Emara Stone

"What's wrong with Henry?" My mother asks me, genuinely puzzled.

"He is not the Henry I want, mom." I state, walking away.

I want the Cavill!

6 feet Greek God with blue eyes, 24/7 six-pack abs with least clothes on his body.

"Why? Henry is smart, highly educated, comes from a good family and you have known him since childhood." Her sweet voice echoes through my ears like pressure drums.

"Mom, seriously? I am not interested in him. And please, don't introduce me to guys in such a way again." I tell her firmly, before grabbing a bag of nachos from the kitchen cabinet and striding away.

"Honey, Ethan has already found the love of his life, and I am so worried about you. When are you going to start dating, find a perfect match, get married and have kids with him?" She says with motherly urgency.

"Mom! I am only 22." I shoot back, as if she has forgotten.

"You two were in 1st grade when I was 22." She retorts, as if that made it any better.

Erhhh!

"Because you ran away with dad and got pregnant when you were just 17. And that was so un-cool, mom!" I call her out.

"Emara! Where are you manners?" She scolds me in a higher pitch of tone.

"They are right here." I whisper, climbing the stairs to escape this conversation.

She is lucky dad cleared the police exam or their children would be hustling on the street, selling drugs for pocket money.

"Emara! Get back here! I am not done talking to you." She yells, calling after me.

"Later, mom!" I shout over my shoulder, striding up the stairs while my mind races with the chaos.

I have so many issues in my life, that I could write a tragedy-comedy book on it, and it would be an instant bestseller.

"I am just 22 and under 30 thousand debt." I depressively murmur its title.

"Thirty thousand in debt?!" I hear a gasp of terror, and abruptly look up to see my brother gawking at me with his eyes bulging wide like goldfish. Shit!

"What the hell did you do now?" Ethan practically growls at me, confident that I must have fucked up something.

"I.. um.. accidentally scratched a rich bitch's car." I blink at him like an innocent angel.

"Which rich bitch?" He asks, arching his one brow.

"Some guy." I reply.

"Which guy?" He asks, jerking both his brows now.

"The guy who gave speech at our graduation." I mumble, looking at his hairy toes.

Seriously, why doesn't he trim those?

"What?" Ethan screeches in utter horror, "You scratched Mr. Black's Tesla Roadster?"

I nod, my gaze still glued to his wild hairy toes. Maybe waxing wouldn't hurt much!

"What the hell is wrong with you, Emara?" He yells, whipping out his phone and calling someone.

"Hello, Mr. Black!"

What the fuck! My eyes snap up in pure shock as I stare at my brother in disbelief.

This clueless Prince of my Father's land directly called the Malicious King himself, betraying his own Sassy Queen.

Unbelievable!

I follow my brother to his room where I hear him say, "I am so sorry to hear about the scratch my sister accidentally did on your car—"

Ethan suddenly goes silent, his lips curl in a perfect O and a deep sigh escapes his mouth, "Oh."

I watch him closely as his face falls about ten storey floors and then slowly, his eyes meet mine, sharp like a knife.

"My sister is an idiot. She really didn't mean to write such a thing on your car." Ethan shoots me a hot glare as if he will throw me into a bonfire, right in front of our castle.

"Okay. I get it. Yes."

I feel bubbles erupting in my tummy as he nods his head, as if agreeing to everything what that King of Manipulation is saying on the other end.

"That's good to hear. I will make sure she works hard to pay back the loan." Once again his eyes land me hard like our last name, Stone.

"Thank you, Mr. Black. And I apologize on behalf of my sister, heartly sorry for the trouble you have to go through—"

He pauses, carefully listening to whatever that AI asshole is speaking on the other end, then says, "That's very generous of you—Yes. Thank you again. Goodbye."

The moment he ends the call, I immediately fire him with questions. "What did you two talk about? And how on earth do you have his number? Do you two chat daily or something?"

How did he even answer in one ring?

"You. Don't. Say. A. Word." Ethan raises his finger at me, shutting me up.

"What did he say to you?" I ask him regardless, as he throws his phone onto the bed beside me and walks over to his cupboard to fetch some books.

"Mr. Black agreed to offer you a loan on the principal amount of $32,300 at 10% corporate interest rate for three years, which you will be paying back by working for him."

"What? Three years of slavery under that cold-blooded lizard! Absolutely not." I declare, I am not some peasant that can be enslaved.

Ouch!

Ethan smacks me on my head with his python book, saying, "Idiot! Consider yourself lucky that he didn't send you a legal notice and choose to solve this without lawyers."

He grabs more books from his closet, saying, "And on the bright side, he is kind enough to offer you a job in his company, where people would kill just to get into."

I can't believe my brother is praising the King of EvilLand, all while ignoring his devilish thorns and spiky red tail.

"Ethan, Mr. Black is not who you think he is. He is pure evil, cousin of Satan." I try to warn him about his true identity.

"Well, if you would go scratch my sports car and carve a motherfucker on it, even I would become Satan!" He growls, throwing more books at me.

"Instead, he has been nothing but a gentleman, and thank to his good heart that he is giving you a chance to fix this."

I blink at my own blood in disbelief.

Years ago, Ethan warned me about Ryan not being a noble Prince, but I was blindly in love with him and his red flags.

And now, the tables gave turned. Ethan is blindly following Dakota like a true leader, unable to see that is the biggest villain in my story.

It just feels like Déjà vu, but in a uno-reversed way.

"Tomorrow is your interview at HighBars." Ethan says, pilling books in front of me.

"Read these books overnight and don't mess up this opportunity, Em. You already threw your financial future into the drain, don't go throw yourself into a courtroom next."

My brother kicks me out of his room, shoving those fatass AI books into my arms, with a warning to keep an eye on me so I don't fuck with Mr. Black again.

But he doesn't know, it's not me who wants to fuck with that Black bitch. It's him, who wants to fuck me instead!

God! What am I going to do now?

I flop on the bed, burying my face in the fluffy pillow and scream, "AHHHHHH!" I let out all my frustration, along with my ugly cries.

That King of Darkness has already compelled my brother in his Black magic, and now, plotting to empty my treasure, while making me his slave for the next three years.

Please, pretty lord, save me!

Suddenly a name pops into my head and I sit up, looking for my phone and calling that one person who has solulu to all my prolulu.

"Hey, I was just about to video call you. How's my little graduation baby?"

"Ana!" I cry the moment I hear her voice.

"Oh my God! Who touched you again? I swear I will make that man ball-less." She growls through the phone and I cry louder.

"Ana! I need money."

"We all do, boo. But what's the matter?" She asks me, and I spill everything, from A to Z to getting sued.

"What? Thirty-thousand-dollars for a paint work!" She gasps and I nod my head, as if she can see me.

"Exactly, boo! And he made up some shit like it's expensive and rare changing colour technology and asked me to pay the entire amount of paint job."

"That's absurd! Tell your dad about this, he will deal with that jerk." Ana replies in her classic no-nonsense tone.

"I told Ethan, and he called Dakota immediately, then agreed to all his stupid terms and conditions, and practically signed my life away. Now I have to work for him to pay off this loan he is giving me at 10% interest rate, which of course, will go straight into his pocket."

"Oh, god! That's pretty sick." She exclaims at my damsel-in-distress condition.

"Yes! And he is pretty sick too. I know he is doing this because he hates me and wants to make my life a living hell, that's why he is finding new ways to torture me for his revenge." I sniff with my invisible tears in full force.

"Woah! That man is really devious, and smart." I hear her say, almost as if she is impressed by his villainy.

"What should I do, Ana?" I couldn't help but whine more, getting desperate by every second.

"The interview is tomorrow and I don't want to be his personal slave for three whole years, just like I was his personal whore for seven nights!"

I bury my face in the pillow and let out another scream of frustration. "Ughhhh!"

Why Jesus, why am I your least favorite human on Earth?

"Listen.." My head jerks up in shiny hope as I hear my BFF's voice,

"I have an idea."

🐈‍⬛ ྀི

Hey, do you like pickup lines? Checkout my Instagram ;)

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]