White ceiling, blue-themed room. I blink a couple of times.

"I am alive." I murmur to myself.

The last thing I remember is falling into the middle of the road after a car hit me. I thought that was the end of me and my miserable pathetic life, but it seems my time is not up yet! I don't know whether to be happy about that or not, though. Sigh!

Wait. where am I?

This sure is not a hospital bed. This heavy-duty mattress, how many inches is it anyway? And this expensive white bed.. I think it's what they call king or queen size? Did I wake up in paradise or am I in the afterlife?

My head hurts, but I pull myself up and sit up, leaning backwards to support my bandaged head. I am glad I don't have fractured bones, but a side of my hip hurts, alongside my bandaged head and arm.

The door opens, which is quite a distance from the bed because this room is enough to accommodate five more beds of the same size. A man saunters in. Adorable height, medium size body and finest jaws. This is a bit confusing now.

If I got into an accident, wasn't I supposed to wake up in a hospital or in my house? Who is this, cold rich guy? His eyes are cold with a look that can make anybody bow to his dominant demeanor. I bet his voice would hold such a demeanor as well. His complex figure and composure exude confidence and authority.

Where am I again?

"Who are you?" I ask, as he walks to stand beside me, giving me the pleasure and honor to take in his sweet pheromones. I have never smelled something as sweet as this, and that is why the butterflies in my stomach are surprised.

"Your husband!" His voice is as I expected - icy, deep, and sweet.

I swallow hard. First, I have never had a boyfriend, let alone a husband. Second, even if I was to be married, it would have not been to this tycoon god who is stinking like the most purest sin. I can not fit in his world, and he can't stoop so low to my own. We are like water and paraffin, or two parallel roads, or better yet, heaven and earth. Thanks to that expensive joke he just pulled there, I am smiling bitterly. My husband my left foot!

"How long have I been dead?" I ask, looking into his dark brown eyes. There is this deep and dark sheer in them, making him appear dangerously smoky.

"What?"

Oh, his voice, ooh!

"Yeah! If I am married, that means I am in the afterlife. I did not have a boyfriend, not to talk of being married before I got into that accident." I say, looking at this beautiful but confusing stranger. How can he say I am his wife?

"I am not a bad person. I just did what I had to do. What I felt was right." He speaks, his cold tone of voice as calm and soft as it can ever be, presumably, it can't go beyond that.

"What do you mean?" I ask, and he pulls out an envelope from the drawer beside the bed and hands it to me. "What's in it?" I ask, without showing any interest in accepting it. These rich people are annoyingly weird. Very, annoyingly weird!

"Check it."

I kick the blue duvet aside and get out of the comfortable bed, grabbing the envelope from him and slightly limping to the table near the window.

I empty the contents of the envelope on the table, and the first thing that catches my attention makes my heart skip several beats.

My mother's ID?

What is happening here? Did something bad happen to my mother?

"Why do you have my mother's ID? Where is she? Is she alright?" I rant nonstop to the stranger. My heart feels so heavy all of a sudden, like a bomb is about to explode. "Tell me she is okay."

"Relax! Your mother is perfectly fine. I just kept that as part of the agreement until you wake up, so that I can confirm that she really is your mother." A calming explanation, but more confusing.

This woman has made me see hell and live on its shores since birth. Anything and everything about her makes my spine cold.

"She is my mother." The shock on his face, huh? I smell a rat here!

What just happened in the few hours I was unconscious? I am starting to tremble, my bones growing weak.

Oh, Man! I hope she didn't screw you too! It would be such a pity! Such...a... pity!

"Why? What did she do? And why am I here? Who are you and what is this place?" I query.

"Everything is well explained in that contract."

"Cont... what?"

What does me getting hit by a car and waking up in a strange house with a strange person, got to do with a freaking damn contract? It would have been self-explanatory if I woke up in a police cell, for mistakenly being accused of intentionally getting myself hit by a car so that I can demand for some compensation. I would also have understood it if I woke up in a mental hospital, because I am sure I looked like a lost zombie on the road yesterday. But here? What can explain all this? And a contract?

"Please, read it and understand every clause in it. It is important. Your...mother signed her part. But it's entirely your decision to agree to sign yours."

Whoa! I have a very bad feeling. What did you do this time, mother? Why do I feel hurt already even without knowing what this damn contract is all about?

"You know what Mr? My head is aching so much and my vision is a bit blurry due to the pain. I may not be able to see well." I lie. The pain is not even severe in my head. It is in my heart where the real pain is. I am so scared of what is in this contract. My mother has always had bad intentions for me, and I don't know the intensity of her hatred. I know she can't sign me off for anything good. "I suppose you know the contents of this contract. Tell me what it says. Explain it bit by bit and in the most simplest way possible. What sort of deal did you make with my mother?" I look straight into his damn sweet icy eyes, and him - he does not even blink as he does me the honor of relaying to me the shock of my life. No, the heartbreak of my life!

"It's a contract stating that you will be officially my wife for five months. I am paying you a hundred million for the five months you will stay with me."

Period! Disgustingly simple! pathetic madness!

The sky must be turning red for the very first time since its creation, that is why even the aura I am breathing right now is not the usual oxygen. This one is suffocating! It's choking me! I can't breathe at all!

Someone bring me back to earth, because I doubt it's where all this nonsense is happening!

Since when did people's lives had a price tag on them? Who in this era has such a huge amount of money to just give it away like that? And who at this age and era buys a wife? What? Doesn't he know how to court a woman? From his looks and the amount he is offering, he must be freaking stinking rich! He definitely is swimming in money and luxury. So why can't he find a woman to marry? Is he a shape-shifting vampire that no woman can stand? Wait, who the hell even brought about this absurd deal anyway?

"Who between you two came up with this madness?" I ask, my eyes maintaining their stare at him, and him being as icy as he looks. He doesn't blink still.

"I did."

I sigh out a relief!

Well, at least it wasn't my crazy impossible mother. Now I feel relieved, and the air is a bit fresh again. But did she have to agree? That alone hurts, but it's less painful than...

"Your mother had a different kind of deal first." Shit! No, double that shit!

"What did she propose?" I shoot at him.

"Are you sure you want...."

"Yes." I cut him off. "What the heck did my mother propose?"

"A million for your life. She wanted me to take you as whatever I wanted, for just a million!"

Everything stands still, and I forget how to breathe for a minute. What..the..hell?

Anything? For a mere million?

One drop. Two drops. Three drops. I have two streams of tears flowing down my two chubby cheeks. What's that again? I had a feeling this was going to hurt, but I didn't know it would be this much.

I have gone through so much pain - the pain of her hatred, the pain of her insults, the pain of her slaps, the pain of always being on the losing end. Everything has been painful for me in general, but this pain surpasses every other pain I have felt before. All of my pains mixed together can not compare to this one.

My mother sold me off to a stranger? And just for a mere one fucking million? She was busy trading me off like a mere garbage while I was lying unconscious on the hospital bed? I am sure she didn't even care to find out who this man is! I was lying unconscious and all she was thinking about was how to get rid of me?

What did I ever do to this woman?

All she has ever given me are nothing but pain after pain, but trading me off like a stinking garbage is the last straw!

She doesn't want me? She wants me out of her life? I am also freaking tired of her. I am done hoping and wishing that she will ever change. I am fucking done trying to be a good daughter that I will never be to her.

This is the highlight of all your hatred towards me mother! I am so done crying for you. I am done caring for you. Today, you have given me enough reason to do what's best for you and me.

This is for the greater good!

I wipe away the tears, and look at this stranger. I don't think I have words for him right now. What my mother has done is the only thing ringing in my head, and it's ringing so loud.

I take the pen from his shirt, and he is shocked at that, but I don't care. I open the contract, but he grabs my hand.

"Hey! If you don't want to go through with it, I won't force you. You still have the chance to back down. I will pay your mother what she asked so she won't bother you." He speaks.

"Don't they say that parents, especially mothers, always know what is best for their children? This is what my mother thinks is best for me. I am an adult, and I have no objections whatsoever. I am righting her decision. I want this!"

"You are angry."

"I am sober. I want this, so let me!" He let go of my hand unwillingly, and I sign on the spaces left for me.

I close the contract and put it back in the envelope, returning the pen where I took it from. I hand him the envelope.

"When can I get the first half?"

"By today evening." He says.

"Good. I will go see my mother the day after tomorrow. Is that alright?"

"Sure. No problem." He says.

"I need some rest."

"Go ahead. The doctor will be coming to check on your wound later on in the day."

I nod my head, and stroll to the bed, while he makes his way to the door.

"Wait, my husband." I call before he can walk out, and he turns around. "What should I call you?"

"Jerol O'Brian McCall, is my name. Call me Jerol from now on, Mrs McCall." I nod my head, and he walks out, closing the door behind him.

"Mrs McCall." I murmur to myself as I tuck myself under the blue duvet again.

Mrs McCall, it is, for five months!

It comes to a certain point in life when you are too intoxicated with everything. That point when you can't even recognize who or what you are anymore. That point where everything and everyone sucks. That time when you can't even explain when or how things got this far. That point where you are certain that things will never be like before again.

That is where I am right now, I, Tessa Angeline! Damn! It slipped my mind that I now have something I never had - a surname! I'm now Tessa Angeline McCall!

I don't know what anyone in my shoes would choose to do in my situation, but I have chosen to end this toxic relationship between me and this woman who I call mother. She doesn't want me, and I don't need her either. It's not like any of us needed the other from the start anyway. Oh, wait, I know. She needed me to feed out her anger and frustrations on, and to be her breadwinner. But that is over now!

Call me bitchy. Call me stupid. Call me childish. Or an ungrateful witch like she calls me, anything, but I am so done with her. I coped with all her insults, I made peace with all her yelling, scolding and unreasonable beatings all my life. I understood all her shortcomings as a mother, because I knew nobody is perfect. But she never cared from the beginning.

I wasn't looking for perfection in her, no. I just wanted her to treat me like her own child. Like her only child that I am. But for twenty years now, I am far from earning her affection as her daughter. I have failed to be the daughter she probably wanted. Not only doesn't she care about me, but she despises me. I am like a devil to her. Why that is, I don't know and I don't care anymore. I am done!

I'm after nothing now but my own peace, and my peace is being as far away from her as possible. I am closing this chapter with her, and starting another one as Jerol's wife, thanks to my so thoughtful mother.

This thing she did to me just now surpasses every other crazy thing she has ever done, and I can't forgive her for this. I will always remember her with this last act of hers. After these five months, I will start another chapter all alone. At least, I will not need to be a hawker anymore. I will be filthy rich then, and I will have a comfortable and happy life.

"Shall we?" My husband asks, coming from the bathroom, dazzling like a diamond in his expensive three-piece navy blue suit.

If there is something I have noticed for these past two days I have been with him, it is that he is a troubled soul. I'm not a physician, but I have sailed in this boat all my life. I would recognize one right away when I spot it. It's there in his eyes.

He is doing his best at hiding it, but it's evident anyways. If not so, then he must be a temperamental devil. I don't know which is which, but I am a temporary wife after all, I shouldn't overstep the boundaries. I should mind my own business and not meddle in his. I will deal with my problems, and him his demons. As long as we don't crush, I am okay.

"Do you really have to come?" I ask him, just to make sure because I don't see the point of him accompanying me to my mother's house. That place is not for rich tycoons like him.

"I need to. You are my wife, remember? I have to accompany you everywhere, and the vice versa applies too."

"Why such charades? Trying to make someone jealous?" I ask, but I regret opening my mouth because of the outburst I receive as a response.

"Can you stop asking silly questions? We are wasting time unnecessarily. Let's go."

Whoa! What a temper! I said it. Maybe this is why women can't stay by his side, and he has to result in buying himself a fake one.

I grab the envelope on the bed and walk out without saying a word, but he catches up with me just two stairs away downstairs. He wraps his hand around my waist, and I don't dare say a thing.

We walk past the huge sitting room which equals a hall, with servants doing one or two things here and there. I haven't had my time to explore this house, one, because I was on bed rest, but I am glad since I can now walk slowly with ease. In two or three days, I will have my bandages removed, and I will be perfectly okay. The second reason is that I know this is temporary. I don't want to make memories here, or get attached to things around here.

Walking out of the door, he guides me and we walk to the black limousine waiting for us near the gate. He holds the door still for me to get in, and after slamming it shut after making sure I have settled in, he walks to the other side and settles in beside me.

Why the trouble, huh? He should have told to me to make some space for him instead of going through all that unnecessary trouble. All the same, the black tilted mirror separating us from the driver goes up, meaning it is just me and my husband at the back of this comfortable limousine. The rich really have a different lifestyle. Even the air they breathe is different from what people like us breathe.

The drive is silent. We are both lost in our own thoughts, me looking at the envelope I am carrying and thinking of how my mother is going to react, and this husband of mine here staring at nothing but space.

I steal a glance at him through the corner of my eyes.

Aside from his cold demeanor and not-so-bearable temper, he is the epitome of beauty. These cold bottomless orbs, I wonder what they would look like brimming with joy. They sure must be the most beautiful ones. These lips, I would love to see what form they take when they curve up in a smile, something I haven't seen in him. I doubt the word smile even exists in his dictionary.

"We are here, I suppose." He says, snapping me out of my short secret exploration of him. I look at how he opens the door on his side, and I do the same to mine. When did I ever ride in a private car? Tsk!

Stepping out, he walks to my side, locking my hand in his again, and we walk side by side towards the house.

As always, there are always people indoors every single time of the day. Seeing such an expensive car might have demonically called the attention of everyone, because now everybody is out, looking at us in bewilderment like we are aliens. I can see some murmuring to each other, and others their jaws are rolling on the sandy ground, their mouths will probably never be able to close again.

I can understand their shock and dismay, I myself feel like this is a dream, you know. I lost my shop and everything that kept me sane just two days ago. I was left with nothing. I almost lost my life too. But now, I am a totally different person.

Apart from having this rich tycoon as my husband, I have a whole fifty million lying in my bank. I have been checking through my phone almost every one hour since Jerol transferred the cash to my account, just to make sure it's still there. The anxiety it's giving me though, lol! I still can't believe it. Life is surely a total turn of events. Today you are poor, tomorrow you might wake up rich. Don't call it a mockery or an expensive joke. I am a walking testimony.

Don't criticize people because of who they are today.

I knock lightly on what used to be my house, and wait for the owner to open. This isn't my house anymore. This is the last time I am setting my feet in it. This house and everything in it, we are paying ways today. Funny how I don't feel any emotion even after the decision I have made. It's like I never belonged here, presumably because my existence was never valued at all. I will never miss this misery of a home.

I push the door slowly, since no one seems to bother to get it.

I hope she was decent enough not to keep a man in this house up to this hour, because Jerol notified her that we will be coming today. The embarrassment will be too much.

I open the door, and since Jerol does not show any sign of waiting for me outside, we walk in together, to the suffocating scene of my mother chewing a man's lips on the pathetic loose and torn couch. It's even producing some screeching sounds as her butt is grinding the man's thighs. Oh, well, I guess I was too late to make a wish.

Isn't this one of the uses of a bedroom which is just two strands away from where they are fornicating at? Jeez! I mean, gosh!

She stops, after noticing our arrival, and smiles at Jerol as she hovers off the man, straightening her dress. The word shame has never been in her vocabulary ever.

I should bow down with shame because of what greeted Jerol the first time I bring him to my house, but I keep my head high, and a straight face. If there is one thing I am ashamed of, it is being called this immoral woman's daughter, and since I can't change that, I will not beat myself over it. It doesn't matter where one comes from, but what matters is what we become without having to be defined by the people we grew up with or the places we grew up in. This despicable woman here is not going to define who I am or who I will become, and whoever wants to judge me because she can go to hell for all I care.

It's said that you should not judge a book by its cover, and I believe in that saying. Fuck the one that says that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I have nothing in common with this woman. I am nothing like her, and I will never be.

"Hi, son-in-law! I hope you brought good news. Have a seat please." She opens her stinky mouth.

See her hatred? She doesn't care about me. She does not even care to hide it. No greetings, no welcome, no how have you been, no nothing! What a great mother, right?

"Nobody is sitting down!" I burst out, because I can sense Jerol's discomfort, and also because I don't intend to stay here for more than ten minutes. I hate the choking stinking smell of immorality in this room. "I just came down here to give you your hard-earned share of the deal, and ask you just one thing." She moves her gaze to me, and I look her in the eyes. I have never confronted her before.

Never have I ever questioned her. Never did I dare talk back at her neither raise my voice at her. Despite all the wrongs she did to me, I was always a respectful child. Honor thy mother and father, right, they say? I followed that to the letter, but it all ends now, because life has taught me that respect is earned, and if you can not respect yourself, then no one ever will respect you. This woman here has never even tried to earn that respect. How can she, if she doesn't even respect herself?

"I hope you were not greedy enough to take out even a single cent from it, Angeline. I hope you brought the full amount that we agreed upon." She fires.

"First tell me, mother. What do you deserve? What do you think you deserve for being a parent, a mother to be precise, huh? An award?"

"Watch your tongue, young lady! Just because your husband is here with you does not give you the right to disrespect me. I am still your mother!"

Mother my foot! If only she knows the meaning of being just a parent not to talk of a mother!

"And that gave you the right to trade me off to a stranger like I am garbage, huh, mother? Selling me off like trash? You could have asked me to leave your house if you did not want me here anymore. Not like you ever wanted me anyway. But this, mother? Who gave you that right? What gave you the audacity to do this despicable act? Tell me? Is it money? Wasn't I the one who has been feeding you ever since..."

"Shut your trump, you who're!" She hollers, cutting me off. Whore? She must be referring to herself, not me. Her face is burning with anger. Truth hurts, huh? That is just great to know because I intend to pour all that she has made me feel throughout the years. Nothing will be left unsaid. We are lying it all here. She points a finger to my face. If it was before now, I would be cowering, trembling with fear, but not today. Today my guards are all on. "What am I to you, little witch? A child that you can scold however you want? Better shut up before I do it for you. You are right, I don't want you. I never did. Now hand me my money and get out of my sight."

"Is that why you tried so hard to starve me to death when I was just a baby, until I had to learn the means of survival when I was barely four years? Is that what mothers do? And you ask me what you are? You want to know what you really are? You are everything they say you are, Gracia! Every single name they call you outside, you are exactly that, even worse than that. Thank God I respect myself, else I would have called you all those names right now. And you know what, there is something else very important that nobody has dared to tell you, but I will do the honors. I want you to hear it directly from your own daughter's mouth, because I believe I am the right person to tell you this. You don't deserve the title of a mother, Gracia! You are a disgrace to both parenthood and motherhood."

I close my eyes, waiting for the well-launched slap to land on my cheek, but her hand must have been hooked somewhere in the air by some kind of magic, because her palm has not come into contact with my cheek. I open my eyes, to see Jerol holding my mother's hand. Oh, wow! Husband defending the wife? Saviour of the oppressed? I don't know which one to call him.

"You don't get to hurt my wife in my presence! It's unacceptable!"

Whoa!

His voice is calm, but cold and commanding. It holds such authority that nobody would want to dare defy or question, well, except this woman.

"Then tell your wife to show some respect to her mother! Don't tell me you like how she is talking to me? Or worse, do you believe what she is saying?" She finishes fuming, and Jerol lets go of her hand, his eyes on her. He might be thinking this is a live soap opera, little does he know, this has been my life.

"What I believe doesn't matter. As she said, I am a total stranger to both of you. Maybe you can clarify if there is any truth in what she is saying."

"I have nothing to clarify. This girl is a snake, a dog that bites the hand that feeds her. Don't say I didn't warn you. You better be strict with her if you don't want her disrespecting you like this." She never lacks something to bark about. Is making me look so bad her hobby?

"Until you can confidently prove that all she is saying are nothing but lies, don't waste your time telling me how to handle my wife."

"It's your call." She murmurs.

"You and I know that you don't deserve even a single cent from me, because you have done absolutely nothing for me aside from bringing me to this world. For that reason alone, I have tried to be as much generous as possible. Here," I hand her the envelope which she grabs roughly, "five hundred thousand, as compensation for giving birth to me and torturing me all my life."

"I knew it." She laughs sarcastically, then she turns cold at once. "Your greediness couldn't let you give me a considerable amount. You are such an ungrateful bitch! And you," she turns to Jerol who sneaked his hand around my waist without my knowledge until now. "Didn't you make a promise to me that I will get the full amount? What is this? What happened to your promise? All you wanted was for the deal to go through, huh? You fooled me!"

"Don't blame this on my husband. He made sure to give me your full amount, but it's only me who knows your worth. Thank God I didn't bring that envelope with nothing inside but your pathetic ID, because that is what you deserved - absolutely nothing!"

She rolls her eyes, looking at the scumbag sitting comfortably on the sofa. If she thought she will automatically become rich by trading my life, she better think and think again. I can be fucking bitchy if I am pushed to the wall, which is exactly what this woman did.

"What exactly do you expect me to do with this change?"

The nerve of this arrogant unappreciative brat of a woman! Forgive me if I go overboard with words to this woman today. Did she say, change? She opens her mouth and regard a whopping five hundred thousand as mare change! May thunder fire her mouth! May she break her tongue if she ever repeats that! IMAO! Has selling her body earned her that much all her entire life?

"I don't care whether it does something or nothing for you. Make a life with it or waste it in alcohol as you have always done. Better still, buy yourself a sex toy of a presentable man and stop disgracing yourself being fucked up by penniless ugly street dogs like the one behind you! All the same, whatever you choose to do with that change is none of my freaking business. It does not matter to me anymore. What I want is for us to part ways. I am giving you what you have always wanted - to get rid of me. You never wanted me, you still don't want me. Then I don't need you, Gracia Motero. There is no need for me to stick around anymore and force myself on you. There is no need for us to continue hurting each other anymore. This is where things end between us. I don't ever want to see you in my life again. Thank you, for nothing, and goodbye forever!"

I look at her, and for the first time in my entire life, I think I saw her eyes soften, but I can not fall for that deceit. She knows I have money now. She might try to deceive me with a few fake crocodile tears.

Before that happens, I pull my husband, and we walk out, his hand holding me by the waist.

I don't know what he makes out of all this insanity, but someday, if I will get a chance, I will explain. "But he is your temporal husband, Angeline! Why do you need to explain anything?" My mind screams at me, and I mentally smirk at myself.

We pass by the people again.

They haven't returned back into their houses, and I know some even eavesdropped on us, but I don't care.

I rummage through them as we pass by. For those that treated me like a street dog, I don't look at them twice. For the ones that helped me once or twice or countless times, I can still manage to spare them a smile despite my heavy heart for what happened back inside.

I said I don't care, that is why I haven't shed even a single drop of tear despite all that. And this lamp stuck in my throat, I will keep pushing it until it goes down my syndrome without spending even a drop of tear.

We get back to the car, and the car turns around, speeding off, leaving this place and all its memories behind.

Goodbye to the old, and hi to the new!