Chapter 21 Another Assumption
About a couple hours later, the party was in full blow… father was at work in securing the new candidate's trust in him, using various assurances.
The fresh ones were always easy work…. It was the old ones you had to worry about… because they were too busy worrying about if they were going to lose their candidacy this year.
And then Hunter Schafer arrived… late as usual. He was, in lighter words…. our rival… our only real rival.
On record, he had nothing to do with the politics of this country… his PR team was just that good.
His image in the media was very alike to us, the same wealth, power and influence. Sinister activities were hidden behind legitimate businesses across the country and that was just the tip of the iceberg… it was a whole world of debauchery and deceit hidden beneath our squeaky clean personas.
I raised my glass slightly to him when his eyes landed on me. The 50 year old ‘businessman’ nodded at me as I approached him. Shooting his wife a small smile, I shook his outstretched hand,” I didn’t think you’d be with us tonight, Schafer.” A hint of disguised hostility coated my voice but the man took it with a wide grin, much to my chagrin.
“I didn’t think so either but when I heard of an engagement happening within the Kane family, I just had to come to see for myself now, didn’t I”, he told me, his expression that of careful animosity. He seemed to be on edge for some reason… but I couldn’t fathom why.
It wasn’t like he had anything to worry about… my father was honouring their truce… as he had been for the past decade.
“Since you’re the only young man in the family….”, he trailed off, implying the obvious.
“Oh!” So that’s what he was worried about. Grinning, I shook my head at him. Of course he was worried…. my marriage meant his downfall.
It seemed he knew I was intent on destroying him for what he did to our family, unlike my father, I wasn’t a forgiving man. And everybody knew that like every other conglomerate company’s head, my father would hand over the company to me once I got a wife. With everything in my hands, I would pull over all the strings I could, use all the connections I had in order to ensure that his fate was sealed…. as in, to the ground sealed. And he knew this very well.
I had been too busy in mulling the whole thing over to correct his wrong assumption.
Suddenly my uncle approached us at that very moment, along with a waiter, who handed Schafer and his wife alcoholic drinks.
“Please enjoy the party, Hunter. You haven’t even had a drop of wine yet”, he chortled, not catching wind of the tension between me and the con politician.
“Ayesha, come here babe”, he called to her, beckoning her over, making me realize there was about to be a severely uncomfortable situation if I didn't speak up soon.
But babe?! How old did the guy think he was to be calling her that? It was outright disgusting.
“Is that the beautiful bride?”, Schafer asked as Ayesha approached us. I didn’t like the way his eyes zeroed in on her.
“Yes, how did you know?”, my uncle replied, unaware that he was assuming she was my bride.
Fuck!
“Hey, listen so…”, I started but couldn’t find words to continue when I felt her presence beside me. I looked to my side to find her fucking hot body encased in a skin-tight red dress which had just the amount of cleavage enough to make any man speechless without giving much away, the dress hugged all her curves in just the right places, accentuating her already supple breasts.
I had to practically tear my eyes away from her.
“Judging the way Daniel over here is eyeing her, it isn’t exactly a mystery”, Schafer joked, making his wife laugh in unison with him.
I really needed to get a hold of myself.
My uncle’s eyes screwed up in confusion but then it dawned on him…. quickly enough.
Stacy was fine… she was a child so he probably didn’t feel that humiliated when she assumed wrong.
But Schafer was a different story…. being embarrassed in front of one of the most important men in the country would definitely strike a nerve within his already short-fused nervous system.
“No, she’s not his bri….”, Uncle started but was interrupted by an orange fur dress clad bounding ball…. which happened to be Stacy. She came to a stop next to Ayesha, colliding with her as she burst into giggles…. for no reason whatsoever.
“Well now who are you, little lady?” Schafer’s wife asked, giving Stacy a bright smile.
“I’m Stacy, Daniel’s little sister. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Mrs Schafer”, my sister articulately replied, making me roll my eyes.
“My my! You were so small when we last saw you. We almost didn’t recognise you”, Hunter commented.
“So what were you all talking about? Grown-up stuff?”, Stacy asked, the nosy little thing that she was.
“I was just going to tell your brother here that he has absolutely exquisite taste in women”, Hunter told Stacy, throwing Ayesha another look which made me want to claw his eyes out as I subconsciously moved closer to her. She looked to me, her eyes telling me that she was uncomfortable, her lips puckered in a hard press, she was clearly very nervous. I discreetly pulled her even closer… and she immediately leaned into me. Much to my sadistic satisfaction.
My uncle was so desperate to intervene and correct Schafer that he hadn’t noticed our silent exchange.
But Stacy beat him to it as she spoke on cue.
“Oh I see what the problem is here. You must have also assumed that this pretty lady here is my brother’s fiance just as I did. Unfortunately, she’s engaged to our uncle.”
I swear to God that girl had no filter.
I suppressed a laugh, earning a glare from him.
“Oh! I’m so sorry for assuming, Benjamin”, Schafer apologized to which my uncle replied with an obviously fake smile and an even faker “It’s fine”.
“I must say the girl looks much better with the boy, perfect if I’m being honest”, Schafer’s wife added, shooting me and Ayesha a warm smile.
For some reason, her statement made me deeply uncomfortable.