The Professor's Forced Wife

Give Didi to us in marriage, James Fisher, or your family sleeps on the street tonight."

The paper with the red stamp fell from Didi's hand and hit the dirty floor. Mr. Sam Billy and his wife sat on the old sofa like kings. They owned the city. They owned the big bank, the university, and the heavy debt that killed her father's shipping business.

​Now, they wanted her.

​"I am not a toy!" Didi cried out, stepping in front of her shaking father. "You cannot sell me to pay a debt!"

​"Quiet, Didi," her father whispered, hiding his face in his hands. "If I say no, we starve."

​Across town, in a tall glass office, Professor Mosby Billy stared at the marriage paper his parents threw on his desk. At thirty-two, Mosby was cold and cared about nothing.

​"I am not marrying anyone," Mosby said, his eyes like ice. "Throw them out. I have a class to teach."

His mother hit her hand on the desk. "You marry Didi Fisher, or you lose all your money, your bank shares, and your job. Choose a wife or choose to be poor."

​Mosby stared at them. He did not care who the girl was. She was just a signature to keep his wealth safe.

​"Fine," he said coldly. "Just do it. But keep her away from me."

​Two days later, the big lecture hall at the university was loud with whispers. Everyone knew Professor Billy failed half his students on purpose.

​Didi sat in the third row, her fingers gripping her pen. She worked three jobs just to stay in school. This degree was her only way out. She did not care about the cold man waiting to be her husband. She only wanted to pass law class.

The door clicked open. The room went silent.

Didi looked up, expecting an old man. Instead, a tall man in a grey suit walked into the class. He looked handsome and had grey eyes. It was Mosby.

​Didi's heart skipped a beat.

​Mosby did not look at anyone. He took a piece of chalk and wrote on the board.

"Turn to page forty-four," Mosby said, his voice filling the silent room. "Read the case. Five minutes."

​Didi opened her book and frowned. The book was wrong. It missed a new rule that saved small businesses from big companies.

Ten minutes later, Mosby walked down the class with his hands in his pockets. He pointed at a scared student in the front row. "You. What is the answer?"

​The student stammered, his face turning red. "Well, sir..."

​"Wrong," Mosby snapped. "If you cannot think, drop this class."

Didi boiling in anger. She hated bullies. Her hand shot straight up into the air.

​Mosby walked over and stood right above her desk. "You have something to say?"

"Fisher," Didi said, looking right into his cold eyes. "Didi Fisher. Yes, I do."

"Speak," Mosby said, crossing his arms.

​Didi stood up. "You are blaming him, Professor, but the textbook is wrong. The court changed the rule last month. A small business is protected now. Your question uses dead law. The student is right."

​The whole room gasped. No one ever talked back to Professor Billy.

Mosby did not blink. He stared at her. For the first time all semester, someone looked him in the eye and fought back.

He leaned down close to her face, his voice low, barely a whisper.

​"You think you are smart, Miss Fisher," Mosby murmured. "In my class, opinions do not matter. Only facts do. See me after class. Do not be late."

​After class, Didi walked down the faculty hallway and hit her knuckles hard on Professor Mosby Billy's wooden door.

​"Come in," Mosby shouted from inside.

Didi pushed the door open and walked in. She stood straight with her hands tight. Mosby sat behind his big desk, he looked angry.

Mosby raised his head and looked at her. "Miss Fisher. Do you always interrupt my class to show off?"

​Didi did not blink. "I was not showing off, Professor. I was right. The book is old, and the court changed the rule last month. A good student speaks up when the book is wrong."

​Mosby leaned back. He knew inside that Didi was one of the smartest students because he read her papers last week. But her attitude made him furious.

​"You think being smart gives you the right to talk back in front of three hundred people?" Mosby shouted, leaning over his desk. "Let me make it clear. In my class, you follow my rules, or I fail you. Do you understand? You can lose your grade in one second."

Didi caught her breath. She did not care. Her father lost all his money, her home was gone, and her family had traded her life to a stranger. A bad grade meant nothing to her.

"If you want to fail me because I know the law better than the book, go ahead," Didi stood tall. "A bad grade is my smallest problem, Professor."

Mosby stood up,Before he could yell back, his phone rang loudly on the desk. He saw the lawyer's name on the screen, grabbed the phone, and swiped it. "Speak," he shouted.

​"Professor Billy," the lawyer said fast. "We need your signature on the marriage papers tonight. The debt transfer for the Fisher family is done. Miss Didi Fisher is bound to the deal, and the wedding dinner is tonight at the big house."

Mosby gripped his phone. I told you I do not care about this bride!" he yelled into the phone, shaking with rage. "I am signing nothing. Tell the Fishers to take their daughter and leave me alone!"

​Didi froze by the desk. Her breath stopped. Fisher?

Mosby put the phone down and pointed a shaking finger at the door. "Get out of my office. Get out before I throw you out of school right now!"

Hours later, the big dining hall of the Billy family house shone under bright lights. Didi stood near the door in a simple white dress her father bought, her stomach twisted. Her parents stood close, whispering what to do.

​Mr. Sam Billy smiled a wide, ugly smile as heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs.

​"Here is our groom," Rona Billy said, clapping softly.

​Didi looked up.

​Professor Mosby Billy walked down in a dark suit, his face like stone. His eyes locked on Didi standing by the table.

​Mosby stopped dead on the third step. His mouth fell open. The stubborn student who fought him in class today was standing right here in his house wearing a wedding dress.

Didi stared back at him, her breath gone. The mean professor grading her papers by day was the stranger she had to marry by night.

​"No," Didi whispered, shaking her head. "Dad, tell me this is a bad dream. I cannot marry my own professor!"

​Mosby walked down the stairs, his shoes making loud steps on the floor. He looked right at Didi with deep anger. "So this was your plan, Miss Fisher? You act proud in my class, but behind my back, you use your father's debt to sneak into my family home?"

Didi panicked, but she stood her ground. "I did not choose this, Professor. I did not know who you were."

​"Silence!" Mosby shouted, walking close to her. "You are desperate. You wanted an easy way out of poverty. Do not pretend you are innocent. A woman who marries for money is a gold digger."

​Didi put her hands on her hips, her face red with shame and anger. "Take that back! I do not want your money, and I do not want you!"

​"Enough, Mosby!" Sam Billy said loudly.

​Mrs. Rona Billy waved at two maids. "Go to the car and bring Didi's bags up to Mosby's bedroom right now. Put everything inside his room."

​Didi's heart sank. "Wait, no!"

Mosby turned his head . "Her bags in my room? Have you both gone crazy?"

​Sam grabbed Mosby by the arm and pulled him into a small study room, shutting the heavy door while Rona locked it behind them.

​"Are you crazy?" Mosby yelled, walking back and forth. "She is my student! She fights me. I will not share a room with a gold digger!"

​"Listen to me, son," Sam said with his arms crossed. "Rich women in our circle only want power and news attention. Didi comes from a poor family. She has no power to cause trouble. Her family owes us everything, so we control her. And look at her face. Didi is very pretty. It is just business. You will accept it."

​Mosby stared at them. He let out a harsh laugh. "You treat marriage like buying cattle. I told you I do not need a wife!"

​"You will do what we say, or you lose all your shares in Star Bank," Sam said.

​Mosby squeezed his hands into tight fists. He knew his parents held the power. He pulled the study door open and walked back into the dining room.

​Didi stood by her parents, watching the maids carry her small bags up the stairs toward Mosby's room.

Mosby walked past her without stopping, his cold eyes staring at her for a second. "Get your things," Mosby said over his shoulder. "You wanted my family money. Now live with it."

Didi watched him walk up the stairs. A Cold chill run through her.she knew she had to go up to that room with him.