Chapter 1: Chapter 1

She needed a job.

Preferably one that paid a million dollars per hour.

Chloe Blair was staring at the $500 on her sitting room table, praying it would multiply at once. She had promised Natasha, her sister, that she would come to visit her. And of course, she had to pay off some of the medical bills. The paper in her hand contained her sister's medical expenses. $150000. If she could earn at least $150000, her sister would be saved.

She had done all manner of jobs within the past six months. Let's see, she had worked as a waitress, secretary, nanny, store attendant, and virtual assistant. One job per month. She had no time to spare.

Chloe carefully folded the paper and tucked it inside her jacket. She exhaled. She could do it. She could still save her sister. Natasha was all she had left. She would do anything within her power to save her.

She grabbed the dollar notes on her table and thought about her dilemma once again. Their cafe was already sold and she had spent every dime on Natasha. She examined her house and quickly calculated that there was nothing left to sell. Well, except for the table. She would have to add that to her list.

She walked out of her apartment, clutching the $500 in her hands. Her heart was heavy. She was twenty-five, the perfect age for a runway model. She could travel the world and explore her youthful abilities. Instead, she was almost homeless, with massive debts to pay and a sister fighting cancer. Yet, she believed in her heart that she was capable of saving the day. Her, Chloe Blair, was never one to give up easily.

As she stood on the deserted sidewalk, waiting for a taxi, two Mercedes Maybach rolled to a stop in front of her. She was perplexed.

Within a second, two men dressed in black suits, stepped out of each of the cars and approached her. She immediately began to walk away, her heart pounding in her chest.

"Miss Chloe Blair.." She froze. How did they know that name? She was tempted to run, as fast as she could, without glancing back but she didn't. Whoever knew that name must have tracked her down and would continue to do so.

She turned, glancing at the two men who stood, with emotions void from their faces. "Who sent you?"

That was the perfect question to ask. If you lived a life like Chloe Blair, you would be running from a thousand people. She was a wanted woman.

"Mr. Neil Ryan demands to speak with you..." One of the men replied immediately. Chloe raised an eyebrow. She didn't know any Neil Ryan.

She licked her dry lips. "Who is Neil Ryan? And what does he want with me?"

They didn't bother to conceal their annoyance. Something about what she said had definitely upset them. "He has a proposal for you and you have to come with us to know more about it..."

She chuckled, a slight annoyance in her voice as she talked. "Now, you listen to me. I don't know any Neil Ryan or whatever you call him." The men glared at her with fury. "So unless you tell me what he wants with me, I will definitely not come with you. So maybe you have the wrong person. And let me remind you, Chloe Blair died in Australia. This is Alexandra Daley."

She began to walk away immediately. Her legs were not walking as fast as she wanted them to. Luckily, she spotted a taxi and jumped in, her mind racing with thoughts. She wanted to get away from those men, far far away from them as possible. Who were they?

It was after some seconds, that she had managed to dissolve her thoughts that she glanced back to check if the men were following her. They weren't. She sighed and asked the driver to take her to St Memorial Hospital.

She was terrified. It had been months since someone addressed her as Chloe Blairs. No one did anymore. Or maybe because no one knew who she was exactly.

Eleven months ago, she had left Australia, escaped would be the perfect word. She was running from one of the most ruthless crime bosses. She was running to save her life.

Chloe believed in many things. Defrauding a crime boss was one of them. She was desperate and he had a lot of money to spare. Her father had just died, and he wasn't exactly the best father in the world.

Her ability to role-play in any situation had come in handy at that time. She had slipped into Callus' empire, learned about his business, gained his trust, and waited patiently until the right time. When the time came, Chloe managed to leave his empire shaking with a $140,000 fraud. It was unimaginable. He was a feared and ruthless man who lacked every bit of morality.

Unfortunately, Callus was quicker than she imagined. Before she could plan her escape, the money was linked back to her and half the entire Australia was after her. Everyone worked for Callus, she was as good as dead. If there was one fail in her plan, it was that she had no accomplice.

Natasha was in Hawaii then and she, Chloe, had no friends and trusted no one. She was alone. She had to deal with her problems alone. It was her against her problems.

She had hidden away for months, hoping Callus would give up on his search for her. And eventually, he did.

With her stolen fortune, she escaped from Australia to Hawaii to join Natasha, where she planned to restart her life. But unfortunately, her life began to crumble from that very moment.

After a successful change of name from Chloe Blair to Alexandra Daley, she bought a cafe. It was the best period of her life. Two months later, everything changed.

Now, eleven months had passed, and she had resold the cafe she bought for $60000, her sister was now fighting cancer and she knew she was still wanted by a very dangerous man.

As she sat in the taxi, she imagined how her life would have turned out if cancer wasn't trying to take her sister from her.

Although she had learned her trickery from her father, she was different from him. She wasn't greedy. And that's what got him killed.

She had huge plans for the money she had taken from Callus. But none of them involved spending every dime on her sister. She imagined traveling the world, buying all the expensive things she couldn't afford now, and raising a lot of cats. Yes, she loved cats.

The taxi pulled over at the parking lot of St Memorial Hospital, pulling Chloe out of her thoughts.

She hated being there. It wasn't just the horrible smell of hospital disinfectant or rotting flesh that she hated most, it was seeing her sister dying slowly every time she had to be there.

She paid the taxi driver for the ride and advanced toward the hospital building. She was moving slowly, barely lifting her foot. It was usually a 2 minutes walk from the parking lot, but that day, she was in no mood to get there faster.

The strong smell of hospital disinfectant struck her nose immediately after she walked into the building. Oh, how she despised the place. She wore a frown on her face, as she always did.

She narrowed her eyes as she walked past a group of sick women sitting together. 'A meeting before death?' She thought. Seeing them reminded her of her mother, Sarah. She had also been ill before her death. One by One, the Blairs had left her. No one cared about how she would feel being alone in the wretched world. No one did. And now, her sister was about to join them.

She reached over to the nurse's desk and handed over her visiting card. She sighed as the nurse ran her card through the computer. It was the most frustrating aspect of visiting the hospital: waiting for the identification and the usual reminder that she owed them a significant amount of money.

As usual, the nurse reminded her that she was in medical debt already. "Ma'am, you'll need to pay as soon as possible..." She ended after what seemed like hours of talking. Although she showed no emotions as she listened to her, she secretly feared that they would someday leave her sister to die. She didn't care if she would go to jail, but she would bring the hospital down with her.

"Thank you.." She said as she grabbed her visiting card from the desk. They would have to get used to her paying a couple of bucks every week or maybe, get her a decent job. One that paid a million dollars per hour. Very important detail.

As she proceeded to Natasha's room with nothing but her visitor's card, she wondered if her sister cared for flowers. Everyone brought flowers for visiting. Well, they could afford flowers. She couldn't.

Natasha was lying awake on her bed when she walked in. She smiled immediately as she walked into the room, her eyes buried under layers of wrinkles.

Chloe smiled as she reached her bedside, now noticing that her sister was thinner than she remembered. It seemed like she was shrinking every day. Her heart was bleeding.

"How are you, Natasha Romanoff?" She joked. Indeed, her sister was a fighter. She didn't think she would have lasted that long.

Before she got ill, Natasha was a fashion designer. She was 22 and successful, living a decent life without her family's dramatic influence.

She had attended the University Of Miami and bagged herself a job at a fashion company at 21. She had specifically stayed far away from home to avoid her dad.

Unlike Chloe, Natasha hated her father's lifestyle. He was a dupe, who dedicated his life to defrauding rich men and women. She didn't approve of his parental teaching, which Chloe had followed earnestly. By 16, she was constantly getting into arguments with her dad, who insisted that she needed to learn how to be like him. Natasha was simply not interested.

She loved fashion. She had always been different from Chloe as a child. And paid no attention to whatsoever her family was into.

But what she did not know was that her father wasn't just teaching Chloe how to defraud people, he was training her to survive under any circumstances. Chloe may have had a rough start, but she was able to get whatever she desired.

For the past six months, Chloe had worked at several enterprises without a degree or formal experience. She was flexible and invisible, almost capable of fitting in where ever she wanted to. Her father's training was after all keeping her alive.

"I wanted to see a film today, but they wouldn't let me.." Natasha said slowly, fiddling with her bed cover.

Chloe frowned, watching as her sister struggled with breathing. "I don't think you need T.V now.."

"I do... What else am I supposed to do around here?"

Chloe chuckled, stroking her sister's hair. "I assume you sleep most of the time, don't you? Maybe you could read a book?"

Natasha rummaged through a bag beside her bed. "These are all the books they could lend out. I have read them all. Twice if you ask me..."

Chloe gave up and laughed. "Okay, you win. What film did you want to see?"

"I don't know..." She sighed. "I haven't seen one in ages..."

"I would get you some films next time..." Chloe smiled. "I promise..."

"Okay..." Natasha added. She was smiling too.

She didn't need money or new clothes. She just desired to watch films. Chloe's heart was aching. Her sister didn't deserve such pain.

She remembered her first day in Hawaii, how she had arrived masked and horrifying at Natasha's apartment. Her sister did not question her at all but silently led her to her room.

She had made her dinner, and they silently ate while watching a true crime documentary. She never understood Natasha's love for true crime.

It was almost after a week that Natasha had demanded to know what happened and why she had shown up, looking frightening. When she discovered the reason, she never spoke to her about it again. She was hardly the type to make a fuss about anything.

Sometimes, Chloe wished she could replace her. She thought that she deserved all the pain in the world, and certainly not Natasha. She was a sweet soul who deserved the best of everything.

"I don't think they want to keep me here anymore..." Natasha murmured, inhaling deeply.

Chloe gritted her teeth. "Why do you think so?"

"They say that we owe a lot.." She paused. "I don't think you should keep paying..."

Now, Chloe looked furious. "How much I owe is none of your business. You just need to get better.." She snapped.

"You know I barely have any time left..." Natasha continued, ignoring her sister's outburst. "I'm doing you a favor..."

"Well, I don't need it..." Chloe fired back. "If you expect me to leave you to die here, then I am sorry to disappoint. I won't..."

The room was silent for a minute. Chloe could only imagine why her sister would say such a thing. Of course, she owed a lot of money, but was she giving up on her already?

She swallowed hard, pain swelling in her heart. "I didn't mean to be harsh. I'm really trying to save you..." She glanced at Natasha, who had a trail of tears on her chin.

'I'm not going to let you die, Chloe repeated to herself, fighting back tears. 'I would do anything to save my sister.'

At that moment, her mind raced back to her encounter with the mysterious men she had met earlier. What did they want from her?

Neil Ryan had a proposal, what could it be? Who was he? She began to wonder if her refusal to go with them was a bad choice. After all, those men had come to her with two Mercedes Maybach, which had to count for something.

She stayed with Natasha for two more hours, watching as she drifted back and forth between sleeping and staying awake.

She observed her facial features, bitter to admit that she looked worse than the last time. Natasha Blair wasn't the same young woman she used to be.

She used to be a vibrant, cheerful, and sweaty young woman. She had long brown hair, big black child-like eyes, and thin beautiful lips. She was athletic, perfectly tanned, and had no bad bones in her body. A flawless, long-necked girl with the most beautiful body outline.

Chloe had always admired her especially her skin. Unlike hers with scars and spots, Natasha had a crystal clear skin, which glowed even from miles away.

But as she lay on the hospital bed, her beautiful face was now exhausted and worn out. She looked older, appearing to be in her late 30's. Her long hair was not cut, leaving her face exposed and bony. Her big eyes were hidden behind layers of eye bags, and her lips were chapped all over the place.

Chloe left the hospital gloomier than ever. She promised to visit Natasha again with some films. She said nothing to anyone while exiting the hospital.

She wanted everything to end. Her ride back to her apartment was short. She was drowned in thoughts. She prayed that she could save her sister.

Her legs wobbled as she stepped out of the taxi that drove her home. She was exhausted and hungry. With no money, she resolved to drown her problems and echoing thoughts with a bottle of wine.

Her apartment was the last on the block, and also, the most repulsive building in her entire street. She hated gardening and cared not for the flowers that grew around her house. With several jobs to do, she also rarely cleaned. No one visited her and she visited no one.

As Chloe drew closer to her apartment, weary and eager to get drunk, her eyes darting around her home, she froze.

Someone had broken into her apartment. And he was drinking from her last bottle of wine.