Chapter 2 - THE UNPAYABLE DEBT
The silence that followed Adrian’s threat was suffocating. Vivienne stared at her fiancé, looking for any sign of a joke, but Adrian’s face was carved from granite. She glanced at Helena—the poor, unassuming girl clad in a stained server's uniform—and felt a wave of toxic hatred wash over her.
“You’re choosing her?” Vivienne spat, her voice trembling with embarrassment. “You’re throwing away our wedding, our merger, for a nobody?”
“She isn't a nobody,” Adrian answered quietly. “She is the only reason I am breathing today.”
Vivienne turned on her heel and stormed out, slamming the carved oak doors behind her so hard the crystal sconces rattled. Helena swallowed hard, feeling the immense weight of what had just transpired. By tomorrow morning, the news would spread through the high-society tabloids like wildfire: Billionaire Adrian Falkner breaks engagement over a waitress.
“You shouldn't have done that,” Helena whispered, her voice shaking. “You’ve destroyed your own life for a ghost. I’m not anyone special, Mr. Falkner. I’m just a woman working three shifts a day to keep my mother alive in the cardiac unit at St. Jude’s.”
At the mention of her mother, Adrian’s eyes sharpened. “Your mother... Eleanor Vance?”
Helena blinked, shocked. “How do you know my mother’s name?”
Adrian didn't answer immediately. He walked toward the massive glass windows overlooking his estate, his hands buried deep in his trousers pockets. “The night of the riverboat explosion, my father was on board. He survived because your mother shoved him out of the burning cabin before the roof caved in. Eleanor was our family’s head housekeeper back then. But after the fire, my father fired her without a pension, erased her records, and swore me to silence. He claimed she was responsible for the accident.”
Tears welled in Helena’s eyes as decades of pain made sudden, cruel sense. “That’s why we were forced into poverty. That’s why my mother spent twenty years working in sweatshops until her heart gave out! Your father framed her to cover up his own negligence!”
“Yes,” Adrian admitted, turning back to face her, his eyes dark with remorse. “My father lied to protect the Falkner brand. He spent his entire life building an empire on top of your mother’s sacrifice. But he is dead now. And I am in charge.”
Adrian walked back to Helena, taking her trembling hands in his. “Your mother’s medical bills will be settled within the hour. She will be transferred to the top private wing, with the world’s leading cardiologists flown in tonight. You will never set foot in a server’s uniform again.”
“I don't want your pity money,” Helena said, trying to pull her hands away, though her strength was fading under the weight of exhaustion.
“It isn't pity,” Adrian repeated, his thumb gently brushing over her knuckles. “It is justice. But if you want to save your mother’s life, you have to agree to one condition.”
May you like
Helena braced herself. “What condition?”
“Vivienne’s family will destroy you if you leave this mansion alone tonight,” Adrian said grimly. “They control the city’s media and the hospital boards. To protect you, to give you the leverage to fight back, you must pretend to be my new fiancée.”
