MEETING MR CARLSON

He stared at Lulu's hands with disgust, "is this really why you called me here? You couldn't talk to my assistant?" He flickered his eyes back to Dr Lopez.

"Good it was successful, my assistant will be here with the contract papers."

He turned around to leave on his heels, glowering at Lulu before taking his leave

"What did you just do?" Dr Lopez widened her eyes at Lulu.

"I don't know, I just didn't think you deserved to be in trouble with such a man, I'm still in shock myself but..."

"No you don't understand what you've gotten yourself into, the type of surrogacy we were going to do with him was completely different," she seemed panicked.

"What do you mean?"

"The surrogate is supposed to live with him throughout the pregnancy, with immediate effect."

"I'm sorry, what?!"

"Yes Miss Bridge, he doesn't think anyone would be able to take care of the child's health other than him, and... I was going to tell him the insemination was unsuccessful and-"

"Holy shit, I just didn't know what to do in that time."

"There's so much you need to learn if you want to be a surrogate, so much rules."

"But it's a good thing too," the nurse sniffed, feeling better now knowing her head wouldn't be ripped off. "The pay from Mr Carlson is three hundred thousand dollars!"

Lulu widened her eyes in shock, "what?!"

"Yes, this is why we cannot afford to mess things up."

"I'll do it," Lulu said without thinking.

All her life she had dreamed of being a mother and she had no money left after the IVF with nowhere to go.

"But you need to know you'll have no association with this child forever."

She swallowed hard, "that's the thing about being a surrogate! You're supposed to have no association with the child, it's in the contract, and he even has his own contract terms."

"I... I need some time to think about it."

"Fine, this needs to be extremely confidential, how will we explain things to your husband now?"

She frowned at the mention of Alex.

"He means nothing to me anymore."

Lulu wasn't sure what she had gotten herself into.

Dr Lopez escorted her out, waving her off once she was out of sight.

*

Lulu got home, reminded of her misery with her husband.

She pulled out the home computer, she typed David Carlson's name into the search bar.

Hot pictures of the man came flooding her page.

Fuck he was the sexiest thing to ever exist, he had so many art works displayed, yet he wasn't smiling in a single picture.

She shook her head, this was not the time to be admiring him.

She flinched when she heard her front door unlock.

Her eyes were shifted into a frown when she saw her husband walk in with Emery entangled by his arm.

"It's not enough that you disturbed and shamed me, how can you still come back here?!" She raised her voice.

"She will move in with me, this is my house bought with my own money!" Alex said.

"What do you mean? I pay rent always, I even sold the necklace I inherited from my late grandmother to keep up with the rent!"

"Well, all that money came to me," he confessed, "I own this house and many more, and the documents are in my drawer as proof."

Lulu stood there in shock.

"Now that you know the truth, there's no need to hide things anymore."

He turned to her ex best friend with a smile,"Emery will be moving in with me."

"What?!"

"Yes, I'm kicking you out."

Her eyes welled with tears. Was this really the same man who had shown her unconditional love for the past four years.

He tossed some papers at her, "these are signed divorce papers, go ahead and sign them, pack your crap and move out."

"Alex!"

"There's no way Emery can live in that small shack of hers anymore, it's not good for the child."

"Alex, how can you do this..."

He left Emery's side, taking Lulu's arms like she was a piece of trash, he pulled her into their shared bedroom and began to toss all of her clothing out.

He pushed her out of the room with a box of her few clothes.

"I expect you to send the divorce letter back as soon as possible!"

She held her box with shaky hands and turned to Emery, "you'll regret this!"

Emery put on a smirk, "that's easy for you to say, Alex loves me."

"He loved me too..."

"That's different! You couldn't bear him a child, I did."

Lulu stood there in amusement, "well then let's see how easily he throws you out when the truth comes out."

Lulu watched as Emery's eyes widened in shock.

Alex wasted no time in throwing Lulu out, not giving her a chance to do more.

Lulu stared at the divorce papers in her hands, she sniffed and pulled her phone out to call Dr Lopez.

"Hello?" came her doctor's sleepy voice.

"I need to move in with David Carlson, tonight."

WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE

"Why what's happened?" Doctor Lopez sounded panicked.

"I've been thrown out of my house with no where to go."

"Oh my goodness! The child needs to be safe at all times, let me know where you are I'll send a driver over to you."

In a matter of minutes, there was a small car there to pick her up. "Are you miss bridge?" He asked.

Picking her box, she nodded. She didn't even have the energy to cry from how bad her husband was treating her because it was yet to sink in.

The driver pulled up in a hotel and helped her with booking everything.

*

The next day dr Lopez showed up at the hotel.

"The move is happening today, he has scheduled everything for today so we don't have much time left."

Doctor Lopez announcement made Lulu realise how this was reality.

Lulu had no one to call, her only family had been Alex and her best friend Emery.

"I'm so sorry with how quickly everything is happening," doctor Lopez said with a sigh.

"It's okay," Lulu tried to show no hints of nervousness.

“This is the contract and all you need to know about surrogacy.”

"What's the contract for?"

"Because Mr Carlson wanted this to happen in a very specific way, these are his personal rules you must follow."

"May I ask why he wants a surrogate? Does he have a wife?"

"No Mr Carlson had never been interested in relationships so it's a surprise why he wants a child."

"Since I'm signing things," she pulled out her divorce paper from her box, "might as well get this over with."

She signed the divorce papers, "I'll get them mailed to him."

"Is this because of Mr Carlson?" Dr Lopez sounded genuinely worried.

"No we didn't separate due to that, he has no idea and I'm hoping to keep it that way."

Dr Lopez's phone rang all of a sudden.

She put it up to her ear.

"Hello? Okay thank you for letting me know."

"What's wrong?" Lulu wondered.

"It's time."

Lulu swallowed hard, maybe this was being too hasty of a decision.

Lulu got to her feet, she put on a simple white dress, and drew her hair back in a simple bun.

She didn't understand why she cared about how she looked right now . She headed out of the hotel room with Dr Lopez.

There was a Porsche parked outside the hotel waiting for them.

The driver took her box and placed it in the trunk of the vehicle.

He opened the back door seat for her and turned to Dr Lopez, "I'll take it from here."

Lulu stared at Dr Lopez who was trying her best to hide how nervous she seemed.

She waved her goodbye until she was out of sight.

This was it. She was moving into the devil's den, her life was about to be changed by David Carlson forever.

*

Lulu had thought David Carlson's house would be unreal but seeing it in reality, she wondered how one person could be so rich.

The driver pressed the bell, after going through the security at the gate.

A flood of workers were staring back at her with wide smiles.

"Welcome miss," a middle aged woman smiled at her, taking her bags from the driver. “I'm Millet.”

Lulu's eyes followed through the crowd of them and realised she was unconsciously searching for David.

"Oh sir is not here," Millet confirmed as if she read her mind.

"Follow me, I'll take you to your room."

Lulu followed after her.

She noticed all sorts of paintings hanging on the white walls, it must be his art, she thought.

Her room was upstairs, one of many doors facing each other.

Is this a house or a hotel room?

Her bedroom was three times the size of her old one.

It was simple with one bed in the center of the room, but no other decorations.

"If you need anything, press the bell by your bed. I'll leave you to yourself now."

Lulu watched as the woman left the room, she was all alone once more.

She sat on the bed, and buried her face in her hands, this was happening too quickly.

She put her shaky hands to her belly, "what am I doing? All I wanted for years was a baby, I can't give my child up so easily, I'll convince David Carlson to let me keep the baby too, it's only fair."

She didn't really want to be here but she had nowhere to go for now.

"I should read the contract."

Her eyes widened the more she glanced through the pages, "this is insane, how do you expect anyone to live like this?! Must not be in contact, always maintain six feet, do not talk to him unless he talks first, do not leave house unsupervised? These are not proper rules, this is prison, no wonder he pays so much."

She put the overwhelming contract beside her, "he'll have to do things that I need too, especially being in the child's life."

She looked around, it would be very luxurious to have all of this for her child, her baby would grow up well.

Her phone dinged.

It was a picture of Emery and Alex kissing. Emery had sent it. In fact, she had a huge diamond ring engraved on her finger.

Was Alex that wealthy? They always struggled with finances and now he could afford a diamond ring for Emery?

Why did he pretend to be a poor man and only make her suffer this whole time

The image was immediately followed by a fake apology, "oops, I meant to send that to someone else."

She immediately blocked the phone number.

She closed her eyes and fell into the arms of sleep.

*

Lulu woke up hours later, her eyes flickering to the wall clock.

"It's already past ten p.m, how did I sleep so much?"

Her stomach grumbled, reminding her she hadn't eaten at all.

She looked at the bell she was ordered to ring and felt bad to think of calling a chef.

It wasn't like her to order anyone around, it would also be selfish to wake someone who was already sleeping.

Surely, it's not so hard to find the kitchen in this giant castle.

She headed out of the room, all bright lights had been turned off, leaving only the dim night light.

She shuffled downstairs and found the massive kitchen next to the living room.

She returned to her bedroom after making the sandwich.

She found the bathroom door through her dark room and headed in there.

"Wow," she was truly amazed. Why did they give her such a grand bathroom.

The walls were gold with sculptures all over the room.

She marveled at the huge window by the bath tub that had a view of the mountain in the distance.

"He's surely treating me grandly."

She took all of her clothes off, hanging them on a hanger by the sink and filled the golden rimmed tub with hot water.

No sooner had she sunk her head into the tub did she hear the bathroom door swing open.

Reflexively, she wrapped her arms around herself, letting out an alarming scream as she swung her eyes to the intruder.

No other than David Carlson standing there, stark naked.

With fear in her heart, she widened her eyes at the gigantic man.

"What are you doing here?" They asked at the same time.

THE WIFE

Lulu sank further into the tub, panic settling through her veins. Why was he in her bedroom?

His face was blank as he stared at her.

"You clearly haven't read the contract rules properly."

"What do you mean?"

"You should never have any reasons to be in my bedroom."

"But I'm in the room assigned to me!"

She continued to sink further into the tub as he came closer, she was trembling out of fear of what he could possibly do to her.

Instead he picked a towel from the hanger to wrap around his waist.

She let out a gasp as he reached into the tub, gripping her arm and pulling her out aggressively.

She tried to hide her naked body with her free hand, "what are you doing?"

Soon, they were in the bedroom and Lulu realised, wait, this isn't my room.

She must have gone into the wrong room due to all the dim lights.

She immediately bowed her head, "there's been a misunderstanding! I thought this was my bedroom."

"My room is off limits," he commanded, his voice didn't show how angry or upset he was, still it gave her the chills "never make that mistake."

"I promise."

He tossed her a free towel and sent her out of the room.

Lulu couldn't believe what had just happened.

She hurried out of there, clenching onto the towel for dear life and found her bedroom door was right next to his.

"He must have chosen this room for me so he'll have easy access to me at all times."

She sat in bed, horrified by what just happened.

"I must never make such a horrible mistake again."

*

The next day, a knock came on Lulu's bedroom door at around nine in the morning.

"It's Millet," she announced.

"Come in."

Soon, Millet had showed up with a tray of breakfast, it had sandwiches, and bacon, and orange juice.

"Thank you so much," she acknowledged.

"Sir wants to have a meeting with you as soon as you're done, I'll be waiting outside your room so I can direct you to the meeting room."

"Okay."

Millet offered a smile and took her leave from the room.

Lulu's heart skipped in fear , was he going to yell at her for coming to his room yesterday night.

She wondered if she needed to call doctor Lopez and tell her about it first.

She rushed her food and hurried her shower. No need to keep him waiting too long and further piss him off.

She put on an oversized shirt that used to belong to Alex and a small sweatpants of hers.

Her rose gold hair was packed up in a ponytail and she dared to put on a little bit of lip gloss, she didn't want to look completely off.

She joined Millet outside her door, "I'm ready."

Millet smiled at her and proceeded to leave the way.

*

David Carlson sat in his study, his eyes fixed on his laptop until a small knock came on the door.

"Come on in," he ordered.

He watched as Millet walked in with his new surrogate.

He wondered how one woman could be so tiny.

She was obviously terrified, looking everywhere but at him.

"Leave us alone," he ordered Millet, not taking his eyes off the small woman.

He saw the obvious fear in her eyes as the worker nodded and retreated.

"Have your seat," he ordered.

She stared at the multiple chairs around his meeting table and her shaky legs took her to one at the very far end away from him, she pulled the chair out and sat on it.

In minutes, she started, "I'm so sorry I really mean it, last night was an accident, I can promise you Mr Carlson, it will never happen again."

Truthfully, he was surprised but one thing he was good at was concealing emotions.

At his silence, she slowly brought her eyes up to meet his gaze, but looked away just as quickly.

"Have you signed the contract yet?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about some of the contract terms."

"And why would that be?" Not waiting for her answer, he added, "I already talked this through this with the hospital, you're not supposed to be questioning me at all, you should instead be turning the papers in."

"I- I know sir."

"So what's with the hesitation?"

She opened her mouth to talk but he cut her again, "in fact, that's one of many questions, I remember telling the hospital I wanted the donor to be brunette, what's with your hair?"

She blinked, not expecting the question.

"And she had to be at least five feet seven, are you even up to five feet?"

"I..." She swallowed, "Mr Carlson, the original donor couldn't stand in because she wasn't fit, it was an emergency and I had to take her place."

"Without my consultation?"

"I..."

He nodded once, his eyes fixed immensely on her, "what's your name again?"

"Lu.... It's Lulu Bridge, sir?"

"Alright go ahead and get ready, we leave soon.”

She wondered what he meant by it, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

“Have you really not read the schedule? You’re going with me to the artist event as my wife.”