CHAPTER ONE: THE RETURN
‘No, this cannot be happening right now’. Daphne Lancaster said with her chest tightening with her palms starting to feel sweaty as he looked at the man that just entered the conference room. Today was supposed to be the day she secured the biggest expansion of her company by partnering with another company. The day she gets the results she has been working for but what was happening to her.
Her mouth was slightly open and definitely forgot how to breathe as she saw William enter. She didn’t expect William Jace Carter, her past to walk through the door of the conference room looking so handsome and all grown up. The tabloids didn’t do justice to what she was looking at right now. Ten years has transformed the boy who used to climb through her windows just to watch the stars together into a dangerously polished man. His shoulders were broader now, his jaw very sharp and his clothes looked so perfect as if it was made for him. Although he was all grown and his appearance had changed, his smell had not changed at all. She remembered his scent vividly like it was yesterday. Warm, fresh and familiar. She smelled it immediately as she walked closer to her. It smelled of a mixture of citrus and cedar wood. The perfume was so inviting and tempting that she almost took a step forward to hug him tightly so that she could forget all her worries.
These thoughts made her want to hate him more because why was she getting affected just by his perfume. Although, she hated him, she was glad William was doing great in life. Making it to the top five billionaires as the youngest CEO and opening some of his company in other countries just as they discussed together. but what they didn’t discuss was William appearing in the tabloids every morning with a different girl each time. Just thinking about it made her to start fuming uncontrollably and she hated it and hated him. No, he didn’t get to affect her like that again. she wasn’t a teenager anymore and she didn’t get to do that to her anymore.
She masked her expression by lifting her chin up, relaxing her shoulders with her face stone cold like how she talked to men In the Its industry who wanted to look down on her before she gave her real feelings and emotions away. Claire, her best friend and business advisor was just looking at the both of them with knowing glance. ‘So, she knew’. This thought shouldn’t have surprised Claire because she was the one who planned the who collaboration but she was little confused and angry at Claire for not telling her who the other partner was. She made a mental note to scold her best friend after.
William didn’t know how to behave when he saw Daphne after a decade. His heart leaped with joy when he saw her. The reaction he got from Daphne was not what he envisioned. He had created over 100 scenarios of how she would react. The shock and the surprise on her face that told him what had been on his mind when he was driving to this place. She didn’t know I was the one coming. He saw her masked her face with indifference and if he wasn’t really studying her reaction he would have missed it. He knew deep within him that he had missed Daphne but seeing her made it ten times worse for William. She looked so gorgeous. Her golden hair fell effortlessly on her shoulders and complimented her golden-brown eyes. He wished he was the one hugging her waist like the blazer was. Daphne was a full-grown woman now and the pictures didn’t even do the slightest justice to how she actually looked. How can he forget everything and just settle for being friends or acquaintances? He didn't even know where her head was at and that made the situation even worse. “Mr. Carter, a pleasure meeting you.” Daphne said with a forced smile. Mr. Carter! When was that ever a thing? He didn’t even call her dad by his surname. William knew at that moment that whatever the issue was could be deeper than he thought and he had to get to the root of the issue.
He became so shocked that his smile dropped. He quickly introduced his representatives to reduce the tension between himself and Daphne. He pulled a seat for her to sit on before going to sit down and the meeting was started. The agenda of the meeting was to plan on how they could take out their mutual rival company so that we could lead in their businesses. Daphne did the first part of the presentation and Claire took over the second part of it. She could feel William's eyes on her the whole time she was presenting and Daphne couldn’t help that but notice it. He paid attention to Claire when she was also presenting but it wasn’t as rapt as Daphne’s. She knew he would try to talk to her after the meeting so right after his representatives meeting, she stood to leave but William caught on that and quickly rushed to her side before she could take a step further. “Daph, Can I speak to you for a moment?” William said. Mr. Carter I really wish I could spare you a few minutes of my time but I have a very important engagement to attend to and by the way, it’s Miss Lancaster for business partners”. She replied with an icy tone and left. She left a stunned William standing there while she made her way to her favourite coffee spot. She had a fight with Claire but wanted to do that after she had calmed down a bit. For now, she just wants to sip her coffee and enjoy the view from the coffee shop as well as wrap my head around the events of the day.
