Will's Pov
Groaning I turn around in bed and try to forget the shitshow from yesterday. I'm married, I'm fucking married for real. It's not that I intend on my life changing much, but it's still not something I ever wanted to do. Juliet is my wife, legal and all that, but not even a day in she is getting on my nerves. Getting out of bed seems like a hopeless case when it means I need to face her.
She does need to grow up and not get her panties in a twist because I'm not in the mood to deal with drama. It's bad enough that we are in this situation to begin with.
Sadly I see the clock is already 10am, and our parents will be here at around 11:30am, so I need to get out of bed. They are coming over to talk about more terms for the marriage, like they haven't already put a straight jacket on us.
I head over to Juliet's room, grab some clothes, and jump in the shower. As much as I want to stay out of her room, I need to have my clothes in here and use the bathroom there for the most part just so people won't truly think we are living separate lives. Sharing a bed with her is the last thing I want anyway, so no need for her to be nervous about that. She isn't my type either. I prefer my girls willing.
There is laughter coming from the kitchen when I go downstairs, children laughter to be exact. That would be the child that was caught in the middle of this whole mess. Not only was I forced to marry Juliet, but Juliet came with a six-year-old. Now I'm legally her stepfather which sounds like a cruel joke. No child should be subjected to me having any say over them. Not that I ever think Juliet would ask for my opinion, or that I would want to give them, but doesn't us being married come with some rights? I have no fucking clue. I just hope that she turns out to be a well-behaved kid, no bratty tendencies, because I just can't deal with that.
They are laughing at something on what I assume is Lilliana's iPad when I come into the room. Looks like they have just finished up breakfast too so now I need to make something for myself too. Our private chef won't come in before tomorrow, giving us a day to us selves in this new house.
"Hello, will" Lilliana says, at least she is polite. "Good morning, Lilliana" I say back. "Lilly. Only old people call me Lilliana, I told you that. Unless you're old?"
"I'm only a year older than your mother. So no, I'm not old" I say with a dryly before I get some cereal and milk out. Our mothers had the fridge and pantry fully stocked when I moved in two days ago. Since they said that the apartment was ready, I figured that it would be nice to get here before they did, so that's what I did. At least I got familiar with the apartment before the girls got here.
I don't greet Juliet, and she doesn't try to greet me either. If she wants to make the situation worse by ignoring me, I don't care. It's her that will be uncomfortable because I don't give a fuck anyway. The kid is funny, at least from the first interactions, so there is that at least. Maybe one other person in this apartment won't spend their time hating me.
I do want to hate Juliet, it would make it easier for me that's for sure, but I also know I'm stuck with her regardless of my dislike of her. If I go to war with her, and despise her, she won't go away regardless. There is no way out of this for either one of us.
Relationships are messy and tend to get in the way of everything else, so I made the decision to avoid them and get rid of that pesky little problem. I've had one serious attempt at a relationship in my life, which ended up blowing up in my face. There is no way I'm putting myself in that situation again. However here I am married to Juliet, on paper at least. I just want to live my life on my own terms according to what I see fit, but now I am limited in that. It's been one day, but I feel the air getting thinner suffocating me.
There is nothing wrong with Juliet's looks at least, that part of her has arm candy potential. Now that she is without makeup, I can see that she is a natural beauty, which seems to be rare these days. Most girls cake their face up with all sorts of shit, but she at least spend this morning without any. However it doesn't matter how beautiful you are when the tension could be cut with a butcher's knife.
Juliet's Pov
We are seated in our home office with our fathers to go over whatever else they want to discuss about the marriage. I have already gotten the rundown when I was first told we were getting married, and assume will got the same, but there might be more. Knowing my dad there is always more he has to say. This time there are rules they expect us to follow, like we are children being scolded on what to do or not do.
"There are several things we need to discuss" my father says, and I take a deep breath, here we go, I guess. First, he goes over the basic things like the fact that we have a housekeeper that comes by every day to clean, her name is Angela Rodriguez. Then we have a cook that comes every day to make breakfast, prepare lunch ahead of time and come back to make dinner, his name is Daniel Murray.
"We want you two to share Juliet's personal assistant Rebecca Lawson for all personal matters. You both have executive assistants at work, but since will fired his last personal assistant, you should share one. Rebecca is already familiar with Juliet and Lilliana so that's two less people she needs to get to know if we hired a new one. She already handles things for Juliet and Lilliana, so now she will handle personal matters for William too" my dad says and I clench my hands briefly. I wouldn't mind sharing an assistant if it was anyone other than him. I want our lives to be as separate as possible, but this is yet another place we get tied together. Arguing with my father about it however is a pointless waste of energy.
"Scandals are off the table. So cheating, hooking up with others and otherwise getting yourself into compromising situations are out of the question. As far as the public is concerned you are madly in love, and we want you to pretend just as much around your mothers. We are aware you don't know one another, but it's better to get to know each other better sooner rather than later. People are going to want to pick apart this marriage with a fine-tooth comb, don't give them something to report about. Outside this apartment you're newlyweds madly in love" wills dad says. He told me to call him Richard because he thought that since I now officially am his daughter in law, he didn't want it to be overly formal between us.
"I can agree on that one. The last thing I would want is for... someone... to get with one of their many girls and leave me as a fool on the sidelines. I have a reputation to uphold. As well as a daughter that deserves better than that, it would affect her too" it's an obvious dig at will, but I don't care, as I agree with Richard. All four of us know is that this demand is mostly pointed towards him, not me. Will keeping his dick in his pants is in everyone's best interest.
"One day into the marriage and she is already controlling—" will starts but his dad cut him off "Son you are to treat her with respect. She is your wife. And now she and Lilliana is your responsibility. You are to take good care of them, treat them with kindness and respect. You're the man of the house and that comes with responsibilities. So cut the attitude. You know what happens if you don't behave" he sounds cold whenever he addresses his son directly, just like my own father does at times. Maybe we at least have something in common there.
What I don't like is that they are referring to me as his property. I'm more than capable of taking care of myself and my daughter on my own. The last thing I need is a man to order me around and tell me how to behave and how to raise my daughter. I expect him to treat Lilly with kindness and respect, but he has no say over her whatsoever.
"Juliet. I know how strong headed and stubborn you are. But you two are to accept will into your and Lilliana's life. He is your husband and her stepfather, that means something" my dad adds directed at me, but he doesn't say it as coldly as Richard addressed his son. My dad and I have a up and down relationship. Sometimes he is cold as ice, but other times he is a dad that wants to be involved in my life on a genuine level.
"We want to change Lilliana's last name to Hilton. It's the normal thing to do now that your name has changed too" Richard says and hands me the papers to legally change her name. They are talking about something so serious like its normal, totally rational. One thing after another they are throwing at us, when is it going to be enough.
"Sweetie, its what's right. You are now a Hilton and so is she. It's important to your mother that her granddaughter has the same name as her mother. And I think it will be God for Lilliana too, identity wise. How would you feel if you had a different last name than your mother" my dad interject before I can say anything. I know he has won whenever he brings my mother and my daughters' feelings into it, he knows just which buttons to push to get me to comply.
"Fine I will change her last name. But I reserve the right to change it back if she asks me to. I'm not going to force this on her. She is six and understands more than a baby would" I say and sign the papers. Staring at the dotted line isn't going to make it better, so I just quickly sign to get it over with. Our fathers will handle all the filing of papers, probably to prevent us from stalling with any of this.
"Don't we need the biological fathers' signature too" will asks, and I shake my head "he isn't involved" I say through gritted teeth. The fact of the matter is that there isn't a father on her birth certificate so the man that got me pregnant isn't involved at all. Domenic wasn't interested in having a child, and I didn't want him in Lilly's life if he was so insistent on having any sign of her out of his life. His excuses where poor, petty and cowardly, but I don't care. I have sole legal custody of my daughter, and it's certainly staying that way. We signed a contract that forfeited him any rights to Lilly, and he would stay out of her life forever. But I'm not going to tell will that, he doesn't have a right to Lilly's personal information.
"You two will be co COOs once the company's merge. I expect you to work together and cooperate to make the company run as smoothly as possible. I don't want mistakes" Richard says, and I nod. I'm more than capable of running the daily operation of the company, I've already been doing that for a while now. I'm not totally sure of wills capabilities, but I know their company have been running smoothly for years, so he is probably competent to some extent.
"Now there is another matter. We want will to legally adopt Lilliana. So he isn't just her stepfather but her father" my dad says, and I glare at him "that's where I draw the line. Lilly is not a pawn in this, and I will not have will having legal rights to her. I don't care what you do, you won't get my signature on that paper" I can feel my face getting hot, probably looking red for the others in the room.
Thankfully will quickly say that there is no way he is adopting a child anyway. At least we have a common ground there.
"It would be best for her" my dad tries to argue but that's where I put my foot down. I will do a lot to satisfy my dad's wishes, but there are some things that are just way over the line of what I can stomach. I will protect my daughter with every inch of my body, always.
It's the last thing they had to address, so I excuse myself and head up to my bedroom to get away from them all. My breath is shallow, and I try to calm it by taking deep breaths. They can't do this without my consent, I will be fine, Lilly will be protected.
Will's Pov
Yeah, I agree with Juliet on that, there is no way I'm adopting a six-year-old. First, I'm not heartless, there is no way I could be what a kid needs, so I wouldn't want to put this kid in that situation. We might be married, btu I'm not, and never will be, Lilly's father. I've never had an interest in having kids, and that won't change even faced with an adorable little six-year-old.
When Juliet left our fathers agreed to table the discussion, like they are going to get us to agree later. They can think that, but it won't happen.
We were told that they are officially announcing the merger to the public on Tuesday, in two days. The rest of the week we will have one meeting after another to sign all the papers and do the logistical things needed to merge the day-to-day operations while our fathers handle the higher up aspects. We aren't officially starting work until next week because we are supposed to have a stay-at-home honeymoon or whatever. By next Monday, when we start back at work, the companies will be functioning as one joint empire.
Our fathers will remain as co-presidents while Juliet and I will move up from our COO positions to the CEO seat, as our fathers are stepping down form that task. They are getting older, and have bult this empire, and now they want to take a step back and start handing it over to us.
How this new work arrangement is going to work in action I don't know, because I imagine that Juliet and I have completely different leading styles. Not to be judgmental or whatever, but I doubt her ability to lead a company effectively. I know their company has run smoothly for years, but I doubt that's thanks to her. She is too soft, too fragile. How can anyone take a sweet pretty girl like her seriously in a boss position? Obviously, I'm keeping this to myself, at least for now, and observe what happens on Monday.
As we are done with the meeting Juliet's mom Andrea walks up to me and ask for a moment of my time. I don't want to offend my new mother-in-law, so we head back into the office to have a private conversation.
"I need you to promise me to look out for Juliet and Lilliana. Especially when it comes to her on again off again boyfriend. He is bad news and keep coming back into her life. You are her husband now and I need you to protect her from him, keep him away from them. I know you don't know me, or my daughter, but I need to know they are safe" she says and I'm surprised that she gives out that kind of personal information about her daughter willingly to me. She knows that I hardly know her daughter but here she is asking me to protect her from someone which confuses me. It also leaves me wondering what kind of bad news he is, there are a million possibilities as to what that can mean.
"I wish I could tell you more, but I don't know much. All I know is the small details Lilliana has told me. Juliet refuses to talk about it. But I need you to do this to me. they are your responsibility now William" she adds and I just nod. There is not much to say, and I refuse to blatantly refuse her mother's request, that would not be a good start to our family's merger. I am however curious about the details that Lilly told her grandmother, and why Juliet refuses to talk about it. It could be melodrama, or there could be something serious going on. For their sake I hope it's a minor little thing that her mother blows up over proportions, or that she simply doesn't like the guy.
I agree to do my best, while still not laying it on too thick with promises about protection and all that. She kisses my cheek before both our sets of parents leave the apartment.
Juliet is still in her room when Lilly comes dancing into the room. "willy. Where is mommy" she says and twirls around. She is cute, I will give her that. And surprisingly she doesn't seem scared or intimidated by me, she is open and welcoming as far as I've noticed. I don't know how I feel about the nickname, but she is six years old and I'm not about to argue with a child about that. I would like to think I'm above getting into arguments with little kids.
"She is up in her room. How about you go get her" I tell her, and she nods. I need Juliet to come out of her room and hopefully be done with her tantrum. I'm not about to watch her kid for her as I don't know what to do. What am I even supposed to do with a six-year-old?