"Hey, over here!" A worker yelled,
"I'm on my way!" Jason yelled back as he scooted over to the worker to serve him his lunch,
"What took you so long?" The worker asked harshly as he snatched his lunch from Jason's hands
"I'm sorry sir," Jason replied with his head bent.
"Keep your apologies to yourself." The worker proceeded to stack dirty plates in Jason's hands. "Take these away."
"Yes sir!"
"Hey! What's taking you so long? Bring my lunch here, I'm starving!" Another worker yelled,
"Just a minute!" Jason yelled as he tried to evade the people walking around in the lunchroom. He planned to find a suitable place to drop the plates and then continue serving lunch but everything seemed to go sideways when he crashed into a female worker, splashing oil all over her.
"Ahhhh!!!!" She yelled in rage, "Now you've ruined my suit!! Do you have any idea how much this suit costs?"
"I'm sorry.." Jason tried to apologize but...
SLAP!
"Shut up! Just shut up and get out of my sight. I'll make sure the money for my suit is deducted from your paycheck. Fool!" She spat fiercely, as Jason clumsily packed the plates on the floor and rushed out of the room as if his life depended on it.
He didn't have the confidence to tell her that he had no paycheck, the company belonged to his father-in-law and he was working for free because of an incident with his brother-in-law that happened in the past.
'How did my life come to this?' Jason asked himself, as he was sitting quietly in the company kitchen, his cheek still smarting from the slap that he had received from the lady.
He touched it gingerly and winced from the pain, 'Such a strong lady...'
A few months ago, he had been managing a meager job in a small company when the company suddenly went bankrupt.
A few weeks later, he was very shocked when a strange man brazenly accused him of leaking confidential documents of the company that led to its liquidation.
He tried to defend himself but no one believed him despite the lack of evidence because they were so desperate to pin the blame on someone. Jason was taxed to pay the entire amount of money that was lost due to the liquidation. This was a whooping two million dollars. At that time, Jason could barely afford to feed himself and pay his mother's hospital bills, talk more of paying two million dollars., so his accuser had to make him sign a marriage contract with his only sister so that Jason would work free for their company till the two million dollars had been completely paid off, while his sister– Jason's new wife would pay his mother's hospital bills.
That agreement was what landed him where he was, poor and hopeless.
Bzzzz! Bzzzz!
His phone's vibration sound brought him back to reality. He hadn't even noticed that a tear had escaped his eye while he was reminiscing over his pathetic life.
He looked at the caller ID and sighed sadly, it was the hospital.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Smith?" The nurse's voice didn't sound friendly at all, Jason knew they were about to make a demand.
"Yes?"
"Why haven't you paid your mother's bills yet? We can't continue treatment if you don't pay those bills..."
"Wait, wait, what do you mean I haven't paid my mother's bills?" Jason's brows were deeply crumpled as he took in the news, "My wife is the one supposed to pay the bills, that was our agreement!"
"Well, obviously she hasn't!" The nurse snapped at him, "If you know what you'll do to get that money, you better do it because the longer your mother remains untreated, the more dangerous it becomes for her health. So much for a man."
Jason winced as the harsh words of the nurse landed in his ears and the next thing he heard was a beep indicating that the call had been disconnected. He sighed sadly.
'What do I do now?' he thought to himself, 'I have no other source of income apart from the other small side jobs that I do but those aren't enough to pay my mother's bills. At this point, I think I have no other choice but to meet my wife and beg her for some money... Yes, that's what I'll do.'
The Hara Family Mansion,
10 PM
A very fair and beautiful lady sat before a mirror in her nightdress as she combed her long and glossy black hair. From the well-groomed texture of her hair to the luxurious interior decoration of the room, one could tell that the lady– Amara belonged to a rich family.
Knock! Knock!
She frowned slightly at the sound of the knocks on her huge mahogany door and turned towards it.
'Who could be coming to disturb me by this time of the night?' she thought spitefully but instead of voicing out her thoughts, she cooed affectionately, "Who's there?"
There was a brief silence before the person spoke. "It's me, Jason, please open up, there's something I wanna talk to you about."
On hearing the voice, she groaned loud enough for him to hear and rolled her eyes. "What do you want? I'm not in the mood to talk."
"I know... But it's really important, please let me in."
"Alright come in, but be quick with it, I need to have my beauty sleep." She snapped and returned her attention to the mirror.
Jason gently opened the door and walked in, carefully shutting the door behind him. He could see her eyeing him from the mirror but he didn't pay any mind to her, he coughed and started, "Amara why..."
"Wait a minute..." She looked up fiercely,
"Huh?" He retorted, looking at her in confusion, 'what did I say wrong?' he thought,
"How many times have I told you to not call me Amara? Do you think that I'll take that insult from a low life like you just because I'm your wife?" Jason could sense the disgust in her tone when she pronounced that last word.
"I'm sorry..." Jason apologized but she raised an eyebrow at him till he added 'my lady' and she gestured at him to continue.
"Why haven't you paid my mother's hospital bills yet?" Jason asked directly without beating around the bush,
Before Amara could answer, Jason heard a flushing sound from the bathroom, and Lady Gwen, Amara's mother stepped out. Water dripped from her body which was barely covered with a white towel.
Jason's eyes widened in fear, he didn't know that she was in the room, because if he did, he wouldn't have even attempted to come. The woman treated him worse than Amara did.
"Did I hear you right?" She asked, her voice containing even more scorn than Amara's. "Since when did it become my daughter's responsibility to take care of your mother? Aren't you even ashamed of yourself? You're relying on a woman to help you save your mother? Never in my life have I seen a man as useless and shameless as you are! Get out of my sight right now before I call the guards!"
"But...but the agreement said..." Jason tried to explain,
"Fuck what the agreement said!" Gwen snapped, "Are you deaf or do you need a slap to help your ears hear that I want you out of this room?"
"No, I'm sorry my lady, I'll be taking my leave now.." Jason said with his head bowed, his eyes burning with unshed tears of anger and shame.
Amara chuckled mirthlessly and stopped him. "Wait, Mom, no need to send him off like that, I need him for something."
"What exactly do you need such a useless man for?" Gwen said as she sat on Amara's king-size bed that could comfortably accommodate six people, "If it's to wash the dishes then I have better servants who can do that."
"No, no, it's nothing like that," Amara replied without taking her eyes off the mirror.
"You need money for your mother's bills, right?" She asked, turning to Jason.
"Y..yes." he was a bit wary, she wasn't about to give him this money without asking for something else in return.
"I can give you the money but you'll have to do something for me in return," she said while smiling sweetly, "do you think you can?"
Jason paused, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes for a moment. At this point, he could try to kill a lion barehanded, if it would give him money to foot his mother's bills.
"Yes." He replied,
"Very good, now here's what you'll do for me..." Amara proceeded to give Jason his assignment.
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