Chapter 1

“I'm sorry but there can't be any assistance rendered to you.”

The receptionist's words slapped me across the face as she looked through me and shifted her gaze back to the computer in front of her.

“Your mother is not eligible to get her insurance.” She said again, irritated, clearly irritated by the refusal to walk away.

“We suggest you seek help elsewhere. Have a great day and enjoy yourself”

Enjoy?

I felt my lungs emptying of air as my eyes ran over the words on the piece of paper.

My fingers trembled as I took a few steps backward, but I lost balance and crashed into the torn couch on the left side of the office.

It can't be, I muttered to myself. There is no way my stepfather sold my mother's house. Where does he want me to move to?

I took a deep breath and stared harder at the quit notice but it is still very much the same. I had less than two weeks to move. How could he do this to me? He has practically left me unsuspecting.

When the tears rolling down my cheeks blurred my vision, I dropped the piece of paper on the table and placed my head between my legs.

I have had to endure a lot of hardships in my life, but this particular one has left me no means of solution.

My father died when I was very young, I barely have any memories of him. After a while, my mother married Grayson, and they were together throughout my childhood.

My mother passed away last year, finally succumbing to a terminal illness. Even before my mother passed away, my stepfather had been maltreating me making me a slave to him and his daughter Cecily.

So, I was not all that surprised when my suffering increased the instant my mother gave up the ghost and was laid to rest. Before my mother died, I had struggled to get through high school nursing my hopes of becoming a popular model and fashion designer.

My mother left me a small fortune before she passed on, but my stepfather took control of everything and gambled it all away. He was a reckless hedonist and a wasteful person. Since I had no power over him and his antics, I watched him live every day of his life in poverty.

Little did I know that he would end up selling my mother's house and wasting the money on his usual frivolities. I also knew that he would pass away from kidney disease a week before I discovered that he had sold our house.

I stayed up all night, shivering and trembling with thoughts of the misfortune that was bound to occur, swarming in my mind. I had reached out to sorority houses and orphanages in the city but none of them was willing to take me in.

The pressure, coupled with the stress, has left my health deteriorating. The owner of my house would show up the next morning and there was no doubt that I would be thrown out of the property.

I woke up to a loud knocking on my door. I jumped up to the floor immediately, running my hands over my face to wipe the blurriness in my eyes. I threw a glance at the wall clock in the living room. It was 7:00 in the morning.

“Where are the occupants in this house?" A voice asked. "Are they deaf?”

A loud voice accompanied the harsh knocking on the door. “What sort of nonsense is this? This is not part of the agreement"

By this time my legs had become too weak to carry the weight of my body. My heart palpitated so hard that I thought it would rip out of my chest. After taking a few breaths and placing my hand on my chest to compose my thoughts I walked towards the door and opened it.

“Hello,” I stuttered,” my name is Sophie. I am the…”

The foreman did not allow me to finish my statement; he stretched his hand and brushed me out of the way, storming into the living room.

“I thought you had been asked to quit the apartment a month ago.”

The man's eyes bore into mine like hot coals, penetrating through my confident facade. Prickly, as he stared at me as though I was a cockroach he would stomp to death anytime.

“I am sorry. I didn't know my stepfather had sold our house all this while.”

“Well, that is none of my business. Tell it to the boss.”

As soon as he said those words, a pattern of footsteps echoed through the room. I looked in that direction immediately, but I was taken aback.

The man was the most handsome I had ever seen in my entire life. He stood at 6 ft, with brown hair, lightly tanned skin, and broad shoulders. He had his phone in his left hand and was still in the middle of his conversation when he looked in my direction, and my gaze fell on his face.

Oh my gosh!

All my attempts to stifle the gasp in my throat turned futile and I placed my hand over my mouth to compress it. The new buyer of my house turned out to be...

“Hey, what is going on here?”

I could not deny the fact that I was starstruck, my eyes nearly popping out of their sockets as they feasted on the beautiful structure in front of me.

My head trance continued swarming until he let out a short cough, clearing his throat.

“I thought Grayson said there were no vermin in this house.”

What! Did he just call me a vermin? But Mason only ignored my words, looking at me as though I had fallen out of a pig's pen.

“This is my new property madam," he pronounced curtly. "Who might you be and what are you doing here?”

My eyes cleared up then and I found myself back in reality. I immediately remembered the predicament fate had forced me into.

“I am very sorry sir,” it took all my mental strength and boldness to utter those words without bursting into tears. “But my stepfather sold our house to you without informing me. He passed away last week, as you know, but I have no idea that I have been rendered homeless.”

Everyone I had told this story at least reacted with pity, batting their eyelids and tapping my shoulders: some gasped, shaking their heads in sympathy, but this man was as stoic as ever. His face bore no signs of expression, his lips twisted to the side in a smirk.

I took his silence as a sign to continue talking and I did.

“My mother passed on when I was younger than this and I have been sleeping my years away with the man you eventually sold the only property I have to lay my head under. I have sought…”

“Please what is the bottom line here?" “I brought my workers to demolish this house so that I can make it into my desired structure. This was not part of the agreement I made with your father.”

“But I said…”

“No!” He shouted back, distaste and anger glinting in his eyes. “I do not have time to waste on this.”

He turned away sharply, signaling to the workers. They lowered their heads in nervous obedience.

“Please throw this woman out of this place and renovate the property I have just splashed thousands of money on”

“What!” My eyes went dazed with shock as the men charged towards me, grabbing my shoulders and dragging me towards the door. I had heard about Mason Blackwood in the news and gossip blogs, but I didn't reckon that he would be as merciless as they had described him. This man was the devil himself, finding an indescribable pleasure in hurting people.

I almost couldn't believe that my words made no impact on him, as he watched his men manhandle me like a grocery robber.

This action sent darts of pain into my chest, the corners of my eyes twitching with unshed tears. If the self-made billionaire and founder of Stellar Technologies did not take notice of the shabby condition he met me in, can he not see the distress and weakness in my eyes?

This thought brought a fresh surge of anger bubbling in the depths of my belly. Without further contemplation, I wrenched my hand out of the men's grip and pushed them away.

“My stepfather sold this house to you with fake documents!” I shouted, storming towards him angrily. “This house is rightfully mine, passed down from generation to generation. It is an ancient Estancia, belonging to a line of ancient Spaniards. Grayson Mackenzie is not from Spain. The document you signed, which presented him as the owner of this house, is fake, and I will prove it to you.”

“What!”

The atmosphere froze, my words hitting like a bombshell. I felt everyone's surprise engulfing the room like a shroud, their gazes baptizing me. Mason Blackwood raised his hand to his face, tearing off his dark sunglasses as a look of amusement stretched across his face.

“Do you mean to tell me that this house still belongs to you?”