【 Chapter - 3】

"Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

         ~~Alfred Lord Tennyson

Asher

I was sitting in my office and started checking files,meetings,presentations and responding to some important emails to drift off my mind from the displeasuring morning incident but a part of mine didn't stop stumbling over Grandpa's wish.

"Sir are you okay?"Amy,my personal secretary snapped her fingers in front of my eyes which brought me back in the reality.

"Umm yeah."I composed my professional gesture in order to maintain my attitude as a billionaire boss .For no reason,I don't like involving my personal life with my business,especially my staff that works under me.I can't give them a chance to cook gossip about my family and life.

"Ohh you're not seeming to focus on the meetings that's why I thought something is bothering you."She stared at me with annoyed face .

I gave her a hard glare .

"Amy you better handle the work which is assigned to you."I said coldly that made her apologize for her courage of questioning her boss.

She left after taking my sign on some papers and again my mind reversed back to Grandpa's will.I took the hard copy of the will which was lying on the table.

Every word inked on the white paper were like blood letters printed by my own blood.I read it slowly word by word and felt my anger boiling my blood.Something pinched me really hard in the heart.I scrambled the papers and threw them into the dustbin.

"Dammit."I tried to calm down the magma that was exploding in my brain.

I couldn't sit idle and let my life become a gamble my parents were playing to sink their claws in the fruit of my grandfather's hard work.

I picked up my phone and dialled my friend Jonathan's who is a well known attorney of civil cases in the city.

"Ahh you bastard Asher you timing always make me willing to kick your balls."Jason groaned from other side and I could hear the creepy screams of a woman .

"Meet me at my office tomorrow at nine thirty in the morning don't be late Jason."I said and cut the call as I didn't want my ears to be profaned by their loud screaming.

Sighing with disappointment,I walked to the window and glanced down at the busy and never tiring city lanes from the 55th and the top floor of my office building .The people on the street were normal human being busy with their small commodities.

I,Asher Black couldn't be one of them.People think I am born with silver spoon in my mouth,somewhere it's true.At the age of only twenty eight,I have expanded our business across the country's boundaries to the East countries .Under my supervision,our company now owns half of the seven star hotels in the city .

But all the lusture of a successful business tycoon and a charming personality,nobody knows how much hollow I feel inside.At this point,I feel like having everything I do not achieve something very priceless which is missing in the Love.Neither from my own parents nor the woman I ever fell in love.

"Sir,it's time to get back to the home."Eugene's voice echoed through intercom .

This man actually knows my schedule more than me.I took a deep breath and shrugged all the anxieties as my head was aching badly .

Taking my phone and few important files that I needed to complete within the night,I left the office.

The time I entered in the mansion after a long chaotic day,the living room was all dark except the centre chandelier,it's light was falling on the Boca do Lobo leather sofa.My mother was sitting on it with all her intimidating glory.

I cursed myself for coming earlier than my usual time as I was not in a mood to confront my tenancies mother whose eyes were dropping the evilness she must holding to inject into me through her great manipulator skills.

"Asher we need to talk on few certain things."She said folding her hands across her chest.

"I am tired Mom,shall we talk tomorrow at the breakfast."I tried to avoid her knowing where the conversation would end.

"No it's important please."She requested putting extra sweetness in the last word.

"Fine."I sighed in defeat and sat on the sofa next to her.

"That's like my good boy."She smirked coming over to me.Her predatory steps alarmed me of her intentions.

"My son you're almost thirty and it's time you should marry and settle down in your life with a girl of one of the wealthy families of London."She spoke pouring water in a glass .

"Mom please not again.We have talked about it enough in the morning and I f**king don't care about the will Grandpa had made."I annoyingly damped my head on the soft headboard of the sofa.

"Stop fooling yourself Asher and wasting your life in remorse for a bitch."She venomously greeted her teeth .

"Your stubbornness will only earn bad name for us Asher for Christ's sake."she gave me a dangerous look.

"You're making a mountain out of a molehill Mom."I said as calmly as I could to prevent myself bursting on my mother for her baseless rants.

She hissed like a black mamba and leaned on me with her sapphire eyes blazing with fury.

"Rich families marry their children in another rich families that's how business is done and I expect same from our only son to keep our name and business alive."The business woman again possessed the mother inside her .

"My opinion is slightly different from yours Mom.My freedom is the last thing that I can call as mine and nobody has the right to snatch it from me."I responded firmly.

"Asher for all your life we have given you everything that you ever wanted,you are a successful man in your young age because we gave you the environment and best upbringing .Now it's time to repay for our all efforts and you have no choice other than fulfilling the last wish of your grandfather."She smiled cruelly.

I knew she was hell adamant this time and there was no way to escape the castle of Mother Gothel,"I need some time to think about it."I threw my hands in the air .

Asher

The continuous clicking of my mother's heel on the wooden floor was only tormenting the volcano inside me.

"Mom I need time means I need time.Can you just leave.I want some time alone."I surpressed my anger to avoid any sour argument again.

She gave me an unpleasant look."To think about what honey?"Her brows raised to her forehead .

"If you want me to marry in haste then let me find someone on my own.Am I allowed to choose my wife or you want to impose your parental right again?"I sarcastically laughed but this time she didn't react but her eyes hooded like king cobra.

She looked scary.Really scary.

Her indecipherable expressions made me gulp down in utter suspense.She kept the empty champagne flute on the table and turned to me with a broad victorious smile.The creases of her forehead relaxed.

"I am glad that finally God put some brain inside your dumb skull Sweetheart.You must use your brain sometimes rather than something else."She patted my cheek much to my annoyance."Fine you may choose your bride but "She stared intimidatingly into my eyes,"As soon as possible your deadline is one month from tomorrow .Do you get that my boy."She kissed my forehead.

I cringed as she left sticky lipstick mark .

Saying this,she marched off to her room clicking her heels on the wooden floor.My head seemed to burst any moment.

The air filled with deathly silence when she left but a strom took fierce shape inside me.My head was continuously hit by the waves of headache.I didn't know when sleep took over my senses and I slept for the whole night in the living room in my business suit and shoes only.

Next day I woke up feeling the sharp rays of sun which were falling into the living room through opened curtains.I looked at myself,I slept in my work clothes.

"Ah!"

I winced as the sharp pain passed through my head.My throat felt dry and sour because of screaming and drinking whole two bottles of beer.

Clouds of uncertainty loomed over my senses.I felt defeated and betrayed.My own fate and family decieved me.

I could not see any ray of hope in the darkness of conspiracy.

But I could not sit and mourn the misfortune of my life.

I am Asher Black,the born fighter .Things happens according to my will in either way.

"Good morning Sir."Lisa,one of my maid kept a cup of coffee on the table and turned back to leave.

"Lisa can you bring paracetamol for God's sake?"I rubbed my temples to ease the throbbing pain.

"Sure Sir."She politely nodded her head and left.

She came back in less than two minutes holding a tray with a glass of water and the pain killer.

She handed me the painkiller which I immediately gulped down with the water when my eyes landed on a brown envelope.

"What is it Lisa?"I asked her with a frown.

"Sir,Mrs. Black left it for you last night.She ordered me to give this to you when you'll be sober."She answered with lowered head.

"You may leave."I dissmised her.

With a rapidly beating heart,I tore open the sealed envelope and read the papers.My hands balded into fists.

The copy of my grandfather's Will.

My mother left it for me as a reminder as well as a warning for me.

In the afternoon office Jason arrived at my office on the time.Well he was pissed off on me for spoiling his vacations in Scottland ,his native land.

"Hey can you insert it back in your pocket?"I pointed at his phone as he wasn't looking serious on the matter I detailed to him.

"Ohh sorry actually Rosie is upset with me.I had to leave her naked on the bed and all thanks to you Mr. Black.Woman specie will abandom me like a plague one day.All thanks to you."He gave me a killing glare.

"You can curse me later and please I haven't call you here to listen your s*x scandles."I gave him a hard look and forwarded the will papers to him.

"You're just being jealous Asher because in spite of having more handsome and magnetic personality than me,you had been starving for what I can enjoy anytime with anyone."He smirked though his dirty jokes didn't effect me.

"Read it carefully."I commanded him snatching his phone and throwing it in the drawer.

He eyed me and then the file .

"So what kind of help you want from me?"He gave me a curious look closing the file.

"I am not in a mood of joking.If you want to leave this room with your head on your shoulder.Read this file carefully."I greeted my teeth.

The dick head was testing my patience.

"Your grandfather's will."He scanned the papers then glanced at me confusingly.

I stared at the file and walked to the window.The sun was raising over the horizon.It was a bright sunny day in London.

"Can you find a way to amend the conditions which my Grandpa had put in order to pass his power to me?"I looked at him hopefully.

He leaned back on the leather chair seemed to think while I gave him his own time.All this thing was too much for me to bear.

"Sorry brother I don't want to shatter your hopes but the old man doesn't leave any alternative way to modify the conditions of the will.He took his own good time and the advise of the best attorneys of the country.You're trapped in old man's wish."He apologetically gave me a sad smile.

Anger rushed up to my veins.I punched my fist hard on the glass wall.

"But there is a way you can walk out of the marriage."He spoke further thus my eyes snapped at him in shock.

I hurriedly rushed over to him.His words somewhere moved the heaviness that was bestowed upon me.

"Are you serious Jason?Is there a way to dismiss the marriage whenever I want?"I wanted to confirm whatever he was saying,might be possible practically.

"Yes."

His lips pressed into a thin smile.

"Shoot Jason."I stared at him impatiently.

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