Chapter 5 You Owe Me

Arthur smiled at me. “Your wish is my command. I’ll send someone for your things. Just go to the room and do what you have to do. Cry, scream, tear the room apart. Just let it all out.” And then he left and I was all alone again. I wished I could just leave the cruise ship. I didn’t want to be here anymore. But we were far enough away from the shore by now that there was no chance of going back. He’s giving me whiplash. He’s sour, then he’s sweet, and then sour all over again, Lily complained, but then I felt her lick her lips. He’s kind of making me drool. I groaned and tuned her out. I was going to be stuck here for the next six days. I groaned again and tipped my head against the wall, closing my eyes. I should have never booked this cruise. I should have never taken all of those shifts. I should have never wasted that much of my time. What the hell was I going to do? For the next two days, I confined myself to the room. Arthur made good on his promise. He’d had my luggage delivered to me, along with canvases and paints. I poured all of my hurt and anger onto the canvases. While the result wasn’t my usual style, I ended up liking them. They were edgy and it felt like the start of a new beginning. When I managed to make it to the deck, I kept away from everyone, choosing to sit the farthest away from the activities. I switched between painting the ocean and reading the romance novel I had brought with me. The ship was so big that I managed to not see Robert again. Or Arthur for that matter. I wonder if he’d leapt off the edge onto a speedboat or if he’d managed to book another room. But if he was as rich as I thought he was, it could honestly be either. And that’s how I passed the rest of the trip. Painting and reading, reading and painting. And eating…sometimes…when I could stomach it. Lily wasn’t very happy about it. On the last day, right before we were about to dock, there was a knock on the door. I paused in the middle of packing and opened the door to find a crew member waiting on the other side. “Here’s your bill, ma’am. You’re more than welcome to pay using our app or you can settle your bill at the customer service desk on the first level. Thank you for booking with us and we hope you had a lovely vacation.” I took the slip of paper from him and looked down at how much I owed. It couldn’t have possibly been very high since I was very careful with my spending. However, when I looked at the total, there were a bit too many zeroes. “Wait, this can’t be right. There’s no way that I spent this much…” My voice trailed off as I vaguely remembered receiving a card in the mail. A card that the cruise had sent to all of its guests for use on board. A card that had no limit. A card that Robert had quickly snatched out of my hands. “If you’d like an itemized receipt in order to refute any charges, please go see the customer service desk. They’ll be able to help you. Have a nice day, ma’am.” I crumpled the slip of paper in my hand. There had to be a solution. I wasn’t the one that had spent the money. Surely I wasn’t liable for this. Only one way to find out. The crew member at the customer service desk gave me a tight smile. “Like we already told you, ma’am, there’s nothing we can do. The account is in your name.” “But look at all these charges at the bar. All these charges at the boutiques. I barely spent $100 the entire time I was on the ship. Please. There has to be CCTV or something. You’ll see I didn’t spend the money,” I pleaded, not caring that I sounded a little whiny. I was desperate. “We understand that, ma’am, but the guest under your account did. Therefore, you spent the money,” she said dryly. I knew she was getting annoyed. The spots of orange dancing around her bored beige cloud told me as much. “I don’t have this kind of money…” I let my voice trailed off, but she just gave me a flat stare. She was completely unimpressed and not sympathetic to my plight. I sighed. “Is there a supervisor that I can talk to? Maybe set up a payment plan?” It was the customer service rep’s time to sigh. “One second.” She disappeared into the office behind her. I nervously drummed my fingers on the counter and prayed to the moon that everything would be all right. She came back out a second later and crooked a finger at me. “Follow me.” She set a brisk pace that I struggled to keep up with. We came to a private elevator that must lead to the higher ups’ offices. “Take this all the way up. The owner of the ship would like to talk to you.” I swallowed hard as I pushed the elevator button. The doors opened immediately and I stepped inside. There was only one button on the wall. Why did the owner want to see me? Was I in a lot of trouble? The elevator seemed to take forever and when the doors opened, it was like another world. The office was the very definition of opulence. Lush chairs sat in front of a huge mahogany desk. And the man behind the desk… …was Arthur. “What are you doing here?” I blurted out before I could stop myself. I bit my lip to stop anything else from coming out. “I would have thought that was obvious, little wolf. This is my office. You’re here to see me,” Arthur said calmly, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet on the desk. Almara, the ring. Give him back the ring. Maybe it’ll be enough to pay off your debt, Lily urged and I jolted into action. I dug into my purse and pulled the ring out, marching over to the desk and putting it gently down before him. A muscle in Arthur’s jaw twitched. “This isn’t nearly enough, Almara.” I gripped my purse strap. “How much more would I owe?” Arthur let out a huff of laughter. I wanted to bare my teeth at him, but this man held my life in his hands. I kept myself from doing it, but just barely. “Much more than you can afford. There’s no way you could ever hope to pay me back. Let’s just put it that way.” Tears blurred my vision before they spilled over. This was the second time I’d cried in front of this man and I angrily wiped the tears away. Why did these things keep happening to me? I looked behind him at the ocean. The floor to ceiling windows gave an excellent view of the horizon and I briefly wondered if I should just jump. It felt like my life was over. I had no love and no money. No future. “Please don’t do that. Think about your poor family. How would they feel if you were gone?” Arthur asked, throwing my own words back in my face. He was mocking me. I bet he found this entire thing hilarious. This is such bullshit, Lily growled, but I was too busy wallowing in despair to pay attention to her. Arthur watched me, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. I couldn’t stop the growl that trickled past my lips. His eyebrows lifted in surprise, but he didn’t seem upset about it. In fact, he looked intrigued. “If I may offer a solution?” Arthur rose from his black leather chair, picking up the ring as he came around the desk. It felt like he towered over me as we stood toe to toe. He grabbed my left hand and slipped the ring onto my finger. Somehow it was a perfect fit. I stared at it and looked up at him questioningly. “Marry me and have my baby.”