Chapter 1 Teagan Ford
Teagan was busy in the kitchen preparing dinner when she heard the sound of Tyre screeching outside. Dylan went on a business trip and wouldn’t be back until dinner time. At least that was what Rumi Riza, Dylan’s secretary told her when she had dropped by earlier to bring him breakfast. Normally, she was supposed to still be at the Jewellery Store where she works as a designer. Everyone thought she was foolish working at a jewellery store with such a great talent in technology.
Teagan Ford was a 22 year old adult who had lived with the Chase family since the age of 16. It all happened so fast that year, it was a sunny day and Teagan had woken up extra late. She was hurrying to get to class when she had bumped into an elderly man who looked distress over a technical issue at his company. Teagan had recognized the man as Richard Chase, an old acquaintance of her Late Grandfather, Gregory Ford.
Gregory and Richard had been business partners. Gregory was an old Hacker and computer programmer who hard worked so hard to ensure the Cyber security of cooperate bodies and when Gregory had died earlier that year, the Chase cooperation had suffered a major setback that led to loss of important data and a bridge in their company’s firewall.
Teagan had stepped in to help the old man restore his company’s data and rebuild the firewall. Chase Cooperation had sprung back to life and the old man felt indebted to the little girl and contracted a marriage between her and his eldest grandson Dylan.
Teagan had declined the marriage alliance, but she was forced by her stepmother Arabella Ford and pleaded by her paternal grandmother Lauren Ford to keep the relationship between the Ford and Chase family going. Teagan had reluctantly agreed to the engagement and was sent to the Chase family to live and form a relationship with Dylan before their marriage.
Dylan had accepted the marriage, but he’d made it clear to Teagan that he would never love her because he was already in love with the School Belle, Nichole Talaman. Nichole had felt heartbroken when Dylan and Teagan had gotten married, so she went abroad to pursue her career.
Few days ago, Teagan saw the News and Nichole was featured in it. She was planning her return to Hyspania to reunite with her childhood sweetheart. Teagan wasn’t bothered because she was only focused on building her career in technology.
Two years ago, Richard had urged Dylan and Teagan to get married and afterwards, Dylan had never once spent a single night with Teagan at home. He would often come around when he had issues at the office to seek out Teagan’s help in technological problems and she had willingly helped out.
A month after their marriage, the Chase cooperation had suffered a relapse. That was just two years after Dylan took over as the CEO of the cooperation and only Teagan could help him win the battle. She had even invented a bug that served as a security for the Chase cooperation’s firewalls.
This Bug had gained public attention and drawn investors to Chase cooperation, skyrocketing their stocks and pushing the company to the top. Today, Chase Corp was number one in the country and number two in the world. Only second to Teaford International.
Teagan knew that Dylan never loved her which was the reason why she had kept her feelings in check these past few years. His family may have been good to her on the surface, deep down she knew that they only kept her around as a tool to secure their company.
She took a deep sigh and stirred the pot she had on fire. Whoever was outside, she didn’t care about them. The villa was huge and she had servants around, but she loved doing the house chores to keep herself busy. And she wasn’t playing the devoted wife of Dylan when she knew that their marriage was only on the surface.
She could hear the loud slam of the car outside and pretended the sound was invisible to her ears. She picked up her headset from the kitchen cabinet and place it over her head, blocking her ears. She smiled inwardly, it’s been a while since she went to the ring, maybe she should start hitting the gym again.
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Dylan slammed the door to his car, he was so angry. Jake Aston his PA flinched from the impact. His business trip had gone terribly wrong, he hadn't been so humiliated in his entire life. He marched inside the villa, he hadn’t been here for days and he knew that Teagan would be at the Jewellery shop by now working late into the evening. He couldn’t let Teagan see his frustrations, even though their marriage had been on the surface and she had no feelings for him, she had done a lot to help his company and he held her in high esteem for that.
Sometimes he wondered why she had decided to work as a jewellery designer instead of Web or Tech related field. She was so good with Tech and Stuff and it pissed him off to see his wife working in a jewellery store. Shouldn’t she be working side by side with him in the Chase Corp? It was so infuriating. And sometimes, he found her very unapproachable due to her cold demeanor.
Dylan bounced in and the first thing that hit him was the savoring scent of home made delicacies. He thought maybe the house keeper was making something for dinner. He slumped on the couch as his tongue immediately watered and he began to salivate. His stomach growled loudly.
Teagan always brought him delicious delicacies to his office for breakfast and lunch because she knew that he always worked overtime and often forgot to eat. But today, he had boarded the plane earlier than scheduled and had missed out on his breakfast. Cara, the house keeper came out of the laundry room and was startled to find him inside. Just as she was about to open her mouth, the door flew open and Nichole bounced in with Jake running after her.
Dylan shot her a cold glare and her countenance changed. His glare shifted to Jake and he scurried to explain.
“Dylan, I tried to stop her from coming in but she tricked me and…” Dylan interrupted him then turned to Nichole.
“Go get your salary deducted 20% by tomorrow” Jake began to sweat bullets cursing at Nichole inwardly.
“I can’t remember inviting you to my house, so what are you doing here?” his tone was cold and Nichole shuddered visibly. Cara snug back into the laundry room to avoid averting problems to herself.
“Dylan I…I…” she stuttered.
“This is my matrimonial home, where I live with my wife, who invited you in?” his tone exuded the warmth he always uses when addressing her.
“I’m sorry. It was my fault that you lost the contract today, I came to apologize to you”
“You could have done that over the phone” he nagged sternly.
“I knew Teagan wouldn’t be home till later so…”
“So what? Get out now” his voice cold with a hint of warning. Nichole’s eyes glistered with tears and she ran to hug him on the couch.
“Dylan I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to ruin your meeting, I promise to fix it, please don’t scold me again? I’m really sorry” she cried and the look in Dylan’s eye softened a bit.
“Get off me Nick” he said calmly.
“Until you promise to not stay mad at me anymore”.
“Nick, I’m a married man, please get off me. This is inappropriate” he muttered with clenched teeth.
“But you don’t love Teagan, you love me so why can’t I even hug you?” she pouted.
“It doesn’t matter who I love, Teagan is my wife and I’ll remain faithful to her. Now get off”. he whispered and she fumed.
“I know you’re just saying this because you’re still angry about what happened earlier” she said stubbornly. Dylan was tired of arguing with her, the truth is, he couldn’t bring himself to stay angry at her for that long, even though she had showed up and ruined the signing.
Just as he was about to pry her off, the door to the kitchen cracked open and Teagan came out holding a tray of food. Dylan was shocked to see her at home. From the angle she stood, she’ll definitely think that he was hugging Nick.
Teagan and Dylan’s eyes met and Dylan couldn’t help but feel his chest tightened as if he’d been caught committing a grave sin. Jake quickly bowed and greeted.
“Mrs Chase, you’re at home” Nick heard Jake’s words and quickly released Dylan then looked at Teagan who hadn’t moved from where she stood.
“Tea…” Dylan began but she just smirked and walked past them into the dinning, pretending as if she hadn’t seen anything. As if she couldn’t see them at all. Dylan’s pride felt shattered and he began to fume again. The temperature in the room dropped to 0 degree and Jake and Nichole could feel the cold emitting from the atmosphere.
Teagan Ford, how dare you ignore me? Who do you think you are?
