Life with the Boss

1

Chapter 1

The young couple had just closed on the private sale of the house. It wasn't really a sale of the house either. It was a transfer of ownership. Petra was sure this was a dream and was having a hard time believing this was her life now.

Since the horrible day she had transferred to a new boss, her life had taken huge turns from being by herself to having the most attentive man around her. Not only did everything change for her it had him as well. Mikael had started to have a real relationship with his father who owned the business that he worked for but also his half-siblings and step-mother, Missy. Missy was the one who had owned the house that was now Petra's.

Missy was a force to be reckoned with many times over. Mikael had found out that most of his life he had been lied to about the man who had been his father. The man had only stayed around his mother to be around him. The affair that had resulted in his birth was always supposed to be a short one. The man who was going through some hard times with his own wife had done the one thing that he had seen was okay. The world they lived in was completely different from the one most people did.

Affairs were the norm that the successful men seemed to have, and no one said differently. After a mishap with the birth of their fourth child, Missy could no longer have children though she wanted more. She was having a tough time with that and the Man walked away and did what he had too to comfort himself.

He regretted the decision now, looking back he also did not. It had produced Mikael. He could not be prouder of his son for the man he had become. Both personally and professionally. After the young man had graduated college, he was hired, and he moved up through the company fast, though no one knew why. It was simple. It was a family company, but he was not a member of the family.

Mikael had been told from the first he could remember that his father didn't want him. That the man was only there to help his mother. That he could never acknowledge the man, either. His half-siblings were off limits as well. That was not for him. He had been drilled from the start that he was never to reach out to them. If he needed something, his mother would be the one to get it for him.

At the dinner with his father and his step-mother at their house right after he had Petra come into his life, he found out the truth. Though he had long suspected his mother had hidden things from him and that she was extremely controlling of him. The truth was easy to prove for his father and Missy. They had always wanted him to be a part of their family.

Missy knew how hard everything would be for Mikael and she had been the one to take a few steps back, trying very hard not to make the young boy make a choice. However, his bedroom that she had made for him in their house held all the birthday presents, Christmas presents, and just things she had bought him along the timeline of his life were the cement of the statement he had been very much wanted in the house.

The lunch he had with his half-siblings on the same day had been an eye opener than well. His three older brothers and sister had all welcomed him with open arms. That had shocked him. It had him question everything in his life and everything he had been told about them from his mother.

He had to question his mother. He knew she had kept him for herself. It was never to protect him. It was to use him. He was her ticket to an easy life. He could not believe it. He knew beforehand he wanted to move away from the duplex she had made him rent out the other side of. Now it was more than important to do that.

Petra watched him as he was talking on the phone and was making the plans to get the movers there as quickly as possible. Missy had some of the original furniture for the house that she still had to look at. It was in a storage unit by the house itself. Right now, the two were sharing a car, and they were packing up her apartment as well. The house was something that she had not planned on ever having.

It was Missy's way of making everything even between the young couple. She had stepped into a step-mother role very well. Though they both knew she was holding herself back. The house was just the beginning, but the older woman was trying her best not to overwhelm the two new people in her life.

The morning after they had spent at the castle house that was theirs now. They had gone down the street to his father's house and Missy was the one to greet them at the door. "Now this, I have to say is the best reason in the world to be up this early." The older woman laughed. "What do I owe the pleasure of having you two here?"

"I wanted to make sure this was not a dream." Mikael said, "That we can really move in as soon as possible."

"The house is already yours for all I care." Missy said as she smiled at them. "I wanted it to go to family, and it is going to just that. Mikael, we have a lot to make up for in missing out on your life, but in this understand I am giving the house to Petra for one very good reason."

"And that is?" Mikael asked.

"I have never thought of you as anything other than my son. A son I did not get to have in my life until you were ready. Now I not only have a son, but I have a daughter to go along with him. There are things in this world that are cruel to women. I know this even though they would not ever touch me. I want to make sure she is protected. That she has the same power in the relationship that you do. That is the important part for me." Missy said, as they sat down in the front room. "Now we have a lot to do to get the house ready for people. I know of some of the issues and your father, and I will help take care of those. When we have the contractor look at the house today, I want you both there. That way, anything you want to add or change we can make it a little easier. Our gardener will be taking his crew over there as well. Petra, I know you want the garden area for yourself. It is in good enough condition, but I think we could touch it up at least till you get the hang of it and what you want. I know this maybe a few steps more than what anyone else thought we should do, but I don't really care. It is what parents do."

Petra knew then that Missy was not an enemy like he had thought. She knew that the older woman finally had exactly what she had always wanted, and she was trying her best to move in slowly into his life. Whatever happened, she knew that she had Missy at least on her side as well.