Chapter 12 Chapter 11:
Devon:
I am rarely one to use violence, that’s simply Xavier’s personality, but staring at this motherfucker’s face, I want to snap his face apart.
With one free hand, I yank him away from Arya and send him spiraling towards the floor. I look at Arya, her face is a plain sheet of red and she’s trembling. Fuck him.
Kevin shakes his head and hurriedly rises to his floor; I am keeping my self-restraint from breaking every bone in his body. “Mr. Brookes, what are you doing here?” His voice is cool, maybe even pleading.
“I can’t watch you harass my girlfriend, now can I?” He should be lucky I am not in a bad mood, just one call, and Xavier will have his men teach this man a lesson he won’t forget.
“You got it all wrong.” He says, there’s a cut on one side of his lips, “She slapped me hard and I was being nice to her, I was even asking if we could grab tea together.”
I don’t need to look at Arya before I figure he’s lying, “I am very much sure that you deserved the slap. People don’t just go around slapping people, now do they?” I ask coolly.
His smug face relaxes into panic and shock. “I wanted to ask her why you fired me but she-”
I cut him off by stepping closer to him, he winces when I speak into his ears. “If you touch her like that again, you will regret it, I don’t take kindly to people who try to harm what’s mine, let this be your only warning, next time there won’t be any talking.” I don’t know where the sudden anger kicks from, but this man is as good as dead if he ever comes near her again.
“Do. You. Understand. Me?” I straighten and watch as his face pale, his light jittery eyes giving a jolt of panic. He nods hurriedly, “Now, get the hell out of here before I lose my cool.”
He nods again, giving Arya a look. He scurries away much faster than I ever thought.
I turn my gaze back to Arya; the fury seems to have dissipated. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
She blinks, appearing quite dazzled. “Yeah,” she hesitates before she adds. “Why did you do that earlier? You look like you wanted to hit him.”
The hot fury comes burning back, I don’t remember the last time I have been this angry, “As long as I am here, no one will treat you like you don’t matter, because you do.” Her lips part apart as though she wants to say something, but she doesn’t.
I take note of her appearance, an overall coat hung over a white blouse and blazers pants, her dark hair is wrapped in an updo bun, she looks professional yet casual at the same time.
You shouldn’t be taking note of what she’s wearing. An inner voice snaps at me and so, I turn and begin walking forward. She jogs to catch up with me.
“Why are you here?” She asks me.
“The world believes that we are couples, we have to start acting like it, even though it’s only pretend,” I force myself to say, given the circumstances, the media will be all over our neck, watching us, getting ready to document our next slip up.
“Yeah, well I don’t have a problem with pretending.”
“Alright.” I brush off the change in her tone, “We are meeting with one of my friends at Imperial Restaurant.” I say when we reach the car, I open the door out, but she jumps into the passenger side. With a sigh, I get into the driver’s seat and begin driving. “We won’t stay long though; we have to get back to Vera.”
My phone chimes with a call from Daphne, and I swipe it up and put her on speaker.
“Yes?”
“Hello.” She says professionally, “I was looking into Theo Duncan’s private meeting with some of the board members, and yes. He has been discussing with them on voting you out of the CEO position, he wants to run as CEO, Mr. Brookes,” She says dryly, “Is there anything you want me to do about it?”
I tighten my hands around the wheels; I should have known someone as sly as Theo will want to do something like that.
When I don’t speak, Daphne asks. “Do you want me to fire him, sir?”
I don’t fix my problems by dismissing them; I dismantle them bit by bit and burn them, until only ashes are left.
So, no I am not going to fire Theo. “No, let him be for some time, let him live the fantasy that he can throw me out of my own company.” I say and disconnect the call. Arya must have heard everything, but she doesn’t say a word as I drive to Imperial Restaurant.
“Hello, sir. Mr. Jasper and his wife, Alisha are already waiting, let me lead you to your table.” The butler greets us as he takes our coat, when he leads us to the table; I see Jasper and Alisha on the chair.
Jasper grins when he sees me, we spent years together in the university, he calls mostly every day, so I can say he values our stiff relationship, his arm is around Alisha’s waist, even a blind person can tell the love he has for this woman.
Jasper stands up and clasps his suit together to his body, “Devon, so glad you could make it to dinner with your girlfriend, I mean, like what the hell? We were all surprised when we saw her on Tv.” He stares at Alisha, and she hurriedly nods.
“Yes, so surprised.” She stares at me strangely, I breathe out a sigh. “Arya, meet my friends from the university, Alisha and Jasper, they are married, Alisha, Jasper, meet Arya.”
Arya beams widely, “Nice to meet you.” We slip into the booth facing them, since Alisha and Jasper have already ordered. We get to eating.
Alisha stares at Arya, “So, I heard you work for ClaraVogue as a designer, what are some of the collections you have designed?”
“Oh, no.” Arya says hurriedly, “I don’t design yet; I just work on bringing families to buy our collections. Though, my very dream is to design clothes, I have such lovely drawings for what I want to design.”
“So, you are trying to tell me that you work as a servant?” Alisha raises a cool brow and Jasper, her husband coughs into the glass of water.
I tap my fingers against the ebony table, glancing at my watch.
Arya shrugs, not even the least bit affected, “Actually, I see it as a step towards success.”
Later on, Arya excuses herself to use the toilet and Jasper leaves to attend to a phone call.
Alisha glares at me, “Why her? Something is going on that you aren’t telling me. Have you looked at her? She wants to be a designer and she has no level of fashion.”
“I am not asking you to indulge in my personal life, Alisha, and don’t mess with her. I mean it.” I level her up with a cool glare.
“You have to-” She wants to say something but she shuts her mouth when Arya walks in. When Jasper enters, he mentions a business call and leaves abruptly with Alisha. Arya and I go home to Vera.
I spend thirty minutes with Vera, before walking upstairs to my room, settling on the bed, I see a text from my father.
Father: Bring your new girlfriend for lunch tomorrow, your mother and I want to see her.
My blood boils with rage as I stare at the screen, painful memories start to fight its way inside me and I grip the phone tighter, how dare they? Even after all these years, they still act like nothing is wrong.
My father and Barbara are the two worst people in the world that I know, at a tender age, they took everything away from me. They both act as though we are the loveliest family, but we are far more than that. They aren’t lovely, they are deadly, and I have to keep Arya and Vera away from them, before they hurt them.
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Alisha:
I hate the woman. I hate everything about her, her stupid smile and the fact that she has Devon Brookes wrapped around her middle finger. She works as a servant, how in the hell does Devon not see that?
Let me be clear: I have loved Devon since we were in college, his cool striking appearance and the fact that he’s quiet makes my heart pound, but then again, he isn’t interested in me and when gullible Jasper said he loved me, I said I loved him back, we got married, he’s rich, I am popular, so it works out.
But, I don’t love him.
“What do you think of Arya?” I ask Jasper when we reach home, he’s getting dressed for his meeting in an hour, he’s always busy, working. I don’t even remember the last time we went out on a date.
“She’s okay.” He says, turning towards me, his green eyes crinkle with a smile, “I am just glad that Devon is finally settling down, isn’t that awesome?”
“It is.” I manage a very fake smile, I want to rip her head apart in anger, how dare she? A commoner stealing Devon’s heart?
He comes to me on the bed and sits down. “I have to go now; will be back in the evening, I love you, okay?” His eyes shine with honesty, and guilt churns me inside, I shouldn’t be doing this to him especially when I don’t love him back.
“I love you too,” The knot in my stomach only intensifies harder, Jasper kisses me on the cheeks before leaving the room, when the door slams shut, only then do I bring out my phone and dial a certain number.
“Hello?” The call connects in an instant, that’s one thing about power, when you have it. They will come to you.
“Hello Roy,” I say cheekily, moving to the other side of the bed. “I have a job for you, are you available?”
“For you, I always am.” Roy replies, Roy is like my brother, I treat him like one, I discovered him when I am twenty-eight and he was nothing but a seventeen year old lad getting arrested for getting into school fights, he was homeless, trading drugs and getting into thugs fight, I had to pay off the officers and took him home, changed his clothes and made him join a mob gang, he loves what he does anyways.
“I need you to find all the information on Arya Morris, every single one, her past, her present, everything. Don’t leave anything hidden, do you understand?” I say, the swirling of a coffee machine resounds from the other end, and I imagine twenty-one year old Roy sitting in his apartment, toying with his guns.
“Understood, sister.” Roy says. “I will call you later, bye.” And, just like that, the call ends. Of course, no one knows about Roy, not even my parents, they don’t even care about me, they just care about partying and their social reputation.
Honestly, I am not a bad person, I just hate when people cross their boundaries. When we were in college and girls circled around Devon, I had to remind them of their places.
First it was Lisa Gardner whom I had to pay a large sum of cash to leave him alone, and then Fiona Huston whom I bought a plane ticket for to fly out of the country and never come back, and then a bunch of other girls I had to sweep off Devon.
And, then it will be Arya Morris. I have a feeling she won't be any different.