Chapter 23: No Other Options

"Why did you have to involve Malissa? She’s as clueless as a child…" Hayden said with a sigh.

"This is the way she’s chosen to pay off her parent’s debt. It’s that simple," the boss replied coldly.

"You mean this was the path you forced on her…" Hayden spat.

"Would you rather, I auction off her body parts in the underground market instead? Or put her on auction so that some old geezer could purchase her as his personal sex slave? Would that even cover the debt, I wonder…probably not" the boss said with an amused smile on his face.

"You’re a sick bastard…" Hayden hissed; his eyes wild with anger.

"I don’t care how you see me, Hayden. I have my responsibilities and you have yours! Marry her, sleep with her, impregnate her and give me an heir already!" the boss shouted once again.

"What the fuck are you saying? Do you even hear yourself right now?" Hayden said in disbelief at what he was hearing.

"What’s the problem? If you don’t like the order of my proposal, you can sleep with her before you marry her. Like hell if I care. Although, I don’t think you can impregnate her without having sex with her…haha. You gotta do it the natural way, my boy…" the boss said with a smug smile.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"You’re the one who doesn’t get it. I can screw her until she breaks, and I’ll still feel no love for her. I can fuck her until she goes crazy but that doesn’t mean that you’ll end up getting your heir. I will say it again, I don’t want to take over this business and I’m not going to breed anyone else to take it over after me," Hayden said loud and clear.

"Stop being so selfish, Hayden. I wouldn’t have you either if I had other options. Unfortunately, for both you and me, there is no other option," his father stated, his tone dark.

"You can’t use that girl to tie me down to the business…" Hayden said calmly.

"We’ll see about that…" his father replied with a shrug.

The two men stared at each other intensely without backing down. Until a soft knock on the door broke the tension in the room. The boss sighed loudly as he turned away from his son. Before the door could open, Hayden pulled it open with a loud slam before storming out of his father’s office.

"Come in. Why the hell are you just standing there?!" the boss screamed at the man who had just knocked on the door.

It was apparent to the man that whatever the boss was discussing with his son did not go well and now he was about to bear the brunt of the boss’s anger.

…

I woke up the next day with a slight headache and an obvious ache in between my legs. Every time I moved, the ache in between my legs reminded me of Hayden and how he caressed and pleasured my body.

27 days left. Hang in there, Malissa!

After what happened last night with Hayden, it became even more obvious that I have to avoid him. To survive the next 27 days, I need to implement the "Avoid Hayden Like the Plague" plan. I need to avoid him at all opportunities possible and limit the time I spent with him and our interactions.

This morning is a good time to start. I pushed my thoughts and memories of my passionate tryst with Hayden last night out of my mind as I told myself to focus on the present and the future instead of the past. Same as the day before, I quickly made something for him in the kitchen and placed it on the dining table.

Just as I had expected, I didn’t run into Hayden at all that morning before I left the penthouse. As usual, I went to the hospital to visit my grandmother. The difference was that starting today, I would be working on my painting of grandmother.

"Good morning, granny," I said cheerily when I popped my head into her hospital room.

"Lisa…you’re here again today," grandma said before smiling lovingly at me.

"Of course, I’m here. I miss you," I replied.

"You don’t have to drop by every single day. I’m sure you’ve got many things to do," she said with concern.

I smiled at her because I didn’t want to lie to her. The truth was since the mafia breaking into our store and I ended up here, I haven’t attended university. Since it was my final year, there wasn’t a lot of classes that I had to attend because most were course work where I had to hand in pieces of art of various projects.

I had been focusing on making sure that I did not miss the deadline for those because it would definitely delay my graduation.

I didn’t want to worry my dear granny unnecessarily, so I didn’t tell her any of this. I hoped that once the situation was resolved after a month’s time, everything could go back to normal. Grandma was sick so unnecessary stress wouldn’t be good for her health.

"Actually, university is quite chill now. I do have to hand in some projects, though," I replied vaguely.

"What do you plan to do today? You’ve got so much stuff with you," My grandma asked pointing to the aisle, paper and other art supplies that my bodyguards helped carry into the room for me.

"I told you yesterday, didn’t I? I’ll be waiting a portrait of you so I’ve brought some materials today so that we can start off by doing some sketching" I explained.

"Sketching? You mean, you’ll sketch me?" she asked, curiously.

"Yup. My plan is to sketch a couple of sketches of you in different poses and different facial expressions and we can choose which one you would prefer for me to paint. How about it?" I said as I smiled proudly at her.

"I see. Ok, that sounds good. Let’s follow your plan," my grandmother said with a nervous laugh.

Although I tried to sketch my grandmother just as I had planned, it wasn’t as easy as I had thought, and the main problem was my own lack of concentration. I just couldn’t concentrate like I normally could. When I looked down at the white paper of the sketch book in front of me, my mind would start to wander. Unfortunately, whenever my mind wandered it always ended up on one person: Hayden.

I couldn’t stop thinking of Hayden for the whole day. I felt my face heat up at the thought of Hayden and all the naughty things he did to me last night in the theatre room. I hoped that no one heard my loud cries and moans. The fact that I showed that side of myself to Hayden was embarrassing enough already.

--To be continued…