The Invitation by Samantha Hyde Page A

the end of which I give a huge
amount of money to the winner.”
    And Nancy was
sorely tempted. Which was why she was here. She worked all the
hours she could and still she was in danger of falling behind with
the mortgage repayments. She felt sure that losing the home she
shared with her sick Mother would kill her Mother off
completely.
    “But why?
What’s in this for you?”
    “I told you,
it’s the thrill of the game. Just remember that I will only answer
your questions up to a certain point. I like to keep elements of my
party games shrouded in mystery, it’s the secrecy that makes
everything so much more exciting.”
    “OK, I get that
you’re an eccentric millionaire and you’re looking for new and
interesting ways to part with your cash, but why me? I’m just a
boring old office worker and barmaid, how did you even find me?
Have you been stalking me? How did you even get my address to send
the invitation? I mean, I’ve never seen you before in my life.”
    “No, but I’ve
seen you, pulling pints at The Hare and Hound. I thought you looked
like a perfect candidate and I did a little research into you.
Getting information is quite easy.”
    Nancy had heard
enough. She stood up, scraping back the light plastic chair across
the laminate flooring.
    “Thank you but
no thank you Mr Sharpe. I should never have come here today, I
don’t know what possessed me. I wish I could say it was a pleasure
to meet you.”
    “Wait.”
Something in the tone of his voice gave her pause and she stopped
mid stride. “Don’t you want to help your Mother?”
    “That’s none of
your business,” she said indignantly, spinning round to face him.
“All the money in the world won’t buy her a new heart. And what the
hell has my Mother got to do with you? You’re a creep and a stalker
and I don’t have to listen to this.”
    Not only am I a
millionaire, I am a powerful millionaire. I have
connections. I could easily move a seventy year old woman to the
top of the heart transplant waiting list.”
    As angry as she
was, his words resonated within her.
    “Go on,” she
said against her better judgement.
    “So please, sit
down, and as charming as it is, keep that temper of yours in check
so we can talk like grownups.”
    She glared at
him for a moment, torn between stomping out and sitting back down.
Once again she was struck by how handsome he was. She guessed him
to be mid-thirties or so, a few years older than herself. He was
tall and it was easy to see that beneath the tailored suit he was
powerfully built. The arrogant half smile tugging at his full lips
irked her and she despised the languid but assessing, know-it-all
expression in his heavy lidded, half closed blue eyes. Eyes the
colour of a cold, bright winter sky, she duly noted.
    But the most
striking thing about him was the colour of his skin. She would
expect a millionaire to be tanned thanks to countless exotic
holidays but he was as pale as a vampire. ‘Vampire’ was an apt
comparison in her mind; he seemed like a metaphorical blood sucker,
bleeding the collective wealth of society dry to line his own
pockets.
    And behind the
charm and impeccable manners, coldness radiated from him as if he
was a beautiful ice sculpture made flesh.
    “You’re
assessing me. Tell me, what do you see?”
    “You don’t want
to know,” she said, sitting back down, blushing slightly that what
she was doing was so obvious. “How do I know you’re not a nut job?
How do I even know you’re a real millionaire?”
    He just
laughed. “Like you haven’t googled me already.”
    He was right,
of course. He certainly looked like the multi-millionaire and
playboy she had googled on the net.
    “Can you really
help my Mother?”
    “Yes. I can get
her a new heart within twenty four hours. If you play my game of
course. And if you win.”
    Nancy thought
of her poor, sick Mother and for the first time in ages she allowed
herself to feel something she hadn’t felt for a very long