All Chapters of Mr Strong, I Refuse To Be Your Duty : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

41 Chapters

The Bridal Shop

Six weeksNicole sat with the phone in her hand and read the announcement. It was brief and elegantly worded and accompanied by a photograph of Asher and Zara at some private event, her head tilted toward his shoulder, his hand at her back. They looked like a couple. They looked like people who had chosen each other.She put the phone face down on the desk, didn't touch her laptop or the folder in her front. She just stared into space. The engagement had been one thing. An announcement is abstract, it says something will happen and a date, a date says when. A date makes it real and measurable and close. Six weeks was nothing. It was the length of a rebranding campaign. It was nothing at all.She immediately got up and took her jacket to the coat stand in the corner and came back to her desk and sat down again. She opened a document and just stared at it.She got up again, left her office and walked to the elevator. She pressed the button and the doors opened. Stepping in, she looke

The Investor's Banquet

She wasn't crying. She wasn't close to crying. She was just sitting there looking at the shop front and thinking about the last time she was here, which had been the beginning of the end, though she hadn't known it yet. She had sat in that shop for three hours waiting for a man who was across the city welcoming back the woman he actually loved.She was thinking about that when the shop door opened.Miss Jason came out onto the pavement. She was a small woman with reading glasses pushed up on her head and the particular expression of someone who has just recognised something they weren't expecting. She walked to the car and Nicole lowered the window. "Miss Kevin," Miss Jason said. "Miss Jason."A pause. Then Miss Jason said, simply, "The dress is still here. I kept it."Nicole stared at her. "You kept it." "I had a feeling," Miss Jason said, with the calm certainty of a woman who has worked in bridal retail for twenty years and kn

Woman to Woman

She had organised everything and let her assistants flesh out her plans. The venue, the menu, the guest list, the programme for the evening, she had worked on it for the ten days William had practically 'forced’ her to take off and she had not complained even once, because it was hers. Every decision was hers and every detail was hers and when she walked into that ballroom in the evening and saw how it had come together, she felt the satisfaction of someone who has built something from scratch and watched it become real.The guest list had been her decision too, including the Strong Group. "Are you sure?" William had asked, when she put them on the list. "Yes," she had said. "I want them there."He had not asked why. He trusted her enough by now not to ask why.Asher arrived with Zara at eight fifteen. Nicole saw them come in from across the room, she was in the middle of a conversation with Céleste and two buyers from a

Nicole's Orbit

The banquet ended at eleven and Nicole stayed until the last guest left. She said goodnight to the venue staff by name, the waiters, the woman at the coat check, the man who had been managing the lights all evening. Each of them, by name and William watched her do it from across the emptying room and thought, she has no idea how rare that is.She found him near the exit just as he was shrugging his jacket back on. "William," she said.He turned. She looked tired in the way people look tired after a long evening of performing well, not defeated, just spent. Her eyes were still clear though. "Good evening," he said. "You should go home. You've been on your feet since four.""I will," she said. "I just wanted to say something first." She paused, as if she was deciding how to phrase it. "Thank you for earlier, with Zara."He looked at her. "I just introduced her to someone." "You did it at exactly the right m

Uninvited

It was a Sunday and Nicole was upstairs when the doorbell rang. She heard it, and then she heard her mother's footsteps crossing the hall, and then she heard the door open, and then she heard her mother say, in a voice that went warm and surprised, "Asher! What a lovely surprise."She stopped moving.She heard his voice, low, pleasant, saying something about how well her mother looked. She heard her mother laugh. She heard the door close behind him.She sat down on the edge of her bed and pressed her hands flat on her thighs and took one slow breath.Then she got up and went downstairs.He was in the sitting room with her mom and, Aunt Ciara was there too and Nicole knew that she was struggling to keep a calm demeanor. He had a bunch of flowers, yellow tulips. She knew that they weren't for her but for her mom. She hated yellow tulips. He was standing in the centre of the room looking around at it in that particular way he had, the w

Tremors

Wilson called really early in the morning and William was still in bed when the phone rang, which was quite unusual. He was normally up before six but the banquet had run later than he expected and the conversation in the car afterwards had kept his mind busy well past midnight, and when sleep finally came, it came hard and knocked him out.His phone rang again and he turned to find it. On seeing the caller ID, he wondered why his brother was calling him so early and answered. "It was not a leak," Wilson said, without greeting. "Asher did not get her address from anyone on the inside."William immediately sat up. "What do you mean?" "He figured it out himself. He has been digging into you for a few days now, your schedule, your staff, your usual movements and I do not know why. My guess is that he pieced it together from that." Wilson said.William was quiet for a moment. "Why is he digging into me?" "That I do not know yet. It could be Nicole or it could be her." Wilson's v

Williams's Rules

William told her about the call the next morning.He came to her office just after nine, which was his usual time. He closed the door behind him and just stood at the entrance, which was not usual. She looked up from her desk, immediately noting that something was not right. "Asher had called me yesterday evening," he said. "I did not answer."Her body went rigid and she swallowed. “Please sit down, Mr. Grant,” she said, using the few seconds she had to brace herself.He sat across from her and Nicole looked at him. "What did he want?" "I do not know. He did not leave a message," he said as he held her gaze. "I wanted you to know before I decided anything. I have a hunch that he is calling about you. How do you want me to handle it?" "Don't return it," she said without hesitation. She had a feeling on why he was calling William but something in her bones made her feel that something was definitely not right, regardless. Still, she was going to s

Growing Pains

The email from Graham was unexpected and uncalled for.Nicole read it when she resumed at the office, surprised by its content. She thought about it for a while. No doubt that it was professional in its language and polite in its tone. But underneath both of those things, it was a direct challenge.It had been brewing for a long time now and she chose not to take note of it. Right now, Graham had tossed in the towel. He had gone to two members of the board with concerns about her restructuring strategy and the board members had responded by requesting a formal review.She called Priya in as she needed to get it over with. "Get me a meeting with the full board," she said. "This week if possible." Priya looked at her. "All five of them?" "All five,” she responded. She wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. When things like this lingered for long, the outcome was not so favourable.Priya nodded and left her office.

Zara's Jealousy

The luncheon was in Mayfair, held in a private room at one of those hotels that has been there so long it feels like part of the city's bones. It was a charity event for a women's fashion initiative and the room was full of exactly the kind of women that Zara respected. It was filled with accomplished and well-dressed women, just what she had been looking forward to. She entered the room with the aim of winning hearts and getting what she wanted. She stopped looking forward to it approximately fifteen minutes after she arrived.The first mention of Nicole's name came from a woman named Helene, who ran a buying office and who was describing the Paris partnership, which had gone viral, to the woman beside her with the enthusiasm of someone reporting genuinely exciting news. Zara heard the name and kept her expression pleasant and moved on when she couldn't bear to hear the other woman's praises. The second mention came at her own table, from a wo

The Drove to Welling

Asher remained in his office a little after seven, pondering over how he would go meet this woman and how to actually get the woman to do what he wants. He did not know what he wanted to do yet, but he knew that having this woman on his side would be a great advantage. He just needed to get to her first since she was familiar with his enemy. The relationship with them was not explicitly defined by his PA but he knew that something was up somewhere.While he thought about this, his mind went back to what Luke had shown him the other day. Something was going wrong with his company and he needed to find out as soon as possible. A part of him wanted to believe what Luke had implied but he could not. Yes, Nicole was good at her job but that meant nothing. He had Zara by his side, a fully educated doctor and she was sure to do exceptionally better than Nicole. She was the perfect definition of beauty and brains. Apart from this, one thing that could not stop bothering him was the fact that

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