The Millionaire's Bet [BOOK ONE][#Wattys2015][#SYTYCW15][#CarinaPress]

part twenty nine

ANDREW

Today was the day that Ben had demanded to see me and he wanted to know everything, but that was only because word had gotten around that Alyssa and I were officially seeing each other, had been for the last week ever since that day in my office, but Ben had decided that he didn't want to wait until the end of the year to find out if he had gained the company, and told me that it was now or never.

I had never wanted the company in the first place, I said that from the moment we heard my father's will and he had named me as his successor, but I didn't want people to lose their jobs, especially when most of them had families at home who relied on their income and so I took on the role of the sake of those people, not because it's what my father had wanted me to do—even in death, he thought that he could still control me, but he stopped having power over me the moment I discovered what he had done to our mother and he picked his other family over us.

I already knew that I had two options once I arrived at Ben's apartment. I could tell him the truth, that I had slept with Alyssa and it happened more than once, and I could even tell him that it was the best sex I had ever had the fortune of having with a woman, but I didn't see that it was any of business whether I had or I had not slept with my girlfriend. I would give him the company without giving him an answer to that question, if that's what he wanted, and I could finally live my life with someone who made me happy and someone who meant more to me than anyone else ever had done before.

Alyssa had told me that she would support me whatever decision I made because she loved me, but she told me that I needed to think of myself before I thought of her when it came to telling Ben what he wanted to know, though she had mentioned that it was none of my brother's business whether we had slept together or not and that he was pathetic for continuing with the bet, even now when I was happy and I finally had something worth waking up for each morning.

If I told him the truth, I was still going to be stuck in a dead-end job without any real happiness or fulfilment, and I was going to be waiting for the next move from The Board in their bid to remove me from the company. But, if I lied to him, told him that Alyssa and I hadn't slept together, I would finally have my shot at happiness and I would be able to have a fresh start away from all the things which had played a part in ruining my life over the last few years.

I would no longer be CEO of a company which had cost me so much, a company which I had come to hate over time and I wanted nothing more to do with it, and I would be able to spend time with daughter rather than having her hidden from me by her bitch of a mother. But, most importantly to me, I would get Alyssa and I could be myself without giving a damn what people said or thought about me.

I still don't know at which point I changed, or the point where I realised that alcohol wasn't the answer to my problems, or even when I realised that it was time for me to grow the hell up and act my age, and I didn't even know that it was possible for me to love someone again. I don't know when any of that happened, but I was glad that it had happened, and I was glad that I was better person because of it all.

Alyssa had, unknowingly, been changing me since the day she walked into my office almost six months ago now. From her attitude and sarcasm, to the way in which she has never been afraid to stand up to me, the answers which she had for everything, and the pure hatred which she had for me in her eyes as she realised who I was for the first time. It was those things which made her a challenge which I needed to conquer and, when Ben offered me the bet, it was just too easy at the time, but the more time I spent getting to know the real Alyssa Lopez, the more I realised that there was more to her than meets the eye and that I had made a stupid mistake in agreeing to the bet—strange to see nothing other than love and happiness in her eyes now, given everything which has happened between us, but I would never change anything that happened because it led us to where we are now.