Chapter 3 Everything will get better

• Isabella's pov;
• "Can we go, mam?" The driver directed me to the car to get inside.
• When the driver tried to open the door for me, I stopped him while saying, "It's fine. I can do it on my own."
• "It's my job, mam." He opened the door and stood beside the car door like a guy standing outside the castle in fairytales.
• I stepped into the car and he closed the door behind me softly. He got in the driver's seat and started driving the car.
• After some minutes, I broke the silence and asked, "Is your boss rich?"
• "Yes, mam. He is."
• "What does he do to make money?"
• "He's the CEO of Skyland Corporation, mam."
• CEO??? That explains a lot! Even though I haven't heard about his company, it does sound rich.
• The car stopped and when I was about to open the door, the driver rushed and opened the door before me.
• I got out of the car and looked at the house in front of me. Actually, I shouldn't refer to it as a house. It looked more like a mansion. This morning when I tried to flee from the house, I didn't take a look at how big the house was. Now, when I'm looking at it, it was enormous.
• One of the guys from the house came running to me and said, "Our master is waiting for your arrival, mam. Let's get inside."
• Master? Pfft!
• I nodded and followed him inside the house.
• When I entered the house, the tiles looked vibrant, and were reflecting something from above. When I raised my head above to find out what it was. There was a chandelier above me hanging majestically. I was in awe when I looked at it. It was my first time to see something like this in person because I've only seen it in the television shop when they display advertisements about this.
• "Shall we go in, mam?"
• That snapped me back to reality. I followed him inside. He led me to a big room where the weird guy was sitting and another guy wearing glasses was standing beside him talking with that weird guy.
• I walked in and headed towards him.
• "I knew you would come."
• I let out a sigh and sat on the couch opposite to him and asked, "What do you want with me?"
• The guy who was standing handed me some papers and asked me to look into it.
• When I read it, it looked like some medical information about someone.
• "Who's this?"
• "It's mine."
• Yeah. Until now I didn't know this weird guy's name. I looked at it again and checked the patient's name.
• "Alexander Mar… Marti…"
• "It's Alexander Martinez. You should address me as Mr Martinez."
• "You said something about holding hands in school but why am I looking at your medical report?"
• He let out a sigh and signalled the guy beside him to talk. He stepped forward and pointed something in the report.
• When I looked at it, "Hae...Hae… hae pha…"
• The guy wearing glasses said, "Haphephobia. It means one who has this phobia has fear of touch or being touched."
• "What does it have to do with me?"
• "When you held Mr Martinez's hand, he didn't have that phobia. Your touch didn't do anything to him."
• I looked at Mr Martinez and asked, "So what are you trying to do here?"
• Mr Martinez instructed the guy beside me again. He took a paper from his file and gave it to me.
• Mr Martinez said, "Read it."
• When I looked at the paper, there was bold headline - 'CONTRACT AGREEMENT'
• "Contract???"
• "Read it fully."
• I started reading what's in the paper.
• So subject A refers to him and subject B refers to me. There was a set of rules to follow and there were also some benefits. I ignored the rules and read the benefits section.
• 'Subject B should report on every Tuesday and Thursday in a week. Subject B gets 100$ for every minute until Subject A falls asleep.'
• "For every minute?? Are you kidding me? Is this a prank or something?"
• "Whatever mentioned in the contract is true, mam." The guy standing next to me said.
• I let out a chuckle and said, "I must be lucky then." Continued reading the contract.
• "And don't forget to read the termination condition, mam."
• "Termination condition?" I looked in the contract and read what he said.
• 'If Subject B fails to execute the task and responsibilities outlined here, Subject A may terminate this contract at any time and without any prior notice. Failing the task, subject B should provide ten million dollars as compensation to Subject A."
• My eyes almost popped up, "TEN MILLION DOLLARS??"
• "Only if you breach the contract."
• Is the people who live here are all stupid and dumb?
• "Um… do you really need a written contract?"
• "If you want money, go on and sign it. If you don't want to, you can leave. I'm not forcing you here and I don't want to do it that way."
• What should I do now? Should I sign this and take money or should I reject and flee from this place?
• I thought about my mother… After my drunken father left, mom's the one who's taking care of me. Without a steady income, mom suffered a lot. I'm studying with the help of a scholarship which I got playing my sport volleyball. Even though I cut half of her worries about my fees for education, she started being desperate to earn money which led her to buy lottery tickets. Soon she got addicted to it and bought a lot of tickets whenever she came home after work. My mom started receiving loan money since the money wasn't enough for us to live. The debts started growing up on the other side.
• Even though I need money, I can't sign this contract and get stuck in this money revolving world like my mom. I can't do this.
• I stood from where I was seated and said, "Sorry, I can't sign this. I'm leaving."
• I turned and started walking out of the room. When I tried to step out, I heard him saying,
• "I'll give you twenty four hours to think about this."
• I didn't look back and made my way out of the house.
• The butler said, "Are we leaving, mam?"
• "I'll take the bus."
• I ignored him and walked out of the compound and came to the street. While walking to the bus terminal, I was thinking about the thing that just happened a while ago. We shouldn't trust rich people so easily, They're not trustworthy people, that was the thing mom said to me every time when we went out.
• When I went near my house, the lights were off. I think mom hasn't come yet. I opened the door and walked in and closed the door behind me. After switching on the lights, I removed my school uniform and changed into home clothes. I opened the windows and checked for my mom. I couldn't see her anywhere so I walked to the stove and boiled some instant noodles in water to eat before setting the timer.
• While the noodles were boiling, I picked my school bag and took my notebook out to do my homework. While I was halfway to finish my homework, I heard the timer go off. I stood from my place and turned off the stove and took the noodles along with the hot pan while holding the handle with cloth and placed it beside me and sat on the table. I finished my homework while slurping down the noodles on the other side.
• I kept my notebook back into my bag and made things ready for school tomorrow.
• I heard knocking on the door. I think it's mom. I walked to the door and opened the door to find that it's not my mom but an unknown guy and there were two other guys with him too.
• "Where's your mom?" The guy who knocked on my door asked me.
• "She's not home yet. Why are you asking about my mom? Who are you guys?"
• One of the guys came forward and said, "Your mom owes us money, dear."
• I couldn't say another word since I know what I'm facing here.
• "When will she come?"
• "I-I don't know."
• "Does she keep any money in the house?"
• "What?"
• They barged inside the house and walked around the house saying, "Do you call this a house?" Laughed and continued, "It's not even as big as a public restroom."
• Another guy asked, "Where is your father? When will he come?"
• "I don't have a father."
• "What do you mean that you don't have a father?"
• He walked closer to me. I moved back as he was approaching me. I couldn't step back since there was a wall behind me. He placed his hands on either side of me and pinned me to the wall saying, "How old are you?"
• I turned my head to the other side and said, "L-Let go off me… let me go…"
• The other guy said, "Hey, what are you doing with that girl?"
• The guy who's in front of me took his hands and walked to him saying, "I was just teasing her."
• The three guys waited and left after saying, "If your mom comes home, inform her that we'll be coming here again tomorrow."
• I closed the door and dropped on the floor sobbing thinking about what just happened now.
• Without my knowledge, I slept and woke up to the banging sound of the door.
• I got scared thinking who might be this time. I looked through the window and found it to be mom. I wiped the tears off my face and opened the door for her.
• "Did you eat dinner?" She walked in carrying something in her hand.
• I took that from her hand and kept it on the table and informed that some guys came looking for her and they'll be here tomorrow as well.
• "I'll take care of it. Um... What did you eat for dinner?"
• "Instant noodles."
• "How many times have I said to you not to eat that? It's not good for your health. Okay. Come on. Eat this."
• "I don't feel like eating, mom."
• She opened the bag and took some boxes and kept on the table saying, "Come and have a look. I bought your favourite today."
• I walked to her and checked what's in the box, "Chicken nuggets!"
• "They were selling while I was on the way, I know you'll like it that's why I bought it for you."
• "Is it good for my health, mom?"
• She flicked on my forehead and said, "Actually, Favourites are excluded from that category." Which made me laugh.
• "Did you finish your homework?"
• I nodded and started eating the chicken nuggets from the boxes.
• After we finished eating, we went to sleep. If I sign the contract, I'll get more money. With that amount, I bet we can settle all of the debts we're having right now. Yes. I'm going to sign the contract.
• At Alexander Martinez house,
• "I know you'll come back."
• After finishing school, I came straight to his house.
• His assistant gave me the contract to sign. I looked at the contract and remembered what happened yesterday at home. Those guys. My mom. Without my knowledge, tears started rolling down my cheeks. I wiped my tears off my cheeks.
• I let out a sigh and took my pen and wrote my name on it and signed and put a date on it and gave it to him saying, "When should I come?"
• "Why did you cry?"
• "N-Nothing."
• Mr Martinez looked at the guy beside him and asked, "Why did she cry? What happened?"
• "I think she's thinking about the matter which happened yesterday, Sir."
• "What happened yesterday?"
• "When I went to her place, I saw three guys coming out of her house, sir. They looked like bad guys. I assure you that those guys won't come after receiving punches from me. I let go of them when they pleaded that they won't go hereafter."
• I stood in surprise and asked, "What did you just say?... Did you just say you beat those guys?"
• He nodded which made me run to him and hugged him while saying, "Thank you so much. I'll never forget this."
• I heard Mr Martinez coughing which made me break the hug from the assistant.
• I asked the assistant, "What is your name? I never heard your name."
• He looked stunned after I hugged him. I chuckled and asked for his name again.
• "N-Noah Johnson."
• "Noah. I like your name, Noah."
• Mr Martinez said, "Done with the introduction? Come sit here."
• "Is he always like that?" I whispered to Noah.
• Noah signalled me to sit like Mr Martinez said.
• I sat in front of Mr Martinez again and asked happily, "When should I start my work?"
• "Do as in the contract."
• "Okay, Sir." I stood from the place and said, "Then I'll take my leave, Sir." which made Noah chuckle.
• "See you, Noah."
• He smiled at me and waved a little while I was leaving.
• When i stepped out of the house, I thought 'Our debts will be over, mom."