Name: Vantz Bloomburg

Age: 32

Eye Color: N/A

Hair Color: N/A

Height: N/A

Weight: N/A

Profession: Head Terratologist on Mars

Previous Marriages: None.

Sexual History: N/A

Sexual Preference: N/A

It went on like that. Anything else they asked him, he submitted ‘not applicable’ (N/A) for his answer. 

“Sleeping Beauty Inc. accepted these answers?” Lisbet asked, not letting any of her feelings of disappointment show in how she looked or spoke.

“There’s a note from the intake worker at the bottom. It just says he’s very charismatic when you speak to him over audio communications,” Quincy answered lamely.

“Whatever,” Lisbet said, flourishing her hand and signing the contract. She stood up. “Shall we go, Madam Coordinator? I’m ready now.”

Quincy stood up with an excited, “Eep! I’m so impressed that you were able to make your decision so quickly. You are a really decisive person,” she praised.

Lisbet’s father stood and tried to place a hand on her back. 

“Don’t touch me!” she hissed, stepping away from him. “With this last act, I never want to speak to you again.”

“Ah, Pipsqueak,” her father said, trying to pacify her with the name he called her when she was a child.

“Do not talk to me. A horse you raised and sold would not call you on the phone. You asked me to sell my life away and I have done it. Do not ask me for one more thing for the rest of my life.”

The client coordinator gave Lisbet’s father a sympathetic look before she covered Lisbet’s shoulders with her own coat. She led her outside into the snow and into the warm car that was waiting outside. 

Lisbet did not turn around. She didn’t look to see if her family was watching her leave or if they knew she was leaving. She had intentionally missed saying goodbye to her mother and her sisters. What on Earth could she say to them when she was leaving under such circumstances?

The only thing Lisbet knew was that if she didn’t sell herself, her family’s finances would plummet even further. More doors would close to her. Maybe all the doors would close. The doors wouldn’t just close for her, but for her parents and her sisters. If she refused Vantz, she was unlikely to get a better offer from a richer man. The offer of purchase from Vantz was the exact thing her father had been praying for. 

Perhaps the most important reason to sign was to prevent her sisters from having to sell themselves. She did not want Tiffania or Cassica to be forced to sign because she would not. Besides, Quincy said Vantz was paying enough money that the financial problem would be corrected. 

Inside the car, Lisbet closed her eyes and realized with a sickening lurch in her stomach that she hadn’t understood what she needed to do in the years since she became an adult. She had taken a degree in university, but it had taken her longer than the usual four years because she only took a few classes every semester. As far as she knew, there was no rush. She hadn’t realized that she had to find herself a husband or her father would find one for her. If she had brought home a young man of reasonable fortune, her parents would have married her off to him instead. That would have been ideal since at least then he would have been her choice. Marrying her off had always been their plan. She simply hadn’t been aware that she was supposed to be scouting a rich husband. 

Why had they never told her?

The sharp sting was because if she had chosen someone herself, she would have gotten her husband’s money for herself, and not them. With the arrangement with Sleeping Beauty Inc., her parents got the money instead of her. 

She tried to tell herself that her father had always been good to her. She reminded herself of all the times her father had paid for trips, clothes, parties, and more. His diamond business had crumbled and the tables had turned. If his money hadn’t dried up, he would never have sold her.

That was when the bile bubbled in her throat. 

She was kidding herself.

He was always going to control her. That was why he had stopped her from dating. He wanted to control her. He gave her what she wanted and then he took what he wanted.

Except, had she ever wanted anything that her father hadn’t taught her to want?

It was a paradox and Lisbet wasn’t sure if it mattered if she could unpick it. She was on her way to Mars… and a man like Vantz Bloomburg wanted her. The head terratologist on Mars had chosen her out of all the models available through Sleeping Beauty Inc. Even if he was a goat man, that was still pretty hot.