Billionaire's Bargain: You belong to me

Adeline's Pov

After more than a year of sending resumes and knocking on closed doors, I finally had a job. It wasn't glamorous, but it felt like a lifeline-proof that maybe the tide was turning in my favour. I had no idea the same day would tear my world apart.

"Mom! Mom!" I screamed.

"Calm down Adeline and talk to me," she said, shaking her head.

Words always slip away from me whenever I'm happy or too sad. Right then, my chest heaved, my breaths shaky, like someone who had just run a marathon.

"I finally got a job," I exhaled, half-laughing. "It's not really nice but I love it." I twirled around her, giggling.

"I'm so proud of you," she smiled. "What's the job?"

"Just a job at a restaurant," I muttered, not really sure of how she would react.

Her face fell immediately

"Restaurant?" she repeated.

"Don't start, Mom. You can't expect everything to be successful overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. You have to start from somewhere."

"I know, but how much is the pay? You know how many debts we have, and you came in laughing like you'd won the lottery." She gave a short bitter laugh and shook her head. "All these years I've reminded you how lucky you were to be picked up off the street...now I'm not even sure whether you're still my good fortune or another burden."

The smile I'd been wearing was sliding off my face, I shook my head, the tears returned ten fold, an undeniable burn settled low in my stomach, something I haven't experienced in years.

I let out a shaky breath, "I know about the debts," I whispered. "I know you picked me up when nobody else wanted me. But do you have to remind me every single fine I try to breathe? Do you have to make me feel like I'm a mistake you regret?" My voice cracked and I blinked hard against my tears. "All I wanted was to come home with good news for once. Just this once."

Sometimes she acted as if she really cared about me and on other days she said things that are like poison on my skin. She didn't even know that her words were knives, piercing through me long after she'd thrown them.

"Don't make it look like I said anything that's a lie," she said and looked away.

A sudden knock on the door snapped me out of whatever thought I was drowning in. She wiped her palms on her skirt, walked closer, and opened the door.

"Hello, how may I help you?" she questioned.

I glanced toward the door, my heart still heavy from our exchange.

She stepped aside and a man stood by the doorway. My breath heaved, his jaw was chiseled like it had been carved from stone, his dark hair was a mass of soft curls that looked almost perfect to be real. Even the way he adjusted the cuff of his shirt was elegant, a small gesture that somehow made the expensive fabric mild to him as if it had been sown onto his skin. He wasn't just handsome; he was the kind of beautiful that made you forget every word on your tongue.

I knew I shouldn't be fantasizing about a stranger who had just shown up at our door, but I couldn't help it. The way he looked at me made my fingers tighten around the hem of my dress. I told myself to stop staring, but my eyes wouldn't listen.

His voice snapped me out of the twisted thoughts swirling in my head, ''I came to see you," he said, slipping his hands into his pockets.

My aunt gestured for him to come in and sit, and I stepped back, still trying to understand what was happening. Then I saw her expression change.

"Alex Muretti... are you the one?" she asked.

She grabbed her phone instantly and rose halfway from the chair before quickly sitting back down. "You...you're the one," she gasped.

What was going on? Why did my aunt seem to know him when I didn't? My gaze flicked from her to him.

"The owner of the RV Resort and Crown Stone Enterprise," she whispered.

He only nodded, as if my aunt's reaction were nothing out of the ordinary.

"Two years ago," Alex said, still sitting in our tiny living room. "You borrowed fifty million dollars from a loan shark and couldn't pay back. They threatened to kill your daughter in exchange. Then you were told that someone covered the debt for you. A few months later, you went back again-this time you borrowed three million dollars. And the same thing happened."

My brows lowered, what I just heard shocked me to my core, "What do you mean my mom borrowed that kind of money twice? Can you just stop lying?" I snapped. My voice trembled as I turned to my mom, "Mom... say something."

Her reaction almost made me believe the story he was spinning, but I still wanted to deny it because she'd never told me anything like that.

Alex reached into his briefcase and brought out an envelope, and then he placed a document across the table. My aunt picked it up, read the first page, and her eyes widened.

"Okay? Thank you for helping us," I whispered, looking from her to him.

He didn't blink, "I don't want your house, your money. I want Adeline. A marriage contract between the two of us."

Goosebumps scatter across my flesh, my mouth twitch. I hated that I had thought he was handsome, but right now I could only see a deranged ugly psychopath.

Men, they always ruined everything by opening their mouths.

"I know you have helped us and I am grateful, but...I'll pay you your money back," she blurted out.

"You can't just walk into my house and claim you want a marriage contract with my daughter. Who do you think you are?" she protested.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding. Why the hell did I even think she'd accept something like this? I knew she loved money a lot, but not by selling off her daughter.

"Two hundred million dollars," Alex said coldly. "I want her."

Dread formed in the pit of my stomach, what the hell does he think of himself?

"This isn't about the debt," he shrugged. "I don't save someone from drowning just to ask them to pay for the rope later. When I do a good deed, I don't expect a thank-you, and I am still the one offering a sum of two hundred million dollars."

He stood, straightened his jacket and placed a card on the table, "That has my number."

He glanced at me for a heartbeat and then he turned and walked out without another word.

My mom clutched the card with trembling fingers, and for the first time I saw tears gather in her eyes.

"We don't have a choice, Adeline," she whispered.

I exhale, the breath stuttering from my throat.