Dinner with family

Seth and I headed to his grandparents’ house. He had slept at my house the previous day, which made it easier for us to take his car to go for dinner. He mentioned it was a big deal and many relatives were going to be there, so I had to dress glamorously as everyone would.They treated dinners like a black and tie event.I wore a short, soft pink satin dress, silver stilettos, and I put my hair in a high bun and wore light strawberry makeup. I put on diamond stud earrings, wore a tennis bracelet, and necklace, and carried a pink Kelly Hermes bag.I wanted to fit in with his family.When Seth and I arrived, there were a lot of cars parked up front. The dinner was in a Victorian mansion that looked more like a castle than a house. It had like fifteen bedrooms and four bathrooms.The property had a ranch, a small lake, and a forest.It was huge, and there weren’t neighbors nearby, and there were bodyguards everywhere. I guess many people wanted to harm the Ashford matriarch and patriarch

Shit hit the fan

“You held it down in front of my family. Everyone loves you—the ones who matter at least. Nona wouldn’t stop talking about you. You really know how to charm people.”I smiled. I had planned this for years. Of course, I knew exactly what to do to charm his grandparents. It was the easiest way to get him to ask me to marry him. The inheritance clause was a bonus.“I am so glad they liked me. I was so nervous. I had to pull so many strings to get those gifts for them. It was the only way I knew how to break the ice.” I said. “Thank you for telling me the things they wanted the most.”“Nona and grandpa normally don’t like material gifts, but you managed to make the gifts sentimental.”He was happy, and so was I. We were debating in whose house we would spend the night when Seth’s phone started ringing. When he saw that it was Asher calling, he turned it off.But it just kept ringing.“I think you should pick up the call,” I said. “It could be an emergency.”He picked up his phone and angr

Asher loses

“Billionaire Asher Quinn loses everything…”“This just in, Asher Quinn’s best friend, Michael Montgomery, is burying articles exposing Asher Quinn to fraud and money laundering.”“Reports say bigshot lawyer, Nikolai West, will be representing Asher Quinn in his fraud case. Does this imply where his morals stand? All this comes after Mr. Quinn was accused of sleeping with a nineteen-year-old girl.”All these were the reports on all the news stations. It was all people were talking about. I was the one who leaked that Michael was burying records. I wanted his reputation and that of Nikolai to suffer a little.People were already boycotting their companies.“You called me?” Josh asked as he walked into my office.I was in Mark’s office with a nice view of the city. It was the size of a suite, it had a fireplace, a TV, a leather couch, and a very huge mahogany desk. Since I was the boss, I could summon employees.“Asher told me you’re not picking up his calls,” I said, as I leaned against

Turn on him

As soon as I left the coffee shop, Seth asked me to go to an address. I already knew it was Nikolai’s penthouse, and I wondered why he would call me there. He knew how much I resented the man.I pretended to tolerate Michael, Beckett, and even Asher. But when it came to Nikolai, I felt disgusted just by looking at him.I texted Jesse where I was and asked him to come looking for me if I didn’t contact him within the next few hours. I didn’t trust any of the men. And while I felt safe with Seth, he was still a bad person.I couldn’t forget that. He was also friends with Nikolai.When I got to the penthouse, all the men were there—Beckett, Nikolai, Michael, and Seth. Asher was missing. They all looked like they were in mourning. Every single one of them was under a microscope because of Asher’s controversy.All of them except Seth, because he tried as much as possible not to be seen out in public with the others.“Why am I here?” I asked, looking directly at Seth.“We wanted your opinio

She didn't know (1)

It was over for Asher. Shit was going very badly. He had been prosecuted and was in prison awaiting trial. I heard his bail hearing was going to be in a few days but neither he nor his wife had the kind of money that would allow him to walk Scott free.They had lost everything after the allegations against him got serious. Not only was he being accused of fraud and embezzlement, but he was also being accused of sexual crimes. Most of the victims who had come forward had also named Nikolai and Michael in their lawsuits.I wondered how Beckett got away with it, but he seemed to be the safe one out of all of them. Even Seth wasn’t even in the conversation and it came to Asher and the things that he had done.I was kind of shocked and it made me wonder if my brother had lied to me yet again about Seth or I had to blindly trust him like I had all these years.Things in my life were going well and Seth and I were growing strong. I had hung out with his grandmother and grandfather a couple o

She didn't know (2)

I agreed to meet Elizabeth at a nearby restaurant. I had to cancel some of the meetings I had so that I could meet with her and find out the truth, but I didn’t want to believe that my brother could have lied to me in any way.He knew her better than Seth, even though he didn’t know that. You reveal so much of yourself when you are sleeping with someone instead of being friends with them.Choosing to show someone your body and be intimate with them makes you develop a certain level of trust that you didn’t have with other people who hadn’t seen you in your most intimate and vulnerable ways.When she finally arrived, she looked like she had aged decades, just from the Asher drama. It had been dragging on for a little over a month, and it was getting really bad.But luckily for her, she had some people on the Internet, defending her because of the tactic I had told her to use. People were debating whether she was a victim of domestic abuse, and whether they should feel sorry for her, or