Chapter 5

Liam Kings

We left Canada at 3pm and by the time we arrive in Geneva, it is already 11pm, so we were just going to go to our house here first to rest before getting to work tomorrow.

I check my watch and I see that it is already 2pm. I haven’t been able to get a wink of sleep since we got to the house. Dad was already sound asleep but I just couldn’t. Different thoughts were going through my head.

I will be getting married in less than 3 months and to someone I didn’t know. Of course I had seen her pictures but I didn’t know what she her character was like.

After so much tossing and turning, I get up from the bed and go downstairs to the mini wine bar. They always helped me go to sleep whenever I had problems.

The wine must have really worked cause I see my self slowly giving in to sleep. I go to my back to the room and crash in the bed with only one thought in my head.

‘Emilia Peyton. ‘

“ Good morning Mr. Kings. So good to see you here.” Paula, the manager greets as I arrive at the hotel. Every one looked professional. From the valet, to the janitors, everyone was as professional as they should be and I was pleased.

“ Likewise Paula, I see you are doing a wonderful job with the hotel.” I say genuinely.

“ But if course Mr. Kings. I’m happy to hear that you are pleased.” She says with a bright smile. She was a wonderful lady in her mid thirties who knew how to do her job well despite her age. A lot of people were against me hiring her due to her age. According to them, she lacked experience and the work of hotel management was supposed to be given to someone with more years of experience but I disagreed. Seeing how well she was managing the hotel, with the number of guests we had on a daily basis and the wonderful reviews by customers, I can proudly say that I made the right choice.

“ I guess my presence wouldn’t be needed here frequently. Thank you for reducing my work load Paula.” I say jokingly and she gives a hearty laugh.

“ You’re welcome sir, please do stay for lunch at least. It will be a pleasure to have you dine at our hotel restaurant.” She says with a warm smile. Sounds good to me.

“ Of course, please lead the way.” I say.

*******************************************************

After lunch, I head home to prepare for the meeting later this evening with the Peytons. Emilia Peyton was going to be arriving at noon so I had the meeting shifted because she had to be there.

We arrive at their mansion at exactly 4:30. Everyone should be settled by now. We are immediately welcomed by Mr. Aaron himself.

“ A pleasure seeing you once again Mr. Kings.” He says referring to Dad with a handshake.

“ Likewise Mr. Peyton.” Dad says reciprocating his actions.

“ Liam Kings, I never thought I’d be able to see you up close. The tabloids never lie you know, you really are a good looking man.” He says as he extends his hand for a shake but I just reply with a nod.

I don’t like this man.

“ Please this way, the rest of the family is waiting.” He says and I only look forward to meeting Emilia.

We make our way into the sitting room and I look around but my eyes only catch Julia Peyton and an older woman, must be her mother. Julia of course was putting on something that one couldn’t call a clothing as it barely covered anything and her face was baked with so much makeup. I internally gag.

Where is Emilia?

Dad notices the confusion on my face and he speaks up.

“ Your niece, Emilia, she isn’t here.” He states

“ She isn’t here yet, I just phoned her driver and he said they were going to be a here in about 15 minutes but we can proceed with the meeting, its not like we actually need her here.” Aaron says and I scoff.

Yeah, right.

“ Liam, I see you finally came to your senses, but don’t worry, I’m willing to forget everything and start afresh with you.” Julia says in her sickening pitched voice.

“ You must be Claire.” Dad says interrupting Julia. I am not ready to deal with that woman.

“ Oh my, you have a keen eye Mr. Kings. Yes I am Claire, Claire Peyton.” She says with an over stretched smile.

Dad gives her a friendly handshake that is duly reciprocated.

I had not said a word since we got here, reason being that I did not want to converse with anyone here other than the niece. She was the main reason I was here. A part of me wondered how she was going to feel about this. What if she wasn’t ready to get married or she already had a lover. It didn’t matter if she did, she will be getting married to me. After two years she will be free to get married to whoever she pleases.

We sit in silence for some minutes before light footsteps are heard from the front door. A young lady in a maid’s attire with a luggage in her hand comes into view. She is soon followed by a lady clad in all black. She is also on a face cap but anyone could tell that she wasn’t a normal person because she carried a powerful aura.

Emilia Peyton.

Her clothing only made her figure more prominent, although I couldn’t see her face clearly, I could already tell that she was a fine woman. I had never seen a woman show you for a business meeting looking like a spy. I guess I might have misjudged her. I smile to myself but quickly cover it up before anyone could notice.

She was on a black turtleneck crop sweater paired with a black high waist trouser, black boots to match. Even with every inch of skin in her body apart from her face, covered, she still looked undeniably sexy.

She starts talking with her uncle and I notice a silent war going on between all of them. More like Aaron’s family against her. Did they not like her? Did she not like them? Was what I read in the internet about them all a lie?

She doesn’t seem to recognize or if she did she didn’t act like she did. Her uncle tells her who we are and she seemed surprised but manages to mask it. She must be wondering why we were at their house.

Dad seems surprised by the fact that she didn’t recognize us and I couldn’t agree less. We were pretty much like celebrities, with paparazzis following us every where. It was the same thing with the Peytons, so it was nearly impossible for her not to know who we were. I had seen her in almost every news and her pictures were literally everywhere. Ian was crazily in love with her even though he had never met her in real live. She was like the business Angelina jolie. That reminds me, Ian is going to flip when he hears that I am going to be getting married to Emilia Peyton.

Dad seemed to like her already as he was already having a heart warming conversation with her. Her head tilts to my side and that is when I see her face.

If I thought she looked beautiful when she first walked in with the face cap covering her face, she looked breathtaking now that I had seen her face. I had seen lots of pictures on the internet but none of it did justice to this beauty in front of me.

Her eyes were beautiful although they didn’t have that sparkle in them, If anything, they looked sad. Was she sad? She had the most beautiful lips and you could tell that she had no makeup on her but she still looked beautiful.

I think she notices my stare because she looks away quickly. I see she already finds me attractive.

It is when she starts defending the company that I realize what Dad meant when he said she knew how to run a company. She didn’t know that she was the one getting married, she thought it was Julia. She had no issues with the marriage but she had issues with her uncle’s idea of merging her parents company. She wanted to protect the Company her parents built and I could understand her. If I were in her place I would have done the same.

She stands her ground on not merging the company and I could notice Aaron getting frustrated and angry as he tries to act up but his wife stops him beforehand.

Dad gives in and decides to just proceed with the marriage, leaving the merger out of it, not that we wanted it anyways.

She looks relieved and stands from her chair to leave saying that the wedding had nothing to do with her.

Oh It has everything to do with you my dear Emilia.

Julia says something about planning a wedding. She must really think that we were getting married.

For the first time since my arrival, I speak.

“ Wait a minute, Miss Peyton, please wait.” I say stopping her in her tracks. She turns towards me and her brows furrow. Even that little action of hers looked incredibly breathtaking. What is wrong with me. I quickly snap back to reality and continue.

“ You can’t leave yet.” I say

“ Why can’t I? my business here is done.” She says with the same look.

“ You see, your business here isn’t close to being done.

We just finished one phase, we still have a wedding to plan.” I say trying to explain the situation to her.

“ We.” She says getting even more confused.

“ What do you mean Mr. Kings.” Aaron speaks up but calmly this time and Emilia turns to him and nods, agreeing with him.

Julia leaves her seat and walks towards me, her annoying perfume attacking my nostrils.

“ WE have a wedding to plan, so why does she have to be here.” She says, emphasizing on the we.

I smirk and walk towards Emilia, not wanting to converse with Julia.

“ I can see you didn’t read the documents at all. I never said I was going to marry Julia.” I say and she gives me a confused look.

Did she not know about the documents? If she doesn’t, that means she also doesn’t know that Julia was obsessed with me. This means she and Julia aren’t close. I can’t believe that I thought they were close, friends maybe. They were just cousins and from what I could see they had nothing in common.

Julia liked to party and chase after men while Emilia looked like she didn’t even have a man in her life. Well it’s too early to make conclusions. She also handled a company as big as Peyton Inc. that had branches around the world. Where would she see the time for a relationship? She was an interesting woman and for the first time the media was right in their judgement.

They called her a beautiful saint and I was beginning to agree with them.

Dad quickly stands up and walks towards Julia.

“ She has to be here because the marriage is because Liam and Emilia my dear.” He says and shock is too little of a word to call the expressions that is being displayed on the faces of the Peytons. Emilia looks at me and although she tries to hide it, the shock is just too visible.

This just got more interesting.