Joshua Wilkins: Arranged Marriage

Chapter 10: Lydia

“We need to keep going, Maxine.” I leaned back in my chair, crossing my legs. “Your first book: amazing! We need you to get started on the next one.”

“Already?” Maxine Killston was my newest author. Her book about loving a morally grey man was incredible. It wasn’t something you’d read a thousand times, and the spice was immaculate.

“Of course! As soon as your book drops, readers are going to go crazy, and there’s nothing readers hate more than waiting over a year for the next one.” I smiled kindly at her. She could become one of the biggest romance authors we’ve had in the past five years. Her style was different from anyone else my father had contracted, and I loved it.

“But I don’t know,” she nervously fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “What if you’re wrong?”

A smug smile crept across my face. Oh, how I loved this part—when I get to talk them up, when I get to build their confidence. “I’m never wrong, Maxine,” I said, smiling as I leaned forward. “And I’m certainly not wrong this time. Your writing is amazing; the way you use your words and describe your characters is unmatched. You have the potential to make the whole community bow down to you. Are you going to hope they do, or are you going to make them do it?”

Something blazed in her eyes, igniting her entire soul. “I’m going to make them do it!”

I stood up from my chair. “That’s the spirit!” I walked around the table and enclosed her in a hug. “We are going to make sure that your name is on everyone’s lips.” I started to pull her toward the door, while she wouldn’t stop smiling at me. “Let me give you some advice.” I opened the door to my office and stood with her in it. “Take a look at your character Matthew; he needs to have his own story. Go home and brainstorm on it, and bring some sample chapters when we see each other in three weeks.”

Her smile shone brighter than the sun. The happiness and determination shone a light on me. “I will, Lydia! Thanks!”

She nodded at Angela, who smiled right back at her. “You’re welcome, take care.” I gave her a small wave before turning around and stopping abruptly.

Lucien Wilkins sat outside my office. He was immaculately dressed in a dark blue suit, with a black tie and white shirt. His coat hung around him, open so you could see the inside. His grey eyes studied me, and something different flickered inside them. The grayness of his hair had a slight shine to it in this lighting. Nothing but pure power.

“Mr. Wilkins,” a polite smile broke across my face, “what an honor. What brings you to this neighborhood?”

He stood up, not moving as fragile as he looked. “I’m here to meet with my future granddaughter-in-law.” A polite smile crossed his face too, but it didn’t reach his eyes and kept them assessing me, scrutinizing me—at least now I knew where Joshua got that from. “Do you have half an hour for an old man like me?”

“Of course!” My hand shot out and showed him the way inside my office. “This way, Mr. Wilkins.” When he walked into the office, I quickly glanced at Angela, who gave me an apologetic look and mouthed, “I’m sorry.” “Push everything an hour,” I whisper-yelled at her before entering my office with another smile.

He was looking it over, taking in the interior of the place. The white walls, the big windows on the right. The many bookshelves with the books I had helped publish. My desk with the glass table, the two chairs on the opposite side of my swivel chair. My computer standing on top of the desk, and the many manuscripts waiting for me to read them.

“I find it utterly peculiar that a smart woman like yourself would want to work in the publishing industry.” He didn’t exactly ask me a question, but I knew it was an opening, and I had to grab it.

“Peculiar how?” I took my water glass from my desk and walked over to the small station I had to make coffee, grab water, and store the other beverages I had.

“Of all the businesses out there, why would one want to work with books?”

“Because it is a never-dying business,” I answered simply. “Can I offer you some coffee, water, or iced tea?” I looked back at the man now sitting in one of the chairs.

“You are a businesswoman, Lydia; you should be able to offer an associate a proper drink.” He sounded just as I had thought: bossy and determined.

“Well,” I turned all the way around and leaned towards the small kitchenette I had, “I’m trying to change the way of business, so of course I’m going to treat my associates differently. If you have to drink alcohol to discuss business with me, then I’m not sure I want to do business with you.”

Just like his grandson, Lucien had some of the same features, and his mouth tugged just like Joshua’s. I knew he liked my comeback, or maybe he even respected it.

“Coffee,” he then said, “black.” I started pouring the coffee and filled up my water glass again, which held citrus wedges in it, making it more fresh and easier to drink. “You said, ‘never-dying business.’ Elaborate.”

I put down the coffee cup in front of him before I sat down on the other side of my desk. “Because books are not just paper bound in a pretty cover with some ink on the pages.” I leaned back in my chair, studying his stoic demeanor. “It’s the stories, the different worlds, that people love. How they can enter a world that is not this one. Whether it is to learn about dinosaurs, fall in love with the man of your dreams, dive into a world where you are a detective solving the murder of the president, or ride dragons and be the most powerful being that exists.” He looked at me, taking in my words. “People will never get tired of living another life than the one they were given; therefore, books will never die, and therefore, my business will never go under.”

“You are very passionate,” he concluded, to which I answered with a small smile.

I took my glass and took a sip of the water. It helped me stay focused, and it helped me be more open and flexible. I never drank during working hours unless it was something like last night, where only drinking water would have been rude.

“I love literature, always have and always will,” I stated, setting my glass back down.

“Then tell me,” a shadow of a smile crossed his face, “how do you feel about the arrangement between you and my grandson? I can’t imagine a literature lover would agree to such a thing.”

It was a test, and I knew it was imperative that I passed it. “On the contrary,” I sent him my smile, the smile reserved for business clients, for when I had to smile and didn’t really want to. “As a literature lover—as you called it—I know that love is something you have to work for. It doesn’t come freely and it takes two people waking up each day and choosing to love each other.” I looked at my hand, looked at the oval ring shining in the sunlight that burst through the windows. “I count myself lucky.” I looked back at the man in front of me. “With my social standing, I had always known that I would marry someone to get my father’s firm further. Out of all the men in New York, I have gotten your grandson. A man who’s not afraid to fight for what he wants, a smart man who can hold an intellectual conversation, and all of that comes in a very pretty package.”

I could see on his face that I had passed the test. Just like my father, Lucien had married Antonia for the leverage and the contacts; it was a marriage of convenience and it had turned out well for them. Antonia had borne a son within the first two years of their marriage, which was Joshua’s father. It had been scandalous when said father got a teenager pregnant, and that had resulted in Joshua.

As far as society knew, Joshua’s parents had left him with his grandparents, where he was brought up to be the heir that his father wasn’t. Therefore, Lucien had been in the business long—longer than most men would be—and rumor had it that he desperately wanted his grandson to take over the company.

“You have a way with words, Miss Conner.”

“Please, call me Lydia.”

“Very well, Lydia.” He took a sip of his coffee before he continued. “As you might have heard, I chose you out of the many women here in New York. Do you know why?” I shook my head no, which had been a puzzle for me that I just didn’t have all the pieces for. “Joshua has fought for everything he has—just as you already know—and I knew that he would hate to be tied to a woman who didn’t know what it meant to fight for what you care about.” He folded his hands across his chest. “You might not know it, but society has had their eye on you for a while. An empowered woman, fighting to break free of the bonds that bind her to the idea of a woman’s only purpose as a wife and a way to get an heir. Lydia Conner is a name that many powerful men want connected to their own, and it was only a question of time before your father could choose between the suitors for you.”

I hadn’t known. My father hadn’t told me it was so desirable to have a woman with opinions and ambitions; actually, he had told me the opposite. Unlike most of the women I had socialized with in my teenage years, I had no ambition to find myself a rich man who could buy me a house in the Hamptons and have a family home in the vineyard either. I had ambition to buy that for myself.

“So you swept in and closed the deal before anyone else could?” I c****d my eyebrow while I looked at him, taking in the smug expression on his face.

“Precisely,” he confirmed. “I knew my grandson would rather be married to someone like you than some of the other pretty ladies. And I must admit the genes you inhabit—”

“I’m not a horse at an auction, Mr. Wilkins, and I would prefer if you wouldn’t speak to me as such.” I could feel the anger within me. This was exactly what I tried to get out of: being treated as breeding stock and not a woman.

“I wouldn’t dare compare you to a horse, Lydia. I’m sorry if it came across as that.” He took out something from his inside pocket. “You are a diamond, shining and brightening our world.” He put down a card on the desk between us. “Hence my point of this meeting. Tonight will be important, and therefore you must look the part. That is a card for Hayden Jewelry, which is also where your ring is from.” He pointed to my finger. “There is an account open to you that you can use to buy something that will make you shine even brighter tonight.”

“I don’t need your charity,” I crossed my arms, “I can pay for my own jewelry.”

“Sure you can, and it’s not my account, Lydia.” A smirk burst his face into a mischievous look. “It’s my grandson’s, and I think he needs to know that even though it is expensive to have a normal wife, how expensive it will be to be in possession of a diamond.”

“So you want me—”

“To take what should be yours, Lydia.” He straightened, making his chin pop out. “You might be able to provide for yourself, but that doesn’t mean you have to.”

I felt the corners of my mouth turn upwards, smiling at the thought. The card was black with the logo of Hayden Jewelry on it, and it felt so heavy in my hand. However, I was going to make it burn.

“You too have a way with words, Mr. Wilkins.”

“Please, call me Lucien.”