CHAPTER:2

"You're not Naia, so who are you then? And what are you doing here instead of her?" -Marshall interrogates.

Elara is dumbfounded to say the least, her body stiffens up, and she can feel her breath becoming shorter and shorter.

"What do you mean?" -She asks, trying to salvage herself from getting caught.

"I know you are not Naia. And I have no reason to sit here to chitchat with you, you either tell me the truth or I call the cops for identity theft or fraud. You choose."

Knowing her cover is blown, Elara slumps, sighing heavily.

"Naia hired me, to drive you away. I work under her actually. This is just a side-gig." -Elara tries to cover up the actual truth, if Marshall gets to know Naia is her cousin, he won't let it slide. And knowing if it gets out, her uncle and aunt are never going to let her hear the end of it. And the last thing she wants, is for them to find out.

"I want your real name. And a way to be able to contact you."

"It's Jane, and why contact me?"

"You wasted my time here, I obviously need to compensated for the lost time here. Or if you don't want to, I can always call up Mr. Valdivia and let him know the little trick his daughter and employee pulled."

"Okay okay, fine. This is my number." -Elara writes her number down quickly on a napkin and proceeds to get up.

"When I return home, please, will I be able to hear the good news of this proposal being rejected?" -She asks, her purse already in her hand and her legs in motion, towards the main door.

Marshall shrugs and nods nonchalantly.

"I'm still not done here, so don't think of leaving just yet. Sit." -Marshall declares.

As she begins to fall back to her seat, she quickly takes out her phone and sends a quick short message to Hana. 'SOS' is all that she writes, cuz she knows somehow Hana will manage to get her out of this disastrous situation.

Now turning to face Marshall once again, she hears him call onto the waitress nearby. She hurries over, yet somehow tip-toeing, all ready to jot down whatever they tell her.

As Elara is still viewing the menu, trying to find something that wouldn't cut throat her credit cards within the middle of the month, Marshall speaks up. Already ordering, his voice full of authority.

The waitress speaks trying to sound cheerful; "What may I get you both for today?"

"We'll have to Foie Gras, both of us." He nods asserting.

The waitress hurries back to the kitchen and the both of them are left alone.

Elara quickly goes over the menu and reads the price for the Foie Gras, and her brain does an internal cry of pain. She can feel herself going penniless trying to cover her section of the bill.

Elara leans in close to Marshall, gesturing him to do the same. As he comes close, a little too close, she feels surprised, his breath almost on her.

"You are crazy enough to think I can afford a $700 Foie Gras. The most I've ever paid for has never exceeded than 80 dollars!" -She whispers, a bit too loudly near his ear.

She watches Marshall's bemused expression as he leans back his seat, and begins speaking; " This is the goose-portion Foie Gras, ethical is what I'm trying to say. The ones you've had before are probably those of ducks."

"Are you even listening to what I'm saying? Thank you for explaining, but it still doesn't cover how I'm going to pay the bill!"

"Oh I heard you the first time, loud and clear. I just couldn't care any less that is."

Elara is quite baffled at how blatant he is.

As a different server arrives and begins to set up the dining-ware, Elara feels a shift in Marshall's face. Clearly agitated. He huffs out some hot air, and the server shakes in fear, trying not to melt at the very moment.

Elara tries to understand what went possibly went wrong, just within two minutes. She eyes the dining-ware set in front of them, and quickly rises to her feet.

The server should've served from left. As Elara views the server, she clearly understands it's a rookie.

Elara helps the server, as she places the forks on the left side of Marshall's plate, and the knives set on the right side. And quickly sets her own, as she takes a seat.

She feels Marshall's shoulders slumping back in relief, as the server quickly serves and hurries to run the opposite direction.

Elara finally puts a foot down and sighs in relief, serving herself a glass of water. As she's about to gulp down her drink, Marshall questions;

"Why does Naia not want to go forward with this proposal?"

Elara is dumbfounded, but she did expect this question, if anything were to go wrong. Lo and behold, everything went wrong.

"Personal reasons which I cannot disclose with you, I hope you understand." Elara smiles sheepishly, gaining another sigh from Marshall.

"How much did she promise to pay you?"

"The deal was closed on 20 thousand." -Elara replies, she's got nothing to hide. She did it for money, if she were to help her cousin, she would've done it for free. But knowing Naia, Elara knew things weren't as simple as she was being shown. Elara took the bait, because she needs the money.

As the duo begin to dine silently, a loud ring abrupt them both.

Elara mouths an apology as she takes the phone. Receiving it with grace and putting it near her ear.

Hana made sure to be extra loud, in case it was required;

"OHMYGOD! YOU NEED TO GET HERE RIGHT NOW!!! TIM ACCIDENTLY SET THE STOVE ON FIRE, AND NOW THE PLANTS ARE ABLAZE!! EVERYTHING IS ON FIREEE!! GET HERE, NOW!!!"

Elara looks at Marshall, evident he's heard the screaming as well. As Hana continues yelling, repeating the same words, as Elara hurries to get up. Sets down a thousand dollar bill she frantically took out of her purse, and apologizes to Marshall and jolts out of the restaurant.

She ushers for a cab, and as soon as one arrives, she's out of there. Gone like the wind. She lets out a sigh of relief as soon as she's out of sight of the restaurant.

Elara makes her way back to her café, and she finds Hana in clear view in front of her. She smiles ear to ear as soon as Hana sees her. Hana runs to hug her, kinda worried if something was wrong.

"What's wrong, are you okay?" -Hana inquires.

"The only thing that went wrong today, is that I had to give away my thousand dollar bill. I'm still in pain, you have no idea!" -Elara cries out dramatically.

Hana pats her back, dramatic as well.

As they both sit inside the café, all closed and in peace, Elara lets Hana in with all that went down the past two days. Hana couldn't believe her ears, sounds like a drama movie in reality.

Hana is Elara's best friend. They met in the end year of Elara's seventeenth birthday. Hana considers Elara as her younger sister, as she's always wanted one. They complete each other in beautiful ways. They cover for each other and hide each other's flaws. To Elara, Hana and Hana's parents are also her parents. They kind of stepped into her life as parental figures when Elara had no one to guide her. And Elara, became best friends, and sister's with Hana.

They were more present in her life, than her dad's brother, Mr. Valdivia, Naia's family. They threw money on her face if she ever required any kind of attention, and completely forgot about her as soon as she turned seventeen. Leaving her to fend for herself. Elara is forever grateful for Hana, and her parents.

As they both chat away merrily, a phone call disturbs their peace. Hana gets up to take the phone call, leaving Elara on her own. Waiting for Hana to get off, Elara takes her phone and scrolls through daily news articles. One specific article catches her attention, and she clicks onto read it.

'Marshall Wyatts on a date? Is the billionaire finally settling down?'

Elara continues to scroll through the article, but soon she feels her blood run cold, as she finds a picture of herself, from today. And even though, her face isn't shown clearly, she knows her uncle is going to recognize her, if he were to see the article.

At the very end of the article, it end with a cliff-hanger text;

'Who is she? Is she the woman that Marshall Wyatts is rumored to tie vows of marriage with? Stay tuned, because we promise to uncover it all!'

Elara is frightened witless, if words were to get out of this, she's doomed for. And knowing how scary journalists are, she's not taking any chances. She quickly sends a message to Naia, asking to meet up, as soon as possible.

Elara is scared of her uncle, and that doesn't even cover the half of it. That man, is very hard to please, and is a living, walking nightmare in her life. And even though there were never scars on Elara, her mind was filled with the poison he filled. And even the smallest thing sets off his wrath, and Elara is never able to please him which disappoints her too. Even though she doesn't require his approval in her life, she craved his attention as a kid.

She quickly messages Naia.

"Did you see that article some website published? We need to meet ASAP!"

"Chill, it'll be fine. I won't be able to meet you any time soon. I'm with Matteo, on route to Bali. I won't be back for the next few days."

"WHAT?! This is important. What if uncle gets to know?"

"Who's gonna tell him? Me or you? None of us, so it won't be any problem. Relax, I'll wire you the money tomorrow."

"It's not about the money!"

Elara types furiously, but doesn't get any more replies back from Naia, she sighs putting her phone down.

Soon, Hana is back, and Elara lets her know of the exchange that just went down.

"Don't you think it's odd how she always gets you to do her dirt works? Like she could've just messaged him saying no, or went down for a quick visit, and popped back off." -Hana questions.

"I know there's definitely some kind of ulterior motive behind all this." -she continues. "Otherwise, like she could've gotten one of her minions to do it, isn't it?"

And even though Elara nods in agreement, she cannot just say no to twenty thousand dollars. And Hana knows it too, so she doesn't push it any further.

Both of them are literally penniless, each in their own respective industry. Elara started her own café from the scratch, taking in small loans as well. And Hana, a broke law student, gratefully living under her parents roof, not having to worry about money that much, but still broke.

They both sigh and *clink* their beer glasses.

(Non-alcoholic, because Hana cannot keep her drinks down, and Elara has to manage her café the next day.)

As they both finally say bye to each other, Elara is left alone with her thoughts. All jumbling in together. And a *ping* breaking off her daze.

It's a message from an unknown number. And even though she hesitates to open it, knowing there is a stranger out there, who craves her attention to the verge of insanity, which scares her, she carefully clicks on to read it.

"It's Marshall Wyatts."

She's clearly surprised, as she was not expecting him to message her.

"All well? It's pretty late?"

"I have an offer for you."

"And that is?"

"I'll pay you two million.

Date me."