Some Enchanted Evening 2

15 years later:

"I can’t believe that he’d do this!" I said in a pissed tone. "Ms. Jade, we’re here." Laila, my dad’s assistant, informed me.

Sure enough, we were back at home. I stepped out of the car and had my first look of the mansion in months.

It was still the same. The beige and white color seemed to interweave into each other creating interesting patterns. The huge windows showed the pristine interior. The only thing different from last time was the green color of the curtains.

She still remembered that night that she had run away a few months ago, the color of the curtains were red, being as it was one of the means of her escape back then. She tied the curtains together to create a rope to help her climb down from her room.

Then she climbed the high gates and propelled herself down. She casually glanced at the huge house that was her home for years, and ran away as fast as she could.

It was the most freeing part of her life. For years, she had dreamed of travelling from city to city without having her parents look at her every move.

So she had prepared for that time more than she had prepared for anything else in her life. She bought tickets to France a week before, c/o her best friend, Mikhail.

Then she arranged to live in a small cottage at a small town, south of France. She managed to enroll in a painting school and got a part time job, writing for a town newspaper publication.

It was the life that she had always wanted to have. It was simple, colorful and most of all, it did not require servants or bodyguards to look after her.

Oh yes, she missed her family while she was away. It was natural for someone who hadn’t been away for so long before. But for the first time in her life, she felt that the small cottage was a home.

And here she was, 8 weeks later, back in the mansion she loathed, heading to the direction of her father’s study.

As she stood at the oak doors, she took a large chunk of breath and managed to push the doors with as much force as she could.

"I can’t believe you could do this daddy!" I shouted at the top of my voice. I looked at him intensely while he was sitting in his chair at the top end of the huge oak table.

"Oh, Jade. You’re back." He just said, while sitting more comfortably, his elbows crossed in his chest. It was not the sight I wanted to see.

"How could you do this daddy? I wanted to stay there. I finally did something I wanted and you ruined it all for me." I said, still standing.

"Jade, take you’re seat. It’s not going to do you good if you keep shouting like that." He told me.

It was no use arguing to the most powerful man in the business world, so I took my seat in the leftmost chair next to his desk.

"Eight weeks Jade. You made your mother and I so worried. Even your sister, who’s 5 months pregnant, wanted to look for you. It wasn’t the best idea you had in years, was it?" He said diplomatically.

I sighed. "Well, you knew it was coming. After I told you that I did not want to work for you in the company and you didn’t let me do what I want. I told you I wanted to think about it first. I told you I wanted to write and may be just live on my own for a while. You never listen to me." I said.

"Jade, you’re 22 years old. You just graduated from College. I just wanted you to experience the life that you will have anyway. You are going to inherit all of this one day. This will be yours. I just want you to understand that." My father said.

It was difficult not to think about it. When I was in France, I didn’t have to think of the fact that back here, I was an heiress to a multi million dollar company. And that one day, I would play the role of my father.

"I just wanted some time for myself, for a while. I know my responsibilities. And I’ll be the best at who you want me to be. But I just need this time for myself, okay?" I said, almost crying now.

My father looked at me intensely. "Alright…" he said. "You can have any thing you want. I am giving you until your 23rd birthday, that’s 3 months from now. You can do anything you want until then." He said with finality.

I thought of what he said for a while. I didn’t know what to do with this sought-for freedom he was now offering me. I had to think about it clearly.

Just then, the oak doors opened and a man came inside the room. "Sir, I told you he can’t meet you here!" Laila rushed toward the man to stop him but he was already inside.

"Sir, I need to talk to you." The man said, not even noticing me.

Yet I knew who he was. It was the same intense grey eyes, the same beautiful Greek features, with the same wavy hair flipped back. And just then, I knew what I wanted.

"I know what I want, daddy." I said with a smile. "Oh, what is it?" He asked curiously.

"I want him!" I announced to my father, looking back towards the man who had just realized what I said. He then looked at me with those intense grey eyes. And I knew it was all worth it.
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