My mood was jeopardized for rest of the day because of the fudging encounter with Blaire. But Ace was there to lighten up my mood likewise.
"Still cranky because of the hyena's word?" Ace looked at me with pure concern while dragging me to the park.
"I'm fine." I kicked an imaginary rock on the ground.
"That means you are implying that you are far from that, my love. Don't fine me. We are buddies since we wore superman and Ben10 underwear. So, don't give me shits." He rolled at eyes at me, not buying my words.
I smiled at thought of us wearing fuzzy underwear and running through our garden. Ace's words were true. We grew up together, went to kindergarten together, and finally graduated together. He was practically Zach's replacement and there was no doubt that he could sense every flaw of my mood.
"Aren't you supposed to meet Dr. Parker today?" His voice was laced with concern.
Dominic Parker was my psychiatrist who had been helping me for the past two years. I had been tortured both physically and mentally by my stepmother and her spoiled daughter from the very beginning since they were dragged into our life. I didn't have cogent evidence against them so that I could reveal their actual selves to my so-called dad. He chose them over me.....always.
Later, it was quite hard for me to gather my pieces together. Losing my guts, it was merely possible for me to stood up against their cruelty. Due to depression, frustration, and anger issues, I started to move on by doing smoking and drugs alone. I was consuming myself in that hell and decided to shut myself out.
Ace was in France that year for his business. But hearing all the consequences from Mr. Crescent aka my father, that jackass came back without thinking twice. Being my best friend, his liability was to force me to stop this menacing shits and sent me to Dominic aka Dr. Parker who had become a super friend of mine during those therapy sessions and helped me a lot for my further improvement.
I shook my head as a no to Ace's word. My brain was still trying to fathom out the reason for the sudden outburst of Blaire. Not that she didn't do that often. Trust me, she acted like an autistic by freaking out without any reason!
"Hey, Lav! Look at me," Ace cupped my face with his hands gently while caressing my cheeks with his thumb in a comforting manner as I still refused to meet his eyes.
Finally, I gave in and stared at him blankly whereas his eyes were showing thousands of emotions that explain how much he cared about me.
"Can you do me a favor?" He pleaded, looking like my pain was stabbing him too.
"Don't get hurt at that bastard's word. She is just.. a freak and we all know that, dude." I scoffed as he continues, "If you let them break you, then she'll be the winner easily. That's exactly what they want. They want you to lose, to give up, to push you for something suicidal. BUT YOU CAN'T LET THEM WIN, FOR GOD'S SAKE!" His voice was hoarse as if he had been trying hard not to loosen up his emotions that he was trying to hide.
Tears were pouring like raindrops from my eyes. He wiped my tears away with his thumb and kissed my temple lightly as a symbol of assurance that he'll always be on my side no matter what happens.
"Don't you have any meetings today dumbass 'cause last time you told me that you have to deal with that shitty Italian Company today?" I tried to lighten up our mood by changing the conversation and so did he.
"OH, MY FUCK! How can I forget? Shit! Shit! I have only 20 minutes for preparing!! Only 20!" Ace stomped his foot like a five-year-old kid who kinda lost his chocolate which was making him more adorable.
"Now move your butt quickly otherwise you'll get kicked in your pretty fat ass. I have a meeting to attend too." I joked and pinched on his cheek which made him roll his eyes.
"Don't laugh at me, sucker. We both are going to face disaster today! It will be good for both of us if we head out as soon as possible." He made a poker face and I giggled.
"See you in the hell, Knight," waving my hands, I started walking towards my workplace.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The rest of the day went quite well. I mean, all I had to face is a meeting with my father. His words were playing through my brain. I couldn't fathom out the reason behind his decision even I was confused.
Flashback:
I entered my father's office and found him sitting there with some files in his hand. No wonder he was a workaholic.
I didn't say anything rather I stood by the side of the window with complete silence enveloping us. Noticing me, he chose to talk.
"Take a seat Lavender," his voice was serious but still comfortable.
Without saying a word, I sat on the couch. My dad was observing my actions but said nothing.
"I know as a dad I am a failure. Maybe the worst father of the century. As a dad, I didn't do anything for you. I couldn't support my family, couldn't support you." He stood up and look outside the glass where the features of the clean blue sky were showing it's magnificent beauty. He looked somehow distant...
"You are the true heiress of this Crescent Empire. It belongs to you and only you. So, I decided that I'll give the position of CEO to you. But if you keep behaving like that in front of the public, that will have a bad effect on your image." He looked into my eyes to find out what kind of emotions were running through my veins.
"What do you mean by that?" I raised my brows at him
"I know you don't like Blaire or Abigail as your family..." I didn't let him finish, "They are not my family!" I spit those words venomously.
"But you should accept the fact whether you like it or not." He slammed his fist on the table.
"You don't have proper experiences to run a full empire, Lavender. So it'll be very kind of you if you rather earn some experience first." He said in a solitary tone. Here we go again!
"Thank you, Mr. Crescent." My voice was somehow colder than ice.
Pain flashed across his eyes seeing my distant behavior. What did he think if he said the entire empire was mine I'll jump into his arms like old times? I was not a money-hungry bitch! Gosh!
"I trust you. I know that with full experience you'll do better." He smiled a little.
"Don't trust me too much. You would rather get disappointed because I am not professional like your princess. " I mocked at him.
"Whatever, soon you'll be working with someone more skilled in this sector after me. I'll take care of the matter." He sighed deeply.
After that none of us said a word. The awkwardness was hanging in the air. Tell me about it?
"May I go now?" I asked with a bit of irritation. Sensing my discomfort, he nodded and said, "Pack your things. Tomorrow you are gonna catch the flight to New York. I'll send you an email with details.
End of flashback...
Now I got the email a few hours ago. That said that I'll be working as a PA of Mr. Rochester, the second top billionaire in Europe also the CEO of some Stormer's Company, that is not mentioned here properly. That will give me new experiences for sure!
I called Ace several times seeing his messages and voice mails that said that he'll be in Greece for some months and told me not to worry. That means I did have perfect timing for going to New York for hunting a new life. So I made my all arrangement without any delay and went to sleep after hoping for a good day. My mind drifted to a pair of Smokey eyes before darkness finally covered my vision.