Chapter 22 Another Engagement
“I have to say, I agree with my wife here”, Hunter added, deeply incrementing my uncle’s anger… which he tried to hide with fake politeness.
“Dinner is about to be served, sir. If you could just follow me…”
We were interrupted by a waiter who lead us away to where my father was sitting at the head of the table.
I was extremely grateful for the interruption… because that conversation was definitely going to go nasty sooner or later.
Everyone took their seats at their designated places.
I took my seat next to Ayesha before my uncle could, earning a glare from him. I smirked at him, egging him on… daring him to take the bait and create a scene and mortify himself.
He surprisingly understood my play and quietly went down to sit where I was supposed to be seated.
Once the room settled down, my mother clinked her glass with a fork, drawing everyone’s attention.
“I would just like to toast to everyone present here… we are gathered here today for multiple purposes…. the major one being the upcoming political elections of course. But besides that, we are here to celebrate my brother’s engagement to the lovely Ayesha.”
My mother nodded to Ayesha, drawing everyone’s attention to her.
She squirmed in her seat, allergic as usual to even the slightest bit of attention. She tried to ignore the curious eyes as my mother continued on with her speech.
I placed a hand on her leg under the table, just below where her dress ended, making her bump her leg against mine in shock.
“Stop fidgeting, it’s annoying”, I spoke low, trying to hide the fact that it was just an excuse for me to touch her.
She nodded to me…. apparently too nervous to realize my ulterior motives.
“But on top of that, we have another very exciting news to share”, I snapped out of staring at her, catching my mother’s speech midway.
Mother looked at me suddenly, smiling brightly, making me raise a questioning brow at her.
“Our son, Daniel Kane, Heir of the Kane company is now officially engaged to Natasha Williams, daughter of Senator Geroge Williams.”
I almost spit my drink out.
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
I felt my uncle shoot me a wicked grin… he fucking knew… which is why he wasn’t that riled up when I tried to separate him from Ayesha.
The room went up in cheers and people came to congratulate me. I was forced to plaster a fake smile on as I thanked them all, pretending as if a bomb hadn’t just been dropped on me.
This cannot be fucking happening.
My eyes fell on Natasha fucking Williams… and if looks could kill she would be 6,000 feet under.
I had been so caught up in undermining my uncle and staking claim over Ayesha to rile him up… I hadn’t even realised that she was here too.
The bitch had the nerve to give me a conspiratorial grin… like she’d fucking won or something.
Oh she had another fucking thing coming.
I got up from my seat and stalked over to her.
“Could I please talk to my fiance alone?”, I politely asked through my teeth, barely resisting from glaring at her friend who whispered to her a quick,” You’re so lucky to be marrying a friggin billionaire” before she left.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”, I lowly yelled at her. Barely containing myself.
“What do you mean?”, she replied, confusion lacing her tone at my anger…. to my utter surprise. “Why are you so angry, Daniel?”
“Because I didn’t fucking know about my own fucking engagement”, I gritted my teeth, lacking the patience to deal with this horror of a woman.
“Wait…. What?! But your mother said that you were ready for marriage. You don’t want to marry me?”, her voice sounded desperate.
Great! So this was all my own mother’s doing…. just her trying to fuck up my life.
“What?! Are you living under a fucking rock? Of course I don’t want to fucking marry you? Why the fuck would I want to marry a fucking selfish golddigger whose only real talent is getting dicked by the entire basketball team? Jesus fucking Christ Natasha!”
And with that, I brushed past her. That was harsh… I must admit. But it wasn’t like she didn’t deserve it. The bitch got Ayesha’s room ransacked, stole her money and credit card and made her go fucking hungry… she was lucky all she got was a fucking verbal rundown of her vulgar activities.
Not even the sight of her eyes welling up sparked even a shred of remorse in me.
“Oh there he is!”, my mother exclaimed when I approached her, my father giving me a look which screamed that he had nothing to do with this entire ordeal.
“Could I talk to my parents alone, Mr Schafer”, I asked, my voice clipped.
“Of course, Daniel. But we’ll talk later, hmm?”
I was too hot and bothered by the recent revelation to pay him much attention as I daftly nodded at him.
“Mother…”, I started… having prepared a whole fucking monologue to scream at her but she cut me off.
“Daniel, before you start, I just want to tell you how proud of you I am. You have been doing so well at college, being their star athlete and an honorary student they can make an example out of, on top of that you have been doing exceedingly excellent in running the company, you practically handle all the affairs of it now, your father is the head just in name. You’re the one who sees through all the deals and makes all the decisions, your father here just signs the papers. So what is the harm in you getting married and inheriting the company… officially?”
It seemed my mother had her own monologue prepared.
I could tell by the way that she vehemently looked me straight in the eyes that she really expected me to concede to this.
I took a deep breath before answering her, trying to rein in my anger at her incredulity," Did you really think that you telling me how proud of me you are was going to justify you bombarding me with a fucking marriage?”