Chapter 5 Chapter 5
"Yes that will be all" she replied with a smile.
He got the bottle of whiskey from the drink bar and handed it over to her and asked if she wanted to do something else.
"Sit down and let's get down to business". I instructed with a serious tone.
She did so and then I began,
"I am Duke Smith, an entrepreneur as you know and I only need one time from you which is for you to get pregnant for
I had to make sure she accepts my proposal as she was very beautiful. if I had to accept my mom's request, I had to have a child with a beautiful lady.
"Now, this is the contract. I want you to be pregnant for me and I am going to pay you the sum of one hundred thousand dollars". I announced.
"one hundred thousand dollars? she exclaimed in disbelieve.
" Yeah, you heard me right". I confirmed it.
She was shaking as she couldn't believe the offer. So I asked,
"Are you accepting the offer or not?".
" Of course I am accepting it with all pleasure". She answered.
"You will be paid fifty dollars now, and the rest when my baby will be born". I told her.
" No problem". She accepted.
"Also, from the moment my specialist confirms that you are expecting, you will have to move in with me so that I can monitor you". I continued.
" Okay, so what about the costs for my upkeep will I be the person to do that?". She inquired.
"I was coming to that of course, you will be taken care of and every one of your needs will be covered by me so no need to worry your Head". I said.
Duke was very passionate about children that were he was venturing into that deal. He too wanted a kid to rule after his reign even though he swore never to settle with any lady.
The lady's excitement was out of this world so much that she couldn't even hide her happiness.
'I am sure she is thinking that she has landed herself a lifetime opportunity". Duke said to himself.
The night prevailed a good one as Duke went into his bathroom and took a shower coming out like a fine work of art taken so much time to create.
"Are you ready to take a quick test?", He inquired going into the closet to get a test drive.
" test?", she asked in amazement with a nervous face.
"Yes a test, you don't just expect me to make love with you with any protection, or are you?". He asked in discontentment.
She was silent and couldn't answer. Her face betrayed her as it gave way to what she was thinking immediately.
Duke was a cunning yet intelligent young man and he didn't like taking chances about anything in life.
He pulled out the experiment and waited for the result to know if she was safe or not before engaging anything with her.
He needed to know her genotype too and technology had simplified everything and in some minutes he was going to know everything he had got to learn.
He could aww the fear and panic in her eyes as she couldn't decipher whether or not the results were going to be in her favor.
" Calm down girl you don't need to be all tensed it is just an examination and if it is proven otherwise, I will still give you some cash for the time wastes okay?". He said with a little smile on his lips.
That alone made the lady to be encouraged and she sighed in contentment.
He took out a new object and made a small opening on her and letting her blood fall in the test drive to get the process done.
After that, he gave her cotton soaked with alcohol to press against the bleading part to stop the blood from flowing.
She did that as he comforts her and made sure she was okay for the next step.
She got up and went to the fridge by the side is the room and got herself a chilled bottle of drink to relax while calming herself down.
"Are you good?", he asked in other to start up a conversation since the atmosphere was too tensed.
'I am fine just haven't done this before. I can't explain how it is to be pregnant*. She clarified.
He looked at her thinking in his mind that she is going to be the perfect one for the job besides he didn't want any entanglement after the born will be born.
The lady needed money and signing up for this deal wasn't going to be a problem for her so long as the cash will be in her possession once everything will be over.
" Can you tell me a little about yourself?". He asked as he raised from the chair he was sitting ongoingly closed to the lady.
She looks at him and chuckles making her way in the other direction she said"I am just a young woman with ambitions who is ready to do anything to make a living for herself.
I am a stripper like you know and I dance in bars and follow potential clients back home for fun and of course for the money you know.
Just by hearing those words down her mouth, Duke knew what he was venturing into and the kind of lady he was about signing a deal with in case the results came out good.
"So if we have this deal, I hope you won't cause me any problems after handing over my child to be". Duke asked raising one of his brows to show how serious he is.
" You have my word I won't ever show my face around". She promises without any reticence.
Things were going in nicely so I went to the test to verify what the result was and it was not as pleasant as I had wished it to be but I had to keep to my words of setting her for the night.
"I think that there's a minor issue here and hence, I am sorry we aren't compatible to carry out the deal". He said looking at the test results.
The lady looked at him and with a heavy hiss, she took her bag and shoes into her hands and was walking out of the room.
" Just a minute", Duke said out loud.
She turned with so much fury on her face and asked,
"What do you want again?.
He took out some money from his drawer and handed it over to the lady saying,
" I am a gentleman, so I can't waste the precious time of a beautiful lady like you".
She took the money and left the room.
Duke sat down on his bed again as he leaned over thinking hard of a different way of getting what he so much desires.
He fell asleep on his bed and the night was short as he was awakened by a bang on his door,
"Open Sir Duke", the voice screamed.
As he struggled to get up from the bed like a drunkard who has been drowning in his worries while taking so many bottles of liquor, he was able to reach the door.
As he opened the door, he saw one of his staff,
" What is the matter", he asked all confused.
Catching her whiff, she true talking but to go avail.
"Can you calm down for a minute and tell me what happened?", he asked more confused but this time with a striking difference in his voice as he was getting impatient and angry already.
" The hotel is on fore Sir so you have to leave here right now", She screamed out.
Upon hearing this, he took out his phone and some important things and left the hotel straight away.
The hotel was already covered with smoke by the time they left his room and everyone had gotten out of their rooms.
That was what they thought when they arrived outside but one of the staff pointed out that a colleague was nowhere to be found.
"Where is Betty?", a staff shouted out.
Everyone was breathing hard from the smoke they had inhaled from the fire and no one had realized that Betty was not out.
Triggered by the cacophony, Duke walked towards the staff and asked what had happened.
" Sir Duke, there is someone still trapped in the hotel, she is in danger", another staff cried out
"Who is this person?", he asked worriedly.
" She is the recruit in the hotel and i believe she was cleaning one of the rooms when the fire broke out", a colleague related.
"We need to save her she's the youngest amongst us and her mother is not well". The staff cried out.
This was a very challenging situation for Duke as he had to show his staff that he is not a weakling or a Bad Boss.
" I will go in there and look for her", He said.
When his staff heard this, they were all stunned as to what they had heard.
He turned and asked one of the staff what he was staring at or will she tell him what room she was cleaning.
"She is in room 13, that is where she said she was going to clean", She related.
" Are the fire regiments on their way here already?", he yelled out.
"Yes Boss", a voice answered from the crowd.
He sucked himself with water and he took a towel and went in. rge burning furnace. He had no idea of what he was doing, but he had to set a good example. the others.
Some minutes later, the media had already arrived so as the fire extinguishers.
" Where can I find this lady now, the fire is too hot", he related.
"Help me, somebody... Is there anyone out there, help me please'. A voice was screaming out from the fire.
"I can hear someone calling out for help", he said to himself.
He ran towards the direction where he was getting the voice from and he shouted out to get a clearer version of the voice he had heard.
"Anyone here, I am here to help", he continued.
When Bethany heard someone's voice, she used all her last energy to shout out for help and Duke could hear her.
He rushed to the area and with just one push from his right leg, he was able to get the door open.
Bethany was suffocating and her breath was slowly going away.
He looked at the soaked towel and put it around her and on her face taking away the hotness from the burning furnace.
" I am here to help you but you need to get to and walk. Can you at least support yourself on me?", he asked.
Bethany tried to walk but she noticed that her left foot was stuck under a ceiling block that had fallen.
"I can't walk sir so please go" She cried out.
"I can't leave you here Ms., I didn't come this far to leave you here". He explained.
He got up and tried removing the shafts from the ceiling that had fallen on her leg but the pain was so much to bear so she cried more.
" You have to try again, I will toss it away", he insisted.
It seems like Bethany had already given up as she was transmitting her last words to her mom and brother.
"Please sir take this chain, this is a gift from my mom and I cherish it so much. Please tell her that I love her and that she will get well from the sickness that has been disturbing her for years now". She talked to Duke not knowing that he is her boss.
" No Ms., please don't say that because you will get out of here", he reassured her.
Before he could say anything further, Bethany had passed out in his hands and this freaked him out.
"Hey Ms., wake up please, help is on the way", he spoke terrified.
He was thinking that she was dead, so he carried her in his arms and rushed her out not minding the fire.
He struggled out while the fire extinguishers helped him out as they saw him. The fire had burned out almost half of the building but there was no human loss.
" Thank you sir for saving her, you are a true hero", Compliments started coming from every corner and he was amazed by what he just did.
The media had shown everything that had happened and they had captured him coming out with an unconscious young lady in his arms.
"Mr. Duke we could see how brave you were as you went into the burning furnace and saved the life of your staff, what do you have to say about the reason behind the fire incident?". A journalist asked.
Duke looked at them and without any word, he looked at the lady on the stretcher as the doctors tried to revive her with the oxygen they placed on her nostrils.
He looked at her with so much concern like he had known her for ages.
" How can someone be so beautiful?", he asked himself not realizing that he was talking out loud.
He was immediately brought back to consciousness when staff asked,
"What was that Sir?".
The ambulance was already leaving when he asked that he wants to go with the patient.
He assigned the receptionist to contact Bethany's parents to let them know in which hospital their daughter was been taken to.
He got into the ambulance and they drove off.
"Did you just see what happened some minutes ago?", one of the staff asked.
" I couldn't believe my ears when Sir Duke said he was going to look for the girl in the burning furnace". Another one answered.
"Is this the Sir Duke that we know, or has he been struck with a heart at last"? Someone added from behind.
" He even followed the ambulance to the hospital, something he can never do for anyone because he thinks money can buy everything". The staff continued.
They were all in total shock that they couldn't believe their eyes. Yes, people could change for the better depending on the circumstances.
*** In the Ambulance***
He couldn't stop looking at Bethany as though he had known her for so long. The connection he had from the moment he saw her in the for till now is something he can't even explain.
"Please drive faster", he mounted pressure on the ambulance's driver.
" Calm down she will be fine sir, she just had too much smoke into her system", the nurse sitting by him in the ambulance let out.
He could stop but worry. He got distracted by the sound of his phone and he took it out from his pocket and read the name on the screen.
"Hello", he answered
" Hello, Duke, I just saw what happened to the hotel. How are you now, hope everything is fine with you". Henry asked worriedly.
"I am fine bro, but one of my staff got trapped in the smoke and she is unconscious squabbling for her life as we speak.
" Oh my goodness, just text me your address and I will be there in no time". He mumbled.
Henry was more like a brother to Duke and they always had each other's back.
A sound was heard as though something had fallen in the car. Certainly, the necklace Bethany had in her hands had fallen off and Duke had heard it fall.
He picked it up and looked at it for a moment, and he decided to put it in his pocket.
The ambulance finally arrived at the hospital and the nurses came out and with gentleness, they brought out the patient and took her into the early for the smoke to be removed from her system.
He followed them as they went in till he reached the visitors limit and he was told that he couldn't go any further.
"Please save her doctor, money is not a problem". He murmured.
" We will try our utmost best sir", the doctor answered.
He sat in the corridor feeling so restless and couldn't even explain his attitude.
The hospital was a place he didn't like and because of someone he hasn't met before, he was there praying for God to give her another chance at life.
"What is happening to me, here am I so concerned about this young lady?". He questioned himself in search of answers that he couldn't find.
Time ess passing by and there was no news of the girl the doctors had brought into the ward.
He couldn't wait any longer so he saw a nurse passing and he inquired, but the nurse told him to exercise some more patience as everything will be fine.
As he wondered there confused, he remembered his first love, Julianne whole he loved so much and how she was always hospitalized because she was suffering from heart disease.
He recalled how he had visited the hospital severally to see her till the hospital staff had become familiar with his countenance.
He loved her with every fiber of his being and he was ready to do anything just to save her but the deceit she later discovered behind that incident was what made him vow never to fall in love with any lady till he dies.
The works were full of deceitful people who will do anything for money and fame even to the extent of becoming psychopaths if it will give them what their hearts yearn for.
" Duke you don't have the right to be weak, Julianne is all in the past", he muttered.