Wesley's eyebrows went up. Such a woman must have been placed there on purpose. "Find out," first he said, "who she is; secondly, who placed her there; thirdly, whether any human being beside you and me knows of her existence?"
The morning sun shined through the drapes. Marlena heard noise outside as she slept.
She blinked her eyes and witnessed Grayson walking in her room with a key opening Paige's door.
Paige screamed as she walked in the room behind him. ''I live here! Are you not violating my privacy!''
"Of course you're here." He locked his intense stare with Marlena who's hair was a bit frazzled and her eyes were blood shot.
Marlena woke up then looking crestfallen.
I think you two should have a nice conversation. Being together for so long hasn't been simple." Paige pondered that for a moment before she turned and walked out of the room.
There was silence. Then Grayson sat on the bed in front of her and reached out to touch her hair.
Marlena turned her head and swerved out of his reach. "Isla knows that you're here?"
Grayson's handsome face stilled, then he made a fist. "Cathy, you probably didn't know this-but the Cray family are leaving 80 percent of the company shares to Isla when they die."
But Marlena was pale inside from shock. "That's impossible."
"No, it isn't. Your father said so himself.
Marlena seemed to understand it all in an instant. She looked up at the boy/man she had loved so dearly and wept bitterly. "And is this why you went with Isla and left me?"
Grayson took her face in his hands. "This isn't forever, Marlena. Isla will only get the engagement not the marriage, but I want to be married before I do… Right now my father already has a bastard son, if I don't marry soon then I won't be able to have even one legitimate child before he finally marries… God knows how long that could take.
"Silly." Marlena scoffed, yanking her hand from his. "You're only twenty-five. Can you not begin your own enterprise if your kinsmen bequeath you naught?"
"We can't change what we're not," he said, with the weariness of a man who has vainly tried.
Marlena thought it was funny. She just looked at him with cold eyes and didn't say anything.
With a quiet sigh, Grayson said nothing. "Cathy, give me three years. You keep being Baird. It's no hardship for you to have to wait."
Marlena almost lost her reason.
He didn't want to keep her young for anything but himself, so how could he speak like that and be right about it? "Honestly, you think I'm a damn fool.
You told me once you were going to get engaged to Isla because it was good for your business.
He didn't want my face any more. Get out of my sight!"
You can always be mad at me but don't let liquor wash away your feelings. Liquor'll only hurt you in the end." And with that he offered Marlena some advice cause she hadn't been trying to listen to him and turned to walk.
Red-eyed, Marlena threw a pillow against the wall, sat there for a few moments after she heard the door close and then put on her shirt and left.
"He's gone. What is there to go after?" Paige stopped her.
After taking a deep breath Marlena grit her teeth. "I had to agree in order to get married, I'll meet him at 10 in the morning."
"You really trust he will be there?" Paige asked.
Last night, didn't you say you believed him?" Paige blushed when she said it and followed with, "That's because I drank too much."
"What if he really does mean it?" Marlena shoved her aside and bolted.
Marlena went to the Cray family's home in a cab. Mr. Cray had already gone to work by that time.
Getting up to gets her birth certificate. She had saw Isla entering the living room coming out of the study with a stackfull of papers in hand. Isla face looked unmarked, like usual and she had a black bob that gave her an angelic look.
You are finally home, Sis. I have been worried since yesterday . Isla had a pained expression on her face I am sorry but Grayson just doesn't love you enough. You can't force someone to.
"Treat me better, please," she cried as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Is that it? I just do whatever you say & that's all? No work for me. You demanded the reports."
She'd had been handing them over as she spoke.
Marlena thought that was weird, and brushed her hand out to the side, dropping every single paper that she'd been holding to the ground.
"How you guys doing?"
Sally Morton appeared at the foot of the stairs and looked in at the devastation. There were papers all over the place, and Isla's highly traumatised face.
"Your father asked you to read a few of those papers. They are not company papers?"
Mom, don't be mad at her. It's me."
Isla paled and quickly said, "Cathy told me to give it back to her and stay out of the company. And… even if I did want to give it back to her, which I didn't but still, she's super upset about Grayson so…"
"You're ridiculous."
"Stop it!" Sally glared at Marlena. "Who are you to stick your nose in business? Isla was asked to do that by our dad and me. And as of next week Isla is the manager of this business. So you better start acting like it."
Marlena couldn't believe what she was hearing.I'm more qualified then her both in schooling and experience . And i haven't even became a manger yet been with the company one year longer than she has! How can just be go straight into a manger all of sudden?
"Mum I just shouldn't go into management." Isla sobbed. "I don't want to break mine and Cathy's bond."
Sally's heart snapped in two. "See, Ilsa cares so much about your sisters. What about you? You're cold and calculating, working in people managing isn't something you should do either. If it had to be anyone Grayson made the right choice picking Isla over him."
The words stung her like a cane. Her daughters were Isla and Marlena. She'd been at her mother's knee since Baird. Did Sally not know that?
And since yesterday morning, no one but Marlena had tried to comfort Marlena. The thing that had happened was abstract and inevitable.
She's just a person.