♡ THE ABSURD PROPOSAL ♡
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♡ MARIAN ♡
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"I can help you," I announced, forcing my face into the straightest, most serious expression I could manage.
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"You want to help me? How?"
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I could see a massive wave of confusion washing over him. He was probably wondering what the hell I was talking about right now. I knew the sudden outburst made absolutely no sense, but I was desperate. I would do anything to secure my life and make sure I wasn't dragged out of this room to my death.
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"I can give birth to your child."
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The withdrawal was immediate. The second those words left my mouth, his entire posture stiffened, and his eyebrows knitted tight in absolute bewilderment.
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"Good Lord! I'm not going to fuck a minor for my own selfish needs," he declared, looking completely disgusted by what I had just suggested.
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Suddenly, I was caught in a web of confusion of my own. Did this man seriously not hear me when I told him my age?
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"I'm not a minor," I defended hotly, taking a step forward. "I'm twenty!"
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Instead of arguing, he simply turned on his heel and began walking away. Panic flared in my chest, and I immediately ran after him. "I said it the first day I got here! I told you I was twenty!"
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He stopped dead in his tracks. Slowly, he turned around to face me. His expression was stoic, but a dangerous, annoyed edge flickered beneath the surface.
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"Did you get into the club with your ID, Marian?" The quiet calm in his deadly tone had me shivering on the spot. "Because if you had, you wouldn't have been captured, and you wouldn't be in this massive mess you're in right now."
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Well, at least he was talking to me. Usually, that man avoided me like a plague.
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I fell silent, shifting my weight and nervously picking at my fingernails while I waited for him to finish his sentence. But the silence stretched, and my filter completely failed me.
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"By the way, who said we were going to fuck? Sometimes I wonder if you're really as smart as you think you are," I muttered, shaking my head.
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The exact millisecond that slipped out, a wave of regret crashed over me.
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My hand flew to my mouth, but it was already too late. The words had fallen, heavy and insulting, into the quiet space between us. Had I just manually moved the time of my death forward because I couldn't keep my mouth shut and my tongue pinned to the roof of my mouth?
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Why was he so quiet? Better still, why wasn't he reacting violently to being insulted by a captive?
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"That's... that's not what I meant," I stuttered, quickly backpedaling as blood drained from my face. "I mean, you're... you're every girl's dream, obviously. But you're also a deadly person, so I wouldn't want to," I continued, trying to assert my point despite the pathetic fear creeping into my voice. "Maybe under normal circumstances, if we hadn't met this way or you weren't who you are, I would certainly jump at the chance."
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My rapid rambling only revealed exactly how terrified I really was. Damien was visibly irritated now. His jaw was clenched and his eyes narrowed, but for some unknown reason, he still didn't strike back.
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"Oh, genius. So, how?" he asked coldly. He didn't move any closer, simply assessing me from where he stood, as if he was reluctantly giving me the benefit of the doubt.
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I swallowed hard. I just needed something—anything—that could guarantee my safety and assure me that I wasn't going to die today.
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"Surrogacy," I concluded, the word hanging in the air. "You are influential. Getting an egg donor won't be a problem for someone with your resources. I'll carry and help with the baby, and in exchange, you'll allow me to go to school. My life and my entire future are in jeopardy right now, you should honestly take pity on me."
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I knew deep down he wasn't as completely heartless as his father.
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"I could..."
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"Marian?" He called coldly, stopping my sentence dead in its tracks. "I'll kill you the next time you talk to me like that," he concluded, his tone leaving absolutely no room for argument or negotiation.
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My breath hitched in my throat. I bit my lower lip hard to stop myself from saying another word.
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But I couldn't help it. The desperation was burning too hot inside me.
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"For God's sake, my birthday is just a little later than my peers, I turned twenty a week after I was brought here," I burst out. I knew I couldn't get what I wanted easily, so trying to find a compromise that benefited him was the only logical way out.
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Apart from just being kept alive, I needed other things. I needed a secure future. I needed a contract that would get me out of this place as quickly as possible. I needed to study medicine, the career I had tried so incredibly hard to reach. I had even stayed back a whole year in school just because of a stupid project I failed in grade twelve. I wasn't about to lose everything just because my sister happened to fall in love with a man like him.
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"You don't want to get involved with a girl anyway. And I need to take my finals. It's a win-win," I said firmly, trying my best to force a compromise. I was determined to survive this, no matter what the cost.
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"If I ever need a surrogate, you won't even be the thousandth option, Marian," he said, his expression completely neutral and unbothered.
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Damn. Did he really hate me that much?
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"Please don't kill me then," I whispered.
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He raised a single dark eyebrow, his lips twitching with dark irritation.
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"You told me to go get dressed right after your father came in here and put an ultimatum on my life. I'm not a chicken, Mr. Angelini. You shouldn't just think of slaughtering me like that."
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He never replied. He just stood there, letting me wallow in my own self-pity. Then, he turned his back on me, clearly done listening to anything I had to say.
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Seeing him walk away made me completely desperate.
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"I'll haunt this house if you kill me." I yelled at his retreating back. "I'll show up everywhere, I'll urge everybody in this mansion to go hang themselves, I won't go down easy, and I definitely won't go down alone!"
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He stopped. Slowly, he turned back around, a look of amusement playing on his face.
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To me, this wasn't anywhere near funny.
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"I'm not killing you. Yet."
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My eyes widened at his words. Slowly, my heaving chest began to settle. The hot blood that had rushed to my head in a panic was finally moving downward, and the massive headache disappeared as if a switch had been flipped.
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"Then... why are you asking me to get dressed?" I asked, completely thrown off balance.
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"To take you to the hospital," Damien replied smoothly, his eyes tracking my pale face. "Martini said you were not feeling well."
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Oh.
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and then Add to home screen.