HIS BILLIONAIRE PROXY BRIDE

CH.8

Even before she got downstairs, Elise

could hear the strong voice of Mr. Anderson

raised in utter displeasure. She could not

hear what her parents were saying, but

even without hearing them, she knew that

they were trying to pacify him. It seemed

they succeeded in doing that because he

stopped shouting. Elise hurried toward

the study and put her ear to the door,

trying to hear what they were saying

inside the room.

"We can postpone the wedding though.

We'll find and convince her. I'm sure of it.

All this is just cold feet, which is not a

surprise considering the circumstances.

Once she calms down, she'll see a reason."

Elise heard her mother say.

"I don't have the time or the patience for

that. It was difficult enough convincing

Bryce to agree to this in the first

place. He'll gladly back out of the whole

thing if he finds out that his bride has

absconded. Are you absolutely sure that

your daughter has run away?"

"Yes. She left a note for us."

"Well, in that case, I'm afraid that there is

nothing I can do to help you again. You've

failed in upholding your end of the

bargain and worse still, you've managed

to utterly disgrace my nephew and me in

front of our family."

"No, no. It hasn't come to that yet. There is

a solution to everything. We have another

daughter, Elise. You met her yesterday.

She'll marry your nephew." Carolina said

hurriedly.

Elise tried, but could not stifle the gasp

that escaped her when she heard her

mother say that. What sort of mother just

promised to give out her children in

marriage to a stranger all because he was rich?

"Like hell, Ill get married to him." She

thought to herself, wondering if she

should just go inside and give her mother

a piece of her mind, but paused at the

next words that came out of the mouth of

Mr. Anderson.

"That was not the agreement. Don't get

me wrong. Your other daughter is

beautiful, but she was not the one we

discussed. She's not lively at all, unlike

Sandra who is more outspoken and

cheerful. You remember that my plan is to get a wife for my nephew, who is more

like a son to me so that she can help him

get out of his depression."

"No, no, Elise is lively and cheerful one

she gets to know you." Donald put in.

"Okay. Let's say that I agree. How on earth

are you going to get her to agree? After

all, you told me yourself that she has been

trying to persuade her sister to get out of

the marriage. Real foolish girl, that one.

My Bryce is the best husband anyone

could ever ask for.

"I'll convince her. You don't have to worry

about that at all."

"Ill be leaving now to get Bryce to the

church. Make sure your daughter is there.

and make sure that she understands what

is expected of her. If she's able to succeed,

then she'll get the rewards that her sister

would have gotten. We have just about an hour for the bride to show up at the

church for the wedding, so if you can't do

it, let me know now so that I can just let

everyone know that the wedding has been called off. Also, if you're not able to

convince her, then you know what

happens." The last statement was clearly a threat. Elise heard footsteps approaching the door and quickly moved some paces away so that it would appear as though,she was just coming towards the study.

The door opened and Mr. Anderson came out

of the study, followed closely by Donald.

Mr. Anderson did not show any surprise at finding her there. Instead, his eyes had a knowing look that caused a faint blush to stain her cheeks and caused her to avert a gaze after mumbling a greeting to him. He knew that she had been eavesdropping.

"How are you, my dear?" He asked,

patting her hand as he passed by with her

father hurrying after him. It was no

surprise that her parents were afraid of

him. The man had an aura that

commanded respect.

Elise watched them until they

disappeared out of sight and then turned

toward the study to find her mother

standing by the door and looking at her

appraisingly.

"You were eavesdropping. Come on in

then. We need to talk."

Elise followed her into the gracefully

furnished study and sat down in one of

the comfortable armchairs by the

fireplace as she waited for her mother to

speak. She was not going to make this

easy for her.

"Um, how much did you hear?"

"Just that I'm to be a substitute bride to

the most reluctant of husbands there is."

"Bryce is going through some things.

That is why he is the way he is. Usually,

though, he is the nicest and most

down-to-earth billionaire that anyone will

ever meet, or at least that I've ever met."

"I take it then that you've met many

billionaires."

A taint blush stained Carolina's cheek, but

she ignored Elise's statement.

"So, your sister's wedding dress is still in

her room. It is already prepared, so you

just have to wear it. Ill do your makeup as

I was to do for your sister."

Elise burst into fully bellied laughter at

this, laughing until tears were streaming

from her eyes.

"What's so funny?"

"You really expect me to go and put on my

sister's wedding dress and then go and

get married to her fiancée?"

"We do not have any other choice. This is

our last option, As a matter of fact, we ar

extremely lucky that Mr. Anderson is even

considering it at alI. If only you knew the

number of girls who would give up their

left kidneys to marry Bryce. He's one

of the most eligible bachelors in this

country, you know."

"Well. I'm not one of them." Elise said in

anger.

"Please, Elise. Let's not fight about this.

Like you told Sandra before, you can

always get out of the marriage if you find

that you do not like it, although I don't see

how that is possible. Bryce is

everything that a woman wants in a man,

once you get to know him, or so I'm told.

I've met him before though, and he was

the most charming gentleman I ever met."

"I want to know why I or Sandra should

be getting married to this man in the first

place. What hold has he got over you and

dad to make him demand such a thing

and make you guys willing to accept it?

At this point, her father came into the

room and sat down in the armchair facing her. For the first time since all this

started, he spoke in calm, sure tones.

"Elise I hope you know that your mother

and I would never do anything to

jeopardize you or your sister's well-being

or future. Before we take any decisions, I

want you to know that whatever you

decide will be fine by me, and I'm ready to

face the consequences of my actions."

"Dad. You're scaring me. What is going

on? Are you in any sort of trouble?

"I've made a lot of bad decisions, and

they've come back to haunt me. Okay here goes. I'll start from the very beginning.

"Ralph and I used to live in the same

street back then and used to be best of

friends." Donald began, speaking fast.

"We were both very ambitious and wanted to make money fast, so we did a lot of things which, looking back, I can't say that I'm proud of. We began to drift apart

when I saw that he was peddling drugs so he could make more money. By the time I got into the university, we were no longer friends. In fact, I did not know anything

about him. We met years later after I had

married your mother. I had a gambling

problem that had me owing millions of

dollars and I sold the company to clear the

debt. However, I ran up more debt after

that and owed a huge sum of money. I

pleaded with Ralph, who by this time was

Swimming in money to lend me the money to pay my debt because the people whom I

owed were after my life. He lent me the

money, but I've not been able to pay it

back."

"So Sandra and I are to be used in

helping settle your debt? How nice and

fatherly of you. Where was mom when all

this of this was happening?

"I was too ashamed to let her know any of it, so I just kept it from her."

"Well, I see what Sandra meant when she

said that she refused to be the sacrificial

lamb for you guys. If I were you, I would

look for other means of paying the money,

because I am not going to marry

anybody to settle any debt for you."

"It's okay, dear. I would never force you to

do that against your wish. I just thought

that it was worth a try,"

Elise absolutely devastated herself for the guilt that came over her at this. It was not

her fault. None of this was, so why did she

feel bad about it? If it was something else,

maybe she would have considered it, but

this was too much.

"So what is he going to do if you tell him

that you don't have the money?"

"I'm going to go to prison, which I really

don't mind if that was all there was to it

but the company would go down too., and all those people would lose their jobs."

"He wouldn't dare!" Elise exclaimed

indignantly.

"Actually, he would do more than dare."

Carolina put in quickly. "That's still not all

of it. According to him, we are no longer

safe. In his own words, 'my associates are not happy about this, and I can't tell what they would do to you and your family."

"What? What associates?"

Well, he wasn't the only one who lent me

the money. Some of his fellow drug

dealers did too. Ralph no longer deals

drugs, but he still has ties with that

former life. He says those people are not

happy at all and he has been the one

persuading them to hold back." Donald

said.

"So how does my marrying his nephew

solve anything."

"He's going to pay up my debt if you do

that."

"What?! He's going to pay up millions of

dollars for you and all I have to do is just

marry his nephew? That shows how

terrible his nephew must be for him to be

considering this, not to talk of the

horrible life I'm going to live if I go

through with this."

"On the contrary, you're going to be well

taken care of if you go through with this. I think he has a sort of hold over Bryce

too to make him want to go through with

this, but I don't know what it is. Bryce

is a nice man."

"Didn't seem like it."

Time is going, Donald." Carolina cut in

urgently. We have to get going now."

"He's just going to have to give you some

more time for you to get the money. I can't

do this. Sorry." Elise said, meaning it.

"They have your Uncle James and they are

torturing him. They sent us his ten fingers in a bag early this week, promised to send

his tongue by next week, and then his

head the week after that. If I still don't

come up with the money, they'll take

Sandra and then you, and then your

mother. I'll be the last one." Her father

informed her in a tortured tone.

"Jesus Christ!" Elise exclaimed, her blood

going cold. "They have James?" James was their

father's younger brother, who was very

close to both girls as they were somewhat close in age. He was a surprise baby and

was only seven years older than Elise

"Yes. I have nightmares about it every

day. They're starving him too, and sent me a picture of him looking like a skeleton."

He proceeded to show her a picture of her uncle on his phone. Tears sprang to her eyes immediately at the sight of him, eventhough he looked barely recognizable. He

was shirtless and was held in what looked

like a dungeon. He was also bound with

chains and handcuffs, with blood

dripping from his hands from where they

removed his fingers. His face was swollen

beyond recognition, but she knew he was

the one nonetheless. The torture in his

right eye which was not yet swollen shut

like the left one was unbearable for any

human with a working heart to stare at

for too long. So she quickly averted her

gaze, wiping at her eyes.

"There's also a video, but I can't show that to you. I could not even watch it myself."

Donald said as he wiped at his tears too.

"I heard something about a contract.

What's it about?" Elise asked quietly, all

the fight leaving her immediately. She

could not let anything bad happen to James.

"It's the contract of the marriage and

what is expected of you if you get married to him. Now, I would never entrust any of you to such a family, but if there is one

thing I know, it is that Ralph is a man of

his word. He has assured me that

Bryce has nothing to do with that

kind of life, which is something everyone

knows. Ralph just wants to see his

nephew settled and happy."

"What a nice way to go about it," Elise

commented drily, her mind still disturbed

by the picture of James that she had seen.

There was no question of going to the

police as it would only worsen everything,

"He is going to pay off the debt

immediately after the wedding and then

tell his friends to release James, Also, if after one year and six months, you and

Bryce do not want the marriage, you

are free to walk."

Does Bryce know about any all of this:

"I don't know if he knows."

"I'm not doing this for any of you. I'm

doing it for poor James who is suffering for what he doesn't know about, and trust me, a year and six months from now, I'm

breaking out of this bondage." Elise

spat at her parents.

"Thank you, Elise. I'm really sorry

about all of this and if I were the only one

to suffer for it, I would gladly do so."

Donald began to say.

"I'll go take my bath." Elise cut in

angrily. She could not even look him in

the face. She got up and looked at the wall clock. They had thirty minutes to get to from their house. There would be no time for her to do more than take her bath, get into Sandra's wedding clothes, and go to the church, but that was okay as there

was nothing festive about this shame of a wedding. Her mother hovered around,

trying to make light of things, but Elise

ignored her.

"You look so lovely,". Carolina said, fussing with the wedding dress, which although beautiful and expensive looking, was not

Elise s size at all. She was shorter than

Sandra, so the dress was too long and

pooled at her feet. Also, she was a little

fatter than her sister, so she could hardly

breathe in the dress.

"let's just get this over and done with."

Elise said wearily, heading for the door

without bothering about her makeup.