Sixty FourNathan "... At ten, you have a one-hour meeting with the telecommunication company. At twelve, you have a meeting with the Admin of education at South Carolina Uni. At six, you have to show up at charity-" I held a hand up interrupting Marcus. "I have to?" He nodded. "Yes sir. You told me yesterday that I had to tell 'you have to' sir." I hummed trying to take in what he had just told me. "What is the charity function for?" "For orphaned kids in North America," Marcus supplied. "And there's a high chance Eduardo will be there." "Ah," I nodded. "Now I get why I have to. Good Marcus. You may take the evening off," "I won't be accompanying you to the event sir?" I shook my head, clasping my hands together as I ruminated on what I had to do that day. If things went quite well, I should be able to go home and freshen up before heading out to the charity. That should work. "Have you received the details of the propose telecommunication gadget from the design team?" I ask
Sixty FiveChloe"Am I smiling too hard?" I asked Addison through my teeth as I smiled at the flashing cameras. I stood on the red carpet. I felt like a freaking princess. I was dressed like one! My dress was a bold red dress that flared out on my waist and was lined with ruffles that swished everywhere I turned.When David announced that I would be attending my first ball that evening, I panicked. There simply hadn't been enough time to master everyone's name on the guest list. So we decided I'd learn a few of the much more prominent ones. I had been worried though. Standing in the eyes of the press, especially the ones that would be at the South Carolina Charity Ball, Nathan could be alerted of my presence. And then what? He probably would not care. Of course, he wouldn't. The magazines were filled with his and Lily's engagement. She was pregnant- again. I wonder where the first child was? I hadn't seen any pictures of the child both online and in the papers. "You're doing just
Sixty SixNathan "Benjamin!" Silver space director, Mr. Hinawa yelled, clapping a hand on my back. It was funny how people still called me 'Benjamin', especially after the whole fiasco with my Family. What else was there to call me? To them, the whole Benjamin family kicked me out and perished immediately. I was the only one remaining to keep the name going anyway. I nodded at Hinawa, a smirk on my face. That was as far as he was going to get. Smiling in public, for me, was wrong and prohibited. I shouldn't be allowed to do so. I shouldn't be allowed to smile after my parents and brother were murdered in cold blood because of the bastard sitting a few tables away. Eduardo. The short bastard was dressed in some silly sequined suit, laughing at something the mayor said. Of course, he would try to win the mayor over now. Anything to get the mafia in and out of South Carolina with ease. "Stop glaring at Eduardo and listen to the poor old man standing before you," Cameron's grumpy vo
Sixty Seven Chloe. "David, I can't go out every single day. Adele rarely sees me. I had to leave her with a stranger yesterday! Did you see how scared she was when we came home?" "I checked the CCTV, the nanny did nothing wrong," David defended. "I don't care. It is perfectly okay for children to be afraid of strangers, yes. But not Adele. She smiles at everyone else! I don't want that nanny ever again." I snapped, cradling Adele in my arms. When we had come back from the ball, she had been huddled up in a corner of the house, crying. Adele was a free-spirited child. If she doubted anyone, then I doubted them as well."Fine, I'll screen for another set of Nanny," David mumbled. "I want to be involved in the screening," I deadpanned.He shook his head in protest. "You can't be. The whole of Carolina knows your face. You can't show you have a daughter in the open yet because Tristan will use her as bait for you. We can let any of the candidates know Adele is your daughter unless
Sixty EightChloe."Yes, it is," I mumbled."How?" "When did this happen?" "Tristan stole their daughter?" "Is this real?" I waited for them to calm down and then continued. "I hadn't believed it at first either. I was raised as Chloe Tristan. He raised me as his daughter just so he could marry me off to a wealthy family and get a lot of money in return.""If what you say is true, how come we've never heard of you from Tristan either?" One of the directors quipped and the others nodded like a bunch of idiots. I had to hand it to Tristan though. He certainly knew how to choose men who were loyal to him. They were having a hard time doubting him even after seeing a video of his wife stealing a baby. Fucking wonderful. "I could show you all the family pictures and videos I took with them, growing up," I said, clicking on a folder on the system. The look on their faces as I swiped from picture to picture and video to video of me growing up with the people I had thought were my pare
Sixty NineNathan Another day, another series of meetings that required my attention, another round of people thinking they could outsmart me but ended up getting fired. Why would anyone in their right fucking senses, try to cavort millions of my money into their account and think I was going to let them go Scot-free. And they say I'm the devil. Hilarious."I'm sorry... Please spare me, I swear I will never repeat it," the man before me begged on his knees. Oh, the old Nathan may have felt pity. He may have thought, "This man must have a family at home, I can understand why he'd try to steal, okay, I'll simply fire him."Pfft. Well, old Nathan got shot in the alleyway with his brother. The new me wasn't going to allow a mere fly to slip past me. I watched the man placidly from my seat. He had worked with me for two years. To solid fucking years. And yet he allowed himself to become greedy and tried to fucking stab me in the back. There was no room for that in my company. Simply fi
Seventy Nathan"Lily, you ready?" I called from the living room. Why were women so darn slow? I had told her to get ready by seven! I had a long day at work. I had hit the gym with Cameron. My muscles were fucking sore and I was damn tired but I had made a promise to myself the day before to do something with Lily that day. So I couldn't back out. I sat on the sofa, wearing a plain tee and cargo pants. There was no way I would wear a suit again. I was too tired to try. Lily finally stepped out of her room. She wore a short gown that flared from beneath her breasts. I had no idea what the dress was called but I was sure it had a name. Women liked to name dresses. "Ready?" I asked, rising to my feet. "How do I look?" She asked, turning around so I could see her. "Good," I replied and made my way to the door. She had said she wanted to go to the movies. I hadn't gone to the movies in a long fucking time, but since she wanted to, there was no problem. She could have anything she w
Seventy-OneChloe"Della, we've seen all the nannies right?" I asked, pausing the video on the screen. Because I had asked to be involved in choosing a nanny, David recorded a video of the interviews he conducted with all the candidates and sent it to me. Adele and I had just finished watching all of them a third time so that she could remember all their faces. We sat on a sofa in the living room while Addison splashed around in the pool pretending she was some sort of mermaid. "When you guys are done choosing a nanny? Can we get a cook too? I'm tired of eating out and you're never home to cook anymore." Addison whined. "Cook your meals, Addy," I said dryly and turned to Adele with a smile. "Which lady do you want as your nanny, baby?" Adele turned her big brown eyes to the TV screen, her eyes scrutinizing the pictures of the candidates. There were five of them in all and for a second, I thought she would reject them all. She stuck a finger in her mouth, wiggled off the sofa, a