From Miss to Mrs: President Cohen's Contract Wife

DAHILA'S POV

I was in pain, my eyes red and my body shaking violently.

“R…Ryan, please, hospital” I managed to squeeze out but Amanda kissed him to grab his attention.

“Ryan...”

“Get out!” Amanda barked when she took a pause from kissing him. “Mum and Dad said you could leave! You're not even his wife yet”

I pressed my inhalers, perhaps I'd get a little gas to prolong my life longer from the asthma, but none came out.

Amanda laughed again. “Nothing is left in the inhaler, sis. I left the lid open yesterday to exhaust the gas”

My chest tightened. “You…” I couldn't continue, but my teary eyes were locked into hers.

She shrugged. “You can't survive without your inhaler. I just want to see the kind of survival game you'd play”

“Ryan….” I faced him through the pain. “She threw my…in...inhaler away”

I was merely breathing, watching them kiss again in delight and today! Of all days, our anniversary!

He scoffed. “Amanda rules this house now. Anything she says, is my command”

I nodded. “F...Fine”

Moving unsteadily, I advanced toward the door.

Only if I knew Amanda would bring the monster in Ryan out.

Amanda returned a week sndmdm

“Sis, I'd love to go use your bathroom” she'd said on her first day and of course I was against it.

But Ryan had yelled at me. “Who gives you the right to make any decisions in this house!?”

Since then things have been like this. She would flirt with Ryan in front of me, walk in on us being romantic, and now she took him completely.

My chest was burning as I fondled the door handle. I was an asthma patient that survived only on inhalers which finished this morning.

The night sky was dark, no one in sight, except for me and my shadow.

Fifteen years ago when I lost my father to an untimely cancer, mum married Amanda's father in a small wedding ceremony.

I’d thought it would be a good change, but instead, I was introduced to Amanda, my new stepsister.

She completely stole my mother's love and her father — cold as ever.

She got the best education in journalism at the biggest mass communication school.

While I was enrolled at some public school, with just a little fee.

Mum would always tell me to be grateful. “Blame your useless father for dying poor and not leaving you with anything”

Just like she initiated, I blatantly blamed my father for being the cause of my life problems.

But on my 20th birthday, when I went back to our family house for celebration.

I found Dad's wills. On which he mentioned his 10 million dollar asset abroad.

I'd been happy, thinking life would finally be good but unfortunately my mother had claimed it instead, and with the money, Amanda was sent abroad.

“Amanda has the potential of making it faster, wait for her to come back” mum had said when i complained.

Before Amanda left, Ryan became the only bright spot in my life. We met at Amanda's birthday, he'd come with his friends who were Amanda's boyfriend.

I hastened him to make our engagement fast, so I could move out if the hell I called a house.

He was the most supportive boyfriend ever, always there to make me smile through hard times, and made me fall head in love with him.

And here we are…. Since two years ago, acting like husband and wife, trying to ignore the subtle signs of betrayal before me because of my blind love.

“Please help” I kept whispering, even though no one was in sight. “H…Help me” I cried, tiptoeing aimlessly.

And then. “Splash”

A car passed by me in a jiffy, splashing the roadside water on me.

My strength couldn't contain it, I fell before I'd see if the driver waited or not.

While lying down there in the pain, my mind did a recap video of my life before my eyes closed.

‘Amanda stole everything from me. My mother, my husband, and now… my life’

~

“Doctor, is she fine?”

“Don’t worry president Cohen, she would be up soon”

I cou;dnt see anything, he'd felt as if it was getting hammered, and my body was like a stone I couldn't lift.

The sound of a door closing seemed to awaken my instincts, and i felt a hand on my head. “Dahila Williams, you’re still alive?”

That voice…. It sounded awfully familiar, but I couldn't place who the owner was.

I felt his hand on my head, pulling hair off my face. “You were just as beautiful as ever. My delicate Dahila”

Something struck my chest. Only one person dares to call me that - Geoffery Cohen.

I wanted to open my eyes and see if he was the one, but I couldn't, I wanted to lift hand and feel his body, it was impossible.

Tears choked my throat. Even in my vegetative state, I felt embarrassed that I could meet Geoffrey like this again after so many years.

His father was dad’s employee and the first time I accompanied my dad to their house when I was ten years old, we met and became friends.

“When we grow up, I would love to make you my wife” he would say as a joke to me.

But when dad died and we moved to Amanda’s home, we lost contact and reconnected again when I was in university. Then, I rejected him. “All those wishes were our childhood exuberance, Geoffrey, I don’t love you”

I heard a soft cackle above my head. “Wake up soon, we have a lot to catch up on”

Then his footsteps retreated, replaced by the vibration of his phone which I guessed he must have picked.

“Yes?” he asked the latter. After a while he sighed. “So the investors wouldn't treat my proposal unless I have a wife?”

A wife? So he’s not yet married?

“Tell them what happened recently. I lost my wife, no way i would get married so quickly” Then the door closed after he said this meaning he’d left the room.