Bride by Design

C H A P T E R 7

THE ICE PRINCESS

Helena

Wealth was always quantifiable and the business easy to control. Long as rules were set, the people complied and with contingencies set, the goal could be achieved. It was simple.

But people?

Employee and employer relationship was pure business. Contracts would suffice and a trust established. One knew what were required of his person and what was not. Trivial.

The relationship between parent and child I could grasp. Though sometimes I felt mostly devoid of emotions, I was no monster. It was a bond to cherish. Family was a concept I could determine and respect. Same with friends. I only had a few and only one I could call a bosom friend. Mostly, I kept to myself.

The De la Vega-Amante partnership was mutualism. Seeking to cement the ties between families proved a prudent choice. Logically driven. A marriage of convenience, if you will.

For someone like me who liked numbers and the odds, it took considerable time for me to reconcile with making myself as a human-contract. Though conflicted by the obscurities, ultimately, I would agree in the end. In black and white, point me to the dotted line and I would sign. So long as we didn't clash and respected boundaries, I could live with it. Surely, a beneficial arrangement between me and an Amante could be reached.

Knowing the driving force behind their actions and understanding them, some were easy to read and I could interact in kind. Take my preferential and acquired distaste for Henry Amante's greed and stupidity as an example.

Others, not so.

Karyssa was a conundrum.

She was entirely a different world all on her own.

Married but living separate lives was the best I could offer. I couldn't do love and the messy range of emotions it blanketed.

At first, young Karyssa was an open book. Her open adulation I could recognize and would easily connect with the stories she'd been told and articles she'd read. The media and reporters painted a fantabulous heroine out my modest efforts to prevent the family treasury from going empty. It did no help when the people within her circle set their sights upon me. I could only imagine the lies she have been told to idolize someone like me.

Karyssa made something shift.

She gave me something I never knew I needed nor wanted.

And that made me afraid.

When we lived together, she'd fetch me from my home office in the wee hours and try to summon me with kisses on my bed. She'd pry monthly reports off my hands or sit on my lap while I diligently tried to complete my task when my brain was off elsewhere. When she'd rain soft kisses on cheek, her gentle sucking or nibbling on my neck, and her warm hands tracing the length of my skin, my body would respond. Not much time would be spent on sleeping.

The words other people used to build me and sum me up became constant threats.

How quickly would her version of me crumble when I ceased to be and when numbers tied to me dropped?

In a world where people were determined and loved by value...

'I love you, Helena.'