"Just hold on to me, you won't fall." Adrian assures, as I cling to his arm "unless I fall first then we're both screwed." He adds and an overwhelming urge to strangle him takes over me.
Before I can say anything, Cel's shriek makes me look across...
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MRS ALEXANDERSON GAVE HER signature pointed look to her husband who, in return sighed.
Soon after, Arden Evangeline Clarke had been declared the chief executive officer of the family enterprise since she was not on the plane and thus the only alive member of the Clarke lineage, having been in Monaco while the plane had gone down in flames.
And that was the only positive Adrian could chalk out from the entirety of the devastating predicament.
Whenever his brain veered to the topic of his ex, he felt as though his heart was being squeezed, held in a tight vice by memories both beautiful and ugly. He had attended the funeral in respect of the Clarke family-for they had also been his family-but had kept his distance from Arden, out of respect for her.
He didn't know how to approach this after what had gone down between them, anything Arden and Adrian related was a tangled mess of behemoth proportions.
That thought was enough to bring Adrian back to the matter at hand.
That being the very salient deal made by Mr Richard Alexanderson and Mr Samuel Clarke regarding the collaboration of both their companies to form a new unit, run by the heirs of both the parties, on the term of an arranged marriage.
Arden had wanted to enjoy one last family vacation while Elliana was still single so she'd invited her family to Monaco-where she'd been living for the past few months.
It had stung him more than he'd anticipated-the fact that he was marrying his ex's older sister.
Elliana, as the first born was raised to be in charge of a multi-billion company much like Adrian.
Their lives consisted of elongated lessons and lectures on handling businesses, upkeeping affiliations, hosting lavish celebrations and above all: being a convincing and cunning dealer, unlike Arden, who was free as a bird, never settling-always in flight. Carefree.
However, after the unanticipated turn of events, many plans had been shuffled, needing to be re-organised.
"She's not capable of running a company. Arden is wild. Always has been and always will be. Adrian is the complete opposite of that girl. They won't last." Corine pressed on with determination on her face and venom in her voice.
Adrian agreed with his stepmother, Arden was wild, that was one of the reasons she'd attracted him so damn much since the moment he saw her in the halls of Ailes Academy. And even though whatever it was between them had ended sourly, he'd been through too many challenges to let this one get the best of him.
It was his destiny to become CEO of Alexanderson Enterprise, it was what he'd been taught to do since the day he was born and to claim his crown, to prove his worth to his father, he first had to be the chief executive of the collaborated unit.
And prove that he could be a loving husband and one day have a family, of course, this was his father's agonisingly frustrating command-thus the term of an arranged marriage.
The thing about old money is that preserving the legacy always trumps everything and anything else and for the Alexanderson family that includes marrying your son to his ex's sister. Richard Alexanderson wasn't a bad father but he was also by no means the best, he was ruthless in his nature, especially when it came to preserving his family name.
Not even a full year after Adrian's mother died, Richard remarried so that the continuation of his lineage was not just dependent on Adrian-Richard loved his first wife, Odette, but he knew what measure had to be taken.
Similarly, he knew about Adrian's feelings regarding Arden, about how there was once a time when Adrian lived and breathed for that golden-haired vixen yet he still signed a one hundred and sixty four-page contract setting up his marriage to her sister with zero ounce of hesitation.
Albeit, Adrian's Mont Blanc had made the first signatures on that contract, so he didn't know what that said about himself.
"Arden is resilient. She does things with passion and when things are done with passion the result is fruitful, one cannot fail. Ever." The current head of Alexanderson Enterprise fired back, never one to back down easily.
Corine was ready to refute but before the situation could get more muddled Adrian acted "I'll make it work." He said firmly, in a voice he usually reserved for ending board meetings.
Both the elders turned to him in a flash, Richard gradually sporting a satisfactory smile while on the other hand, Corine was on the verge of combusting with the urge to fire an argument.
"We'll make it work. Together." He amended himself, already donning on the cloak of false attributes and characteristics because he knew which cards he had to play.
The only thing left was for Arden to express the same feelings, which wouldn't be a difficult task because he knew Arden was also eager to have this arrangement finalised.
Adrian would make this work. One way or the other.
The King would not be denied his crown.
♛ 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿'𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲 ♛ And so our journey starts. Heads up, only this chapter is in the third person. qotc : What's your zodiac sign? I hope you liked the chapter Until next time Xoxo 🤍
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