Revenge Marriage With The Billionaire

~Ashley~

Growing up was difficult for me not because anything was wrong with me. I was just too unfortunate to grow up with a sister who was too perfect, too intelligent, too pretty, too special and even so street smart. Next to her, I was just a dumb child with my greasy hair and boring brown eyes next to my step sister who was blonde and had blue eyes. She had the typical beauty queen features and I was sorely jealous of all the attention she always got.

Years later, I could still feel the heat of her existence and as much as I love her, I sometimes wished I was my father's only daughter.

A cup of coffee in hand, my flared pants and fitted suit complimenting my slick back bun and large round eyeglasses meant to protect my eyes from too much screen time, I ran through the hallway.

"Hold the elevator for me, please," I begged as I ran in my kitten heels, my large bag flying everywhere and being a testament to my disorganisation.

Moments after, I was on the last floor and now running towards the hall, ignoring other employees' pleasant greetings.

"Fuck! I'm late." I muttered as I barged open the door and almost fell face flat on the floor.

The conference hall was now occupied by nicely dressed men and women in suits and corporate dresses. Their faces were stern and judgy and I couldn't blame them. I was a mess. I did everything I could to shut out their stabbing stares as I glanced at the wall clock.

"You are thirty minutes late," a middle aged woman with all her hair colored grey spoke up, her tiny voice carrying authority. "That's not the attitude of someone who takes this meeting seriously."

I took my seat at the center, ignoring my father's fuming figure on his seat. I could literally see smoke coming out of his head.

"I apologize, Ms. Tim. It won't happen again." Everyone seemed to move on seeing as I apologised and the sound of pages flipping filled the room once more. "Shall we?"

One of the men, tall and poised with a lean frame cleared his throat, his tiny glass perched on the tip of his nose. He spoke through his nostrils, his accent thick.

"I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are tired of what is going on in your establishment, Ms. Ashley." Murmurings arose in agreement. My heart leapt out of fear of what they were driving at. "The charts are all the proof you need to see that we are not being unreasonable when we say we want to pull out of your company."

I scoffed softly, hoping to God that this was an expensive joke.

"You're kidding, right?"

Another man banged his hand on the table, startling me.

"Aren't you tired yourself, Ashley?" I was taken aback. "Everytime we invest in each new project you present, we are one inch close to bankruptcy. It's like we are throwing money in the wind with no returns."

"You still had a .3 percentage increase last month, what do you mean?" Anger rose in my chest and I could see from my side view that my father was aware.

"Listen to yourself speak." The older woman who had first spoken chipped in. "Isn't it pathetic that we invest millions and earn back scraps? Our agreement was to earn at least twenty percent in return."

One of the men who hadn't spoken since I arrived flung a file to me, rising tall before saying something.

"I won't sit here and discuss numbers with you, Ms. Ashley. We told your father before you arrived what our intentions were. We're leaving." He began to leave but I'd let rage blind me so much that I couldn't watch them leave.

I screamed. "Come back here. You all can't just leave. I've worked too hard on this!"

But no one was listening. The grey haired woman walked closer and patted my arm, smiling pitifully at me.

"We are sorry. If you have a better proposal that can pique my interest," she slid a card into my hand. "Come see me at lunch break in the Galatia cafe."

Tears stung my eyes as I slumped to the chair. Again, I had failed. I failed my younger self, I failed the company and I failed my father.

I turned to look at him and saw as he bent his head over the table, shoulders rigid. I knew I couldn't dare go close to him or I might lose my job in the process of trying to console him. So I held to myself, feeling the weight of failure and my years of hard work come crumbling on my shoulders. How did this even happen?

For a while, I sat in my office, thinking about how things could have gone differently. If only I added more colour to my initiative to appeal to people. Just like Violet, my sister. She added color to everyone's world, everywhere she went. It was like my own world was simply black and white so even if I mixed it, I'd simply get a boring grey colour. But as for Violet, she had all shades of colour, bringing warmth to everyone that came closer. It's a pity we weren't so close.

Or maybe, it's a pity her mother, Veronica, didn't let us get so close.

As I whirled around to focus on my laptop and see if there's anything I can do. Put out a mind blowing pitch to invite more investors and raise my father's company once more. Instead, as I logged in to the company's account, I saw the live activity and how investors, both home and abroad kept pulling out their money. Slowly, everything my father ever had and built came crashing down.

I let the flow of tears I'd been keeping stream down my eyes, throwing everything I could lay my hands on against the wall.

That's when it flew out. The card.

I picked it up and remembered what the woman had said. To come see her at a cafe.

Wiping away my tears, I adjusted my dress and made my way to the location, heart thumping and silently praying that the outcome yields positive results. It took a couple minutes driving down to the cafe and by the time I entered, I realized I arrived earlier than the woman I'm supposed to meet. Ms. Tim.

"Looks like you're a punctual person after all," a familiar voice interrupted my thoughts. "I'm happy to see this improvement."

"Hello, Ms. Tim," I rose to shake her hands and she took the gesture with warmth and a smile. "I'm sure you know who I am already."

"Ashley Carson. Of course, I know the one hardworking woman who loves her father's company. Trust that I've heard everything about you and it's all good." My mind took a calm position as soon as I heard that. Looks like my reputation has preceded me and I'm glad for how it's looking.

"However, I can't speak for so many investors and how they feel. Like me, they have all lost enough money but what we don't have in common is the ability to see the potential that you hold personally."

I shook my head in confusion. "I don't understand what you mean."

She smiled at me, her pearly whites glaring.

"Oh, dear. This meeting isn't to sympathise with you. It's to make you see that this isn't the time to slouch. It's time to work even harder." She reached into her bag and presented a blank paper before pushing it towards me. I just stared at her movement. "I've come to ask you, one on one, what your idea is."

My heart quakered and my nerves tingle with excitement at this proposal. What was she offering? To listen to my idea when my father always turned deaf ears towards them and made me seem like an unintelligent worker.

With a shaky hand, I picked up a pen and let it hover above the paper.

After I'd written all that I wanted, I showed it to her and she nodded slightly before looking right at me.

"I think your father was right." My smile began to falter as I was confused. My father told her I was good?

"What do you mean?"

"You're one gullible soul and I hope you don't see the wicked world in the same light." She folded the paper carefully and put it in her bag. "My enterprise will make use of this to get back all the money we lost on your pathetic company. Thank you, Miss Carson. It's been a pleasure working with you."

At that point, I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me. I wanted to drown in my tears till I could no longer breathe and feel the kind of pain that I feel now. My body was pebbled with goosebumps, announcing to my veins that I was about to burst into tears. My eyes misted and it took all my willpower to not fling everything on the cafe table and scream.

Instead, I took out my phone and texted my only solace, my boyfriend, that I'd be coming home soon.