Name Your Price

Chapter 3! The Shoes!

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Flashback...

At a Youth Camp in the El Dorado Nature Centre in Los Angeles, USA, ten-year-old Kimberley Price came across a snake as she decided to take a stroll some few feet away from the camping site. Under the starry night sky, Kimberley thought she would only go around the camp until the impulse to pursue a firefly led her further away from the camp unknowingly.

A cobra was ready to attack her but suddenly reduced its momentum albeit on her blind side, making way for a slightly older adult boy to kill it with a stone to its head. With a start, Kimberley's knees gave way from fright and she was almost falling. Suddenly, she fell into an embrace so warm the young Kimberley couldn't help clutching onto the source of the warmth.

Then she heard a voice that soothed her nerves say "do you think you can walk? I don't mind carrying you back". Kimberley swore the voice sounded like music to her ears.
Too shy to lift her head, Kimberley hurried out of the person's embrace and managed a "thank you" while keeping her head lowered.

Through it all, she could only see the shoes on her saviour's feet. Said shoes became the genesis of Kimberley's current plight. Not that she currently understands what a blunder she made in her choice of shoe owner.
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At the same time, Kimberley couldn't keep her mind from wandering to the familiarity she felt upon the arrival of Jeremy Pope during their earlier meeting over dinner. It even got more heightened when she touched his hands in a moment of nervousness.

Kimberley raised her head and looked into the starry sky. It looks just like that fateful day thirteen years ago when he saved her from the venomous snake, but today she feels like her singular act of wandering away from the camp has caused her family's doom.

"Ariel! Oh, Ariel! How did you change so much? Your shoes were so familiar, yet your character seems so unfamiliar." Letting out a deep breath and speaking to no one in particular, Kimberley thought aloud "I can't run away from my responsibility when this mess was created by me can I?".

Meanwhile, at Oxford University Faculty of Law, a Nervous Milady Gaya couldn't keep her tears from running down her cheeks. Sitting limply on the tiled floor of her designated observation room, she could only cry her disappointment away.

After four years of tedious studies and an endless effort to excel, Milady was about to take another milestone in developing her career as a lawyer.

Submitting her current Case Study earns her the right to study under a renowned law Professor through an exchange programme with the Harvard Law School.

She gets to be paid an enviable monthly allowance, work with big shots in the Law industry and guaranteed placement in Billy's Chambers, the number one Law firm in the United States of America.

Being recognised as the number one student in the Law Faculty of Oxford University, Milady was confident enough that she would get a spot with all the said benefits even if she doesn't manage to emerge as the overall champion of 'Today's Law Genius challenge'.

'Today's Law Genius Challenge' happens to be a nationwide contest between final year undergraduate Law students who have dreams to further pursue a career in the Law profession. This contest was organized by the Washington DC-based Billy's Chambers and the London based Crawford Chambers.

Being number one from the Oxford School of Law, Milady was viewed as one who had already taken the number one spot with all the benefits it comes with. The remaining students realized they could only fight for the remaining spots.

The contest could allow the Oxford students to work with Billy's Chambers in the United States while, the Harvard students get to work with the Crawford Chambers, a place Milady Gaya would never get the chance to be.

Milady saw her well-planned life flash before her eyes and the despair growing in her heart was unimaginable. There was no one to turn to for the needed help as her family wished she didn't exist in the first place.

Milady regretted all her actions throughout the day as it was finally clear that everything that happened was a well thought out scheme to serve as a diversion to make her drop her guard against the other competitors.

The deal could have enabled her to move her younger brother away from the clutches of her father and his wife. Now everything is so messed up it doesn't seem like she can even take care of herself.

One name kept popping up in her mind in this moment of distress but Milady would never ask him for help even if it was the last thing to do.

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More Chapters Ahead ...
Hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing. All opinions are warmly welcomed.
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This is my very first published book so do grow with me.