R O S E
The alarm goes off waking me up. I rub my eyes not so willing to get off bed. I look around at my empty large room enjoying a moment of peace and quiet before I begin my frantic and hectic day.
I hear a knock on my door, "Miss Midnight!" I hear someone from the house's staff calling my name. "Are you awake miss Midnight?" They continue by saying since I'm not responding.
I roll my eyes, "Yes come in." I say. A second later the woman enters my bedroom and approaches my bed.
"Morning miss Rose. Here I have your schedule for today. You have a meeting to sign the deal with mister Liam Brown's company at 12 o'clock. This means you have an hour and a have to get ready. The driver will be waiting for you outside. Also, you need to take interviews by the editors that applied for a job at our company. It will approximately take all afternoon. Then you have to go to the dinner mister Brown organized for the two company owners after you start working together. Your father will be there too." Juliet, the assistant, starts her typical monologue about the things I have to do today.
I take a deep breath already feeling the headache attacking me since I have a lot of things to do today.
"Oh and by the way mister Liam is here to have breakfast with you. He's waiting in the garden." She adds immediately making me furious.
I jump out of my bed. "What?" I yell. "Who invited him?" I rant about the fact that Liam always finds a way to show up uninvited. "I guess your Father miss Rose." Julia says. I groan once shaking my head and decide to go downstairs and face him.
I run towards the garden where he was sitting. "Mister Brown." I say wrapping my robe around my body.
"Good morning Rose, you know I hate it when you call me like that. Just Liam." He says standing up.
I don't comment on what he just said. "Why did you come over? I thought I would meet you at the office." I say. "I just thought it would be great if we have breakfast together. We'll be spending a lot of time together from now on." He says and smiles. Even his smile is fake.
"I'm actually really busy. I'll see you at the office." I say and I turn around to walk away not willing to hear Liam's voice again.
The hairdresser and the makeup artist prepare me for the meeting while I'm just patiently sitting on my vanity.
"Sweetheart!" I hear my dad's voice and a moment later be shows up in the room I am in. "You look beautiful." He says looking at me. I smile. "Thanks dad."
"I heard Liam was willing to have breakfast with you but you rejected him." His face becomes more serious. Great, my pissed off dad is unbearable. "I did." I respond. "Rose! You know how important this is for our company! You have to behave!" He raises the tone of his voice.
"The job stays at the office dad. Just because we work with somebody doesn't mean I have to share my personal life with them too. And if you're asking me Liam goes too far sometimes. I don't want him around all the time! Its gets tiring!" I yell back since I've been holding those words for a long time.
"Its not that simple Rose! Now come on we're running late, I'll explain everything later." My dad says and takes me with him towards the car waiting for us outside.
I remain silent through out the car ride.
We headed straight to the ballroom where the meeting was held and the moment we enter it everyone was already there. I feel everyone's eyes on me but I don't look back at anyone, I just sit on my chair.
The signs drop after a while and we're finally done with this job. At least that's what I thought.
"I hear wedding bells." Mister Brown, Liam's dad says smiling probably satisfied with the new deal. "Sorry?" I ask confused.
"Honey can I talk to you for a moment?" I hear my dad saying after he stands up walking towards my chair. "Not now dad." I say turning my head to mister Brown again waiting for an answer to my question. "Its important honey." My dad insists and grabs my hand to make me stand up.
He led me to his office and closed the doors behind us.
"What is it dad?" I ask. "This is hard to explain honey." He says. "Just say it!" I say a little bit louder.
"For the Browns to sign the new deal and work with us, Liam added a condition to the contract I never told you about." He begins to talk. "What condition?" I ask scared to actually listen to the answer. "He wants to marry you and with the signs we gave them today you basically agree to become his wife." My dad says leaving me speechless for a moment.
"What?" I yell. "Why would you hide this from me dad? How can you do that?"
"Rose-" I stop him. "There's no excuse for what you did dad! I'm going to take my sign back." I say and head to the door. My dad rushes towards me and he prevents me from getting out of the office.
"Rose hold on!" He yells. "This is for our own company's good! We need to work with them. We need their money! If you don't marry Liam the deal will be cancelled!"
"I don't want him! What are you talking about? I'm not gonna marry somebody I don't even know for the money! We'll find another company to work with us." I say. "We can't Rose we can't! You'll marry Liam for a better future for you and our company!" My dad insists.
"A better future for me? You don't give a damn about me! You never did and never will! All you care about is your fucking money and this company!" I yell at the top of my lungs.
My dad makes the impulsive decision to slap me in the face. My cheek feels as if it is burning after my dad hit me.
"I'm your father Rose, watch the language with me." He says in a cold tone.
L E O N A R D O
I take the subway to the Mrs New York offices since it is my job interview today. They're looking for a new editor and I couldn't stay away and ignore this opportunity.
I'm pretty confident about myself until the moment I walk inside the tall building.
I suddenly feel so small compared to the enormous skyscraper. I look around and notice all the workers, one by one hoping I can be one of them in a few hours.
"Um excuse me." I try to get a lady's attention but she won't listen to me. I walk over a man standing in a corner to ask for information. "Excuse me." I wave my hand and he finally notices me. He looks at me from the bottom to the top and I can already realise he doesn't like me.
"Good morning and im sorry to bother you but-" he interrupts me. "Are you here for the cleaner's job?" I get asked. Ouch.
"No, actually I have a job interview for the new editor place." I say and he bursts into laughter. I wasn't expecting this kind of reaction but I don't say anything back.
"Good luck with that, the ballroom is in the third floor." He says a couple of seconds later. "Th-thank you." I say and quickly head to the elevators.