Chapter 2 - Trouble Brewing.

"Oh God! She sleeps like a drunk!" Amber Johnston commented as she walked toward her daughter's room with her husband Matt next to her. The sound of Amelia's snoring could be heard clearly outside her room.

"She is a drunk. She takes after you." Matt murmured and his wife turned to him with a glare.

"Excuse me?"

"Let's just go wake her up!"

"Are you sure it's the right time Mathew?" Amber asked unsurely as her amber eyes burning with worry.

"It's better we tell her now! What will she do when she finds out that we have to move?"

Mathew asked and Amber reluctantly knocked on Amelia's door.

But all they could hear was more of her terrible snoring.

"Just open it!" Matthew pushed the door open impatiently.

The room was an absolute mess.

There were clothes strewn on the floor and a few of her underwear was littered on the floor.

Her phone was blaring on her large vanity table and Amber rushed to check it only to see that it was an incoming call from their daughter's friend Molly.

She rolled her eyes and moved away from the phone, not ready to hear from one of the stupid friends that her daughter moved with.

Amelia Harper Johnston was sprawled on the bed still in her gold dress and stiletto heels.

Her hair was sprawled all over the bed and her face and her makeup had stained the satin sheets.

"If she wasn't twenty four, I'd ground her." Mathew muttered as he tapped on her shoulder gently.

Amelia stirred a little and then resumed back to her snoring which became a tad bit lighter than before.

"Maybe we should get Mrs Pots. She has always been better at waking her up." Amber said as she looked around the messy room and walked away.

Twenty minutes later when Amber and Mathew are settled on their dining table for a sumptuous breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms with a side of toast and coffee, Amelia walked in the dining table yawning.

Her hair was still a bird's nest and she had been lured out of bed by Mrs Pots with the promise of muffins.

She didn't remember much last night only that she ordered an uber and left right away while Molly still stayed. She didn't even know how she made it back home in one piece. After having sex with the perfect stranger she had a few more drinks to forget and blur the memory of what happened with her and the stranger.

"Hi Mum! Hi Dad!" She called as she waved at them and took a piece of toast and shoved it into her mouth.

"Can you sit please? We have something important to talk to you about."

"Can it wait? I'm really tired."

"No. It can't. It's extremely serious."

Amelia sat down in a chair as she watched her parents weirdly. She really hoped that her father wasn't insisting to talk to her about her MBA. Amelia didn't have the energy to argue about it at the moment.

But by the looks of it, whatever it is that had their parents worried must be very serious she thought as she watched their sombre faces.

"We're broke honey." Her dad said and Amelia watched him strangely.

"I don't understand."

Amber shrugged.

"What your father wants to say is that currently, we're having financial problems."

That's new. Amelia thought as she watched her parents. She knew her parents were big spenders, often times than not they've always made bad investments and they absolutely loved showing off their wealth and showering themselves with beautiful expensive things.

Like the vintage pearl necklace on her mother's neck. And the 24 karat diamond ring sitting pretty on her mother's hand. She had got it not up to two weeks ago.

Amelia looked at her father. Didn't he just buy a Lamborghini Veneno Roadster a few months ago? How could they be broke?

"I find that very hard to believe Mum and Dad. Mum still gave me a bracelet from Tiffany's as my birthday present."

Mathew sent a quick glare to his wife.

Amber smiled apologetically.

"It's true honey. Your mother and I have been hiding it for a few years now. But it's gotten so bad now. We've lost the company and we're losing the house very soon. We loaned a lot of money... We can't pay it back."

The seriousness in her father's tone made Amelia stop and listen.

"Wait a minute! You sold the company? And the house?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"she exclaimed and her parents glanced at each other.

"Well, we didn't want to bother you with it. We thought we could fix it."

Amelia raised her eyebrows as she studied her parents.

"Did you tell Griffin"

Their downcast faces showed that they did. Amelia scoffed in annoyance. Of course they would tell Griffin, he was their golden child.

Even though Amelia was the eldest, Griffin was the favourite. He was the child prodigy that knew how to play a Chopin piece perfectly at the age of ten. He was the child who spoke four languages fluently while Amelia could barely learn two. She was still struggling with French and even Italian.

And he was also the one in med school studying to be a cardiologist. And apparently the only one her parents deemed important to tell about their financial woes.

"Honey, he handled it better than you would have." Her mother said quietly.

"What do you mean by that? How do you want me to handle this? We're going broke! We're losing the house."

She shouted as she looked around their beautiful townhouse.

"I can't believe this! What the hell!"

"Calm down Amelia. Even though we're losing everything, we have some news for you."

"What news could you possibly have? Is it worse than this?"

Mathew shrugged as he started to sweat, he grew increasingly nervous at how is daughter would react to the news.

"It's not. Its actually great news if you look at it from another angle."

"Sit down honey." Her mum begged her.

Amelia sat down as she eyed her parents closely. They both looked nervous and jumpy.

"Remember Mr Carlton Black? The man I partnered with on a business deal a few years ago?"

"No."

"What does he have to do with this?"

Amelia asked.

"You don't? He had a lovely wife named Sarah. They both died in a car crash a few years ago sadly..."

"Dad! Why are you telling me all this?!" She asked.

She had a vague remembrance of the Black family. Her father told her when Mr Carlton and his wife died in an helicopter crash. But that was about six to seven years ago if Amelia remembered correctly. She remembered she was still in Princeton struggling with her classes.

They also had a son. She couldn't remember his name but he was much older than her. Anyways Amelia had always done a lot to keep herself out of the social scene. She hated having to keep up with appearances and always left the job to her younger brother Griffin. He always had a better way of charming the crowd.

Amelia's bad language and uncouth mouth always earned her an earful from her parents after every party or charity event she'd been to.

And when she was sixteen and had nearly bitten off Charlotte Montgomery's head at her mother's charity event, Amelia had been shut out of future events by her parents.

She was glad to be out of the scene, which also meant she was out of New York's high society ninety five percent of the time.

"It's important for you to know. Anyways Carlton Black has a son. His name is Xavier Carlton Jnr Black. He took over his father's company and when I asked him for help he was willing to help."

"That's great! That's very good. So what's the problem? Is he going to buy our company or loan us money? How is he going to help us?"

I asked.

"He'll pay off all of our debts. At a price."

Her father answered.

"What price?"

"You have to marry him."

"You have to marry Xavier Black."

What???

Amelia Harper Johnston thought as she stared at both her parents in shock.