Chapter 1

  For as long as I can remember, I’ve never really done anything I loved, I was born to be prim and proper as the lady of the Carter household, my mom, a retired pageant queen and model, and my Dad, CEO to one of the biggest conglomerate in the world, well at least biggest after the Russo’s Empire, my dad’s biggest rival and ex best friend. You can say my father is an obsessed workaholic which worsened after the Russo’s Empire was named the number 1 money making company by millions of blogs and tabloid especially since what happened between my father and Mr. Smith Russo. Anyways they passed on their beef to their children at least the Heirs and we have been doing a really great job hating each other and living in our Fathers shadows. Alex Russo the biggest dick head in the whole world and the heir to the Russo empire, we attended the same schools growing up and now we’ve both been placed as vice president in both companies and next in line to being CEO, such an hectic job especially when we are clearly in a competition and can’t afford to slack off. 

 I’m Vanessa Carter, only daughter and heir to the Carter’s conglomerate especially since my younger brother signed off the “dilly-dallying” of the family business, as he would call it, and decided to go into the medical field as a Doctor leaving me with such hectic role to play. I turned as my alarm rang and turned it off while getting off my queen sized bed and very soft bed and placing my feet into my fluffy bedroom slippers, I yawned and headed to the bathroom while rubbing my face, I looked into my floor length mirror and knew this was going to be a very long day especially since I’m getting engaged in the evening to an even bigger dick head and my father’s business associate and biggest investor’s son, Sebastian Wood, Eliza and Jerome Wood’s son. I look around my bathroom and all it’s lavishness from the very big bathtub on my right to the state of the art shower and shower area, the toilet and the mamoa beautiful flooring, the shelf filled with every and all of my skin care products and all I could do was just sigh. I took a bath did my face care and skin care, grabbed a bathrobe and came out then walked into my wardrobe. Well some would call it a flat but not me, from the rows of designer dresses to the tweed jackets and suit, to the beautiful dinner dresses down to designer suits and casual wears, all stacked up in the wardrobe to my right, then the endless shoe rack with all types of heals and snickers, plus more rack holding up my bags that don’t seem to end, bags in ever color and style and every luxurious fabric, over to my jewelries encased in a shoe glass on a wardrobe island as I’d like to call it. 

I went over and picked my outfit for the day, ready to look and act the part of next-in-line CEO, I got dressed and picked up my phone to text my soon-to-be fiance before I’d get a lecture from my mom but changed my mind and called instead, the phone rang and then a lady’s voice came up. “ Hello” I said, “ I would like to speak with Sebastian “ feeling impatient already, “ and who might this be” she asked, “ his soon-to-be fiancee, give him the phone and save the chat for later” I replied getting angry I have to listen to so much this morning, “ well I’m his girlfriend and he wont be coming to the phone, bye” she said and hung up, I stood in my room shocked about what just happened  and angry as hell that she had the guts to hang up on me while Sebastian was obviously in the room, my phone beeped and I checked to see a video attached to a message reading, he might be your fiance but he’s always going to be mine. I opened the video and instantly regretted doing that, the bastard was fucking another woman the morning before our engagement, what happened to civility and respect. I calmed myself and took some breath, taking a closer look at the video I saw something familiar about the lady, the hair looked so much like Anita’s, who is my beat friend, hoping it wasn’t her I looked for the friend ship bracelet I had given her and to my shock it was on her wrist. So my best friend has been sleeping with my fiance, how nice smiling I knew today might just be fun as I had a plan hatched in my head already

Few years back

“You do not want to do this Carter, this is a big mistake. It took us years to come to this, was this the plan all along, why now?” Mr Smith Russo screamed out at his best friend and supposed to be business partner, “ this is madness” he begged but seeing the look in his friends eyes he knew it was over, their alliance is over and now the company’s share has to be divided  and each partner going their separate ways. “ This isn’t the end Carter” he said with much conviction, slammed the signed paperwork and slammed it on the huge burgundy conference table then walked out of the room.

As the sun rose over the sprawling Carter estate, the palatial mansion stood as a beacon of old-world charm and aristocratic grandeur. 

In the master bedroom, Mrs. Eleanor Carter sat at her vanity table, her reflection that of elegant beauty, she applied her makeup with practiced precision, her mind racing with the weight of the news she had received the night before.

The Carter’s family fortune, a symbol of power and prestige, was now teetering on the brink of collapse. After trying to convince her husband about breaking the partnership with the Russos he thought otherwise and Mrs. Carter knew that drastic measures would be taken by the Russos, a lawsuit isn’t something she’d want at this moment just because of her husband’s greed.

Just then, a knock sounded at the door, and Mrs. Carter’s heart skipped a beat. She knew without a doubt who stood on the other side—it was James Carter her husband and John Harrison, the family’s trusted lawyer and confidant.

“Come in, James,” Mr. Carter called, his voice steady despite the turmoil within.

James entered the room, his expression grave. “Mrs. Carter?” he began, “ Don’t worry about it, say it with her in the room” Mr. Carter said ,“I’m afraid that I bring troubling news.” Said John “Although we’ve successfully claimed sixty-five percent of the shares, I’m afraid the Russos wont leave without a fight and to keep the company running, we will be needing a permanent investor”. 

Mrs. Carter listened intently as the lawyer outlined the situation facing their family. With each word, her sense of resolve strengthened. She remembered her childhood friend, one of the biggest investors in New York, if she could get their son to marry her daughter it should go well.

Across the neighborhood, in the sleek and modern confines of the Russo estate, a different scene is  unfolding. Here, the morning air hummed with the quiet efficiency of modern technology, and the household staff moved with the precision of a well-oiled machine. Everything indicating wealth the family has, from the spiral staircase made out of imported marbles from three different countries to the massive chandelier above the walk-in area, a door opening up to show the massive living area in all its magnificent demeanor.

James Russo is seen pacing around the living area, clearly very livid, Alex Russo, his son, tries to calm him down while promising him that he would revive the company and destroy Smith Carter in the future though he knew that won’t be easy but it will be done.