Business Arrangement

CHAPTER 1:

"I LIKE PHYSICAL exercise, but this is taking it too far and I didn't bring the right hair products to let chlorine infest my perfect curls, Professor Lewis." Natalie Bowen, notorious for her fake bleach blonde hair and while she wasn't completely wrong about chlorine being a natural irritant of the skin, rendering other agents and bacteria on top of one's first layer of skin to hold an unhealthy care of skin...that's if she's excessive about it.

So, taking a swim in gym class wouldn't mean the end of the world.

I look at Eden next to me, who rolls her eyes at me, "Every time with the same excuse."

"Shut it, Eden." Natalie spits at her, I hold a snort as I watch them, all before catching sight in my periphery of the guard named Darren. Only I don't believe he was much of a guard, considering the man himself, who was surrounded by six males, including Darren and three females, sat on the bleachers amongst other students. Watching, even though this was just during class, but there was a cafeteria by the swimming centre, the nicest cafeteria with the nicest beverages, along with a sausage steak out too, the place was like an attraction centre for students.

I acted as if I didn't notice, "Why doesn't she just say she's on her cycle?" I giggle to Eden. She smirks and gestures to the other side of the pool, the second we duck underwater, music echoes underwater and Eden starts dancing, looking my way as her silk black hair floats everywhere. I push a flip through the water before sliding up for air.

"Girls! Laps, please. Join the rest of the class!" We hear over our shoulders.

I freestyle towards the main end where most of the guys in our class were standing in the pool, waiting, a few checking out the bikinis Natalie's group sports. I study the Professor, wanting to see if he would look and when I see him subtly side-glance Natalie, checking out her behind. I stiffen in the water. She seems to side-glance him, he blows the whistle as they make subtle eye contact.

She steps into the water, "What is it?" Eden asks behind me as the relay's start.

"I don't know yet." I say to her, side-glancing her.

She furrows her eyebrows and looks at the Professor, who walks just above us, in shorts and a tight sports shirt, gesturing to me as Daniel, one of the male's in my class swims back up to us in my lane, I adjust my goggles and push off, flying through the water, free-styling.

"What was that back there?" Eden asks me after we're done with our relays, grabbing her towel after she got out of the water.

"He was checking her out. Child predator alert." I tell her, grabbing my own water bottle as the male's move to the field for a game of volleyball in the sun. I flick open my water bottle, tampering with the ice inside as Eden takes a seat in the sun just a few silver bench steps above me, still close enough while she lies down. I dry my hair after tugging some shorts on.

"She's not the only one. Twelve o'clock. Blonde muscular guy, tattoos on his hand, silver rings, glasses and surrounded by creepy-looking FBI agents has been watching you since we got in the pool and he's still staring. He's handsome though in a sexy-smouldering way, but obviously in his twenties, maybe even thirties." She says to me, still with her eyes closed. I furrow my eyebrows, acting surprised just to glance over, I couldn't see behind his glasses, but he was observing me, watching me closely.

"Probably one of my Father's guards, though—they're usually more subtle." I comment, grabbing my phone as I check the contact tracer microphone and see that it's on, the one named Darren was good, though I was better, I go through Instagram.

"Ooh, guess what? Landon has a party tonight." I say to Eden, dancing the phone at her as she screeches and sits up, snatching it from me as I grab my box of watermelon and mixed berries, using one of my adjustable forks to stab a piece and take a few small bites as her eyes light up like a Ferris wheel at a carnival.

"We're going?" She asks me, just as a nudge echoes against my bare arm.

"Watch where you're going, chipmunk!" Natalie spits at me.

I look at the room she had behind me as Eden flips the finger at her, "Why does she still pick on you? And why don't you fight back anymore, Lyra?" Eden asks me, handing me back my phone.

I look through the photos and invites through messages, "Just six more months, than we're graduating. Besides, she's not in every one of my classes." I say to her, she grabs her laptop, looking through her own emails.

"Still seeking out New York?" Eden whispers to me, grinning as she fist bumps me.

I smirk, "This weekend. I can borrow one of my Dad's jets, he won't even know." I giggle, wiggling my eyebrows. She fist bumps me again before glaring at whoever's behind me.

"Did we hear something about New York?" I hear behind me.

Eden flowers at him, "Mind your own business, Owen." She spits at him.

The muscular teenage idiot standing behind me ready to take his own relays, with two other males flanking him stare at Eden and I with their own smirks after moving around the benches in front of us, "Nah, not if you're having a party without us." Owen says, winking at me.

I get comfortable in my seat on the chair beside my bag and cross one leg over the other, "No, you heard wrong. It's a fashion icon we're going to, my Dad won't let me go if he knows, I doubt you'll be interested in us girls fawning more over fabric than over you. Remember, we don't party like you do." I say to him, leaning back in my chair, he steps towards me and leans down to squat at my legs, grinning as his torso brushes them when he pulls himself up and leans close to my ear.

"We'd be happy to." He whispers down to me.

I tilt my head, "Move away, Owen." I say to him, blankly.

He places a kiss on my cheek, before his shoulder is gripped and he rips away from me, "Don't, dude." One of the guys on another team says, pulling him back and up as I furrow my eyebrows, Owen snaps his head over, glaring at the guy.

"Stay in your lane, bitchy twat." Owen spits at the large male, a tattoo on his arm with another one, lankier, but standing next to him.

"What did you just say?" He asks Owen, roughly. The man who pulled Owen back was the typical bad boy of the school, drugs and tattoos, that's all anyone associates him with. Owen practically spits at him, shoving past us with his two guys while Eliot Swanson, tattoo saviour over here looks to Eden and I.

"You both alright?" He asks.

I nod quickly, "Thanks." I say, quietly as Eden mumbles the same and covers her body with her towel, he glances above me, giving a stoic nod before both step away.

"That one scares the living hell out of me." Eden whispers to me, packing her bag.

I close the box on my fruit, "I know right, every time I see him. I'm scared he'll stomp on me or something. You know, brain matter splattering with my skull across the concrete floor, rain diluting my blood as it oozes out of me." I whisper, shuddering.

She gives me raised eyebrows, "You have got to stop reading those thrillers, Lyra. They're going to give you even more nightmares. Honestly, you should try the sleep-drops I told you about, every night is a peaceful night now." She says to me, nodding to me.

I sigh, grabbing my bag, "I hate closing my eyes, even at night." I confess. Moving towards the changing rooms.

Once we step out and the bell rings, ending school, I walk towards Eden's Lexus parked in the school parking lot, I turn my phone off when I see the phone all tracer was hacked and set on too. Eden steps towards the driver's side, unlocking the car. I slide my glasses on and step inside, "Drive me to my place first, I need to change and shower." I tell her, she rolls her eyes, sliding her own glasses on.

When we make it to make gate, she turns to me, "I'll shower and change at my place before getting a cab for us. My brother's are out on meetings, they won't know." She grins. I wave to her, stepping out and towards the front terrace, holding my bag in one hand and I grin, sprinting straight towards inside stairs.

"Lyra, are you home? We have guests, can you come back down a minute?!" Dad calls out to me.

"Can't Dad, I need to shower!" I call out to him, sprinting to my room, knowing exactly who was here as I slam my door close and lock it swiftly before moving towards my laptop on the desk and hacking into our main cameras, opening audio and taking a seat as I watch those seated in the main seating dinner room downstairs.

"...I don't understand why you want our sister of all people?" My eldest sister, Lauren and Astrid study the man I run an analysis on and study the file that opens up. Twenty-eight year old Ender Millennium, an entrepreneur to a computer manufacturing enterprise. Now, why would he be interested in me, or even my Father's business at that, who wasn't anywhere near as big as Ender's.

I close my laptop, switching it for my school one before going to shower. Brushing my newly dried hair afterwards, I apply light make-up over a simple tight black shirt and a denim skirt. Grabbing my purse and phone, I move out of the room, just as Eden gives me a call, "The cab is waiting." She says to me, over the phone.

"I'm coming, is it parked outside?" I whisper in question, grinning as I move down the stairs in my heels.

Before my phone is snatched out of my hands by Astrid, she pulls it up to her ear, "She cannot go to the party this evening, Eden. You should return back to your household. Good evening." She says, harshly before hanging up.

I snap my eyes to her green ones, "Astrid, what the fuck?" I ask her, just as she pulls me into the seating room, straight towards the head of the table, I'm careful not to stumble in my heels as I stare at the line of people who had been following me all day, only their glasses were off, faces revealed. Ender keeps his caramel brown eyes on my form.

"Going somewhere?" He asks me. His deep, husky voice resonating against the stoic, silent room. I clamp my lips together, furrowing my eyebrows as Astrid takes a seat in the chair beside me, clicking open a pen as Mom rips her hand from Dad's where she sits.

"What's going on? It's Friday, I thought I was fine to go." I say, confused. Or at least acting like it. I knew what this was. While Ender worked faster than I thought, Lauren stares at the table, as if her eyes could penetrate a laser glare through it.

Astrid taps my chin, "Sit up straighter. No talking, just read the paperwork. We will remain here while you do." She says to me, tapping the file in front of me.

I stare at it, "But—"

"No. Just read." Astrid says to me, interrupting me.

I swallow and open the brown folder. I begin reading over terms and agreements, over licensing of some sort, over company reports between Father's business, and Millennium's Manufacturing. My stomach rumbled in the empty air, no one spoke. They sat in silence as I kept flicking through pages. I come across the last file of three pages.

Business Arrangement.

I glance up as Dad's jaw tightens. I blink twice and read over the agreement, the arrangement that I knew I would have no say over, no source of any freedom, only I read with a passive look on my face.

Both parties will remain tied, both businesses will merge but remain as Millennium Industries. The daughter Ender Millennium chooses as his wife in marriage must stay with him for ten years. If she wishes for a divorce, he will grant it if he feels the marriage cannot be restored.

Ten years.

Three pages of rules, before I see the last page.

Dated and signed by him.

I memorise each stroke of his signature, before slowly lowering the paperwork down and staring at the table, dropping back against the seat, "This is why you were at my school." I whisper, slowly. My family stare at me, and so does Ender.

"You followed her to school?" Mom asks him, roughly.

He raises a tattooed hand, "Don't speak out of tone. Let your daughter speak." He says to her, stoically.

"Your family benefits through billions of dollars and your Father will no longer have any trouble with losing his expansions in the US. I can guarantee you that you will receive whatever you wish for, provided by me if you sign the contract." I wondered if killing him could be a part of what I wanted. The second he said this to me, I looked up at him.

His Father died when he was three, his Mother is in Washington in rehab, yet he's ensured the whole world believes she's running a charity in Vancouver. He has no siblings and the friends around him are considered his closest kin. Wherever he goes, everyone watches, he's one of the greatest influencers this world has ever seen. Not one bad product, not one downfall in sales, in marketing and his profits continue to grow by the minute.

Silently, I reach for the pen and Astrid holds it tightly in her hands. I reach for her hand, she bites her lower lip, staring at me, she didn't want this to happen. I could feel her fear under my fingertips as I slowly sign the contract, date it and with my signature. My Dad can't hold onto Mom, who rips from her chair, sobbing as she steps out the hall and up the stairs.

Dad fixes his suit, before looking at me for a few seconds, then he jogs up the stairs, calling for Mom. Lauren shoves herself out of her chair, ripping away from the table and stomping up the stairs. Astrid pulls away from me, roughly wiping her eyes and following in the same direction. I hold my pen in place, staring at the ink as a lawyer steps forward, bowing as he stakes the paperwork away from me.

I stare at him, more unnerving than he was. He's nervous now. No one else would notice it as I penetrate his form, "I'd ask that you not look at me like that." Ender says, slowly. I wondered if anyone told him he became quite the cruel bastard because of his past. Six males on his side and three females, just sitting there, silently.

"What was the party you were planning to go to?" The soft dark-blonde woman asked me. The two brunettes on either side of her scrutinise me.

"Shouldn't she be screaming and cursing at her parents, her family?" One of the brunettes ask.

"If it were me, I'd slap him." The other one says.

There were many things that would hurt more.

Like his choice of funding. No one realised how easy it was to copy accounts and information from Ender's wrist watch, no one knew how simply daunting one little girl could be until Darren sits up and furrows his eyebrows, studying me, "Can I still go to school here? And go to a fashion show in New York with my best friend, Eden, this weekend?" I ask of Ender.

He scrutinises me, "Yes." His voice is hesitant.

I raise a finger, "Wait here a moment." I tell them, stepping out and back up towards the staircase, I grab the three hundred page contract I knew was coming, I'd prepared for this, I just thought I'd at least be over eighteen, perhaps even twenty-one.

I stomp back down the stairs with the heavy file.

I'm stared at incredulously, before I drop my contract down. Ender stands slowly, "What...is this?" He gestures to it with his tattooed hand, staring only at me while the rest of his crew beside him.

I point at the large folder, "Oh, this is my contract, but unlike you, I won't be here while you read it, sign it and send this email to this email address and then you'll forward it to this email address," I point to each of them on a separate page, I tap the folder, "—this contains everything you will agree to since I just signed ten years of my life to you and your apparent services. Now, I'm going to go to this party, that I need you to allow, while you begin your nightly read. And if you refuse to read, I can make your exotic life look like Prison Break mixed with Pretty Little Liars. The latter is on clause three-hundred and forty-two, where you must watch every episode of all seven seasons considered the fact you have a dating chart, let's put it on date's five through to ten." I emphasise, giving him a fabricated smile, before I grasp my phone and coat, "Bye now!"

Astrid stares down at me from her windowsill in the mansion, in her room.

I salute her and she throws her head back with a laugh, giving me a smirk, mouthing 'I love you', I wink at her before taking my car and driving to the party. I giggle to myself, seeing his priceless face still as he watched me coordinate the dates he'd already planted in his contract with my own even more detailed one was beyond anything imaginable.

I step up when I see Eliot Swanson at the door, water in hand wearing a v-neck and jeans, he ends the phone call with a, "Yes, sir." I smile as I step up.

"I should have made the connection sooner. Tattoos tend to stick together, so I take it you knew, which is why you had Owen back off me by the pool while your boss perversely watched a teenager go swimming in a school gym?" I ask Eliot.

He sighs, brown eyes penetrating mine, "He won't underestimate you again, and he's here, he wants to speak with you, now." He points behind me where a dark suv is seated beside a line of trees in the beautiful neighbourhood.

I face Eliot, "He actually thinks he's the President?" I say with a raised eyebrow.

Eliot's nostrils flare, "Darren did background checks, I observed you for five years, you don't have a mean or sadistic bone in your body, you're into fashion, soft toys, pillow fights and living the high life and all of a sudden you have a contract for a marriage arrangement you should not have known about and can suddenly drive yourself around in a car you should not be able to drive. My boss wants to shove me in a pit because I clearly failed at my job and Darren is working overtime trying to figure out what else you're hiding and so far, he's found three different files which we believe you somehow created out of nowhere, those files missed Darren's system checks. That's impossible to do. Please, walk with me to the car, he won't keep you, he just wants to talk." He explains to me swiftly.

I fold my arms, "And what will I get for it?" I ask him.

His phone vibrates.

He looks at it, "He wants to know what you want." He states.

I smile slowly, "I want a chocolate milkshake right now."

He blinks at me five times, "Come again?"

His phone vibrates, he looks at it, "Yes, as I said: Come again?" He says to me, pointing at his phone.

"Eliot, I want a chocolate milkshake. If your multi-billion dollar boss can't make that happen, then I'm walking past you into that party, and I don't care if I have to knock you out to do it." I say to him, smiling.

His phone vibrates.

Eliot clenches his jaw, "The chocolate milkshake is on its way."

"It better be the best goddamn milkshake." I point at him, before strutting past the grass as he follows quickly behind me.

He opens the door for me, "What am I the first daughter, Jesus? I can open my own door, buddy." I tell him, sliding in and raising an eyebrow to see him sitting there with a fresh suit, he changed in the car. Interesting.

"Yes." He says to me slowly.

"You missed a button." I tell him, pointing towards it.

Darren blinks at me from the corner of us, "Who are you?"

I'm the worst nightmare and their biggest solution all tied up in one.