5

Amelia looked at him with her eyebrows raised and her lips parted, released her clenched fists and looked at him once more as if a third eye was growing on her face. A minute of silence was allowed to pass, until the sound of Amelia's laughter broke it.

"What the hell are you saying to me?" she asked, guffawing, "Damn, I didn't know cocaine was so accessible these days".

"Miss, I'm not kidding." He tried to grab her arm, but she warily prevented him from doing so, pulling him back. "Actually, I need you to agree to be my wife".

"Have you heard what you are asking me? What the hell is wrong with you? You know what? I don't have time for this, I need to get my groceries back".

She tried to leave, but Maximiliano grabbed her by the arm, preventing her with force.

"Let me go, damn it!" She was too hungry and too stressed to have to deal with a stranger who had chased her for more than ten minutes, even in the middle of the street, just to ask her to marry him.

"You don't understand, I'm serious!"

"You're the one who doesn't understand! How the hell are you going to chase me down the whole street just to come and tell me... that you want me to be your wife? I can barely remember your name! Who the hell is proposing that?! I don't have time for you!"

Once again, as she tried to leave, Maximiliano held her back. Amelia's eyes burned with violent fury.

"Listen to me, please, just listen to me," he asked, almost imploringly, "I'm from the Miller family, do you know them? That doesn't matter, what matters is that I need you to be my wife, it's my last alternative, I need you and me to get married, please".

Amelia looked at him from head to toe, she was still perplexed by the normality of a complete stranger proposing to her on a lonely sidewalk in that country, what the hell was even happening? There was no logic to it at all, seeing the imploration in his eyes made her hesitate, why would such a handsome and wealthy looking man chase her down the street just to tell her that he urgently needed her to be his wife?

"Sir... are you listening to yourself? Do we know each other even slightly enough for you to come and propose that I be your... wife? As far as I understood, before I married someone, I had to know them, but..." She laughed sarcastically, "I guess things have changed, haven't they? Let go of me," she spat, wanting to get away from him.

"I'll give you money." Amelia stopped dead in her tracks when she heard those words, slowly turning to the man, who was still breathing heavily. "I'll give you all the money you ask for, but I need you to be my wife as soon as possible".

"I don't want your filthy money, what makes you think I'll marry you for money? What the hell is wrong with people nowadays?!" The woman turned around, walking towards the grocery store, with the intentions of recovering her purchase, or at least, making it again, she was starving, she could hardly resist.

"I'll give you five hundred thousand dollars," he offered, and Amelia's walk became nothing, she even staggered, "Two hundred and fifty thousand in advance, then the next payment, but I need... I need you to be my wife as soon as possible".

Maximiliano felt deeply ashamed of what he was doing, but he didn't have much choice, he had no other option, but to go with another woman and try to convince her to marry him, but the process needed to be as fast as possible, with someone reliable, he had no idea if Amelia, that attractive stranger in front of him, was reliable at all, but he had to find out, he had to risk it, in her eyes he saw a spark, one that indicated that he could convince her. He had tried with more than twenty women and had failed, he was starting to run out of options, and it had been at that moment when he had seen Amelia at that wedding: a woman, not only attractive, but alone, which screamed singleness, something he needed, he didn't care if she was a complete stranger, on the contrary, being a complete stranger helped his plans more, because then they would have less chances of falling apart.

"Who is going to give so much money to marry someone else?" The paranoid idea that this guy was a murderer who wanted her organs was embedded in Amelia's head, causing her to distrust the man even more, everything was too suspicious, no matter how rich a person was, he would not give away money for no reason, without any consequence.

Perhaps the only consequence would be to fall in love, but later, she herself would judge if that was really a consequence.

"I, miss, I will give it, I need you to listen to me, please, just for a moment" He was too proud a man to beg, but it wasn't only his well being that was at risk, and she, she had been the only one who hadn't left completely when he had proposed to be his wife, so there was a breakthrough, besides, if he didn't want to be discovered, he had to stop going from woman to woman and focus on one, because the walls had ears and lips.

"But is that... sir, why on earth do you think you'll propose a wedding and I'll accept? I don't even know you! What part of I don't know who you are is the part you don't quite understand! Why on earth would I marry you?".

"Because it's all a sham, it won't even be a real marriage".

Those words caught the woman's attention, and she gave him a moment of full attention.

"A farce? What are you talking about? Are you trying to involve me in a fraud?"

"No, of course not. I just need you to be my fake wife".

"Fake wife?" Amelia asked, with a touch of humor, but he seemed to be serious, the man who had chased her down the street, just to propose to her, seemed to be too serious, "What do you mean, fake wife?"

"Would you allow me to explain?" he asked, "Please, let's just sit somewhere out of the way, no one can hear this".

When he had met Amelia at the wedding, he had heard his friend say about her, that she was very quiet, like a tomb, that there were no secrets that escaped her lips, little by little, just listening to other people's conversations, he had been getting to know Amelia, the same woman who was there, wiggling between the doubt of whether to agree to talk to that man, or just ignore him, because his words, could only be said by a lunatic. But there was something about him... his seriousness, his desperation, that made Amelia believe that this was not a simple joke, but what could it be? Fake wife? What the hell did it mean to be someone's fake wife?

"Please..." he asked once more, he had a week to find a woman, otherwise he wouldn't be begging a complete stranger to marry him.

"I will listen to you," she agreed, and Maximilian's eyes filled with a wonderful gleam, "But right here, I will not go anywhere out of the way with you".

Maximilian nodded, that was more than enough for him.