FIVE YEARS AGO
"Brian Kim is no longer in the country, Lauren." Dad said lazily. "He hasn't been here for almost a decade. He's back in his home country. Last I heard, he was able to take over the Kim empire. His younger brother was too inadequate and his parents think the daughter he made with Charlene Ericsson died so he was able to claim what rightfully belonged to him."
The dinner table fell silent.
My plan kind of needs Charlotte's father to be in the country. I think he's the only person who can stop her.
"Well, then we need to get him back in the country, and the best way to do that is for him to find out that his bastard daughter is about to graduate." Lisa gave me a reassuring smile. "And he needs to know that she has the potential to make a name for herself. Once that happens, people will go snooping around and then someone will catch wind of who her parents are. News like that might reach Korea. What will happen to Mr Kim and his empire then? Will his parents still accept him?"
Mom and dad still seemed somewhat unconvinced so Lisa went on.
"I'm in the same school as her, dad. She may just be an undergraduate, but Charlotte Ericsson won't be a normal lawyer whose name gets lost in the crowd. She's acing all her classes, winning every single moot court competition and everyone flocks to her like they're under some kind of spell. Imagine her marrying Lucas Greyson. How much more powerful will the Greysons become? Can you imagine controlling Lucas Greyson with a woman like that by his side?"
Dad's face contorted in anger and he clutched on to his wine glass with so much force that it broke.
No one flinched. Outbursts like this happen at least once a week at the dinner table and it's always either dad or Lisa breaking something.
Someone came to clean up the broken pieces while he shook off the blood dripping from his hand.
I don't think Charlotte would add that much more value to the Gresyons. No matter how smart or hardworking she is, she carries no influence and I doubt she ever will. No amount of money can get her into our world if she doesn't have the right name behind her. However, curbing the hold that the Greysons have over a number of key industries in the country has been dad's biggest obstacle. Lisa mentioned Charlotte increasing Lucas' influence to force him to call Brian Kim.
"Explain to me again why a girl with no parents is important enough for me to discuss over the dinner table?" He scowled at me. "How is a girl who has nothing outclassing you in everything Lauren? Are you really that incapable of getting a man's attention? Lucas Greyson may be a Greyson, but he's a boy! Use your womanly charms and reel him in. Brian Kim is not a man you just call when you feel like it. He won't hesitate to kill someone who annoys him."
He threw his bloody napkin on the table and stormed off.
I could see mom considering whether she should go after him, but she ultimately decided to let him be. Dad and Lisa are always prone to fits of rage. It's best to give them space to cool off.
I wished I could explain to them that it's not that easy to get Lucas' attention. However, that would ultimately not matter. My family will think I'm making excuses if I even attempt to tell them that Lucas Greyson is not like other twenty two year old men.
He cares about three things and three things only - his father's legacy, his family and Charlotte. I'm not really sure in what order he cares for those things, but I know that not once in the four years at university did he let anything come in the way of those three things.
Men his age have been caught in scandals like being caught driving drunk or being drunk in public, but Lucas Greyson refuses to drink unless he's in his own home. His peers have been caught in multiple cheating scandals that ruined their marriage prospects, but the man is so careful that you won't even see a woman in his apartment. I've tried to get us to study there, but he always insists that we study in public settings.
And finally, he has every woman begging to be his and willing to even be with him in secret if need be, but he has refused every single one of them. In fact, asking out Lucas is the stupidest thing a girl can do because he'll start treating you like the plague after that.
He's cautious with everything he does. He's too guarded and protects those three things with everything he has. Getting him to let go or slip up won't be easy.
"Lucas Greyson is different, mom." I attempted to explain. "I've tried seducing him, getting him drunk and inviting him to house parties so we can be caught in bed together ... I even tried spiking his drink one time, but I found out he doesn't drink outside of his home. He's always on guard."
"I know, sweetheart." She smiled and held my hand. "He was raised by a woman who learned the hard way that scandals are always looking for people with money. He may be hard to get to, but he's human. Find a way to break him so that he has no choice but to rely on you. If you do that, he'll throw caution to the wind and be like any other twenty two year old boy with too much money at his disposal."
Lisa smirked while finishing up her food.
We both know what mom is referring to when she says he was raised by a woman who learned that scandals follow the rich.
Lucas' mother was never meant to marry his father. His dad was supposed to marry my father's sister. The two families spent months coming to an appropriate agreement and when the time came to let Lucas' father and my aunt know about it, my aunt was more than happy about the arrangement. However, Lucas' father refused no matter how much pressure he was getting from both families.
His father even threatened to cut him off, but he still refused to marry my aunt. He said he'd rather renounce his family name than not marry for love.
So his family tried to force his hand.
They planned a whole wedding with my aunt. They invited nearly five hundred people. Lucas' father was going to get there and be forced to marry my aunt infront of all those guests. He wouldn't refuse her infront of an entire crowd.
That was the plan.
Little did they know that he found out about this plan. Instead of attending his wedding, he eloped and married the girl he loves that very same weekend. She was already pregnant with his kid so he hid her for a year so no one could hurt her. When the world was finally introduced to Lorraine Greyson, the kindergarten teacher from Oklahoma, they were also introduced to Lucas Greyson.
My aunt was mortified. David Greyson embarrassed her infront of five hundred of her closest family and friends. People talked about the whole thing for months.
So she made sure to embarass Lorraine Greyson at every turn once the woman made an appearance. For two or three months, she plagued her with scandal after scandal until David Greyson found out it was the Mitchells who were trying to drive a wedge between him and his wife. He turned away every investor who even thought about my family's hospitals and nearly drove my family to bankruptcy until my aunt and father swore to leave his family alone.
Lorraine became especially careful after those few months and, although we suspect Lucas' dad never told her who was behind those scandals, she taught her kids to be just as careful.
My aunt and dad haven't gotten over that embarrassment, no matter how long ago it was. Part of the reason why dad hasn't really pushed for an arranged marriage between me and Lucas is because he fears he'll be driving Lucas right into Charlotte's hands. He suspects Lucas also has his father's rebellious spirit and that pushing him will make him elope with Charlotte.
"I'll see what I can do, mom." I took a bite of my food.
*******************************************
PRESENT DAY
"I swear you're going to be the death of me, Lauren!" My father threw a glass against the wall.
"You can't go after the Greysons, you fucking idiot! Mess with Ericsson all you want. Make her lose her job, make people think she's cheating, cut her off from the Greysons, but don't go after the Greysons; especially not Lucas Greyson!"
"Dad!" I cried out. "Alice says this is the only way for me to not go to jail. If we pin everything on Lucas, no one will go after him and I won't end up in prison!"
"You!" He almost punched me and I flinched. "You don't think Greyson saw this coming?" He roared at me. "Everytime you fucked up, Greyson sent me a formal email informing me and I was the one who asked him and the board of directors, as a fellow shareholder, to let me investigate the matter myself. I NEVER investigated anything because I banked on you being married to him by now! You trying to pin your mistakes on him will only come back to bite me in the ass!"
"Dad ... I, I didn't know. You should have told me!"
He started looking around his desk frantically. My father is a meticulous person who hates a mess, but his office is a mess today. There are papers everywhere, drawers are on the floor and there are alcohol bottles all over the place.
"Look at this!" He finally found a crumpled up paper and shoved it in my face. "Greyson Corporation is suing me. Do you know what this will do to me? No one will fund our hospitals, I'm already being pushed out of Greyson Corporation as a shareholder and now your sister's charities are getting investigated for fraud and embezzlement!"
"I - I think Charlotte is doing some of those things, dad!" I pleaded. "You never know with her. She and Jona-"
"Dammit!" He threw another glass against the wall. "I don't care whether it's Ericsson or Greyson, just make it stop! I refuse to believe that a girl with no parents can be better than my daughters who have had EVERYTHING handed to them. You have money, connections and influence. Use it!"
"Okay." I whimpered and tried to leave.
"Lauren!" He barked at me. "Tell that hillbilly lawyer of yours that if she drags Lucas Greyson's name into your disciplinary hearing, I will drag her vagina through razor blades!"
He threw another glass against the door and it almost hit me, but I was able to duck out of the way just in time.
***
"Just find another way!" I whispered screamed at Alice. "My dad will kill us both if you mention Lucas' name again."
She scoffed and shook her head.
"He really said he will drag my vagina through razor blades?" She asked again and I nodded.
"Are you okay with going to jail?" She raised a brow. "If the Company wins during your disciplinary hearing, they will definitely take this case to court. You'll go to jail, Lauren."
"No, I won't." I retorted. "Lisa hired you because she thinks you're as good as her. Find another angle. I'll ...", I took a deep breath, "I'll go talk to Lucas. Things may be tense, but he's still my friend."
She rolled her eyes and strutted out of the conference room the company gave us for our discussions.
I rubbed my eyes and just focused on getting through another day of this hearing.
I still can't believe that the hearing is being held at the company. I have to walk in here every day and ride in the elevators with people I used to work with before I got suspended.
Something like this is supposed to be private and held anywhere but the place where I freaking work! However, Jona bent the rules or found some kind of loophole just to embarass me. Every single person at the New York branch knows about this hearing. A few people are even allowed to come watch the proceedings so they can witness my humiliation.
I took the elevator from the floor where my hearing is held. Everytime it stopped on a different floor and people got inside, they either avoided looking at me or started whispering things to one another. It was unbearable. The shame, the humiliation.
I worked with these people. I laughed with them, grabbed drinks with them, but here they are today talking about me behind my back.
When the floor stopped on Lucas' floor, I did my best to walk past all the people in the elevator.
I wish the earth could just open up and swallow me right now!
I took a deep breath and started walking. Gosh, it feels weird being back on this floor.
The last time I was here was before the banquet and that was like a month ago. Lucas was still on vacation and Jona was on his lunch break so I didn't have to worry about him seeing me and chasing me away with those cruel eyes of his.
It dawned on me while I walked that I haven't spoken to Lucas in nearly two months. The last time he spoke to me, he was telling me to move out of his place. Charlotte punched me in the face, but he punished me for it. He cut me out of his life and I still have no idea how to get him back because Charlotte has her claws so deep in him that he won't listen to reason.
She was supposed to lose out on her promotion, work as Connor's senior associate and eventually get so fed up that she quit or hopefully killed herself. We were going to fuel more rumours of the two of them being together and even if Lucas didn't believe any of it, his family would have believed it. The banquet was supposed to lay the foundation for a cheating scandal, but somehow all of that flopped.
How the hell did it all go wrong?
Mrs Greyson was supposed to cut that ring off of Charlotte's finger and refuse for her to marry Lucas, but none of that happened. Our family in Oklahoma say she and Annabelle are telling everyone about the engagement and they've even started planning the wedding.
As if I'd ever let that happen.
I started blinking away my tears as quickly as I could. If I knew three months ago when I saw Charlotte's email in his inbox that all of this would happen, I would have deleted it.
I should have deleted it. I was going to, but he saw that email before I could and now I might lose him again because of her.
I found Melissa at her desk and tried my best to smile at her despite feeling fucking terrible today.
"Hey!" She immediately came to give me a hug. "How are you holding up?" She asked.
"I'm hanging in there." I glanced at Jona's desk.
"He's getting his morning coffee." She tried to assure me when she saw me searching for him. "He needs all the caffeine he can drink since ... "
"Since he's also busy with the disciplinary hearing?" I asked her.
"I'm sorry." She patted my back. "That was insensitive of me.
I plastered another fake smile and pretended to be okay.
"Is Lucas in?" I decided to get to the point. "Uhm, I'd like to say hi."
Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened in shock. "Uhm, I don't think that's a good idea, Lauren. People might think-"
I yanked her hand off of me and just went to his office.
I haven't seen him in more than a month. I was there for him when he needed a friend. He doesn't get to toss me to the side like I don't matter just because his ex-girlfriend is giving him attention again.