His Nanny Mate (Moana and Edrick Morgan) novel Chapter 98

#Chapter 98: What’s Best

Edrick

I was too taken aback by Kelly’s proposition to even speak. Was she the one who paid off the tabloid to keep the photo up, just so she could manipulate me into having a fake relationship with her? Or did someone else put her up to it… Like my father?

“Well?” she said, batting her eyelashes in front of me. “What do you say?”

“I…” I paused, blinking incredulously as my head reeled. “I need a drink.” Without another word, I turned on my heel and headed back toward the door to the banquet hall.

“At least think about it!” Kelly called after me in a sing-song tone of voice. “I’ll be waiting to hear your decision!”

I sighed as I stepped back into the banquet hall, letting the music and the noise of the guests wash over me. Why couldn’t I just enjoy the banquet? Why did it seem as though these sorts of things always had some sort of political connotations behind them?

As I headed over to the bar, I tried to push my conversation with Kelly into the back of my mind. She was already a little drunk, and was clearly just being vindictive because she still couldn’t seem to get over the fact that I was never going to be interested in her romantically.

“Gin and tonic, please,” I told the bartender. I turned around and looked across the room at the party guests as I waited for my drink, and as I did, I saw a familiar head making its way toward me through the crowd.

My father. Great.

“Hello, dad,” I said as he approached. I stuck my hand out, but he didn’t shake it and instead brushed past me to order his drink. So it was going to be one of those nights; my mother really wasn’t lying when she said he was in a mood. With a stifled sigh, I turned back around and took my drink from the bartender. I was sipping it and minding my own business when my father suddenly slapped a folded piece of paper down in front of me.

“What’s this?” I asked, furrowing my brow as I picked it up and opened it. My eyes widened as I saw that it was a chart depicting our stock prices. They seemed to have gone down a little over the past week; it was correlated perfectly with the day that the tabloid incident occurred.

“Your little mistake is already taking an effect on our business,” my father said. He tilted his head back and drank his small glass of whiskey in one go, then slammed the cup back down on the bar with an amount of force that even made the poor bartender jump. “You need to do what’s best for our company. This has gone on for long enough.”

Suddenly, I came to the realization that my father must have been the one to put Kelly up to talking to me. They were certainly in cahoots together, and it made my blood boil.

“You put her up to it, didn’t you?” I asked, spinning around to face him as I gripped my glass with so much force that I was certain it would break. “You told Kelly to try to convince me to have a fake relationship with her.”

My father only shrugged and took his third drink off of the bar, this time holding it nonchalantly as he began to make his way toward the dance floor.

“It’s time for you to grow up, Edrick,” he said. “It’s time to do what’s best for the company.”

I stared after him as he disappeared into the crowd without another word. I still hadn’t even finished my drink, and by now I didn’t even want it; I just needed to get out and get some fresh air. Leaving my drink on the bar, I turned and stormed off toward the garden.

I needed to take a walk and get away from all of this.