The Married Billionaire’s Surrogate

“We’ll pay you of course,” Elizabeth said, “If you say yes, we will arrange everything. You can work at my parents’ if you cannot bring yourself to look at the child growing up. We ask you a great favor, we know. But it is our most true and sincere wish.”

“I… I…” Alicia was paralyzed; she felt as if the sky opened and a thunder hit her right where she was sitting. She clearly couldn’t fathom what they were both saying. “I… I… I will think about it,” she said and all bewildered, stood up from her chair without even excusing herself.

She could hear her heart thumping in her throat as she closed the entrance door and walked to the garden. She didn’t care that the grass needles tickled her in her slippers or that her black and white uniform was not enough to keep her warm in the cool night. The only thing that couldn’t leave her mind was Elizabeth’s voice urging her to bring her baby to the world and then forget that it existed. Forget that it had breathed within her for nine months, listening to her voice and eating her food. Forget about it and never tell it that she gave birth to it. Alicia had never imagined her life like that.

Sitting on the cold grass she lifted her eyes toward the sky which was a melting pot of colors announcing the death of the day. It’s cruel, was her first thought. It was too cruel and too unjust from them. She was always there to wash their underwear and take care of them like a nanny to two big, rich, spoiled babies and still they got the courage to ask something like that of her. Maybe she was wrong all along. Maybe they didn’t care about her at all and only thought of her as one more luxury they could afford to pay.

However, her heart ached with that thought. It ached with the memory of the day she had come to the Wyatt mansion and met an old lady leaving Steven’s office with a check of a hundred thousand dollars which she had said was for her charity organization. Then the day when Steven had given her a letter to bring to a children’s hospital stating his will to invest in new equipment. And finally the painful memory of her mother’s ill face lying in the hospital bed and the mysterious payment of the expensive bills, which as it turned out was also Steven and Elizabeth’s deed.

No, she had no right to judge them, but they were truly falling apart. She was a witness of many marriages being destroyed in the neighborhood only because God wasn’t willing to give a child to a good and honest family. Now she played the role of a savior to this good and honest family and what if she could truly salvage their union from the ruins. After all, she owed them as much for saving her and her mother’s life.

With all of those thoughts torturing her mind the whole night, going from scolding herself to making herself to do it, she had fallen asleep under the open sky as twilight transformed into evening and evening into dead of night. Everything had passed in a blink and when she opened her eyes, her body was bracing itself for the blows of the cold wind and the dew all over her hands, but that didn’t happen. Alicia found herself lying in her small bedroom, covered with three blankets and smiled. She didn’t need a letter or a card saying who had brought her there. It was a six-letter name. And one that she held dearest to her heart. Steven.

A knock on the door startled her and that same name or the person it belonged to spoke from the other side, “Alicia, you awake?”

She quickly fixed her hair slowly rising from the bed. “Yeah, coming!”

Alicia opened the door to the sight of Steven dressed in his blue tracksuit. “Sir?”

“We’re going on a dinner tonight, so you have the day off. You can spend the day in bed if you want or just go shopping or whatever you feel like doing. I’ll jog a bit and at 8 we’re going,” he said and his sexy smile appeared on his face.

“But… But where, sir? What about the house? The attic is a terrible mess…” She was completely blown away and although she was finding excuses not to go, deep down her heart was jumping with excitement.

“The attic is a terrible mess and let it be a terrible mess a day more. It’s not like those ancient dusty things up there will go somewhere. It’s you and I that will go somewhere and it is a surprise, so don’t push me.”

“I… I…”

“No more excuses, Alicia,” he said and headed for the door. “I’ll pick you up at 8,” he shouted back and left the mansion.

Strangely, standing like that in her pajamas, she pushed all her worries and thoughts aside and the first person that popped into her mind was her best friend Christina. And the phone call with her was a beginning of all the craze around her first date with Mr. Wyatt. Immediately after finding out, Christina had come by the mansion and the both of them had gone downtown, spending their savings on a new gown, heels and a fancy hairstyle. After a coffee, a cold Frappuccino to be more precise, Alicia had urged the taxi driver to bring them to the house fast and hurried into her bedroom, closing the door shut.

Her head was all a mash of whirls and tornadoes and if someone asked who she was and where she was, she wouldn’t truly know. She stared at the red dress for a couple of minutes before putting it on. As she watched herself in the mirror, she couldn’t help but think of Cinderella and the one night she had to dance with the prince. I hope my magic doesn’t wear off at midnight, she thought, laughing at herself and her silliness. In no time, her black heels were on, a red lipstick was covering her lips and a black purse was casually hanging from her wrist. She was finally ready.

Sitting on the bed and peering through her small window, her eyes detected a black Audi coming toward the house and she knew that that would be her pumpkin transformed into a carriage. With small steps, she excitedly went outside and there he was – Steven leaning against the hood dressed in a black tuxedo. Right there, right on the spot, it didn’t matter to her that he was not hers or that he was married. Right there if he proposed marriage to her, she would accept with all her heart and live her life with him. Right there, the only thing that mattered was that for once he was entirely, totally, absolutely hers.

“Oh my, Miss Balfe. You truly look…”

“What? Is it too much? I should have –“

“Magnificent,” Steven said and they both started laughing, the tension vanishing.

“Thank you, sir,” she told him and headed for the open door.

It was quiet on the way to the place Steven had picked for them. She was constantly pinching herself to check if it was a dream or something that was really happening to a maid from the neighborhood who simply wasn’t destined for grandiose dinners and expensive cars. There was low music playing and some radio DJ was announcing the top ten songs on the Billboard chart when Steven hit the brake and parked before the shiniest place she had ever seen.

It was a huge restaurant with lights glowing from all the sides, a fountain and a look toward the sea. A dream come true for every girl, Alicia thought and she was more than a hundred percent sure that the dream would end now and she would wake up in her tiny bed. Instead Steven came next to her, gently taking her hand in his. He slightly fondled her black skin and smiled to her before leading the way.

“Didn’t you have a meeting with someone this night? I thought I read that in your reminder and totally forgot to mention it to you,” she told him frankly.

“Oh, but I love ditching meetings for you.” Steven chuckled and kissed her lips.