Gold Digger
Rick lived an extremely wealthy life. He had a dozen cars, private planes, and several mansions around the world that he took great pride in. Despite his success as an entrepreneur, he was lonely. He was nearing sixty years of age yet had never had a lover. Because of this sad truth he was desperate to find the love of his life.
One day, Rick was bored so he decided to take his million-dollar McLaren out for a spirited drive. On the drive, he noticed that the car only brought him temporary pleasure. The pleasure that he obtained from acquiring and using material objects just was not enough for him. He was slowly learning the lesson that money cannot buy true happiness. Because of this, he had hoped that while he took his cars for a drive every day that he would meet the woman of his dreams.
On one Thursday evening, he saw a woman that caught his eye walking on the sidewalk. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Rick thought that he was in love at first sight! He pulled his car over to the side of the road and called her over. They had a brief exchange full of nothing but small talk for a few minutes. Rick fell into love more and more deeply every minute. He invited her to go back to his house and she got into the car with no hesitation.
She was less than half of his age at only twenty-four years old. Despite this fact, Rick truly believed that he was in love with this woman, but his judgement was undoubtedly clouded by his euphoria. After a while, they finally got to sit down and get to know each other. He managed to nervously stumble through asking her questions and found out that her name was Kendall. Rick asked Kendall within just seven minutes of being in her presence if she will marry him. She said, "Yes, but under one condition: you must never question my actions." Rick immediately agreed and they headed to go get married.
The wedding was all that Rick had ever hoped and dreamed. Being in love with and getting married to the most beautiful woman in the world was something that Rick had dreamed of for decades, long before Kendall was born. After the wedding, they went out to eat an expensive meal before they headed back to one of Rick's multi-million dollar mansions. When they got back to his extravagant home, Rick decided that he was ready to go to sleep. Kendall lay in bed with him until he fell asleep. Once he fell asleep, she went downstairs to grab the keys to one of Rick's Ferraris as well as his wallet. She spent the night out using Rick's money to buy tens of thousands of dollars worth of designer clothing before she headed back to the mansion. Rick woke up stunned to find one of his closets completely filled with designer clothing. Although he was shocked, he said nothing. Rick made sure that he would remain true to his word. He did not question any of Kendall's actions.
Image Info: Gold Digger - Via Baimu Studio
Bibliography: King Shantanu Gets Married (Story #2), Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata, by Laura Gibbs
Author's Note: The original story was "King Shantanu Gets Married" from Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata. In the original King Shantanu lived in a palace and was looking for a queen. When he was out hunting, he met a beautiful woman and immediately asked her to marry him. She agreed under the condition that he never questioned her actions. Of course King Shantanu agrees and they got married. A year later, she gave birth to their first child. The queen took that child down to the river and drowned it. King Shantanu was stunned but remained true to his word by not saying anything.
So as you can see, quite a bit changed. Changes include: King Shantanu became a wealthy and lonely entrepreneur named Rick. The lady that King Shantanu met became a twenty-four-year-old gold digger named Kendall that Rick met. Instead of meeting when King Shantanu was out hunting, Rick met Kendall while he was out driving one of his cars. Lastly, instead of the lady drowning their first kid, Kendall went and spent a lot of Rick's money without his consent. In the original there was a reason for her to drown King Shantanu's kids, but in my version Kendall was just greedy.