HUSBAND FOR HIRE

Lilian stood on the balcony, a wine glass in hand as she stared at the city lights. It was a cold snowy evening, perfect for standing on the balcony.

Taking a deep breath, she took a sip from the glass of red wine she was holding and was grateful for the choice of wine she had picked.

It matched her dress and made her feel in control, what she needed to feel a certain bit of control.

The past few days had been a haze, her life had turned upside down, and she no longer felt in control of anything around her.

"It was quite suffocating in there," she thought to herself.

her mother had held a funeral dinner in honor of her father's memory, but Lilian knew the main reason was to display her as an enticing property for the highest bidder to snatch up.

Her mother was desperate for her to find a husband before the ultimatum given to her to find one expired, if not she would lose the company to one of those pot-bellied men in there.

She closed her eyes as she felt the cold breeze on her skin and wished she had worn a more

free dress so she could feel the breeze on other parts of her body.

She leaned further away from the noise emanating from the house and leaned forward on the railings.

Her mother had complained about her choice of dressing, stating that the color red was not an appropriate color for mourning.

"As if I would mourn him," Lilian chuckled and whispered to herself.

Her father had sent her abroad, away from home to study in a private school. According to him, Lilian was a difficult child who needed to be taught manners. So he sent her away to a private school in Scotland to study, and after school he found her a job there, asking her not to return home.

Lilian knew her father could not stand the idea of people knowing that he couldn't control his only child.

She blamed him for the way she turned out, she hated her parent's marriage, it disgusted her the way her father would treat her mother like trash and the next minute she

would be serving him dinner with a big fake smile on her face.

Her mother lived to please him, and did everything to please him, she said she owed everything to him and didn't have a choice.

Lilian had grown up without the love of a father when she still lived at home, he would come back home late at night when she was already asleep and leave very early in the mornings, he never attended any of her school activities or showed up for any of her milestones in life.

She started rebelling at a young age, running away from home and breaking things in the house as a coping mechanism.

She was just a child, she wanted to be seen, and she craved to be heard but of course, her father thought she was merely just being difficult and ungrateful and so after

high school, she was carted off all by herself to Scotland to study.

Through the years she merely tolerated her father and gradually the tolerance grew into resentment.

Now even in death, her father still thought he knew what was best for her. He knew she had apathy for business and anything related to it.

Lilian loved to describe herself as a person of arts, she loved painting and after studying business administration in college, she went to art school despite the numerous threats her father sent to her.

The only thing she would not hold against him was that he provided for her, he relented in the end and sponsored her through art school in France and paid for everything related to it.

He probably knew she was not a threat to his social life anymore, she thought and smiled.

What would the papers and bloggers say when they found out that his only child and heiress to his empire was an ordinary unknown artist? Now Lilian was back to take over the estate her father had forced upon her with atrocious conditions accompanying it.

She was to find a husband within 2 weeks of coming to the knowledge of the will or else the estate, company, and everything that came with it would be bought out from the Burns family leaving her and her mother penniless.

Lilian had no problem relying on the money she made from her paintings but her mother would hear nothing of that sort.

Her mother would rather die than leave the company to be taken over by someone else, after all those years of being her father's slave.

She owed her mother that at least, her mother was always there for her, attending all her school functions and football games as a child, she even flew to Scotland to attend her graduation.

She would do it for her, she made up her mind and nodded slowly.

Los Angeles was very beautiful at night, Lilian thought as she looked down. She recalled that was her favorite part of the house as a child, whenever her parents were at it, she would come out there and close her eyes then open them and watch the cars drive by, the lights turning on and off in the many buildings below until her mother would come to get her.

"A penny for your thoughts," a deep voice said behind her.

She turned around and found herself looking up into the face of a man she had not seen before. His hair was jet black and wavy, carefully combed back as if he was scared to miss a strand.

She was like a dwarf compared to him, the men in Scotland were tall but their height was nothing compared to his.

Her eyes roamed the contours of his body and she took a deep breath when her eyes collided with his.

His eyes were a mixture of gold and green, they were what the Scots would call hazel eyes, they were the most beautiful pair of eyes Lilian had ever seen.

"You like what you see?" He asked again, after getting no answer from her.

"No..um. I'm so sorry, it was rude of me to stare," Lilian blurted and extended her hand for a handshake.

"I'm Lilian Burns," I stated.

"I know," he replied. walking closer to stand beside her.

"Well I guess everyone in here knows who I am" she sighed dissatisfied.

"Yeah, you're the main prompt of discussion in there, who knew Robert Burns had such a stunning daughter" he complimented, looking down at the city.

Lilian found men complimenting her kind of shallow, but his compliment made her feel warm, it felt like music to her ears.

Unfortunately, she is only in for a one-night stand and nothing more, wondering if he

would be up for a one-night stand but before she could shoot the bullet, her mother appeared behind her.

"Lily darling, there are some people here that would like to meet you," her mother announced.

"Don't go anywhere," Lilian whispered to him before joining her mother in the main room.

Lilian looked at her mother as they made their way through the room packed with people, she did not know and wondered how she did it, crying the next minute and then playing the part of the perfect hostess the next minute.

Her mother had cried the night before, for a long time and Lilian was scared she would come down with a fever or something.

But tonight, she looked beautiful in her body-shaped black gown, almost as beautiful as her.

She noticed that she had made an effort with her appearance, putting up make-up and perming her long hair.

"Mourning indeed," Lilian murmured.

Her mother walked her to where two men stood communicating with each other in low tones.

"Mr. Harold, this is my daughter, Lilian. Lilian this is Mr. Harold and his son Jonas, Mr. Harold was a friend to your father when he was alive," her mother introduced.

"Miss Lilian it's nice to see you, Robert didn't tell us that he had such a lovely daughter," The older man said, and Lilian winced in return.

Deep down, she found herself comparing the compliment to that of the handsome stranger, this man's compliment made her feel like shit.

She put up a smile and extended her hand which he took in for a handshake.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Harold, it's nice to know my dad had good friends when he was alive,"

Lilian knew that was a lie, her father did not have friends and did not believe in the idea of friendship.

Everyone was a potential competitor in the business industry, one of the many reasons she hated business.

"Hello Miss Lilian, I'm Jonas Shepherd," the younger man said and held her hand for an

uncomfortably long time.

"It's nice to meet you, Jonas," She said half-heartedly and forced a smile.

"Why don't you both take a walk and get to know each other" her mother suggested, and waved them off.

He took her hand and led her away in the direction of the buffet table.

Lilian looked back over her shoulder in the direction of the balcony and scanned the room, but she couldn't find the beautiful stranger anymore, he had suddenly disappeared, fading into oblivion.