Chapter 4 (Contd)
1298 Words
VANESSA
When I woke up the next morning, Ryan was seated across the room, sipping on his coffee, already dressed for the day.
From where I sat on the bed, he looked peaceful, normal almost, unlike the hot tempered asshole who almost bit my head off the day before.
“We’ll be late if you don’t hurry,” he said without looking up from his phone. “Sleep well?”
I tilted my head in confusion. Was he asking me if I had a good night’s rest?
“Um...Are you okay?” I asked unsure.
He looked at me plainly. “Are you?”
I blinked at him. “You’re asking me if I slept well. Didn’t you threaten to murder me yesterday?”
He returned to sipping his coffee. “Just making small talk. You should get ready. We’ll have breakfast together.”
I cautiously rolled out the bed, confused as to his chatty personality and expecting his usual arrogant snappy self anytime soon. But his eyes were glued to his screen, not bothering to acknowledge my presence anymore.
As obsessing about it gave me no answers, I decided to not think about it anymore and shower.
Forty five minutes later, we arrived at the dinning room for breakfast.
Just like that night, I served his food in his plate, putting on the much expected show for the servants and spies in the mansion. But instead of feeding him like I did the night before, I turned away and began eating my food.
Feeling the weight of his eyes, I turned to him with a questioning look.
His eyes roamed my face as if accessing me. Then finally, he shook his head as if telling me not to worry and turned away.
Blinking in confusion, I looked away. Was he expecting me to feed him like that night? I mean, I would have done it to keep up appearances but didn’t just in case he had an allergic reaction like the night before, but the thought of him wanting me to feed him confused me.
I was really imagining stupid things.
Subtly, I examined the room, taking note of the servants and looking for one in particular. But out of the twelve present, the girl from that night seemed to be absent.
Curious, I did a double check but still she wasn’t present. I looked at Ryan curiously. I doubted it was merely a coincidence that the servant girl I had suspected was mysteriously missing.
Ryan struck me as a calculative man who made only necessary decisions. And as the rumours said, he was deadly like a snake and cautious. He was prone to eliminating the enemy or anything he found threatening.
Like the servant girl.
I looked at Ryan again. You really couldn’t tell what went on in that brain of his. Who exactly are you?
A few minutes later, breakfast ended without any problems and we were off to the Logan group.
The Logan group was a good twenty five minutes drive from our mansion. It was a huge building shaped like a semi circle, a design that intrigued me a lot when I was younger.
Mr. Logan dealt in cyber security as did his father and his father’s father down to the beginning of a very long lineage. Must be why he scrunched his nose and shook his head in disapproval when he realised his daughter would rather be a race car engineer than take after him.
Arriving at the company, the endless chatter of people in the company's uniform caught my attention.
Getting out of the car, I walked to the chaos, Ryan behind me. One of the employees noticed me and pointed in my direction. Soon, everyone’s eyes followed her finger and they all started talking at once.
“Miss. Logan!”
“How are you?”
“Miss. Logan we heard the news.”
The news?
On reaching the crowd, the employees gathered around me, all still chattering and throwing questions at me. I greeted them with a warm smile, happy to see familiar faces again after the chaos of the last few days.
A familiar old woman made her way through the crowd and stopped in front of me. My lips stretched into a smile as she took one of my hands and caressed my checks with the other.
“You look more like Sue everyday.” She said and it almost brought tears to my eyes.
“Hi, Emma.” Emma was friends with my mother when she was still alive. I was left under her care more times than I could count whenever I was brought to the office and father was too busy to pay me any attention.
“What’s going on?” I asked, referring to the crowd.
“We heard the news the other day, about the Mafia alliance,” she said. “We can’t allow you to go through with it, Vanessa. We know your mother would never allow it.” Everyone chorused in agreement.
Warmth exploded in my chest. To think there were people ready to stick out their neck if it meant keeping me from entering this marriage.
Unfortunately, no matter how much they protested, my father would not be moved. If anything, he’d be moved to fire them all on the spot. I had to prevent that from happening.
“Everyone, can I have your attention?”
The chaos diffused almost immediately.
“You have done a great thing today, coming out of your offices to stand for what you believe is right,” I looked around, making sure I had their attention. “And to see a number of you who are loyal to my mother even beyond her death, makes me so incredibly grateful.” From the corner of my eyes, Ryan stood wordlessly, his face expressionless as he listened. “However, a few misconceptions need to be cleared.”
“Forming an alliance with the Winchesters has been out of necessity and not compulsion. They are a powerful family with the necessary capitals needed to form a powerful merge with our company’s legitimate business channels amongst other things. This is an alliance with mutual benefits.”
I breathed. “My father might be a man of complex character,” understatement. “but he always knows what is right for the company. My mother would agree.” At the mention of my mother, they all looked around, chattering among each other. They all seemed to be mulling over my words so I continued, confident in my persuasion. “This is something she would understand and something she would want.”
The fighting spirit of the crowd dissolves with murmurs of agreement. I locked eyes with Ryan and had to do a double take to confirm the impressed look on his face.
He walked to me, eyes brimming with a new found curiosity as he bent to my ear level and whispered to me. “Maybe you’re not as shallow as I thought.”
“No, your opinion of me has always never been accurate so don’t be so surprised,” I whispered back.
He raised a brow at me and I turned back to the crowd to hide a smug smile.
Everyone was chattering among themselves, but the chaos had died down and given birth to a friendly atmosphere. But as my eyes scanned the crowd, they landed on a suspicious looking woman and a warning alarm went off in head.
She stood in the crowd, peering from a man's shoulder in a way that suggested she didn’t want to be seen. At another attempt to observe me, our eyes locked and she looked away subtly. My eyes narrowed suspiciously.
The spies were no longer just at home anymore.
- Writer
