~Two years later~
I woke up lying on my queen-sized bed in my parents mansion in Manhattan.
Another new day with the same old routine.
I am the same old boring person.
Adeline Pierce, the daughter of two famous, richest lawyers in the country.
I got no job at 24, no hobbies, no ambitions. I just lie in bed every day and watch sad movies and serial killer documentaries because I am just pathetic.
But I don't give a shit about it. I am content with my life.
And having nothing to do every day is stress-free.
Why should I waste my time working my ass off when I got a huge trust fund worth millions? And an inheritance from my Paternal grandfather. He is the owner of one of the biggest shipping companies in the world.
And I will inherit another big fortune from my maternal grandfather. He is also an oil tycoon with other big businesses.
I can afford to be jobless and unproductive for the rest of my life.
But I have just one ambition I am so obsessed with and dedicated to accomplishing.
And that is to find William.
The man I have been in love with for two years now.
The man who walks in my dream with his ocean blue eyes and sandy blonde hair and perfect smile.
You can call me delusional. I know he is my soulmate and we are destined to be together.
I don't care how long it takes I am going to keep searching till I will find William, and he will be mine forever.
"Miss Pierce."
I flinched abruptly getting up into a sitting position.
"You scared the shit out of me!" I exclaimed griping my chest.
There is a lady in a maid's attire hovering over my bed.
"Wait you are not Linda?" My face scrunched up studying her.
"Where is Linda?"
"Miss Pierce I don't know who Linda is" Her face draws up into confusion.
She has an accent. I wonder where she is from. I am sure she is an immigrant from an Eastern Europe country.
A realization hit me.
"You are new right?" I asked.
She nods.
"Oh no " My mouth parted open.
"Mom has fired all the maids again. And hired new ones!" I blinked in disbelief.
Jeez, this is the third time this month!
My mom calls me crazy but she is the crazy one in the family.
She has fired an entire staff more than ten times this year over petty things.
"Miss Pierce, what would you like for breakfast please?" She asked politely.
"Don't stress yourself I will get breakfast myself."
I gave her a pity glance. She has a lovely spark in her eyes.
On the first day on the job, they are all optimistic. Less than a week my mom kills that spark in their eyes. Then they all turn into zombies walking around the mansion because she kills the hope in them.
I wish I could tell her to escape and find another job but I don't know her circumstances. I am sure she really needs the job.
And my mom does pay her staff well even though she mistreats them.
"What is your name?"
"Lucy"
"So Lucy if you want to work here longer than your predecessor, Linda. There are some rules you must follow."
A stroke of fear glistened her eyes.
I have frightened the poor girl.
"Whoa, I didn't mean to scare you or anything just some rules to help… I don't know ...to make your work easier I guess." I sealed it with a smile to convince her.
Her face began to relax.
"Okay rule number one, I hate to be called Miss Pierce. Don't ever call me that. Not that if you do you will be fired or anything. Just don't call me that. I prefer if you just call me, Adeline."
"Noted" She chirped and clasped her hands together at her back obediently.
What the hell?
"Lucy even though it's not part of the rules. Just don't do that hands-at-your-back thing. Just be your normal self whenever you are in my presence."
"Okay," She released her hands.
"Better, Now the second rule is for your own good. I don't know how you will pull that off. Just don't let my mom get familiar with your face. Just hide your face from her sight even when serving or doing something in her presence"
That is my mom, the only boss I know who fires her employees when she gets bored or gets too familiar with their faces.
So absurd right?
"Okay," She nods attentively. Like I am giving her words of wisdom.
"And don't add too much sugar to her coffee. I assure you that is the quickest way to get fired."
My mom is a control freak she just wants everything and everyone around her to be perfect and flawless
The only flawed thing in her life is me.
I am the living breathing nightmare she can't get rid of.
The daughter she deems as a total failure.
"Thanks for the advice." She said with appreciation.
"Hope you stick around longer." I hoped for her.
"Okay, you can go do whatever you need to do. I don't need anything," I dismissed her.
I jumped out of bed when she closed the door behind her.
I stride lazily to the bathroom. I quickly washed my face and brushed my teeth.
I trot into my walk-in closet stocked with designer clothes and shoes from big fashion Brands I don't give a shit about.
Another batch of clothes from my mom. An attempt to make me dress more Sophisticated and elegant like her.
I am just going to end up dumping all these clothes into the trash like I did the last time she changed my entire wardrobe.
I know I am acting like a spoilt brat but my mom doesn't know what no means.
This is the only way I can make her understand that I can never doll up like her and Brittany.
I like my jeans and shirts and hoodies and my sneakers.
I will take care of the clothes later.
I got rid of the shorts and tank top I was wearing and threw on a sports bra and yoga pants to match with my favorite trainers.
I put on a hoodie.
I never go out of my room without wearing a hoodie. It's my signature style of dressing.
I am going to work out at the gym in the gym room we have in the mansion.
Even though I don't dance anymore I still work out it's something I enjoy doing.
I walked out of my room.
The mansion was busy as usual. At every corner I passed a maid was either cleaning or doing some sort of arrangements.
I was right my mom has fired the entire staff again. I am seeing new faces.
The new staff were giving me weird looks.
I know why. They are all wondering if I am really part of this family.
I don't blame them.
I am a Pierce but I don't look like one. Everyone in my family has Blonde hair except me with my brown hair.
Everyone in the family dresses like a superstar but I dress like a homeless Chick with my black hoodies and frizzy hair, I never bother to touch it with a comb because I am too lazy to do it.
Sometimes I feel like a fraud like I don't belong here. But I am a Pierce by blood so I am stuck with this perfect family of blondes.
I headed towards the gym. I stopped right in my tracks when I entered.
There was mommy dearest, Barbara Pierce running on the treadmill with her perfect platinum blonde hair and great body that made her look way younger than her age.
She is in her late forties but she looks like she is rather in her thirties.
And there was my sister, Brittany doing a yoga pose on a mat
Why didn't I get any of Mom's beautiful genes?
I guess she passed all that to Brittany and there was none left for me.
I remember in high school people never believed Brittany was my sister or Barbara Pierce was my mom.
What are these two doing here? Shouldn't they be with Dad at the country club?
I thought I would have a quiet time here doing my workout routine in here alone.
I wheeled around to walk out.
"Adeline."
I cursed under my breath.
"Mom" I wheeled to face her.
She gave me a look. The look I am used to seeing on her face since I was a kid
The look that makes her look like she is wondering whether she took the wrong baby home. Because I look nothing like her.
"Your hair looks messy," She grimaces with distaste.
There my mom goes again with her judgmental analysis of my looks.
"You were walking around the mansion with that? What are our employees going to think of you? You look like a homeless girl" She looked at me with an incredulous shock on her face
She rubbed her fingers on her forehead. Like talking to me is giving her wrinkles so she is smoothing them with her fingers.
I wanted to roll my eyes but doing that will earn more lectures from her.
She took a deep breath. "I don't want to see this hair at dinner." She warns.
"And don't show up at dinner with this thing you are wearing" She glances at my hoodie with a repugnant look like it is garbage.
"Yes your majesty," I sniggered sarcastically and did a bow.
She shakes her head and walks past me like with much cautiousness like I am a plaque she can get affected with.
I am going to show up at dinner with frizzy wet hair and the most hideous hoodie I own just to infuriate her.
"I will introduce you to my hair stylist you really need a haircut.". Brittany said.
"No thank you. You all should leave my hair alone." I rumbled.
Brittany shrugged. "Suit yourself. You know mom will not stop breeding on your neck till you get your hair fixed." She said and stood up from her mat. She was done with her yoga.
I shrugged.
"How did the date go?" She asks.
Brittany set me up on a blind date yesterday.
"I didn't go."
"What?" She exclaimed
"Do you know who your date was?"
"The president's son?" I snorted.
She shook her head.
"That was the senator's son" She revealed.
"Wow, really?" I feign being astonished. I don't give a fuck who he is.
"Too bad I stood him up" I shrugged.
"I don't know why you keep sabotaging everything I do to get you into Daddy's good graces. I paid someone to write your LSAT exams for you to get you into Harvard Law School since you are too lazy to study and take them yourself. What do you do? You threw that opportunity away." She said angrily.
"I told you I don't want to be a lawyer like you and mom and dad. I didn't ask you to do any of that for me so you can throw that on my face." I shot back at her.
She jerked her head back. "So what do you want to do with your life then? Since you don't dance anymore. You are just going to be worthless.?"
I flinched the word worthless really hurt. A pang hit my chest.
"I am sorry," Brittany apologized with remorse raked on her face.
"I didn't mean to call you worthless"
I looked away painful tears were flooding into my eyes. I rubbed it off with my fingers.
"You did because it's true. I am the worthless person in the family. Charles our little brother is in his first year in medical school. You are also a successful lawyer just like Mom and Dad. And me, I am a worthless 24-year-old with no job or ambition. "
Being called worthless by my family hurt. But apart from dancing, there is nothing else I am interested in.
She suddenly hugs me.
"No Adeline, you are not," She said softly and I wanted to believe her.
She took my hand and squeezed it affectionately.
"You are not, I just said that because I am angry with you. You are just a broken inside because you don't dance anymore. And I know dancing is the only thing you are passionate about."
Well, that's true but it's not the only thing. Finding William is now the only thing I am passionate about now.
I am over the heartbreak of not being able to dance anymore because of William.
He means more to me than dancing ever meant to me.
Not that I will tell her that.
"I have a client who knows someone who owns a big dance school in New York, I would put in a good word for you. You can teach dance. I believe you will be an excellent dance teacher." She said giving me a brand new hope.
"Really?" My face lightens up.
"Yeah," She smiled.
"Thanks" I return her smile.
I hugged her. Even though my sister and I have our differences, She is the only one in the family who believes in me and never makes me feel I don't belong.
"But you still need to find a way to make Dad change his mind about cutting you off for good." She said when we broke apart.
My dad has been threatening he is going to cut me off if I don't go back to law school or get a job that fits the Pierce family status.
"I hooked you up with the senator's son because Daddy might change his mind about cutting you off if he gets to know you are dating the senator's son. But you blew that away." She is still angry and hurt.
"If Daddy cut me off I will not go broke. Remember we both have a trust fund and inheritances from our Grandparents"
"You are forgetting something. You know you can't access any of those trust funds and the inheritance if you are not married." She reminded me.
"And also you know our late grandpa, Ernest ." My mom's father
"His condition to get access to our inheritance was only by giving mom and dad a grandchild." She reminds me.
Fuck, I have forgotten about all that.
My parents and my grandparents are so old-fashioned.
We are in the 21st century parents don't set these absurd conditions anymore.
"So you need to get married and have kids if you want to continue living a lavish life because Daddy is very serious about cutting you off completely."
I gulped.
Even though I have always imagined living a normal life. I don't think I can survive living on my own without my parent's support and money.
I just need to find William and then we will get married and have a baby so I can get access access to my trust fund and inheritances.
"I will set you up again with someone else. You will need a husband quick." Brittany said.
"No!" I shouted
She narrowed her eyes at me. "Do you have a boyfriend and I don't know about it?" She asked.
"No, I am not ready to date anyone." I lied.
I just don't want anyone else. My heart belongs to William. He is the only one I will ever desire.
Her phone rang. It was lying on the yoga mat.
She crouched down and picked it up.
A smile bloomed on her face.
"William," she said when she placed the phone on her ear.
My stomach sunk in "William?"
Could it be my William?
She suddenly laughed. "Baby I am serious," She said to the person at the other end of the line.
Huh? William? Baby?
I don't feel good about this.
I wanted to go closer to her to eavesdrop on the conversation she was having with the person on the phone but she was already out of the door.
I am just being paranoid. There is a lot of Williams in New York
It's the reason I am yet to find him.
Her William is not my William. it can't be