Paint Me Saved ✓ Book 1

8. I'm coming soon

Leonardo

A few hours ago

Upon enlisting, I was asked the reason behind joining the army. I don't exactly remember what I'd answered but it was far from the truth. I was desperate to clear my evaluation that I didn't tell them I'd joined the Army to escape.

The girl I loved had left before my training ended. Factoring into it was the man whose shadows too, I tried avoiding. My father always expected Antonio and me to be our charming selves, an expectation which had cost us our childhood.

While kids at school debated in Model UN, we pleased the world with our televised interviews. When children went to birthday parties, we flew to shoot locations for promotions. With my bunny teeth and Antonio's kid glasses, we were Brenton Media's child models and unpaid laborers.

"I've established this company so you boys can have a secure life," Dad once said when I asked permission for a class trip that clashed with a shoot. "Stop acting ungrateful like your mother," he had growled when I tried another attempt at convincing him.

As a boy of ten, I couldn't wage a war against his tyranny. Just like my mother, I sat and bristled at his words, waiting for the phase to fade. Instead of fading, it only took a turn for the worst when puberty hit and we turned from cute kids into handsome young men.

Sniffed out by the bloodhound paparazzi and trailed by the focus lights of studios, I tried every means possible to dissociate from my last name.

My escapes were fruitless. Like the ocean waves that brought all dead matters to the shore, I was always found.

Only in the Army did the relevance of my last name diminish. Months of shelling and gunfire at the frontline didn't hurt me as bad as a single day spent under scalding public scrutiny.

The enemies abroad only killed once but the puffery back home strafed me every living second.

Since the day Haley finalized the details of James's interview, Dad had beamed like the sun, blinding me with his boastful reflections on Antonio's achievement.

I was the useless son who prioritized service to the country over service to the board of directors.

My designated office, a room with transparent glass doors that kept me in front of my staff's view, was also a means to keep me from running away.

My conscious nagged me while I read the summary of all my meetings, a consequence of having accepted the interim position.

You could have stayed away.

A knock on the door dragged my attention away from my schedule. My assistant poked her head inside, hanging at the entrance.

"Sir, I have Haley outs..."

"That's okay." Haley pushed open the door completely, walking in. "I don't need an appointment to talk to him."

After my assistant closed the door, Haley grinned at her little accomplishment. She liked marking her territory.

"What brings you to this chamber of torture?" I asked, leaning back into the comfort of my chair.

Haley struck a Superman pose and walked over to the glass panes overlooking the sunlit streets. "The view's nice from here."

"If I just wanted a view, I'd have stayed at some vacation spot."

"Leo." She turned, walking over. "We talked about this. If you're working here, it's easier to make excuses for you. Otherwise, there's no convincing your father not to throw you under the spotlight."