The baby contract novel Chapter 16

   " So? " She asked the minute they passed through the tall gates. 

   Liam sighed again " Carla, will you marry me? " He blurted out. 

  At first, Carla thought she had misheard him " What? " She asked hoarsely. 

  He stared at her, his gaze unwavering " I asked if you would marry me " He repeated in the same cool voice. 

  Carla looked too stunned to speak as she stared at him, her mouth agape in shock. Did he just asked her to marry him? 

  " What? How is that that possible? Why should I marry you? " She asked all questions at once, confused herself. 

  " Please listen to me while I explain everything " He said pleadingly. 

  " Okay shoot " She managed to regain her composure. 

  He swerved the car to one side of the road and parked. 

  He took a deep breath and started talking " It all started when Dad threatened to take my company away from me except I get married and give him a grandchild within a year of my marriage, you heard some of it to back in there, didn't you? "

   She nodded " Yeah I did , go on " 

  " But I refused, saying I was damn free to do whatever I wanted. Then he arranged a marriage for me, of course I refused to get married to a girl I didn't love, Mom called to tell me the only way I could get out of this was to bring my girlfriend to the family dinner " He finished and exhaled a long breath. 

   Carla looked at him suspiciously " So where does my marriage with you comes in? "

  Liam stared at her in disbelief, was she really pretending not to know or she really didn't know why he asked her to marry him?. Maybe she just wanted him to say it, he thought. 

  He sighed " I want you to marry me, Carla. Of course, it's a fake marriage. I just want you to give me a baby within the year of our marriage and we can file for a divorce and we'd go our separate ways. We would sign a baby contract which would be known just to us and the lawyer " He took a pause and looked at her intently to see if she understood all he had been saying. Of course she did. 

  He continued " To others, it would be a real marriage and you get fifty million dollars if you agree, thirty will be paid once you sign the contract and the remaining twenty will be paid once the marriage is over " 

  Carla opened the door and got out. It was all too much to take in, she felt she would suffocate if she stayed in there a minute longer. Fortunately, they were on the side of a bridge so she looked far away above the water and breathed in fresh air, for she loved to think about things bothering her by the sea. 

  Liam came out and stood beside her without a word. Not that she had any answer to give him anyway. Marriage? A baby contract? The offer sounded too good to be true except she would spend a year of her life with someone she didn't love. She was attracted to him, that was true but was that enough to agree to the marriage? Was she ready to share a year of her life with him? Was she ready to share a bed with him? Was she ready to give him her body? 

   Was she ready to take the big step and become a married woman now? Make a child with him? She exhaled a deep breath. He was offering her a lot of money, and with that, she could pay off her family's debt and also lived the comfortable life she had dreamt of. Just one year, was it that hard? She asked herself. Her virginity was at stake, was she ready to lose it to a man she barely knew?