Chapter 3

A Total stranger

The following morning, Maven jumped off the bed the moment she opened her eyes and found a strange man sleeping on her bed.

“Who the hell are you?” she asked him as panic engrossed her entire body. She hit him countless times until he got up and screamed too.

‘Who are you?” she asked again.

“I’m Thomas”. He answered her calmly, wiping the remaining sleep from his eyes.

"Thomas, or whatever you call yourself, how did you get on my bed?” She asked, and then she looked around and realized she was in a different room from hers.

“Wait, how did I get here?’ She sulked and panicked.

“You were drunk, so I brought you here, Maven. I didn’t know your home, and you didn’t tell me, so I thought to bring you here’. He answered her politely. 

“Why am I naked? Where are my clothes?”. She asked the questions all at once.

“Calm down. You had too much to drink last night, so you threw up on your clothes. They should be dried now." He answered her, and she suddenly felt something cold between her legs. She looked down and saw some red patching on her skin and some on the white bedding.

“Wait! Did we…?” She asked with her eyes broadened in shock.

“Yes, we did. It was already late when I realized it was your first time. I am sorry." He said it to her.

“How could you do this to me?" She threw the pillows on the bed at him and wrapped the comforter around her body.

“I’m sorry, but you grabbed me and begged me.”.

“I was drunk; did you not see that? Arrgh!!” she fused, but then there was nothing she could do. “You know what? Just get lost. I don’t ever want to see you  again." She said this to him while holding her head with one hand.

“What was she going to do now? She had planned to break it on her wedding night. Grandma had boasted to the Garcia’s how she raised the most decent girls in town, and she has been forced to marry Sabastian so that family ties and business can continue.

The idiot has a loud mouth; if she gets married to him, the entire world will find out she was never innocent like her grandma had claimed, and that could make her lose her share of the family fortune her father left her. Thomas, on the other hand, has too many problems to think of, and having a night with a total stranger helped him ease the stress. 

She had asked him to leave her alone, so he has no option but to do as she has instructed, but what would happen to his grandmother? He grabbed his shirt and wore it quickly, and just as he got halfway to the door, she called him back.

“Wait! Please, Thomas,  wait." She spoke in a sharp voice. Thomas turned to meet her sharp blue eyes.

“You asked me to leave." He reminded her.

“Yes, I did, but I am sorry. I mean, I am in shock, and I can’t believe I broke my innocence with a total stranger.

“Please marry me." She proposed to him instantly.

“What? This is crazy; we have barely met, and in less than twenty-four hours, you want me to be your husband. That’s insane”. Thomas spoke in protest of her decision.

"Look, I haven’t told you I needed a wife, so if you do not mind, let me go. I am only a poor and wretched young man trying to make ends meet. My grandpa is crippled, and my grandma is lying down in the hospital with a kidney disease. She needs a transplant as soon as possible, and that is the reason I was out last night to look for jobs. I can work extra time to raise the money for her dialysis." He informed her.

“My grandma wants me to marry a man I do not have any iota of feelings for, and she thinks I am still a virgin. Now that my innocence is gone, marrying Sabastian is just a waste of time. The entire nation would hear I am not as decent as I claimed to  be." She said.

“How does making me your husband solve the problem at hand?” Thomas asked her with a shoulder shrug.

“Grandma would have no choice but to let me be your wife, but we would have to sign this for only a few years. Let’s say three years and six months. By that time, grandma will pass me all my fortune, and you shall have twenty percent of it." She proposed.

“Twenty percent of your inheritance?” he asked her with widened eyes.

“Yes! twenty percent. You should know what a twenty percent fortune share from a Walton would be.”

“You mean Walton of Walton’s Group of Companies? I didn’t see that coming." Thomas blinks repeatedly.

“Yes, Walton, you know what that means, right?”

“Of course, I do know what that means." Thomas replied, licking his cracked lips at the lucrative business offer. A small chuckle escaped his lips as he looked at the lady he had been with all through the night. In his heart, he thought, “This is my lucky day; the universe has finally smiled down on me." He grinned foolishly.

“So, Mr. Stranger, what do you say?”.

“I will be your husband, but you would help me with my grandma’s medical bills; that’s the only thing you can do for me for now. I do not want my grandma to die; she’s all I have in this world." He explained.

“Don’t worry, I would speak to my grandma to give me part of my fortune so you could sort out that bill.”

“Are you sure she can give that amount of money? Eighty thousand dollars for a kidney transplant isn’t a  joke." Thomas panicked.

“We will sort that out by tomorrow. But first I need to see your grandma, and then tomorrow morning we could go see mine, and then I would ask her for the money before we go to the local registry to get married." Maven suggested, and Thomas, because he was eager to save his grandmother’s life, agreed, nodding in approval. 

“Here is some money; you can get yourself some food and a haircut; you can’t come to my grandma’s house looking like an overgrown clown." She said that and shoved the dollar notes into his hands.

“10 a.m. prompt: don’t be late." Maven informed him.

Meanwhile, the moment Thomas got out of the hotel, a thick voice barked his name in order.

“Thomas Miller, freeze!”

Thomas stopped on his tracks immediately when he realized guns were now being pointed at him.

“Your hands are in the air." Another order came, and he did as instructed.

“Sir, please, I have no money. My mother is sick.” He tried to explain but got a harsh scolding in return.

“Shut the hell up!” A thicker voice barked behind him, and before anyone could know it, they grabbed him.

“Are these assassins from George?” he questioned himself in his mind.

Don’t kill me." He begged and pleaded.

“Shut the hell up, you moron; you are coming with us; it’s an order from our boss, and if you try to restrict us, orders have been given to end your life." They threatened him. At this point, a chilled cold ran from the tip of Thomas' head to his feet. His hands began to tremble.

“I am my grandma’s only help, please." He begged and pleaded.

“Shut up!!!” The next thing he saw was a blindfold placed over his eyes, and then they shoved him aggressively into the car. The car reeved and scratched its wheels against the road. He sat stocked in between the two men with his eyes tied. The car zoomed and whizzed off, and for about thirty minutes, all he could pick out were the honks from cars passing.

In forty-five minutes, the car stopped. They led him out into a room and quickly untied his eyes. Thomas saw an old man smiling at him from his electrical wheelchair. He was nicely dressed in an expensive suit, but he is disabled. The house was a huge, exclusive white mansion with lovely chandeliers—the type Thomas only sees in movies.

"Oh, my son, it’s so good to see you, Thomas Al Thani." The old man spoke.