From Rags to Riches: The Discarded Wife's Revenge

The Arrangement

Sienna

I'd been at the Icebreakers clinic for four days when I got called into an impromptu meeting.

Dr. Okafor's assistant found me in the supply room restocking tape and said there were people waiting for me in the conference room on the third floor. She didn't say who or why. In fact, her body language felt off but she was gone before I could make sense of what was happening.

I took the elevator up and straightened my blouse in the reflection of the doors because old habits die hard even when your life is falling apart.

The conference room had a long table and way too many chairs. My heart almost came out of my chest when I saw three people sitting on one side of it like a panel.

A woman I didn't recognize who was small, sharp-looking, with an expensive coat draped over the chair behind her.

A man in a suit who looked like a lawyer from the way he held his pen. And a man I vaguely recognized as Ashford's agent from a photo I'd seen in a hallway downstairs.

Surprisingly, Ashford wasn't there.

"Ms. Morretti. Sit down." The lawyer pointed to the seat in front of them.

The woman in the expensive coat spoke first. "I'm Nina Lao. I manage Dominic Ashford's public profile. This is Gerald Ackerman, Mr. Ashford's attorney, and Rick Salerno, his agent."

I looked at the three of them whose eyes were on me and waited.

"We have a proposal for you."

"I already have a job here," I said praying Marcus hadn't gotten to them too.

"This isn't about your job. Your position at the clinic is unaffected regardless of what happens in this room." She folded her hands on the table. "What I'm about to tell you is covered by a non-disclosure agreement. If you'd like to leave before hearing it, you can. No consequences."

"I'm listening."

She laid it out clean and direct. Dominic Ashford's public image was in crisis. The accusation had cost him five major endorsement deals and counting. His charity foundation was under pressure. The investigation was ongoing but public perception was moving faster than the legal process and they needed to shift the narrative.

They needed a woman. Not a model, or an actress, or anyone the public would see as a strategic play. They were looking for someone ordinary. Someone with a real job and a real life and no connection to the entertainment world. Someone who could stand next to Dominic Ashford in public and make people think that maybe the man they'd convicted on their phones wasn't the man who actually existed.

"You want a fake girlfriend?" I asked again, making sure I wasn't hearing things.

"We want a controlled public relationship with clearly defined terms and generous compensation."

"That's the same thing with more words."

Something moved at the corner of her mouth, it looked almost like a smile. "Six months. You attend games, public events, and selected media appearances. The relationship appears organic to the public. You don't speak to the press off-script. You don't discuss the arrangement with anyone, including family. In return, you receive a monthly retainer."

She slid a single sheet of paper across the table.

I took a peek at the number and looked at it again because I thought I'd miscounted the zeros.

The room was quiet while I did the math in my head. Six months at that rate was more money than I'd made in the last three years combined. It was enough to pay off the debt Marcus had saddled me with. Enough for a deposit on a real apartment. Enough to start over somewhere his calls couldn't reach.

"Why me?"

"Because you treated Dominic's shoulder two nights ago and didn't act like you were in the presence of a celebrity or a criminal. You treated him like a patient. That kind of indifference is impossible to fake, which makes it very valuable to us."

"It wasn't indifference. I was just doing my job."

"Which is exactly my point."

"Ok, what are the rules?"

Ackerman spoke for the first time. "No actual romantic involvement with Mr. Ashford. No contact with media outside of pre-approved engagements. Complete discretion regarding the nature of the arrangement. The NDA carries a penalty clause that I'd encourage you to read carefully."

"And if I say no?"

"You go back to the clinic," Nina said. "There would be no consequences like I said. We keep our word here so you have nothing to worry about."

I thought about my bank account and the apartment I was about to lose. I thought about Marcus and the calls he made and every door that closed because he somehow had access to my life. I thought about my mother working doubles at sixty-one with knees that needed replacing, telling me to come home like home wasn't a one-bedroom apartment above a laundromat in Flatbush.

"I need to think about it."

"Of course. Take tonight and get back to us by morning."

I took the elevator back down and was literally floating as I walked to the parking lot. I sat in my car and called my mother.

"What now?"

"You wouldn't believe this, Ma. I got offered something."

"A job?"

"Sort of."

"Sort of isn't a thing, Sienna. Either it's a job or it isn't."

I couldn't tell her the details. The NDA wasn't signed yet but the instinct was already there. Some things are too strange to explain to your mother.

"Well, I don't know the full details yet, I just know it pays well, like really well. But it's complicated."

"Is it legal?"

"Of course, Ma," I chuckled nervously. "Why would you ask that?"

"Is it dangerous?"

"No. At least not that I know of."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I don't know if I trust it."

She was quiet for a second. I could hear her lighter click, she only smoked when she was thinking, and only on the back steps where she thought I didn't know about it.

"You're going to do it anyway, so why are you calling me?"

"I want someone to talk me out of it."

"I can't. You need the money and you're too stubborn to take mine."

I almost smiled. "Thanks, Ma."

"Don't thank me. Just don't do anything stupid."

I hung up and drove home. I didn't sleep a wink that night.

In the morning I signed the contract in the same conference room with the same three people watching. Ackerman walked me through every clause. Nina gave me a schedule of upcoming events. Rick just shook my hand and left.

"There's one more thing. You need to meet Dominic. Not as his physiotherapist but as the woman who just agreed to pretend she's in love with him," Nina said before I left.

She made a call and ten minutes later the door opened and he walked in.

He looked different than he had in the clinic. In the clinic he was just a body with a bad shoulder. Here, in this room, knowing what I'd signed, knowing what he knew, the scale of him landed differently.

He sat across from me while Nina stood by the window and watched us like a director watching a first rehearsal.

Neither of us spoke for a moment.

"So, is there anything I should know?" he asked.

"I don't think so."

Another silence.

"Although I have one rule," I said and took a deep breath. "Don't touch me without asking first. In public, fine, whatever the act requires. But in private, you ask."

I saw his eyes flicker with something closer to recognition, like he understood exactly why that rule existed without needing to be told.

"Alright, I have one rule too," he said. "Don't feel sorry for me. Whatever you've read, whatever you've seen, whatever you think happened, I don't want your pity. I want your professionalism."

"That I can do." I looked him in the eyes.

Nina clapped her hands once. "Good. We will show her to the press on Friday."