A CONTRACT TO FORSAKE MY SEAT

FINAL NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE. I stared at the heavy, block letters until the edges began to blur in my eyes, my fingernails digging into the oak of my grandmother’s old desk. “How on earth will I fix this up within three days,”. I murmured,with my eyes still fixed at the sentence. just seventy two hours is all I have, Oh no, I need to do something before it becomes too late. That was all the time I had left, before the bank seized Grand view hotel, and sold it off. And that’s the only home I had. Two point five million dollars, a huge amount of debt that had piled up during my grandmother’s final, grueling years of illness. She had tried to hide it from me, covering her fear in warm smiles. She had only wanted to protect me, Instead, she had left me stuck in depth. "I'm sorry, Gran," I whispered to the empty room. My voice sounded so loud , because of the silence there. I left the paper back to the desk and covered my face with my hands, as tears ran down my jaw. For six months, I had fought so hard to keep this place intact. I had fired the staff and taken over everything myself, working twenty-hours daily, because there was no money to pay workers. Now I realize that passion and hard work couldn't pay off a pending corporate loan. The Grand view wasn't just a building, to me,It was a legacy, full of memories of the woman who had raised me. Losing it felt like letting her die a second time. My phone rang on the desk,I was uncertain of who it was, so I stared at the screen. “Marcus Thorne of First National Bank”. I let it ring, seeing the name of the caller, I already knew what wanted, he would say, It’s just business, Miss Vance, a prime piece of coastal real estate is wasted on a hotel operation. You should be glad we’re taking it off your hands. The phone stopped ringing, and the silence was back in,worse than before. I pushed my chair back, stood up and walked over to the small wet bar in the corner of the room. I didn't drink, but my hands were shaking so badly that I couldn’t control myself, I just stood there still thinking, then a knock came. Before I could answer, the door swung open. It was Bexley Quinn, she just stood at the doorway, "You didn't answer your phone," Bexley said, her voice slow and breathless. "I'm ignoring the bank," I muttered, "Thorne wants to gloat. I'm not giving him a chance ." Bexley kicked the door shut behind her,then she smiled, It was a fake smile. I could see it, then moved towards the desk, where I had dropped the foreclosure notice, but she kept her eyes straight, pretending not to have seen the notice. "Thorne isn't calling to gloat," she said, walking towards me. She unzipped her jacket, reached into the inner pocket,then pulled out a manila folder. She slapped it down directly on top of the foreclosure notice. "He's calling because he's panicked. The deal is moving faster than he thought ." I frowned, stepping away from where I stood. "What deal? The bank is foreclosing and auctioning the property. That's the end of it." "That's what they told you," Bexley countered, her eyes widening. "But banks don't rush a foreclosure of this size unless there's a guaranteed buyer already." A shiver ran through my whole body, I moved to the desk and flipped the folder open. Inside were printed sheets of encrypted emails, bank routing numbers, and a heavily redacted blueprint. "What exactly is this all about Bex?" "That’s a corporate takeover disguised as a tragic bankruptcy," she said calmly and continued, "I spent the last four hours going through Thorne's private server. The bank isn't auctioning the Coral Grand, Zariyah. They've already sold it out behind the door. The moment your seventy-two hours are up, bulldozers are coming to demolish this building to make way for a luxury high-rise casino." No that can’t be, how would they do that without my concern , i said almost crying with my heart beating so fast . Turning towards Bex and asked “are they really gonna tear it down?" Of course zariyah but… Bex responded as she patted me on my back trying to keep calm. I interrupted “Bex pls don’t tell me this, you know I can’t stand and see the only thing my grandma had left, going down, is there anything I can do,? I didn’t even wait for her response, the sadness that had overwhelmed me vanished instantly, I wiped my eyes and looked straight into her eyes. "Who?" I asked, my voice dropping almost to a whisper. "Who bought it?" "A shell company," Bexley said, tapping the paper. "But I traced the shell company to a subsidiary, and that subsidiary traces back to the elite. The Sterling Empire." I froze, The name hit my heart like a blow. Everyone in Australia knew the Sterlings. They were royalty, untouchable billionaires who owned half the shipping routes and real estate in the country. They were ruthless, aristocratic, and would crush anything that stood in their way. "Why would the Sterlings want my hotel?" I asked,with my hands shaking . "Because of the location, but that doesn't matter right now," Bexley said, leaning on the desk, grabbing my forearms to force me to look at her. "What matters is that you have a way, a very little opportunity to stop this." "How? They have billions. I have a negative two million. I don't have the power to stop Sterling." "No,but you can make a deal with one," Bexley said. She reached into her pocket again and pulled out a thick envelope, and slid it across the desk. It was heavy, embossed with gold foil. I picked it up, my fingers brushing the raised lettering. “The Sterling Foundation Annual Charity Gala. Tonight”. "I lifted this off a low-level executive who owes me a favor," Bexley said, her voice tight with urgency. "Every major player in the city will be there tonight. Including the man who actually has the power to pull strings and kill the casino project with a single phone call. The heir himself." I stared at the invitation. The paper felt like a live wire in my hands. "Kaelen Sterling?." "Yes," Bexley slowly said . "He’s going to be there tonight, and he's currently in the middle of a negotiable situation with his own family, over control of the company. If you can get into that gala, if you can get him alone in a room..." "What?" I laughed, tell me you're not serious. "You want him to help me? No You can’t really say that, no that’s totally a bad idea and you know that men like Kaelen Sterling can’t even hear me out, even for a second." "He will, yes he will listen to you," Bexley said softly, her eyes locking onto mine. "You just need to negotiate,luckily I found something on his private server. Something he is desperately trying to hide from the press and his grandfather, it’s his weakness." My eyes widened in surprise as I heard the word, ‘weakness’ What? What weakness are you talking about, I murmured. I looked down at the gold lettering on the invitation, then back to the foreclosure notice stained in red ink. And asked again "What is his weakness, Bexley?" Bexley hesitated,and for the first time since I'd known her, she looked really afraid. "He needs a wife," she whispered. "By midnight tonight. Or he loses the entire empire." Hmmmm