Her Travails

Four

ERIKA'S PoV

I woke up dizzy in a brightly lit room, my vision was hazy as I struggled to remember the events of the previous nights. Like déjà vu, I started to recall working

Backwards from the time when I met the kind man that stopped my homeowner from harassing me, having quite a few shots of tequila, and then Thomas and his snake of a wife, Katherine.

Those cruel, evil, twisted people, they humiliated me and made me beg at their feet.I cried and begged, but to no avail. They simply enjoyed punishing me. Remembering my pain brought tears to my eyes, but I quickly blinked them back, trying to figure out where I was and who had brought me there.

I was soon spared the trouble, as a very tall, blue-eyed man made his way towards the bed, where I was laid among soft sheets.

"You're awake love..., how are you doing now?" he asked, peering at me, looking at me concerning

I was immediately startled and tried to attack him, but there was only so much I could do as he was much stronger than me, his hard chest barely feeling the force of my feeble blows. Rather than being hurt, he seemed amused.

"What do you want from me? Who are you, why have you brought me here?", I bombarded him with a myriad of questions.

"Be calm, I won't hurt you. I just wanted to know what a beautiful woman like you was doing in such a dangerous place at that time of the night...and why were you drinking so much? Are you troubled?"

"Oh no.. Where's my daughter?" I suddenly remembered my folly.I left my daughter alone at the daycare, as I had not gone there to take her since the previous night. I just hoped they hadn't given my daughter away to social services.

"Calm down Erika, your daughter is safe, and she is soundly asleep."

"How do you know my name? What do you want from me?"

"I pulled some strings, and I did some research, and I want a wife."

At the mention of the word wife, my heart trembled with fear, remembering the pain Thomas and his father put me through.

"I found you at the bar last night. You were drinking yourself into a stupor. I wondered what could make you that depressed, and then a group of men came to bundle you out, saying that you owed your homeowner some money and since you couldn't afford it, they came to take you".

"So did they sell me to you?"

"Not at all, I merely paid them off, and decided to take you to my house. I asked around, and I found out that you lost your job, where you worked as a cleaner?"

"You are a migrant from Mexico, you and your daughter, even though you are both illegal immigrants."

I frowned at those words, it was true that I didn't have enough money to process the legal documents, and that was why I had to settle for menial jobs most of the time, because I couldn't go to welfare services given I was staying there illegally.

"Calm down, Erika, I'm Jordan Scott, and I want to help you.."

"Jordan Scott?,THE Jordan Scott?"

I had heard of the famous multimillionaire on TV and seen him in a couple of magazines.

"Erika, I have a proposal for you, and I want you to please consider it. I have limited time."

"What might that be?"

"I want you to marry me, Erika. I know we have just met, but I'm in a fix. I want to follow my childhood dream of being a politician, but one of the major hindrances is the fact that I do not have a wife."

"You don't have to love me, or cook or clean or bear me children as a matter of fact," he continued, "I just want a wife that I can present to the world. It's merely contractual."

"What's in it for me?"

"Ten million dollars."

My eyes widened in shock. Did I hear right? Such a huge amount of money...

Snapping out of my daze, I asked,"and how long is this contract supposed to last?"

"Five years, after which you are free to go wherever you want...besides the money, I would give you a house of your own, sponsor Maya's education and open a trust fund for her."

I was seriously in doubt of his words, we'd only just met, and he was willing to go that far for me, simply to be his wife on pen and paper. I had been through too much in my previous life to believe that someone, anyone, could do something like that without having any ulterior motives.

"If I were to accept, I have my own terms and conditions"

"Let's hear them"

"I don't want to be sexually involved with you anyway, and my daughter stays away from the cameras and the paparazzi"

"I agree, Erika, so will you be my wife?"

Well, being a multimillionaire wife isn't the worst thing that could happen to someone that has been through as much as I had.

"Okay, I will be your wife."

Jordan's PoV

I struggled to keep a straight face even though I was bursting with joy. This marriage wasn't contractual for me, I had fallen for this woman, but any relationship between us would be on her own terms.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I am sure... When will the wedding take place? I don't have any family members to inform or friends to invite though, so it could be something small."

I chuckled inwardly, she was beautiful, noticing my distraction, she called me back to the present.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?"

"Nothing babe...sorry, I mean Erika, I don't want a wedding, there's no time, we'd sign the contract tomorrow morning, and then I'd present you to the world at the MET gala later in the evening."

"The MET gala?"

"Yes, have you ever been?"

Like Allison, she had been to the MET gala twice with her parents, and she went once with Thomas. It was one of the biggest events in the world. Celebrities of high calibers from all walks of life attended the event, dressed splendidly according to the theme and of the year's event. She couldn't tell Jordan all these things though, as even he didn't know that she had lived a previous life.

"No I haven't, but I have heard of it. I do not have any nice clothes to wear, and as it's tomorrow, it's too short a time limit to buy or make anything now."

I laughed inwardly again, this lady before me underestimated the extent of my power.

I made a phone call, and immediately one of the best celebrity designers in New York offered to not only design her dress for the gala, but also other dresses for any important events we might have to attend for the next six months.

I told Erika, and she was dumbfounded, she had been through a lot. I silently made a vow to protect her, as well as provide for her. So she never had to suffer at the hands of anyone ever again.

"Let's go and check on Maya now, shall we?"