Eden woke up to yet another knock on her door, this time softer and by a more reasonable time in the morning.
She took off her sleeping mask and crossed the room to get to the door before any more knocking could occur.
Eden opened the door to find one of the younger maids outside.
"Miss Eden, your father has requested you and your sister have breakfast with this this morning,"
"That's so strange," Eden said. "What could he want?"
The maid looked sideways, then leaned in to whisper her thoughts to Eden.
"Honestly the whole staff is thinking the same thing! Since when does Frederick Marshall do breakfast with the family?"
Eden giggled.
"I'll be out in a second, let me just shower and put something on,"
"I shall inform him right away," the maid said scurrying off.
----------
Eden met her family in the dining room having a breakfast platter. She took her seat the farthest away from them where she always sat.
From a young age Eden had essentially been banished from her father's sight, forced to sit the farthest from Lily and Frederick.
She had to bare the sight of her father babying her little sister while she was forced to grow up.
Even when they had guests Eden wasn't permitted any closer and had to watch awkwardly as members of the board sat closer to him than she was ever able to.
Now, Eden took that seat with pride, she didn't want anything to do with them and their entitlement towards her ideas.
If her dad thought Lily was such a great successor why was he reaching for the same ideas he rejected?
Frederick coughed, it was awkward for everyone at the table.
Eden poured herself a cup of tea and pretended not to notice him trying to say anything.
"Tensions might have been running a bit high last night and I suppose I didn't announce the second part of my grand announcement," Frederick said.
"Eden there's no need to be bitter at your sister, I was going to make you the CEO of Marshall Toys, the first of its kind," Frederick said with a chuckle.
"You can stop being so childish now, it's embarrassing for you. Throwing a fit at your age? Preposterous,"
Eden raised her eyebrows in disbelief, did they think that paltry position was going to make up for the embarrassment they served her last night.
For the indignity she endured at their hands. He couldn't even give her an apology, her father was still giving backhanded words.
What an asshole.
"What prompted this?" Eden asked.
"The Marshall family has always-"
"I'm not talking about what you'll tell the PR or news teams at the grand reopening, why are you making me CEO?" Eden asked. She sipped her cup of tea.
"I don't understand you, here I am trying to be nice-"
"You're never nice to me, even now I continue to receive half insults," Eden said cutting him off again. "You're not even nice to me for an angle, you disrespect me that much. So before I leave this table I'm going to ask again, why are you making me CEO?"
Frederick gripped his spoon so hard his knuckles turned white. His face reddened with rage but Eden wasn't backing down.
Behind them the maids watched from the kitchen, whispering to each other about the one hundred and eighty degrees turn Eden had made.
"Get em!" One of them said.
"Well since you don't want such an esteemed position I'll be giving it to someone else,"
"Okay and?" Eden said, she cupped a hand over her ear as if trying to hear something more clearly, "I still don't hear the reason you offered it to me in the first place, I suspect it's because you and I know Lily doesn't have any plans for the company,"
"You little brat!"
Eden lifted herself out of her seat with grace and turned around.
"Good Luck with Marshall Toys, Lily. You're going to need it," Eden said to her sister who hadn't said anything the entire breakfast.
----------
"You said she would say yes!" Lily screamed at her father. "Dad I don't know how to run a company,"
Frederick panicked at the sight of his daughter's crocodile tears.
"It's okay we can hire someone to be the CEO!" He said trying to reassure her.
"But they aren't going to do it for next to nothing like Eden would have, what is wrong with her anyway?" Lily screamed.
Frederick rushed to her side instantly holding Lily's hand and patting her back.
"Darling there's no need to worry about that Pig's emotions, she's probably just throwing a tantrum." Frederick said as a matter of fact "You'll see, once she gets some sense, she'll come crawling back offering to accept even a janitorial position,"
"But what if she's serious?" Lily said immediately ditching the crying act now that she had gotten her father to panic that she had been unhappy.
In her mind it was so easy to play the old man into giving her anything she wanted.
When she approached him about becoming the owner of the company, he had jumped for joy. She figured she could just steal Eden's ideas but after last night she realized Eden wouldn't give her anything.
She must have really been pissed.
Lily drank her tea, ideas ran through her head on what to do. She didn't know how to run a company.
She didn't even care about Marshall Toys, all Lily had wanted was to ruin things for Eden and now it was coming back to bite her.
The fat pig was more clever than she or her father had anticipated.
If Eden didn't say yes how the hell was she going to run a toy company?
Lily sat at the table fuming and biting her finger in panic. She had to get her eldest sister to say yes.
Lily wasn't stupid, she had heard the talks of the company failing for a while now, they just didn't know how to manage the funds all while generating more money for the company.
She saw the way the company staff looked at her, as one big expense. The blamed her for it but she didn't care. It was their job to work anyway.
Eden had to say yes, by any means necessary.