Wife for Hire

Chapter 3

The next morning I took my sweet time getting ready. I had Maxine cover my morning shift so that I could go talk to the mysterious men that had enough money to cover a little less than half of my mother's hospital bills in one envelope. I took out the business card that the first man gave me and walked downstairs out of my apartment building and hailed a cab to head over to the more fancy side of town.

His building wasn't what I thought it would look like at all. It still looked nice of course, but it was small and homey looking. I walked up to the door and went inside. The decorations in the lobby didn't seem like something a big lawyer like him would use to decorate his business. Maybe I was in the wrong place?

"How can I help you?" The secretary at the front desk asked. I walked over to her and tried my best to look like I knew what I was doing.

"I'm here to see Mr. Andrews, he left his card and told me to come by and see him if I needed to." She looked down at her computer.

"What's your name?" I gave her my name and she directed me to the chairs in the waiting area until Mr. Andrews was ready for me to come back to his office. This felt like a doctor visit honestly and I'd had enough of those. My mom was waiting for me at the hospital and watching her go through this was the most tiring thing, so I didn't have time for games like this.

"Ms. Winston." I stood at the sound of my name and walked back to where he was standing.

"Hi," I said as I got closer. He motioned for me to walk inside and closed the door behind me.

"What can I help you with this morning?" I sat the money on his desk and frowned at him.

"I don't know who you think I am, but I refuse to take your money. I don't know what kind of game you all are playing, but you can't just barge into someone's life and play jokes like this." I turned to leave, but he stopped me.

"We're not trying to play games. I was serious about hiring you, you'd only be working with him for a year or two and you'd get paid a substantial amount of money." I stopped and looked at him.

"Hired to do what?" I was just a small town girl with a diner job and no experience. Yeah, I graduated high school, but with my grades it's a surprise that I did at all.

"To be his wife." I stared at him trying to make sure I'd heard him correctly. He was looking at me the most serious face that I'd ever seen and I couldn't help but laugh. Full on, ab forming, tear falling laughter. It was the most I'd laughed in years.

"You're funny. It was nice meeting you and all, but I should head out." He took a deep breath and I waited for him to say what he had to say.

"He'll pay you 3 million dollars." I dropped my purse and I'm pretty sure my eyeballs and jaw had joined it.

"He'll do what now?" Mr. Andrews came around his desk and stood in front of me.

"You heard me. Million for marrying him and 2 million after you two divorce. It'll be in the contract and the divorce papers." He picked up my purse and handed it back to me. That couldn't be real, even if it was I couldn't do it. I wouldn't marry anyone any time soon because I had so much to focus on, I didn't have time to stop and date someone let alone get married.

"Why is he so desperate to get married? I'm sure any other girl would be willing to marry him for this much money, why me? Are y'all trying to sell me into sex trafficking? "I said backing away from him. Mr. Andrews laughed, what did he think I was joking? He shook his head and took out a post-it note and wrote something on it before handing it back to me.

"No, we're not trying to sell you into sex trafficking. If you change your mind, text this number and we'll get in touch with you." I took the post it note and stared at it. I was so confused as to why they were bugging me about this, if he had all this money he could easily find someone else to come in and marry him for his money, I barely even knew the guy. I shook my head and wished Mr.Andrews a good day before heading out and driving to work.