GOLDEN GIRL

CHAPTER 31

Shay's POV

The tension in the room grows thicker and thicker at every passing minute. My mind went blank when I tried to come up with ways to escape this situation and I can't help but fidget with my fingers as it was the only thing that I can do to keep myself calm. Dad has been giving me the death stare for the last five minutes I've been sitting here in his study, I knew why he wanted to talk to me this early in the morning and that's because he found out about my job through the news article.

"Now I know the reason why you didn't wanna work at the company. How long were you planning to keep this from us?!" He roared angrily.

"I already quit my job." I answered monotonously.

"That doesn't make this situation better! The fact that you were sneaking around all of us and kept your job a secret is beyond the limit Shay-Lina. On top of that, you were working at C&E Holdings! They're our main business competitor and now that this news about you is circulating around really fast, the press has found another reason to bombard us with chaos. What were you thinking?!"

He slammed his hand down on the table causing me to flinch. I finally looked up to meet his eyes and swallowed the tight knot in my throat before speaking.

"I'm sorry dad, I didn't know." He scoffed sarcastically.

"You're sorry? You know how much your mother and I have put up with you lately? You have done nothing but bring problems to this family! You don't want to work, you laze around at home, you've caused a lot of trouble because of this news article and you always clung onto your brother like a leach. It's a good thing he's not here anymore to help clear up your mess!"

I felt a sharp pang in my heart at his statement about Shawn. His words reminded me all over again that I'm on my own here now and I have to start taking care of my own problems.

"I'm sorry." I apologized one more time and he leans back in his chair and sighed heavily.

"Start preparing yourself for next week. You'll start work on Monday."

"What?"

"Did I stutter?" He angrily snapped back.

"But dad-" He held up his hand for me to stop talking.

"I don't want to hear more of your excuses! I've given you enough time and that's it, you'll start working at the company. End of discussion."

I started to panic, the situation was not under my control anymore and if I don't come up with another way to change his mind now then I'll lose everything.

"I already told you that I'm moving out. You said it yourself remember? That if I move out, you'll take away everything that belongs to me and I'm totally okay with that! So I'm not going to work dad and that's my final decision."

He started to chuckle and I frowned in annoyance.

"Unfortunately you won't be moving out anytime sooner Shay. You're staying here and you'll be going to work."

"You can't make me do that! I'm old enough to decide what to do with my life."

He leaned towards the table and gave me a stern look.

"I'm pretty aware that you and Jason Cartwright have been seeing each other nowadays." I stared at him in surprise.

"He's a great guy, very straightforward with business. But that's what I always hate about these competitors when they're trying to compete with me. You know how I'm always winning against all this companies when it comes to work? I always know how to play my cards right when it comes to dealing with my business rivals. I study them carefully and find out their weakness and when the time comes to finally use it against them, they always lose and I win. I always keep those close details about each and every businessmen that works against me in case they try another way to bring me down. And guess what? I also have a folder with Jason's name on it. Wanna see?"

My heart was pounding really hard and my hands was starting to sweat. He was really using this dirty method against me just to keep me here and with every words he just said, I feel really pissed right now.

"You'll be surprised with what Jason can really do. I must say, he's a real pro at dealing with this kind of shady stuff. If I reveal this, he could lose his company and his business could go bankrupt and both him and Evans will really have a hard time starting from scratch all over again. Now that you've disagreed with my words, you're giving me no choice but to expose all this valuable information about Cartwright. You wouldn't want him to lose everything he has, do you?"

I clenched both my fists tightly in rage and glared at him.

"Why are you including Jason in this?" He shrugged casually.

"He seems to be important to you so why not?"

"You can't do this!"

"But I can sweetheart. So which one is it going to be? You move out and be the cause of Jason's downfall or you stay and start working to save both him and your relationship?"

This really can't be happening. I can't let him do that to Jason, and I can't start living my own life while knowing that I was behind the reason for everything that he'd lost. I can't live with that. He's the only person that I truly care in my life right now and I can't let anything happen to him because of me.

But am I ready to sacrifice my own happiness for all this?

"So what's it gonna be?" He asked again.

I stared at the desk in front of me and closed my eyes. I slowly calmed my breathing and then released my fists and looked up at him again.

"I'll do it. I'll stay and start working on Monday." He quickly grins triumphantly at me.

"Good decision."

"But you can't use whatever you have on Jason. Don't ever include him in this type of situations again!" He smirked and folds his arms across his chest.

"Don't worry, I'll pretend that his file doesn't even exist. But if you start to keep secrets from me again and try to do anything troubling that could bring problems to the company or this family, Jason will get it."

I clenched my teeth harder while glaring at him and the sound of his phone ringing in the room, suddenly startled me. He reached across the table and answered the phone and then hangs up after a minute while staring at me with a blank look.

"Let's head to the living room. Shawn's lawyer is here." I frowned in confusion and felt a little surprised too.

"Why is he here?"

He stood up and then checks his phone again on the table.

"To read us Shawn's will."