When I advanced to the villa, I noticed my feet couldn’t carry me further. The splendor that hung across the mansion overwhelmed me so much that I deemed myself not worthy to be found anywhere around it; not even its flowers and ornamental trees which looked healthier than me.

I quickly distinguished myself from smearing the expensive environment with my poverty countenance.

Expectedly I came to a halt once I caught sight of uniformed band of security men, all well-suited with strong facial features, who asked me a thousand questions with their hostile faces and hefty chests.

My entire body vibrated as I folded my arms in anticipation of what they intended to do now they surged close to me.

One of them stared at me from head to toe, and must have perceived the wretchedness that encompassed around me; I perceived they were bored of seeing the scraggly faces of the poor hounding the villa all in the name of sourcing for the billionaire’s help.

Noticing one of the securities prancing towards my direction, my nose wrinkled before I came to a halt, lowered my gaze and pressed my trembling hands in front of me.

“Who the hell are you? Did you miss your way?” he queried and his face scowled irritatingly at me before his jaw clenched.

I believed my scraggly auburn hair, dried scaly feet, and torn off-the-shoulders dress must have turned him off. I couldn’t have looked better than that.

Thankful enough he wasn’t much close to me, my body odor would have taught him a lesson, after repelling him.

I bowed my head, fondled with my finger in shame and was mysteriously dumbfounded and bewildered.

“Speak, you dirty looking thing!” another barked at me like a mad dog, almost at the tops of his voice. He gave me a dirty look and almost forced words out of my mouth with those dark, brooding eyes of his that flashed at me.

I had flinched, and trembled under his groaning and about returning to my sick mother. Having contemplated inwardly that this was a lost course and not able to convince them with my timidity to see reasons I was at the villa, I turned to take my leave.

While trudging away under the heaviness of my burden I heard a still voice.

“Hold on, young girl!”

That was the next command that pierced into my heart. All eyes came upon Opula as she cat walked down the staircase looking dashing and charismatic in her customized Italian gown, with piles of diamond bracelet round her neck and wrists. Flamboyance hung over her. Her hair was golden brown and long to her slender neck. She was towering and curvaceous; exactly like that of kiss-it models I often saw on billboards in Rio Rondo. A party of maidens flanked around her

Her presence alone courted respect and affluence as I noticed the security bow to her.

She stood, gawked at me from head to toe and shook her head in confirmation.

“Take this young girl to the chambers. Make her look beautiful and presentable before my father now,” she commanded the host of maidens that accompanied her.

“What is happening? What did she just say? Just like that! Did anybody tell her of my visit or what?” I queried inwardly.

What could be happening to me?

Those words of hers seared my countenance that I thought I had committed a sacrilege by bringing my scruffy, wretched looking self to the home of the richest billionaire in Rio Hondo.

But my thought was disappointed. The maidens advanced to me with smiling faces and decorum.

Salsa, who happened to be the chief maiden directed me and led me away into the same villa. I was still lost. I wanted to ask the reason everyone was genuflecting and greeting me as I made into my chamber.

They made sure every of Opula’s words was carried out to the latter.

Not only was I given a warm bath, they took their ample time to decorate me and adorn me in an exquisite Turkish grown that I might never afford in my time or in my generation yet to come.

“Please, what is happening? Why are you doing all this to me? I am not supposed to be here in the first place, let alone being handled as a princess.” I nagged with caution while they invested their time to wear off the poverty on my body.

Nobody gave an answer. All they did was smile and keep to their duty.

I wanted to protest yet further but their smiles made me look stupid. I was radically beautiful as well, when I appeared before the mirror.

I was led away into the largest, most decorated mainstream sitting room I have never seen.

Everything that hovered around my eyes was gold and diamond. I perceived I was in the major sitting room.

In less than few minutes, a handsome, white-bearded, luxuriously dressed man in his late forties walked in being flanked about by gorgeous looking ladies including Opula.

I perceived the man was Fanny Luis and the ladies were his daughters.

All the maidens and security genuflected and greeted them duly.

I bowed my face in shyness and lost in what was about to take place.

“Isn’t she beautiful father?” Opula queried and turned her gaze to the man.

It was then I knew I was standing before the famous billionaire in Rio Hondo, Fanny Luis himself.

I stood star-struck, frozen within myself as he walked around and admired me, inspecting me from head to toes and nodding gratefully.

“She is superbly beautiful for your brother. Where did you find this damsel, daughter?” Fanny groaned smiling cheek to cheek.

Opula smiled hugely, “I told you never to worry that I would find the perfect wife for Brian.”

At the mention of that I raised my head, dragged a furrowed brow across my face and scowled.

Wife? What are they saying? And who is Brian? Am I about to be arranged as wife to someone? And come to think of it, so all that happened to me was coming from a prior preparation to betroth me to someone. What is happening and who is this Brian?

I wondered within me, and smacked my lips nervously…

Fanny shook his head in the affirmative and became all smiles. His eyes sparkled.

“You are welcome to my humble family, my adorable sister-in-law,” Kate intoned, with a lop-sided grin.

Kate was the second eldest daughter of the Fanny’s. She was chubby, short and with pink cheeks that often smiled. Her hair was auburn. She kept smiling and shaking her head just like every other person except Eva.

Her nostrils flared,“Who is she? And who is her family in Rio Hondo?” Eva asked, gritted her teeth, shot her go-to-hell stare at me and walked around me as though I was some laboratory specimen.

“No, no, Eva”, Opula, the eldest protested with her hand gesturing at Eva, she protested yet further, “You don’t have to raise up that issue right now. I have not invited this pretty girl to be assessed by you.”

Eva raised a brow and squeezed her lips; that face of hers held thunder as she cast a menacing stare at her sister and then at me.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Eva queried Opula “You can’t choose this dirty, poverty-stricken girl for our brother!”

Opula stood to her feet with hands on the waist. She had already gone crimson. She kept rolling her eyes and sighing.

Opula snarled, “And since when did my egocentric sister become interested in the family’s affair, uh? You never wanted a wife for Brian! Possibly you enjoyed the way he is being attended to by nobody and goes the whole of Rio Hondo naked and being mobbed!” Opula barked radically.

Every other person became on looker as they quarreled at the tops of their voice.

Her nose wrinkled. “I have better plans for my brother not this,” she gestured her fingers at me, “Poverty-stricken, disgusting girl. We are the richest family in Rio Hondo. Poverty and wealth have nothing in common. Do I need to remind you, sister uh? I thought you were going to fetch a model, a movie super star or a musician for our brother. Come on think big.”

Opula interjected in fury, “She may be poor but she is very presentable than the ugly wealthy bitches you presented earlier…” She wanted to speak yet further when Fanny intervened, “Enough!”

Everywhere went cold at once at the groaning of his voice, “Is this how you girls want to welcome our new wife?” Fanny barked, and cast an appreciative stare at me.

My head bowed just then as I averted my gaze.

Wife? What is happening? Have they made me a wife already?

A wife to who if I may ask? I came here to see if I could borrow the money needed for my mother’s hospital bills and here I am donning diamond bracelets and jewelries, clad in a Turkish luxurious gown which I may never afford in my entire life.

As I looked myself from head to toes, I wondered if I could summon the courage to question their actions, and why am I being given as wife to a man I know nothing about and wasn’t in love with.

Something must be fishy. Are they mistaking me for someone else?

“I am confused please” it almost sounded as a whisper but by some reckless courage it sounded loud enough for everyone to hear.

Fanny smiled at me, and then stood to his feet. His face flushed with uncertainty.

“You see, my dear, for more than four nights now, my family has been in search of the rightful bride for my lovely son. I don’t know how my eldest daughter found you, but I must commend you look presentable and beautiful for my son. If you agree this minute to become the wife to the only son of the richest man in Rio Hondo, I promise you your poverty is over. You will have anything that is under the sun. You can be rest assured that hence forth your generation shall know no poverty,” he said and burst into a radical laugh.

Every other person smiled except Eva who was busy fighting me with her quarrelsome stare.

But Eva wasn’t my problem now. My problem was how it all happened suddenly. I had come to borrow the half a million dollars needed to commence treatment on my mother and not to be given as wife to any son.

I was losing it now. These billionaires could be so annoying. They felt everything was answerable to them and because they were wealth and influential nothing was impossible for them to achieve.

Come on! Things are not done that way! How could you just see someone at the gate, and the next you get her all expensively dressed, just to be given as wife to your only son? A son I knew nothing about?

I protested, “Sir, I am here to see if you could lend me money for my mother’s medical bills. My mother has auto…auto,” I stuttered as I couldn’t recall the name of the disease doctor called but I just managed to say, “She has kidney disease and the doctor is requesting for half a million dollars to save her life. She has just twenty four hours to live if that money is not provide,” I intoned, went down on my knees, and bowed my head, “Please, my mother is all I have. Heave mercy on a poor girl like me. That is my reason for coming to your mansion and not to marry your son.”

Fanny’s face held a huge grin. His jaw clenched. I knew he might be wondering what gave me the guts to visit his mansion in the name of borrowing money. I was young and naïve. I wondered what could be more important to me than my mother’s health. Marrying his son or whoever was out of it.

He pointed, “You see that artifact over there, it is worth twenty million dollars. Do you see that artwork with diamond stones? It is worth thirty million dollars. Money is not my problem.”

He dug his hand into his blazers and slid out a credit card…

Fanny was unhesitant, after sliding out the credit card. His eyes gleamed and his jaw sparkled.

A beam of smiles clouded his face before he flashed the credit card at me.

Instantly my avarice increased at the sight of the credit card, and I winked nervously, wished he would gift me the card without conditions.

“This is a credit card for half a million dollars. It is for you,” he sounded, with an emphatic chuckle that sounded from him.

I was abandoned to doubt and argument within me. I gave a half-smile before a lopsided grin. My cheeks couldn’t stop curving. My hands fidgeted. I swallowed hard and winked more than a million times. This must be a dream! I scratched my eyes and confirmed that reality was actually smiling at me. It wasn’t a dream after all. A credit card for half a million dollars all for me! Fortune has fallen down to me. Mom, wherever you are start girding your loins to recover, because not only will I sort out your medical bills, also our family status is about to change for good. No more poverty; I thought, smiling cheek to cheek at the entire Fanny’s.

While lost in the shallowness of my thought, I went on my knees, shut my eyes and started rendering all manner of appreciation. I eulogized Fanny Luis and felt within my head that I had emptied my praises.

“Oh thank you, so much, Sir! This is just an answered prayer. What would I have done without you? You are indeed known in Rio Hondo for your generosity. You are the savior of the poor. I can’t describe my joy over what you just did but I want you to know that the God of the poor will pay you in hundred folds. You will continually be the richest man in Rio Hondo…” my voice hung over the sitting room amidst tears.

I was yet speaking when Fanny interjected, “May I know what you do for a living, dear? He demanded still holding unto the credit card. At the time his mouth that had curved into a smile had given way for his hardened expression.

That question spiked my heart in such a trice that I wondered from where came the sweat that trickled from my armpit.

Was I ruffled or what?

I exhaled fearfully once I gazed upon his sullen countenance. “I am a poor vegetable seller,” I replied coldly and bowed my head in shame. “Poor vegetable seller”, he retorted with a grotty scowl hanging on his face, “How do you intend to pay back half a million dollars by selling cheap, dirty vegetables, uh?”

Those words by the billionaire tingled me so badly, that I searched for saliva to swallow down my throat. My excitement had over shadowed my thinking faculty that I forgot I was going to repay the loan.

What even came over me to think that I would be able to pay back half a million dollars by selling vegetables, even if I sell all the vegetable in the world, and given more than a century, I didn’t think I would be able to repay back that money; it was just too much for poor Melissa to repay.

“Speak up, young lady!” he barked and his jaw set before he narrowed his eyes at me.

At that, the girls and the maiden were staring at me with bated breath, save Eva, who gave me a morbid stare.

I flinched and my excitement was nowhere to be found within me. Reality left my head hovering.

“I…I…” I stuttered, smacked my lips and said yet further, “I am eager to be your servant or be your slave for life as repayment for that money. Please. I don’t mind being enslaved to you as a maid without salary, Sir,” I uttered, still bowed my head.

“No, no,” he jerked his head in disapproval, “I am surrounded by maidens, security and slaves. I have no need for them anymore. Listen up, young girl, I can’t risk my half a million dollars, my hard earned money on the altar of generosity. You have to figure out ways to repay me or I will figure it out for you,” his voice beamed at me.

Quickly I shook my head, “I am ready for anything Sir, anything sir,” I repeated, still niggled by the fact that the money wasn’t yet mine.

Did I actually hear myself? Anything? Hmmm.

“Security,” Fanny snapped, “Bring out my adorable son, Brian,” he commanded and held a huge smile. The smile would have been contagious if not for the situation at hand.

I bowed my head as I was still on my knees, lost in my imagination of what he intended to do, when the rustling sound of chains being dragged on the floor ravaged the entire place. Soon after the party of security dashed out to fetch his son, I heard voices.

“Out! Out! Now!”

That was the shrieking yell of men, who seemed to be struggling with something and yelling at someone.

“Out! Out! Now I said!”

“Please don’t whip him! Drag him out gently,” Fanny commanded yet further.

The yell came again, and I raised my head wondering what was happening. I thought the billionaire ordered the security to bring out Brian, his adorable son, so what was keeping them and what on earth would make Fanny give out such orders if his son was sane.

Suddenly one of the securities ran out and whispered in the ears of Fanny.

“If he refuses to wear his cloths, then whip him and drag him out!” the billionaire beamed and shot his reddened, angry eyes at Brian’s chamber before returning his gaze on me.

Kate raised a furrowed brow before protesting, “But father that will not be nice. I suggest they take it easy on him and not whip him. Brian will wear his cloths,” she said and almost became all tears.

Those words tinkled in my ear. Whip? He refuses to wear clothes? Why would he refuse to wear his cloths? Why would they whip him? And who is actually this Brian.

Those questions dazed me so much that I couldn’t wait to see what the billionaire was up to.