Convenient Marriage: Mr. Nelson's Love Trap novel Chapter 1

The heat of his body pressed against her and the warmth from his breath tickled her ear.

“Are you scared?” he asked.

His hot breath lingered near her ear, making her shiver and scared to speak. Dolores Flores sensed that the man was holding himself back, his deep voice thick with desire. “It’s still not too late to change your mind.”

Dolores clenched her fists and shook her head nervously. “No, I want this.”

She was in the prime of her life. And yet…

The man leaned forward and his lips brushed the side of her neck. “Good.”

*****

Her night was long and excruciating.

When the man finally got up and went to the bathroom in the latter half of the night, Dolores dragged her exhausted body out of bed. She struggled into her clothes and walked out of the room without a second glance.

The middle-aged woman who introduced Dolores to the business sat on a sofa in the hotel lobby. Seeing Dolores exiting the elevator, the woman stood and handed Dolores a black plastic bag.

“Here’s your payment.”

Without more than a second’s hesitation, Dolores snatched the bag out of the woman’s hand. Giving a curt nod in thanks, Dolores hurried out of the hotel, having forgotten the pain she felt in the lower half of her body. She only wanted to reach the hospital as fast as possible.

The sky was just beginning to show the first rays of light, and the hospital hallway was quiet. Two stretchers were sitting outside of the operating room. Since the two hadn’t the money upfront for the operation, the bodies on the stretchers were still waiting outside, needing a miracle.

Dolores’s heart ached as she approached the two of them.

She choked on the lump in her throat as she spoke. “I have the money. Please save my mom and brother…” she pleaded, handing the money in the bag to the doctor.

The doctor took a glance at it and asked a nurse to count the sum. Only after he was certain all the money was there did he ask the nurses to wheel her mother in for her operation.

Seeing them leaving her brother in the hallway, Dolores grabbed the doctor’s arms and pleaded to him. “What about my brother? Please save him…”

The doctor sighed. “I’m sorry; it’s already too late to save him…”

Too late? The news made her cry out. The intense pain in her chest felt like someone had taken a searing hot blade, stabbed her in the chest, and twisted it mercilessly. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed on the ground, the world around her fading to black.

Eight years ago, when Dolores was ten, her father cheated and abandoned his wife and daughter. He sent them to a foreign strange country, not even caring that his wife was pregnant with their second child.

Dolores’ younger brother was born soon afterward and he was diagnosed with autism when he was three. They’d been living paycheck to paycheck during that time and her brother’s condition made their life harder, though Dolores loved her brother too much to care. She and her mother worked odd jobs to make ends meet, and then a car accident had taken everything Dolores loved in an instant, leaving her alone in an unfriendly foreign country and without a single penny to her name. She was forced to go against everything she was taught and sell herself. And yet, she was still unable to save her brother.

Not everyone who suffered such immense pain would become hysteric. For some, the pain would only make them feel uncomfortable and perhaps make it difficult to breathe. For others, it might only make them feel the sky looked gloomy, yet they only had to accept the reality with a smile to feel better, because they still had a mother who was alive and needed them.

After treatment, Dolores’ mother gradually recovered. However, upon discovering the death of her son, she had gone crazy. It was Dolores who hugged her and cried.

“Mom, I’m still here, please live for me.”

During the one month in the hospital, Dolores’ mom, Jessica, often stared into space at the edge of her bed. Dolores knew she missed her son. If it wasn’t for Dolores, Jessica might have already followed Dolores’ brother to the afterworld.

Since Dolores had to take care of her mother, she was expelled from school, but Dolores was just glad that her mother was getting better, even if it was slow.