Then another. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to hold my broken pieces together. I took a shaky, ragged breath and whispered the words that i knew would end my life. “Okay. I'll do it.”