Page 6 of Devil Mine

I’m bored.

In fact, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t bored with my life. I’m so bored that I’m even bored of being bored.

Isn’t that just tragic?

And the worst part is, I did this to myself. Every decision I’ve made over the last eight years – hell, every decision I’ve made since I was old enough to understand and be dissatisfied by the position I was expected to occupy in the world – has brought me to this moment.

I shut my computer and push back from my desk, standing to stare out of the bay windows of my office. I can’t get any work done. I’m annoyed and dismayed by the conversation I had with my father a few days ago.

I’d expected that after all the work I’d put into his company,ourcompany, after years of putting my life on hold and wholeheartedly devoting myself to growing the Noble Group as the Chief Financial Officer, that he’d finally see I was worthy of taking over after him as CEO.

Instead, he’d cut me off the second I’d uttered those three letters and dismissed me with the wave of a hand.

“Your brother will be the next CEO of the Noble Group, Tess,” he said with an annoyed sigh. “I’ve indulged your fantasies for too long, thinking it would satisfy you. I see now that I was wrong and I’ve done nothing but encourage these foolish delusions of yours.”

Bitterness welled inside me. I love my brother but he has zero interest and even fewer qualifications in taking over after our father. The only reason he’s being handed the keys to the company is because he has a dick between his legs where I do not.

“But Father–”

“No.” His voice was harsh and unforgiving. “It’s time I rectify this situation. I will allow you to keep working here for one more year while your brother straightens out his act in Switzerland.”

After one too many scandals, my father had banished Tristan to teach at RCA, a private school for the children of the rich and privileged, for a year. I wasn’t allowed to communicate with him at all while he was there.

He’s my best friend, and losing my closest ally and sounding board had been tough. I was already wondering how I was going to make it through without him and it had only been a couple of months.

“...That should allow me time to find a suitable match.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” I asked, having missed the first half of his sentence.

He threw me a contemptuous look that revealed just how little he thought of me.

“You can keep your position at the Noble Group for one more year while I find you a suitable husband. Someone who can teach you some much needed discipline.”

His words cleaved me. I took a step back, a yawning fracture splitting through me.

“No,” I gasped.

“You’re twenty-five, Tess. You’re not getting any younger,” he sneered. “Who knows, maybe your husband will let you work.” A sadistic smile cracked his lips. “But I highly doubt it.”

Arranged marriages are standard in our echelon of society, but my father had never mentioned it for me. I thought I could be an exception. That’s what I had worked for.

There are no real, great female role models in my world. Women are defined almost exclusively by their husbands. There are only the lucky wives whose husbands ignore them and cheat on them, and then there are the unlucky wives. The ones that face a battle every time they’re home with their spouses. The ones like my mother.

Some of them don’t survive their husbands.

The exceptions are the girls who run away or turn their backs on their families, but you never really hear about them again.

That’s why I’d invested all my energy into succeeding. Into doing better than my brother on all the things he’d be judged on. Luckily for me, he had no interest in competing in this race so I’d dusted him.

I graduated first from Cambridge and then got my MBA from Wharton. I was top of my class, as formidable with data and numbers as I was with people.

Idid that.

I did everything right.

Everything.

And it still wasn’t enough.

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