I’m so doomed.
Zara thought.
The restaurant was a blur of clattering dishes and loud chatter that grated on Zara’s nerves.
She stared at the eggs on her plate, the yolk congealing into a rubbery mess.
She just needed caffeine.
She needed the morning to just be a morning.
She was supposed to be at work but she stopped back to have a little breakfast because she had woken up late and would not meet up.
She ate really slow.
Zara sat at a corner table, staring at her cooling coffee, when a shadow fell across her paper.
She looked up to see Nathan standing there, his expression shifting from a casual smile to genuine concern as he saw her sad face.
He was coincidentally in the same restaurant with her.
“Zara, Lily Chen’s friend right?”
Zara nodded and smiled.
“I’m Nathan, Ethan’s lawyer.”
“I know.
Lily has told me about you”.
Zara said.
“Oh…You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Nathan said, sliding into the chair opposite her without waiting for an invitation.
He leaned in, his voice dropping to a low, intimate hum.
“What’s wrong?
Tell me.”
She quickly swiped a hand across her cheek, forcing a tight, unconvincing smile.
“It’s nothing.
Just a bad morning, that’s all.”
Nathan didn’t buy it; he held her gaze, his eyes searching hers with an intensity that made her breath hitch.
He reached across the table, his fingers brushing the back of her hand, a brief, electric contact that sent a shiver down her spine.
“You don’t have to lie to me, but I won’t push.
Just know I’m here.”
His phone buzzed sharply, the tone urgent.
He glanced at the screen, his jaw tightening.
He stood up, dropping a business card onto the table.
“Oh wrong timing, I have to go.
Please call me number, I want to check on you later.”
Zara nodded and he left.
Few moments later, Her phone buzzed against the marble table, the screen flashing with the hospital’s name.
Her chest tightened instantly.
Why would the hospital be calling me?
She thought.
“Hello, is this Ms.
Webb?” the doctor asked, his voice crisp and devoid of warmth.
“Yes, any problem?”.
Her hands shook on the device as she stuttered.
“I am calling about Kim Webb, your mother.
She collapsed and some neighbours brought her in.
We have completed her assessment.
The situation is more serious than we initially indicated.
She requires urgent cardiac surgery.
Without it, we are looking at total failure within days.”
Zara’s fork clattered to the floor, the sound was sharp in the busy room.
“Wait.
Slow down.
She went in for simple chest pains.”
“Her left ventricle is severely compromised.
She needs open-heart surgery within seventy-two hours and we would need payments to start immediately.” The doctor said.
She swallowed hard.
“How much is the surgery?”
“The cost, including post-operative care, is one hundred and forty thousand dollars.”
“One hundred and forty…,” Zara’s eyes widened in shock.
“We require a forty percent deposit before we can even schedule the procedure.” The doctor said again, interrupting her.
“Doctor, please, that’s too expensive.
Can it be reduced?”
“No, Ms.
Webb…Thank you”.
Zara sat there, the roar of the restaurant fading into a dull hum.
She felt the blood drain from her face, leaving her lightheaded.
Nineteen thousand, she thought, her brain frantically scrolling through her bank balance.
I have nineteen thousand.
I don’t even have a quarter of what they need.
She pushed the plate away, her appetite gone.
Why me?
She figured out that she couldn’t sit there and cry so she stood up.
She didn’t think; she just moved, hailing a cab and heading straight for Lily’s office.
When she burst into the office, the tears she’d been holding back since the phone call came pouring out.
Lily was on her feet before the door had finished swinging shut.
“Zara?
Why are you la…?
Jezzz, What happened?” Lily walked close to her and pulled her onto the sofa, her hands firm on Zara’s arms.
“My mom,” Zara sobbed, the words choking her.
“She needs open-heart surgery.” She cried.
“Oh my goodness, that’s a risky surgery…
what has the hospital said?” Lily asked.
“The said that the surgery payment is one hundred and forty thousand dollars.
I have until Friday, Lily.” Zara sobbed.
“Okay, okay, calm down…we are going to sort this together ok?” Lily said, her voice dropping into that steady, professional calm that always grounded Zara.
“What do you have?”
“Er…Nineteen thousand.”
Lily pulled out her phone and started tapping.
“The company is bleeding, Zara.
We’ve lost four clients this quarter, and the accounts are thin.”
Zara dropped to her knees, Lily held her up immediately.
“No don’t do that.”
Zara stood up.
“Lily, look…
please help me I don’t want my mom to die.
She’s the only one I have.
Help me please.”
“Um…ok I can pull forty-seven thousand from the operational reserves right now.
That gets you to the deposit.”
Zara gasped, her breath hitching.
“Wait, what?
Lily, you can’t.
That’s your entire buffer.”
“Your mother is not dying on my watch because of a bad quarter,” Lily said firmly, pulling Zara into a tight hug.
She shouldn’t be doing this, Zara thought, her head buried in Lily’s shoulder.
She’s sacrificing everything for me.
I’m a mean friend.
Someone who betrayed her.
I’m just an assistant.
She doesn’t have to do this.
“Ok, it’s enough.” Lily tapped her shoulders.
“Go and settle the normal so the treatment can begin.
She smiled slightly.
“Ok ok…Thank you so much Lily, I really appreciate this.
I’m so happy”.
Zara said and left.
Poor Lily.
Zara made the deposit, but the hospital was relentless.
Two hours after the surgery was scheduled, the billing manager pulled her into a sterile, white-tiled hallway.
“Ms.
Webb, we need the remaining ninety-three thousand dollars locked by tomorrow morning, or the surgical slot goes to the next patient on the list.”
“What?
But you said that as soon as I make the deposits they the treatment would begin…so what’s all this?”
“Change of policies ma’am”.
Zara stood with her back against the wall, her eyes burning.
She had nothing left.
She had wiped her accounts dry, and Lily had given everything she could spare.
She was ninety-three thousand dollars short of saving her mother’s life.
She stood in the hallway, her phone in her hand.
She stared at the name on her recent calls list.
She had spent months trying to sever ties with him, trying to keep him away from her life, but as she looked at the time, forty-eight hours until her mother’s heart stopped, the logic of the situation became cruel and absolute.
I don’t have a choice .
I just need money.
She left the hospital and took a cab to the hotel where Sinclair stays.
I am not doing this, she told herself as she stood in the elevator of Richard’s hotel.
I am just asking for a loan.
He’s a businessman.
He understands numbers.
I will pay him back.
I will spend the next ten years working off the debt.
She sighed.
She knocked.
The door opened, and Richard stood there, a glass of water in his hand.
He didn’t look surprised.
He looked like a man watching a moth hit a lightbulb.
“Well,” Richard said.
“Look who is here.”
“Yes, Good morning”.
Zara said with both hands in front of her.
“I…I…
need help,” Zara said, her voice shaking.
“My mother needs surgery.
I have the deposit, but I don’t have the rest.
The hospital, they’ll give the slot away if I don’t have the money by tomorrow and I don’t want to lose my mom.
Richard gestured to the room.
“Come in.”
She followed him inside, the scent of expensive leather and citrus hitting her.
He sat down, crossing his legs, and took a slow, deliberate sip of water.
He didn’t offer her a seat.
“Please,” she begged, her voice raw.
“I’ll sign anything.
I’ll work for you, I’ll…I’ll work so hard that I’d clear the debts.
I’d…”
Richard laughed.
“You don’t need to work for me.
You don’t need to work your ass up to pay me.”
“Huh?”.
Zara’s eyes widened.
“Yes, I’d give you the money”.
“Thank you Mr.
Sinclair.” Zara beamed.
“But not so fast, he said coming close to her that she could feel his breath…
I want you.
Take off your clothes.”
The air in the room vanished.
Zara froze, her heart thumping against her ribs like a trapped bird.
“What?
I have settled everything I have with you.
Why are you taking advantage of my situation?”
Richard looked at her, his expression entirely bored, as if he were discussing a minor legal amendment.
He picked up his water glass again.
“I am not forcing you,” he said.
“If you do not want to, the door is right there.”
Then he gestured to the exit door
“You are very unbelievable!” She said and went for the exit.
He waited, his eyes flicking to clock on the wall.
Then she stepped into the elevator, then she looked at her phone, the hospital’s number glowing in her call history.
Gosh.
“Hello, Ms.
Webb, the hospital…” Zara ended the call angrily and decided to walk to Richard suite.
She heaved and knocked on the door softly.
Richard opened it immediately as if he had been waiting for her.
“What’s the problem?”
“I…I am sorry, I’d do it.”
Zara said slowly.
“Then do the needful.” He smirked.
Her hand moved to the first button of her shirt.