Chapter 5

Eleanor’s POV

I shook my head and brought my attention back to the door in front of me, cursing at myself in my head for being so foolish.

I had to be mistaken, we weren’t supposed to get any new bodyguards today, I would know if we were. There was no way my one-night stand could be here—I was clearly just thinking about his perfect body and how much pleasure I had felt, that’s all.

I forced those thoughts out of my head, I had to be completely focused on what I was about to walk into. I had to prepare to handle the wrath of my father.

My father who was sexist and difficult and who made my life much harder than it needed to be.

My father, who when I opened the door and stepped inside, was standing side by side like old friends with my ex-fiancé.

The moment I walked in, my father erupted at me like a volcano.

“How dare you show up late?” Father roared. “You humiliated this family! You cheated on the son of a mafia boss you were about to marry!”

I stood my ground, this wasn’t a fight I was willing to give up, no matter what my father thought I was supposed to do.

“He cheated first.” I stated matter-of-factly as I folded my arms. “I just slept with someone after we broke up.”

My half-brother, Jason, let out a small laugh that alerted me he was in the room. I looked at him at the side of the room and he smirked back at me, clearly enjoying the chaos he had purposely started and feeling full of himself.

“In our world, men and women don’t play by the same rules,” Jason said mockingly. “You can’t just decide you’re ‘broken up’ and sleep around. Eleanor, you’re not fit to be an heir. Just stay home, marry well, and be a pretty ornament.”

I noticed our mother staying silent in the corner, afraid to speak on my behalf or on hers—it wasn’t clear to see if she was on my side in this mess and I doubt she would be if I had the chance to ask. I could feel my fists tightening in anger at the sight of her siding against me.

My mother had been a housewife her whole life and she wanted me to follow in her footsteps, even if it wasn’t what I wanted. She always tried to pull me back with every step forward I made and was the reason Jason made things difficult for me becoming the heir.

My mother was Father’s second wife. Jason was born to his first wife, and ever since that woman died, Jason had blamed my mother for breaking up his parents’ marriage. He’d always resented both of us, taking every possible chance to humiliate us or put us down.

Because of Jason, my mother had been an extra quiet and submissive housewife her whole life, and accepted that as if that’s what she had always wanted. She wanted me to follow in her footsteps and because someone’s perfect little wife—even if it wasn’t what I wanted.

To Hell with that.

When I finally proved myself capable enough in my father’s eyes to manage major parts of the family business, my mother’s disappointment grew and Jason’s hatred only deepened—especially considering he would never measure up to me since he was an idiot.

My eyes shifted from each person in the room, briefly settling on River. I could tell the second I saw him that much to my disgust, even my ex-fiancé would be siding with Jason’s damning words.

“Jason’s right,” River said coldly with a voice that was slightly strained. “You don’t need to act like a boss. Just be a good, obedient wife.”

I thought of that morning and cursed myself in my head for telling the man to stop when he had him by the throat—things would have been much easier if the River problem had gone away, but no, I had to stop him.

The memory in itself of River being strangled by a big and heavily muscled man brought a slight smile to my face. It gave me the push I needed to show my winning hand.

I looked River dead in the eyes then took out my phone.

“Really?” I said, my voice full of challenge.

I pressed play on my phone and showed everyone a video. Seeing it made both Jason and River’s faces turn completely pale.

It was a video I’d gotten from my assistant showing the two of them partying with a group of escorts the night before—Jason dancing wildly, kneeling at someone’s feet like he’d lost control of himself. It looked a lot like a drug-induced hallucination.

When the video ended, I put my phone away and turned my attention back to River. “My fiancé cheats and spends the night with whores, then dares to lecture me about morality? I don’t think so.”

I turned my attention to Jason, glad to see the smirk wiped off his face.

“And Jason—how much coke did you take last night?” I said. “You really think a junkie like you deserves to be the family heir instead of me? Maybe tell Father about your little drug habit before pretending to be the perfect son.”

My words hit hard and seeing my father’s hands ball into fists, I knew he could see I was right.

River stomped his foot like a toddler and stormed out in humiliation before I could say or do anything more.

“I-I just…” Jason stammered in a panic. “I had too much to drink!”

Father glared threateningly at Jason and snapped, “Get out!”

Jason ran out of the room, sending me a glare of anger at Father choosing me.

But I knew better—Father wasn’t really taking my side, he never did, he just wasn’t taking Jason’s. He was only hesitating because he hadn’t officially decided who the next heir would be, if he had, things would have happened much differently.

I knew he would never want Jason to take over, Father thought Jason was incompetent more than anyone else. He wanted the empire to stay in the family but he was a believer that it couldn’t be done by a woman—that was why he wanted me to marry River in the first place. He wanted me to marry River so that River could help me take over his empire and I could give birth to a competent grandson for him with his the Brown name—after River got a male heir for the Davis family, of course.

I never agreed with him on any of that and I thought it wouldn’t matter because I was with River, but that ship had long sailed away and left me to deal with Father’s wrath.

“Father,” I said firmly. “You know Jason can’t run things. You and Mother raised me to be a mafia princess, but I was meant to be more than that and you know it. I know I can run the empire on my own—I want to run things. I don’t need a man to do that. I don’t—”

My father interrupted me by slamming a fist on the table.

“That’s not how this family works!” He yelled. “You’ll apologize to River. You’re still marrying him.”

“I won’t,” I answered flatly, refusing to budge. “And I’m definitely not showing up to that stupid engagement dinner tonight.”

Father’s expression darkened threateningly, the expression I’d seen countless times when someone created problems for our business and he had to handle it.

“I’m not giving you a choice.” Father declared.

Without missing a second, he stepped over to me and confiscated my car keys and personal weapons I kept on me.

“I’ve given you too much freedom, Eleanor.” Father said. “I need someone to keep an eye on you to make sure you do what’s best for this family. You chose wrong, so I’m choosing for you.”

He snapped his fingers and the side door opened. “I’m assigning you a new bodyguard to stay with you at all times until you reconcile with River and the engagement moves forward. You will stay under his watch if you want even a fraction of our empire to be yours, this isn’t a request Eleanor.”

A man stepped through the door, no doubt the new bodyguard my father was forcing on me.

I didn’t care about a new bodyguard, I wouldn’t be changing my mind and I wouldn’t let anyone try to stop me.

However, when I finally got a clear view of the new bodyguard’s face, I completely froze.

I recognized him instantly even with the mask: it was the man from last night.

No one but River had seen the man I spent the night with; there was no way my father could have known. Why would he be here?

Father grinned at my speechless face, clearly thinking it was for a different reason than the truth.

“This is Hunter,” Father said as the man removed his mask. “He’s a very skilled mercenary. No one can escape from his hands.”

Images from last night flashed through my mind, his hands traveling every inch of my body, leaving bruises on my hips, and hooked under my knees as he…

I swallowed hard, trying to force those thoughts out of my mind.

I certainly hadn’t been trying to escape his hands then.