After putting the papers down, Claire cleared her throat and asked, "So we're really waiting till then to expose her? Why?"
"What do you mean why?" Piper asked, "So that when we tell him, he'll be so furious he'll cast her out. And he'll be ours for the taking."
Piper giggled and clapped her hands, excited out of her mind. Brian smiled at his daughter's happiness and said, "William will be so angry he'll plan to hurt Anna and his father with the things they love most. We'll have him right where we want him."
The three of them smiled at each other. Everything was finally going into place.
~
I stared in confusion at the multiple colored cloths. I thought I was staring at pink, light pink, and dark pink, but no. Apparently I was staring at Cerise, amaranth, and brink pink. I've never heard of these colors before.
"Anna, "Charlotte whined, "Pick a color. It's not that hard. Personally, I thought we should have gone with the Thulan pink because it goes with your hair better, but these colors make you stand out more."
Confused at how suddenly I was going to wear pink for my engagement party, I shook her head, "How...how was it decided that I was going to wear pink? I don't even like pink."
Charlotte closed her eyes and breathed out through her nose. "Fine. What color do you want to wear then if not pink?"
"White." I said.
Charlotte's eyes just about popped out of her head and she placed a hand under her throat. "White?! Anna, sweetie, I love that you weren't born rich and grew up differently than us, but our level of class doesn't wear white unless it's your wedding day. Even then we skurt around that idea sometimes.
"Come on... how about a nice glaucous color? It's a-"
"No," I protested," I want white and there's no way you're changing my mind."
She looked like she was about to object, but instead said, "Fine. But if we're doing that then you have to wear two dresses."
"Deal."
~
Charles hovered near his older brother, starting at the plethora of tuxes around him.
"Why do I have to be here?" He said, picking at a suit.
"Because you, my dear brother, are one my groomsmen. We need to find you a suit for the wedding."
John, William's long lost best friend, popped his head up from behind a rack and smiled. "Do I get a special suit? Ya know...cause I'm your best man."
"No." William said. John pouted and hid behind a mannequin. "Meanie..."
William laughed and gave his brother a one-shoulder hug. "The only one getting a special suit is me...since, 'ya know,' I'm the groom."
John forced a smile and turned around. "Yeah...you are."
He walked away and laid his back against a wall. Despite his father telling me I shouldn't tell him about the contract, I can't help but want to tell him. I already know that if anyone found out that Anna was hired to make Will marry her...chaos would ran down on us...
Just as he was about to turn away, his phone rang. "Hello?"
"John, it's Daniel. I have something very important for you to do."
John switched to business mode and stared out the window. "Anything, Mr. Winters."
"I need you to burn some papers. Go to my office now and take everything from the file marked W/W. Burn it all."
John whisked his keys out of his pocket and ran out of the building. "If I may ask, sir, what's in the file?"
"The contract Anna and I signed, and everything related to it. I've been informed we have a mole at Winter Enterprises and that they've already gotten a page from the contract. I know that they'll go back for the rest. I hid it, but I'm sure that if they checked hard enough they'd find the file"
"Of course, sir."
~
John rushed into the building, the security machines beeping behind him. He slid his card against the scanner and the noise calmed. The security guards relaxed their worried stance and waved him through, recognizing his face.
He rushed to the elevators and slammed the button marked 30- the highest level- and slid his card once more into a scanner. The elevator dinged, closed the doors, and shot up through the levels.
A thin stream of sweat trailed down his neck and he took a deep breath, urging the elevator to go faster.
Once he felt that he would collapse from the agony of waiting, the elevators doors dinged and opened. He ran out and headed toward Daniel's office, leaving the secretary shouting in his wake. John pulled open the doors and entered.
W/W
Daniel said to go to his desk and look for the file marked W/W. He said it had everything concerning Anna and the contract. Please let it be there, for my best friend's sake.
Opening the desk's drawers, John found nothing.
Daniel said he hid it so it wouldn't be in the most obvious places then. It wouldn't be in file drawers or in the cabinets, or even with his secretary. If I were Daniel Winters, CEO of Winter Enterprises and multi-billionaire, where would I put it?
"If I were Daniel...I'd probably want a really fancy desk that had a lot of nooks and crannies so that I could hide stuff..." John murmured, heading back to the desk and pulling the chair out, kneeling in the crevice. He played with the boards and found a center that popped out, but it only held a gun.
"Not there then..."John stood up and walked to the other side of the desk, the one that faced the doors. He played with the boards again, but didn't find anything that popped out. He crouched down and ran his hand along the edge. Feeling two metal bumps about two feet from each other, he found out that they were hinges. "Aha! So your desk's surface flips over...very interesting you sneaky bastard... Now, lets see if they figured that out..."
Clearing everything off the desk, he flipped the desk's surface over, creating a loud bang when it hit.
John's eyes widened. Nothing was there. Nothing was there except a single piece of paper. It read:
CDM-PR
He crunched up the paper and stuck it in his pocket. John sneered and let out a noise of frustration. This isn't good. At. All.
~
Daniel sat in his home office, his phone on his desk as he waited John's call. He jumped a little as it suddenly rang.
"Well? Did you burn it?"
"Mr. Winters..." Daniel's heart sped up as he said, "What? What? Spit it out, boy!"
"Mr. Winters, nothing was there. They took it all."
Daniel took in a deep breath and laid a hand on his forehead. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, sir... oh...and there's something else."
"What is it?"
"The culprit's left behind a note," John explained, "It read CDM-PR... Does that mean anything to you?"
Daniel quickly looked up. He knew exactly what that meant; they where initials of certain people.
~
Charlotte laughed and threw her keys into a bowl as she and Anna entered the home. "I still can't believe you told off that woman when she confronted you about marrying my brother."
Anna blushed and shook her head. "Can you please stop mentioning that? I feel so guilty!"
"For what?" Charlotte smiled. "She deserved it! She even goes to stoop so low as to work where he lives! You should keep an eye out for her. Don't want you to wind up missing from Will's apartment, now do we?"
"Yeah, I-"
"Anna?"
Anna turned toward the hallway, Daniel's blond head sticking out.
"Oh. Hi, Daniel."
"Come with me. Now."
Anna's smile dropped. Something happened. Something must have happened. "Uh, yeah."
As she moved forward, Charlotte grabbed her arm. "I'm coming too. "
"No, this has nothing to do with you, Charlotte."
Charlotte furrowed her eyebrows and shouted, "I know, Dad! I know about the contract between you and Anna, so I'm going."
Daniel narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything then, moving back to his office.
~
Once situated in his study, Daniel turned toward Anna and declared, "I'm afraid we're going to have to move the wedding closer."
Anna shot up from where she sat and yelled, "What?! Why?"
"That thing we didn't want to happen, happened."
"And what was that?" Charlotte asked.
"Apparently the Rossi's and the de Monte's have joined forces and stolen the contract."
Anna gasped and looked away, her eyes widening in shock. "The contract? But how could they have gotten it? How...How...?"
"There was a mole. Someone the Rossi's or the de Monte's paid off to search for those documents. And...the person found them."
Anna pulled on her hair and gave out a sob. "B-but why do we have to m-move the wedding closer? W-we haven't even a officially set a date yet."
Daniel stepped closer to Anna and took her hand, using the other one to lift her chin up. "It's because I know those two families. They're both evil to the core and love to destroy lives, but, if anything, they also love dragging it out. They want you to grow insane from paranoia and agony before they strike...
"If we set the wedding date for a month from now... they'll scramble...and, hopefully, lose a few papers of the contract along the way. Also...it gives you a good chance to get a nice piece of bread going in the oven..."
Anna sucked in a breath and blushed. Charlotte groaned and hit her father in the arm. "Can't you see what a mess you're making her? I can't believe that after all you just said, you went her to get nice and frisky with my brother."
Daniel glared at her and said, "If all goes well, that child will just be a new family member we can all love...But if things go bad, like they probably will, that child will be a possibility of this family sticking together. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer having a piece of insurance."
Anna took a deep breath and replied, "I agree we should move the wedding for next month, but I'm not bringing a child into the world just so that I can have insurance."
Daniel smiled. "Fine then. It's settled."
~
Author's Note:
I'm sorry for the long wait, but I'm barely two months into school and I hate it. It's so much work. I'm not even taking history this year, but my other classes make up for it in homework. I'm sorry to say this, but I'm afraid this story will be ON HOLD until I'm out on Thanksgiving break or any time I'm free. Sorry, truly sorry.
Thank you and Goodbye.
Until next time. ;)
-RavenMoon06
©RavenMoon06
©Vivianne Saldana ©2015
Ps. Please inform me of any grammar or punctuation mistakes. Thank you ☺