Page 1 of Taming the Elusive Billionaire

CHAPTER ONE

LUCYEDWARDS

“No, I won’t do it, Mason. Hell, do you know how much that would inconvenience me?” Ella, my best friend, shouted as she moved across the length of our room, speaking on the phone with her brother, who seemed to have a way of getting under his sister’s thick skin very quickly.

“Yes, I can speak to you the way I like because I am your fucking sister and not another of your bloody staff.” She continued using her palm to wipe the sweat on her face even though the room was well-conditioned.

“No, I am alone. Oh actually, I am with Lucy, but that doesn’t mean anything. She’s my friend.” She looked at me while I glared at her wondering why she was bringing my name into their heated discussion.

“You know what, I will think about it, goodbye, yes I am cutting the call, bye.” She quickly ended the call and threw the phone on the bed. “Fuck!!!!! I hate my brother so fucking much.”

Her phone started to ring again, and she turned to it with murder in her eyes. “I am so going to destroy you.”

She made her way quickly to her bed in the apartment we shared, but I was closer and reached for the phone first before her.

She sighed and extended her hand to me. “Give it to me, Lucy.”

“No,” I muttered as I answered the call and put it to my ear. “Hello, can you give your sister a little break? Thank you.” I ended the call before her brother could speak, switched the phone off, and kept it beside me. “That’s settled, and lucky enough, we didn’t have to break a phone to achieve that,” I said to my best friend, forcing a smile.

Ella turned, headed to the fridge, opened it, and took out a water bottle, “I keep asking God why he gave me a brother like Mason.” She gulped the water down, dropped the bottle on the table, and began to walk away, not remembering to close the fridge. “You have a brother, Lucy.”

“Little brother,” I interjected.

“You are just a few years older, but that’s not the issue. Your brother dotes over you, he doesn’t disturb you, calls you only to check up on you, and he even sends gifts and stuff to you. But my brother, my freaking brother sees me like another member of his staff.”

I shrugged and bit down on the chocolate bar I had bought earlier while returning from my art class.

“Maybe that’s his way of showing he cares about you.”

“There are a million ways to do that.”

“Why do you think you guys don’t get along? You don’t talk much about him, just that he is annoying,” I asked looking at Ella.

Ella sighed deeply and looked down toward the floor. “You know, if I am being honest, we used to be super close,” Ella said.

“Well then, what happened to change all of that?” I asked with a tone of concern in my voice.

I could see that her eyes started to well up with tears and the look oh her face showed immense pain.

“Oh Ella, I didn’t mean to make you cry,” I said with deep sorrow in my voice.

She looked at me and managed a slight smile and said, “You didn’t, I promise. It’s just… we were super close as kids. We bickered like any normal siblings would, you know, tattle-tailing, play fighting, all the things. But we had each others backs, that was a given.”

So far Ella seemed to be talking about a fairly normal childhood. But I could tell there was more to the story, and that she was hesitant to share it with me. I didn’t want to push, but I was hopeful that she would feel comfortable enough to share.

Ella moved over toward the window of our apartment, overlooking the lake, and let out another large sigh. “My Dad,” she said. “He was our whole world. He travelled a lot for work, but he always made sure to be home for important events, like birthdays, Christmas, things like that. And when he was home, he was present. It was all about family time, and nothing else mattered,” Ella said softly.

She continued, “He was the very best father you could ever ask for.”

Was, I thought to myself. Now that I think about it, she hadn’t mentioned much about her dad in the few years that we had known each other. And we were best friends and told each other everything!

I didn’t want to interrupt her thoughts, so I patiently waited for her to speak again.

“We were sitting down to supper one night as a family,” Ella began. “We were going to have pizza, and then watch a movie. It was Mason’s turn to pick the movie that night. Dad was in his home office, and hadn’t come out yet, so Mom sent Mason to go tell him that we are ready for pizza and to start the movie.”

I could see the tears falling a little harder from Ella’s eyes. The look on her face told me all that I needed to know, and that what she was about to tell me was a pivotal moment in her life.

Ella continued, now with a blank stare out the window, tears falling, “I heard Mason calling Dad’s name as he was walking into his office to tell him the pizza was ready, and we were about to start the movie. I could hear him calling for Dad, but assumed Dad was hiding on him as he always was a jokester and loved scaring us,” she said with a slight smile.

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