Two Brothers, One Contract: I Chose My Own Heart

I heard the debt collector say in a malicious tone, "One point two million dollars. If you cannot pay it back, then you will have to settle the debt with your daughter."

My father, Richard Parker, who had gambled away our lives and piled up crushing high-interest loans, clutched my hand tightly.

"Chloe, please help me. Have mercy on me!" He said pleadingly.

I'm Chloe Parker, and in that moment, my blood turned to ice. I shut my eyes in despair.

Just then, a black Rolls-Royce silently came into view.

Inside sat a man who seemed like a predator hiding itself for a hunt. With nothing more than a single glance, he made the menacing debt collector flinch.

"Sign the contract," he said to me, "or let them take you. Your choice."

He held out an agreement and two photographs. "These are my two sons. It will be your eighteenth birthday three months from now, and after that, you will pick one and be engaged to him."

His sons in the photos looked about my age, and they bore a faint resemblance to each other.

Yet one of them looked cold and distant, the other gentle and refined.

Behind me, the thugs who were brought by the debt collector were still watching us like hungry wolves. My father stood there, spineless and useless. I had no choice. So I signed my name with a trembling hand.

Yet I did not notice that the man studied my face and murmured under his breath so softly I could not hear, "She looks just like her..."