CHAPTER ONE
AYRIA
How will the princess cope with the business?
Ice princess has been given her grandfather’s business and estate.
Spoilt little rich girl has it all now.
No one knows what it’s like to live my life.
How dare they judge me on what they think they know of me?
It’s all a lie, a play on a stage and I’m the main actor. I slam the paper down on my grandfather’s desk and look around at his office and at the beady little man in front of me. He has been on my grandfather’s side since the day I can remember.
What am I supposed to do with the business? I don’t have the first clue how to run a business but that was how my grandfather wanted it. He wanted me on the gilded stage he made for me. I like it there anyway, after too many years I’ve been able to perfect my life and make the men in my world suffer. My playthings.
I party way too hard.
I’m always dating but I can’t make any of them stay with me. As if I would.
My victims, that’s what everyone is saying now.
I stay up far too late and do nothing with my life.
I’m not smart, I have nothing in my brain apparently, but no matter what they say about me I can always just shake it off. It doesn’t matter.
But they don’t know the truth, no one does except me and that’s just the way I like it.
All I have is a pretty face, pretty looks.
I’m the ice princess. That’s what everybody thinks, that’s how the newspapers portray me and I’ve come to the point in my life where I really don’t care anymore. I know the truth and that’s all that matters, no one else does, it’s just me. They’re all the same anyway and I really don’t want people like that in my life, but I’m stuck. I’m stuck on this gilded stage even with my grandfather dead and buried six feet under.
“What am I supposed to do?” I ask my grandfather’s henchman.
“You let us run the business.”
“Somehow I don’t think you mean me.” I fold my arms in front of me and cross my left leg over the right as I stare him down.
“Of course not you have no idea how to run this business.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard what I said.” I unfold my leg and my arms and lean forward across the desk so I’m closer to the slimy bastard.
“And that’s just how my grandfather wanted me until I found the right husband. I had no choice, I never found the husband he wanted but now the business is mine.”
“Yes, it is yours but that doesn’t mean your grandfather meant for you to run it. That was always me.”
“You?” I take a breath and rise from my chair and storm towards the window.
“And what about me? I’m his granddaughter, I did everything he wanted.”
“Except find a husband to help you run it, so although you own this business you don’t really run all of it.”
“Get out.” I demand, I’ve had enough of this conversation.
Sick bastard, it wasn’t enough to control my life while he was alive he has to try and do it now he’s dead. Well he can try with all his might but I’ll do something that none of them will see coming. I’ll make my grandfather roll in his grave. I hear the henchman’s feet walk away from my grandfather’s desk and then the soft click of the door closing behind him. I look down at the city below. I’ve lived here all my life but I’ve never felt like I was home. Never felt like I was a part of something bigger than myself, just a pawn for someone else. I’ve tried to make the world better for myself but at every turn he was always there to stop it.
I am everything the newspapers portray.
An ice princess.
I party way too hard.
I stay up far too late and do nothing with my life.
I go out with different men, but I can never make them want to stay with me.
I’m not smart. I’m just a stupid girl.
Well, I’ll show him and them what stupid girls can do. I’ve always cruised along the journey of life and I always will. There’s something inside of me that has always told me to keep going, that everything will be alright in the end. I don’t know why I’ve always trusted it but I have and it’s talking to me now. I walk back to the desk and reach for my cell phone. I look through the internet and get the number I want before pressing it. It rings a few times before someone answers.
“Bryant Industries, how may I help you?”
“I would like to make an appointment with Mr Joshua Bryant please.”
“You would have to speak to his assistant. Shall I put you through, ma’am?”
“Yes please.” And with that the phone is ringing again until another woman answers it.