Page 1 of Princely Agreement

Chapter One

ELLA

“Do you really think you need that?” The white chocolate strawberry pauses right before it hits my lips. The sound of Matthew’s voice has always annoyed me, and I’m pretty sure my dad felt the same way.

“We must make sure they taste good.” Oliver, the chef that has been here for longer than I can remember, is quick to defend me.

There are only a few of the staff my dad hired remaining on the Cinder estate. Slowly my step-brothers Matthew and Jace have replaced them one by one. They wanted full control over the Cinder estate, and they aren’t even Cinders. Their mom isn’t one either. She wanted to keep her last name the same as her sons’.

When I lost my dad five years ago, it was devastating. He could be old-fashioned at times, but I loved him, and I’ve never met a sweeter man. I always felt loved too, even though I was a late-in-life surprise baby for him and my mom. They hadn’t planned on having children and instead focused on building their company together. That had been their baby together before I came along.

My dad always told me how thankful he was that I was a surprise. He said he would’ve never made it through losing my mother without me. I’m not sure what I did because I was only a few years old, so I don’t remember. At times I’m thankful I was so young, because losing my father was all my heart could handle.

Then I almost lost my stepmother Fiona. My dad died instantly in the crash, but by some miracle Fiona made it and was in a coma for months. When people think of stepmothers, they cringe, as I did at first. My dad was even hesitant for me to meet her, but she was nothing like I expected.

I was ten when they got married, and I worried that she’d take my dad from me. Instead, Fiona gave me a taste of what having a mom was like, but after the accident, she wasn’t the same.

Her memories and thoughts can get jumbled together. There are times she is crystal clear, and I cling to that. Her mind can make her gullible, which is something her sons use against her. They’re horrible, and I hate them both. How they came from her, I’ll never know.

Both are over ten years older than me, and most days I’m able to ignore them.

Today, however, Matthew is his usually terrible self. I take a bite of the chocolate-covered strawberry, deciding that I should get to taste them. I was the one who made them to begin with, even though they are for a party I’m not going to. In my own home! It’s the yearly celebration of Cinder Financial, and it’s almost laughable. I’m the only Cinder in this whole estate, but I’m not allowed to do most things.

My stepbrothers keep me locked away, wanting the world to forget that I exist. It’s what they need if they want to finally take full control of Cinder Financial, even though my parents built the company. It’s not that I want the company; it’s the fact that they thought they could claim it. Day by day, they’re getting closer, and my time is slowly running out.

I let out a small moan because white chocolate is my weakness. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Matthew glaring at me with hate. The tension between me and my stepbrothers is growing by the second, and I suppose time is running out for all of us.

“I’m going to get ready for the party.” He turns, leaving the kitchen.

Oliver pulls out one of his biggest knives. “Are you sure don’t want me to—”

“No!” I laugh. I think he’s teasing when he makes jokes about handling Matthew and Jace for me, but sometimes I’m not so sure.

I can see the anger in his eyes because he hates them too. I don’t think my dad cared for them much either, but he loved his wife and tried to make it work. He loved her, but he also had this need to try and give me a family.

Oliver can be very protective, and my dad knew that. It’s why he specified in his will that Oliver was to maintain his job at the Cinder estate unless he requested to leave or I personally dismissed him, no matter my age. He was a fill-in parent at times because Dad ran a giant company that was growing faster than he could keep up. It made him a very busy man, and Oliver was often picking me up from school and being a second parent.

My dad’s will was odd, and it doesn’t help that my stepmother isn't considered fully competent. With how close I was with her, a lot of what my father wanted weaved between her and me.

Then there were fallback contingencies that shocked me at first, like if something happened to Fiona. The active board at the company would maintain control until I turned twenty-one, and then I could step in, whether it was to oversee daily operations or take my place at the head of the table.

There was also one more little contingency that stood out. By the time I turned twenty-one, I had to be pregnant or have already had a child. It was a week after my father died and I was only fifteen years old the first time I heard it. Even at that age, I knew not to ask what would happen if I wasn’t.

I truly don’t think my dad believed something might happen to both him and Fiona. Now her sons are chomping to get their mother’s inheritance, but that isn’t how it works. Cinder Financial was to go to either Fiona or me alone.

Now my stepbrothers are hoping that when I turn twenty-one I won’t have met the guidelines of the will. They are going to try and wiggle their way into taking control of the company under the guise that if it can’t be Fiona and me, then it should be passed to Fiona’s sons. Them. They already work for Cinder Financial, which gives them an advantage.

I’m three months away from my birthday, and there’s no way I’m getting pregnant before then. I know my father put that into the will because he often said that he and my mom should have had kids sooner and more than one. I’m guessing he didn’t want me to follow in their footsteps, but honestly, I’m nothing like them when it comes to work and family.

I love the idea of being married and having babies. What I don’t love is being forced into it, and that is what my stepbrothers are doing. We don’t fully know what will happen when my birthday passes and I haven’t done what the will dictates, but they’re prepared to take matters into their own hands and force a marriage between Jace and me.

Jace and Matthew have made it a mission to make sure no man gets near me. That was easy when I was in an all-girls high school, but after I graduated, they practically locked me inside the Cinder estate. Jace made it clear that the only way I’d meet the requirements was through him.

I’m supposed to marry him and have his child, but the thought makes me want to throw up the delicious strawberry that’s turning sour in my stomach.

Chapter Two

LEO

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