The Veiled Heiress

04-A Secret Revealed

It had been a few weeks since Ashton and Lucinda moved into the Collins household. Lucinda was enjoying all the money she was spending. She has never had such beautiful jewelry or exquisite clothing. Henry might be a bad lay, but since that was all he was asking for, she would just continue to spread her legs and fake her orgasms. After each of his own orgasms, he would hand Lucinda his credit card and tell her to spend what she wanted. He was in a s*x-induced haze.

Ashton fell into her own routine which suited her perfectly. She was in and out of the house all day. Since her “guest room” was not conducive to working, she went over to her apartment to work. Ashton was a best-selling author. She wrote under a penname so that her mother would not recognize her and want money. She also craved her privacy and the penname allowed her some leeway with fans. Most of her writing was memoires, utilizing her experiences. Her apartment had her writing desk as well as all her supplies, so she spent most of her days there.

Ashton was also the CFO of the Johnson Group and a head programmer. The Johnson Group was a tech company. They specialized in security systems for businesses, such as computer programs that found and destroyed spyware and viruses, as well as building security systems that were attached to video and audio. Ashton was not a genius hacker but could write a good code and advise other programmers when they get stuck.

In the evenings, Ashton went to work at a bar that she owned with her brother, Warrick. All of these jobs helped her to avoid the rest of the household, making Ashton less edgy. It also gave her less time to sleep. No sleep meant no dreams, which inevitably turned into nightmares about that night. Ashton would wake up breathless and in a cold sweat. Those nights she would walk around the house unseen and explore. The inside of this house felt clinical, almost as if no one really lived here. Ashton regarded this as a lonely way to live.

For Tyler, life continued like it normally would have. His father often made him sit for meals together so that they could continue talking about business. That was the only relationship that they shared, both caring for the future of the company. However, they often disagreed with how the business should be run. Henry did not want to give too much power to Tyler, believing that the company could not be run without him since Henry was the one who “founded” it.

During these past few weeks, Tyler observed Ashton and Lucinda. Lucinda continued to spend his father’s money without ceasing. At least she was easy to predict. However, with Ashton, he just could not seem to understand her at all. Tyler noticed that she tended to keep to herself, coming and going from the house as she pleased. He did not know where she went, also noticed that Ashton did not really interact with anyone. She does not come down for meals and Lucinda does not seem to care. He has also noted that if anyone tries to touch her or even get close to her space, she flinches and moves to another part of the room. Ashton also barely smiles. When he has tried to c***k a joke, she just keeps her head down and ignores him. Tyler also noticed that she did not spend any money, but that could have been because Henry refused to give her any money.

While he was having a hard time reading Ashton, Tyler was becoming more and more disgusted with Lucinda. He noticed that she did not “contribute” to the household, either not going into the office or stopping work altogether. When he tried to ask her about it, she would make excuses and tell him that Henry approved of her decisions about work. Lucinda was often found disrespecting and yelling at the staff. Tyler found himself becoming aggravated for them but still apologizing on her behalf.

This afternoon, Tyler was in the kitchen making a snack when he heard a phone ringing. He quickly looked around the room and spotted someone’s cell phone on the corner of the counter. Usually, everyone keeps a firm grasp on their own possessions. He waited a few minutes but no one came to answer the call, so he picked up. Tyler figured if he answered the call then he would be able to locate its owner.

“Hello,” Tyler began.

“Um, hello. I am looking for Ashton Gray,” the person on the other side of the phone answered hesitantly.

“Ah, so that’s whose phone I picked up,” Tyler responded. “May I ask who is calling so that I can inform Ashton?”

“Sarah Miller.”

Tyler could not believe his ears, “Not the Sarah Miller, the Senior Editor for White Tower Publishing?”

Sarah chuckled. She was used to this when she called new people. Most people expected a lower-level editor to call them. Sarah usually only called the writers she had the biggest stake in. Ashton Gray was a top-selling writer who brings a lot of revenue into the publishing house, so Sarah became her personal editor. She calls Ashton with all the changes and details concerning her manuscripts, plus she regards Ashton as a little sister, so calls just to check on how her life is going. Sarah knows what is going on with Ashton’s living situation. Ashton had called her last week to describe in detail Lucinda’s new beau and his son, so she recognized with whom she was talking.

“The one and the same. So, can I please talk to Ash now? I need to discuss something with her, and it is kind of time sensitive.”

“May I ask what is so time-sensitive?”

“I’m not sure if it is really any of your business, but I have some notes on her final draft and her deadline is looming.”

Draft? Deadline? These words seemed foreign to Tyler. Why would Ashton have a deadline? Her mother specifically told him and his father that Ashton did not work. Did her mother even know that Ashton was an author?

Sarah chuckled at the empty air coming from the other line. Clearly, this man did not know anything about Ashton, which did not surprise her.

It was at this point that Ashton entered the kitchen to get a snack and take a break from her writing when she noticed Tyler holding a phone to his ear with his mouth opening and closing like a fish and his eyebrows receding all the way to his hairline. It made Ashton chuckle, which surprised her. She could not remember the last time she laughed, even if it was just a giggle, but he looked so ridiculous that she could not rein it in.

“Poor boy looks so lost,” she thought to herself, snickering.

On careful observation, Ashton noticed that it was her phone that Tyler was holding. At first, she had wondered where she had put it. When she returned to the house, she forgot her notebook in the car and needed to retrieve it quickly. She could not work on her writing without it. When she came back into the house, Ashton totally forgot all about her phone since she was not expecting anyone to really call.

Seeing Tyler answering her phone made her angry. Ashton has issues with someone prying into her private life since she comes from such a prominent family. She grew up seeing Warrick’s name and information in all the gossip columns and newspapers and knew that she did not want that for herself.

“What the f**k! Who do you think you are? Give my phone God damn it!” Ashton yelled.

Tyler could tell that she was upset with him and handed the phone over immediately.

“This is Ash,” she began, trying to rein in her anger, “Oh hi Sarah. Hold on a sec and let me get somewhere more private.”

With a last, furious glance at Tyler, Ashton left the room to complete her conversation with her publisher.