The Billionaire's Secret

Chapter 5

ELLE

Yup, Liam was right. I hate Mondays. I hadn't even reached to my locker to get my books for my first class when Mia came to me out of nowhere. She was panting.

“Oh my god! What did I miss? That was Mr. Braxton! Why is he in front of our school?”

I rolled my eyes, “I thought people won’t notice.”

“I didn’t see him, but people are talking. He’s not an ordinary person. People like him will never come in front of NYU. He was featured on tons of economical magazines and he was listed as one of the richest bachelor in New York City.”

“Mia, since when did you start to care about the United States’ economy?” I raised an eyebrow.

Mia rolled her eyes, “You know who my father is. Anyway, how did you—everyone in our program is talking about Liam Braxton! Oh my God, you and Mr. Braxton! Why is he even here?"

I rolled my eyes at Mia's silliness. Even she had to call the guy Mr. Braxton. What made her think that a guy so uptight would let down his guard over the weekend and start paying attention to a young college student like me when he could have any supermodel he wanted?

"He just gave me a ride to school,” I shrugged. I didn't want to tell Mia about him feeling apologetic for getting drunk. It might be a personal matter and the last thing I need is Liam pissed at me for telling the world about his private life.

"Every time Dad has a meeting with Mr. Braxton, the guy is so tensed. He was never spotted driving a woman let alone a college student. There’s really something going on. Maybe, he’s attracted you!”

“Oh, we’re not going there, Mia. Look at me, do I even look attractive?” This time, I knew Mia was making up s**t. No guy in this school looked at me, then how in the world would a guy like Liam Braxton find me attractive? It just wouldn't happen. “He just offered to give me a ride to school for a week because his friend wouldn't shut up,” I snarled at the part of the truth.

"But I believe that something else is up.” She just won’t stop.

As we were walking to our first class, we heard administrative division dean spoken through the intercom, “All students in the fine arts and drama program, please report to the auditorium for an assembly.”

Mia and I heard that we looked at each other in surprise. The last time the dean asked for an assembly was nearly nine months ago when some student painted a nude woman portrait with a professor’s angry face on it. Usually, emergency assemblies have never been good.

This day just comes full of surprises.

When Mia and I reached the auditorium, it was half full already. We found a couple of seats empty—not exactly empty, Mia's boyfriend Josh had saved the seats for us.

Mia took the seat beside Josh and then I sat beside Mia. I knew Josh was practically in love with Mia. I was obvious from the way he was always looking at her, but sometimes I wondered if Mia feels the same way. I had asked her before if she was in love with him and she gave me a look of displeased, it’s a kind of look when people say 'please don't make me answer that, because it's not going to be what you want to hear' sort of an answer. I wasn’t expecting to hear Mia say that he loved Josh, but I felt kind of bad for the guy.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” I heard the dean, Mr. Dylan Harris, spoke through the microphone. In the movies, they head of a faculty often shows to be a fat ugly guy who had no life but to make the students' lives miserable? Well, that wasn't the case here. Our dean was incredibly hot! I knew it’s weird to drool over a guy who’s a lot older than me, but I'd been seeing a lot of hot guys lately like Liam and Julian. They somewhat reminded me that Mr. Harris was just my early adulthood crush since I started attending the university. He was only thirty-three when he became the head of the faculty of our administrative division, and he’s now thirty-five. He was a graduate of Harvard University. I suddenly remembered talking with Julian about me wanting to go to Harvard.

“I have an important guess I would like to introduce to you,” he continued on. I could see some girls giving him a disgusting 'I want to f**k you right now' look. Yes, I thought of him as hot, but I was never really attracted to him that way. I somehow respected him. I didn't know how to put it, but he was so much like Julian. He was kind of a person who would get everyone’s attention and listen to what he would say. Although he didn't give me that tingling feeling that I got from looking at Liam, he was still kind of a man I would love to see in my dreams. Ugh, why am I thinking about Liam again?

I shook my thoughts away about Liam and decided it was better to pay attention to Mr. Harris, “I ran into an old friend from Harvard and I think it would be nice for you to hear from a guy who started with absolutely nothing in his pockets and became a successful businessman. We were in the same program like yours in before graduating from his MBA degree from Harvard. This friend of mine had no one with him, no parents nor siblings, but by the time he completed his program, he had graduated at the top two percent of his graduating class, voted class favorite, and was my roommate at Harvard. Give it up for Mr. Liam Braxton!"

I could feel my eyes dying to bulge out of my eye sockets as I saw Liam walk up on stage. Did Liam Braxton know every good looking man alive? What is he doing here? What is going on in the world? Am I hallucinating?

I saw Liam pumped Mr. Harris hand and a brief hug before he took the center stage. Standing up there in front of the student body made Liam look young, handsome and dashing, but instead of paying attention to what he was saying, I was thinking about what Mr. Harris had told everyone, 'this friend of mine had no one with him, no parents nor siblings? But Liam clearly said that Alice was his sister? I wasn't sure what to believe about this guy anymore. What was really the truth behind Liam Braxton?

I looked at him just as everyone else. I noticed everyone paying a little more attention to him than necessary. As Liam was talking for a second, I thought his eyes were looking right at me, but that feeling was there for just a few seconds.

After Liam was finished talking, Mr. Harris started speaking again, “I wanted you, students, to see, that there was once a guy that could have been a nobody, but he still yet worked his way to the top. I wanted you all to remember this the next time you tried to blow off studying for the exam. We are getting close to your examination day. Good luck to everyone, and you all are now dismissed.”

Right after Mr. Harris stepped down the stage with Liam, we quickly exited the auditorium. I could feel a pair of eyes on me, but I did not dare to look back to see who it might be.

LIAM

After I had been forced into that stupid speech, I sat in Dylan's office. I hadn't seen him in nearly a year. Damn, how quickly I had lost touch with one of my best friends.

"I can't believe you became a dean. You used to be hated by every professor, now here you are, the head of a faculty.” I once envied Dylan, everything he does seem easy and I never even seen him open nor read a book, but I always knew he was a genius. He simply found contentment in his life.

"And I can’t believe I still missed college. This is just ways to remember the past,” Dylan said. I somehow found nostalgia in his voice a bit.

“This school… thought it’s not the same, it does remind me of the old days,” I smiled. It has been four years since I had been able to even think about my days at Harvard. No, I wasn't going to think about it. It was part of the past and today was today.

Dylan shrugged at my statement “It’s been a long while. We have all moved in our different directions. Maybe our roads will cross, but everything had happened and is about to happen is still up to us. We may have wanted to gather up together and pretend that everything was fine, is still up to us. We all once wanted to go back to the past and correct the wrong choices we made but from there, it is not really beyond our reach. Everyone has a choice. Personally, I don't think you will not find contentment until you learn to move on in life.” Dylan said as if he knew what I was thinking. I always hated when Dylan was right. I was the guy with the money and I was the guy with power, but I could only move on from the dark if I make the decision. I had to think of what was the life I wanted Noah? Did I really want that little boy to grow up with the life I had?

No, I did not want Noah to grow with a kind of life. Never would I want such hell for anyone. But was it really fair for him to grow up without even knowing the truth?

“I want to come together again, but I no longer live for myself. Every decision I make, I have to think about Noah and Alice. They are my responsibility.” I heaved out a sigh.

“What made you think that we don't care about Noah?" Dylan voice rise in resentment. I guess I shouldn't have undermined his esteem for taking responsibility.

"I just—" I was cut off again by Dylan’s tight voice.

"God, Liam! Each day we are dying! We wanted to get in but we figured you needed your space, but then I get a call from Julian in the middle of the night saying you got pissed drunk! You're living a robotic life without any emotions at all! Noah is not just your responsibility. He is everyone's responsibility. Alice is not just your responsibility. She is everyone's responsibility. At least until she gets married to Julian.” I figured Dylan would have continued to yell at me, but to my luck, there was a knock on the door.

I thought of it as my chance to bolt, but Dylan gave me a glare to keep my ass on the chair. Dylan walked over and opened the door, letting in a student. It was Mia, she was one of my manager's daughters. I had only seen her a couple of times, but what was she doing in the dean’s office? She didn't seem like a girl that would get in trouble.

"Oh, Miss Kensington, I'm sorry I forgot I set a meeting with you. Well, I actually did remember. I didn’t realize how quickly time flies when talking to old friends. Could you wait outside for a couple of minutes?”

“Uh, sure,” she said, then she gave me a quick glance. He smiled at Dylan and then she stepped out of the room.

You've got to be kidding me! I knew that look based on Dylan checked her out with under his eyelids. Didn't that girl already have a boyfriend? I had seen Mia at the auditorium, sitting beside Isabelle with some guy’s arms around her.

As soon as Dylan closed the office door, I snapped, pointing out a finger to him, "You are f*****g crazy!" I hissed out an angry whisper in case someone was close by the door.

"It's not what you think!" Dylan whispered back, which clearly meant the office door wasn't soundproof.

“Have you slept with her?" I asked. If anyone found out himself going out with a student, he could land on a national news!

"No," he answered quickly.

"Then what the hell have you done?" I asked now realizing that I was no longer whispering. I yelled out the last statement.

"Nothing! It's just a harmless flirting. She probably doesn't even know I was flirting with her.”

I wanted to jab my fists in his face. “For all of the girls in the world, you chose a student to flirt with? She’s almost twice your age!”

What was up with all of the guys I know falling for women much younger than them? Julian was nine years older than Alice. The twins both were going out with girls absolutely younger than them. Ah, the twins. I suddenly thought of the twins. The last time I heard from them was half a year ago when I run into them at a shopping mall. I shook my head away from thinking about everyone, then set my attention back to Dylan.

"You're an i***t. She probably knows you flirting with her. I swear if you screw up. I'll beat you senseless! If you like her, then quit this damned job and find some other school before someone finds out," I stormed out.

"And where the hell do you expect me to find a new school? It isn’t every day you become a dean.”

"Work for me. I can’t let you do this, Dylan.” I spat out through clenched teeth. He was provoking me into calling up the team. Things have changed already and I just wished it wasn't so soon.

“You are out of your mind. I get paid a hundred thousand a year. I don't know if I would want to leave a job like this," He said with a huge grin.

"I'll pay you a million a year. It’s the same amount Julian gets."

Dylan gave me a sarcastic roll of the eyes, "That's so much money, Liam. But you are still out of your mind."

What he said got a grin out of me, “I’m serious. Quit this job before I force you.” Dylan and I both knew that he wasn't dirt poor and he had a lot of money invested in some pretty good stocks back in college. He had become quite wealthy within a few years. The reason why Dylan was working in a school was that of old memories, not so much for the money.

I was about to leave when I heard him speak, "Then can I be Mr. Kensington’s boss?" Mr. Kensington was Mia’s father. That would be one interesting scene to see.

"I don't see why not. I expect you to be ready for work within a month.” I finally said as I was about to open the door. I found Mia sitting outside waiting. I signaled her to go in then I walked away.