A Wife for the Billionaire
Chapter 68: RICHARD

Chapter 68: RICHARD

RICHARD

"Good morning, Sir," Vera greeted me as I walked into the office.

Seeing her reminded me of my tete-tete with Claire the night before. Didn’t she say that she sent Vera the list of prospects and the bitch didn’t think I deserved to know.

"Save that lame greeting and get your ass in here now!" I snapped.

"Is... um," she swallowed hard, "everything alright, Sir?"

I wanted nothing more than to strangle her right there and then. She kept something of such magnitude from me and had the guts to feign ignorance, the heck!

"Are you seriously asking me that, as if you have no idea why I’m pissed?"

She took a step back, her eyes quickly darting to the door, as if to calculate how far she was from it.

"Pardon me, Sir, but I..." another step back, "I’m clueless as to why you are... um... erm, aggravated. No offense, Sir"

"I see you’ve gotten far too comfortable with your job, perhaps it’s time I remind you that your position is not guaranteed. You are fired. Now get out of my sight."

"Please Sir," she begged, reducing her height to her knees. "I swear I don’t know what you are talking about, if you would be so kind as to spare me a hint, please, I beg of you, Sir"

The more she feigned ignorance, the angrier I became.

"I think you should know by now that I’m anything but ’kind’ and pleas don’t work on me, so what’s going to be, are you going to leave voluntarily or should I call the security guards?"

"Like hell you will" a voice echoed from the hallway.

Claire walked in, a paper bag in hand, I didn’t even need to ask what was in it.

"Good morning Ma" Claire greeted as she kneel-walked to her.

"Good morning dear, rise and return to your post, I know what he’s talking about and you have nothing to fear, I’ll make sure you still have a job, after all this is my fault"

Claire walked to my desk and dumped the bag.

Vera remained kneeling, her eyes darting from me to Claire. She was torn on whose authority held superiority,

mine or Claire’s?

"I said leave! I want to talk to my son and close the door on your way out"

Vera didn’t bother hesitating as she rose and scurried away.

"You really have to stop questioning my authority and worse in my own office, or else I would have to make it clear in front of my employees that you mean nothing to me. We both know you don’t want that"

"And how many times have I apologized?"

"Not enough," I quipped, "and I seriously don’t want to discuss the past, so why are you here?"

"Why of course, but to bring you your salad" she said, taking a seat.

"Do not play games with me, why are you here?"

"I don’t know, can’t a woman see her child again? Does she really need to have a reason for coming over to her son’s office? If not for anything, then for Vera, I’m glad I came."

"Don’t be so sure I won’t fire her just to spite you"

"Well go ahead, you already hate me, that’s has never been muddled, but punishing an innocent on that account is nothing short of vile"

I had wanted to fire Vera, that was the truth. I didn’t care about the consequences, I just wanted her gone. But if truth be told, she had tried telling me about the list twice yesterday and I waved it away.

My anger mostly was that she should

have made mention of the gravity of the situation. I remember asking her if it was a life and death situation, and it was.

What is being forced to test 15 ladies for the purpose of marriage, if not death?

"Anyway," Claire began, steering me away from my thoughts, "I also wanted to discuss what you intended to do about our situation? Like what exactly did you mean by ’I will handle it from here?"

"Wait, did you just say our situation? No, you don’t get to pretend like this has anything to do with you. You’ve done your part, leave the rest to me. Just know that from now till next year, I will be married. Now if there’s nothing else, I would like to get on with my work." I finished, removing my jacket and hanging it on the neck of my chair.

"Fine, handle it yourself. But for the sake of this Empire, I hope you don’t make the wrong choice, marriage is not something that should be taken lightly, you can’t make the right choice alone. You will need wise counsel from someone with experience in the matters of love and starting a family, someone like me. But if you insist that you don’t, then please find someone else, someone who’s an excellent judge of character, another set of eyes to see what you might miss, and another mind to think and analyze differently from your own conclusions and decisions."

"I don’t think I need someone," I lied, "I think I’m more than capable to interrogate a few ladies and pick a wife from the lot"

"Well, suit yourself. Prior to your request, I removed Lucy from the list, she was heartbroken by it and I fear her mother has already counted me as an enemy_"

"Are you saying they might spill?" I cut in.

"No, no, nothing like that. I made sure they understood what would happen if a wisp of this is heard from another’s mouth and is trailed back to them" she declared, holding my gaze through it all.

"So, why were sounding like there’s anything amiss?"

She shifted in her chair and gripped the arms as if to support her in what she was about to say, and I knew by that gesture, I wasn’t going to like it.

"Lucy’s replacement is Olivia Fisher"

"Wait what? Did I hear you right? Olivia Fisher?"

"She’s the perfect choice, I didn’t even know why I didn’t add her in the first place. A marriage between you and her could cement our position as the head family, the other families would no longer have to contend with just the Wellingtons, but the Fishers as well." she surmised, relaxing into the chair, her initial fear and hesitation - gone.

Of course, this was a political ploy. Of course, she thought it through. Why am I not surprised? Claire was an expert in the game of power, she knew the moves to make to ensure a checkmate and marrying Olivia would definitely do that for us, but she was like a sister to me.

"Do you even hear yourself? You want me to marry the same girl I’ve been friends with since childhood, the one I see and take as my younger sister and wait, why does this sound like there’s no more need for a selection, like Olivia Fisher is the choice?"

"Of course she is, your father even agrees, but for appearance and image sake since we’ve already gotten a lot of families involved, it’s best if the selection still happens. And why are you complaining about Olivia or don’t you know that the best marriages are those that begin with friendship ties?"

She was insufferable. Hadn’t she not been the woman who bore me I swear I would have tested my fury on the edges and planes of her face.

"Of course Edward agrees. Once again, the two of you have denied me the chance to make my own choice. You’ve taken that liberty from me and on top of that you want me to pretend like there’s still a possibility of another choice with the remaining 14 prospects. Because I’m sure you both must’ve told the Fishers that their daughter might be the choice. I think that was actually why they agreed for her name to be added to the list, wasn’t it?"

"Bravo, you are really our child, inheriting both our smartness. Now, don’t act like Olivia wasn’t the obvious choice, even if we hadn’t interfered, you still would’ve chosen her. So, why sulk when you know we only did you a favor?"

"You did me a favor?" I repeated, rising, "You call making the wife choice for me, a fucking favor? Like I’m incapable of making my own choices, like I’m still a child for you to make that decision as if you are picking an ice cream flavor? You are my parents, and I’m no longer a child. You may claim to know what’s best for me, but I assure you, you don’t have even the faintest idea. Go back and tell your husband this, for this decision you made without consulting me, I will not and I repeat, I will not... marry Olivia Fisher."

"Surely you don’t mean that," at my raised eyebrows, she quickly added, "no, you can’t possibly mean that"

"I hate for me to be forced to carry out my threat of treating you like nothing before my employees, so I suggest you leave cause we are done with this conversation."

"Dearest, don’t be like that. You know we are only trying_"

Ping ping ping ping.

"Fine I would leave, you don’t have to act on your threat, calling security guards on your own mother, shame on you"

She stood, pushed the paper bag closer to me and with her head raised high, she made for the door.

"And remember," she said, smiling from the door, "you can’t fire Vera"

Exasperated beyond reason, I hurled the paper bag at her. But she was fast, closing the door as the contents splashed on the glass frame in a smudge of cabbages, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes and a whole lot of stuff. I didn’t care about their names.

The door opened.

"Sir, Claire said you might be needing my assistance?" Vera asked, taking in the gruesome sight.

"Of course, she did. Typical Claire" I thought. I swear she would be smiling now as she headed to the elevator.

Turning to Vera, I ordered,

"Handle that and don’t even think of calling the cleaners."

I might not fire her, but I sure as hell can make her life miserable.