Being a Substitute Wife
"Three million Audrey, I'll give you three million just pretend to be me for six months" I bit my lip when my partner said that. After a very long time, we met just now and this was his opening to me. I mean I was really tempted to accept because we must need the money for mom's immediate surgery but because 3M seems to be too small for the size of the favor she is asking for. “Only 3M? With the size of the favor you ask for, that's all you'll give in exchange for everything, no deal, after 8 long years when you didn't show us mom, you're coming here just to offer me something like that? Did you think that what you are asking for is easy? And one more thing, where did you get the courage and confidence to think that I will accept your offer, right?" My long litany made him suffer. No matter what, he was so damned that he thought he could pass me his money. "Oh please, my dearest sister, I know you must need 3M, so don't act like that and just accept yourself because you won't be able to operate on your mother" Look at the shamelessness of this woman if she can speak you would think she is not Mama's daughter the pain is really bad with this witch's bangs why did she have to give birth to me looking like her my gosh. "I'm going to repeat it because you don't seem to have heard, I said NO. DEAL. it's not easy what you're doing and I'm a loss on your three million so just find another girl who looks like you to pretend to be you" I will stress because I know he won't stop me. "Fine name your price if I increase the offer will you do it? And I will only be gone for another 6 months, you are very choosy and all you have to do is to pretend and don't let anyone know that they are dealing with you and not me" I washed my own face because of what he said. He really knows my weakness. But it's risky because the favor he's asking for is hard because it's hard to be plastic like him, another thing is if I accept it there's no turning back and I don't want to be ruined because of his nonsense. But if I don't, the chance of survival of our mother, who is in the hospital now and sick because every minute that passes and she is not operated on, will decrease, the chance of her survival will also decrease. That's why I just held my breath because of that thought and since I have no other choice, I'll just do what Andrea wants. “Fine 20M I will do whatever you ask me to do in six months” "20 million? You gotta be kidding me, it's only a six-month agreement, isn't it, and then you're demanding 20M" How can I tweak it so I'm still the demanding one, he's the one who needs it. "Demanding? Can you even hear what you're saying? It's not easy what you're asking for, you g*ga, I'll get married for you and you still can't give me 20M? What if something bad happens to me because you marry someone we don't even know? What about Nisha and mom then? So if you can't do it, just find someone else" After saying that, I'm about to leave, this conversation is going nowhere because we're going to argue and fight here if I stay here for too long, it's better if I just leave and find a foundation that can help us and I'm wasting my time I to him. “WAIT! Go ahead and call for 20 million but I can only give you 10 million right now when I return half of it just please be my substitute for 6 months" "Deal happy cooperation sis" I know all this will not be easy but for mom and Nisha I will do everything. Even playing with the devil. I am Audrey Del Rio and this is the story of how my simple and orderly life became chaotic because of my twin...
Chapter 16
"Hmm, be careful, there's still a dragon's den you're about to enter"
I just smiled awkwardly and left her house. I drove to my dad's company, I also wore shades so it wouldn't be too obvious.
"Welcome Miss" the security guard greeted me and I just smiled then I went straight to the elevator going up to the 17th floor where Aunt Celeste is.
And while waiting for the elevator, I met a familiar face. "Miss Rodriguez?"
Wait is he..? "Stephen Nepumoceno, you remember?"
Oh Stephen "Oh Mr. Nepumoceno what are you doing here?"
"I have a meeting with Mr. Rodriguez, you?"
"Nothing important" was all I could answer because the elevator opened and we entered. "Uhm, how are you? Didn't you get a minor injury or something?"
"Nah I'm fine you don't have to worry that much"
Silence... I don't know why my social battery doesn't seem to work when I'm pretending to be Andrea because I'm afraid that someone will find me or something so even when I talk as Audrey it seems like I'm a snob while pretending to be Andrea. "Anyways, are you an employee here? Or are you just visiting someone?"
That's right, talk to me because I won't start a conversation and I might say or do something wrong like last time.
"Uhm nope I'm the owner's daughter and my mom seems to need something from me so I am here, are you an investor or something?"
"Oh I see, I heard that just recently Mr. Rodriguez's daughter got married but well I am a mall owner and your dad wants to talk about opening a new branch of store in our mall"
Okay. I'm not into their business, so I don't care, that's why I entered the entertainment industry, because even though I'm smart, my liking is far beyond our father's expectations. I have reached my destination so I said goodbye.
"I see, I'm here so you and Papa can have a good conversation"
I said as I leave. Marielle Lopez, who I think is the leader of the designing team, greeted me when I read her ID. "Here we are ma'am"
He accompanied me to the conference room and the first time I saw the designs, it was so painful to my eyes that he was too old for me. It was obvious that he had no experience in the international market.
"Uhm is this what you call design?"
I asked the designers as they handed me the samples. If my boss in China had seen this, they would have been fired a while ago. Gosh, the color combinations are outdated as if there is no element of aesthetics. "Do you even know that this type of design is not noticed by customers locally? Especially in international markets, that's why the sales of your designs are decreasing in 2016"
I said that gave them goosebumps. I know they'll have that because it's too much for me right now. But from my experience in other countries, it's not as strict as international bosses. Another thing is that Aunt Celeste gave me the authority to give comments and violent reactions if I don't like their designs so that they can do something immediately before the holiday productions.
"And you expect me to promote and be your model for this? No thanks you should start making new design and make the folders that I will send as inspo or else you're all fired"
I didn't even give them time to react or anything because I was already out of there. And fortunately Andrea gave me access to the company servers so I was able to send the link of the latest international collections to the irritating employees here. Gosh, it's hard even for Kambal ah I know she is not usually like this but duh I'm just helping them out I'm still stressed now they're still keeping up...