BROKEN MEETS GRIEF

Chapter 7

"It's the weekend Ashton what do you normally do?"

"I normally spend it in London meeting up with friends or going to a show. I have a house there as do my siblings."

"I would love to see your house Ashton."

"We can fly down to London later on in the week if you want."

"I would love that."

Later they were in Ashton's study he was sat on a chair next to April reading her emails with her."

"I'm surprised you don't have a CFO or a board of directors."

"The company did when I took it over but they weren't willing to listen to my ideas. I changed the name of the company and the grief I got about that did my head in. So I changed the structure of the company as well."

"You were right to do that now people see it as your company not his. If we decide to get married would you still want to work in it?"

"Of course I gave it five years of my life and went back to college to make sure I knew how to run it."

"I'm just checking. I'm curious you went to college and you gave it five years of blood sweat and tears. Why let someone else run it now?"

"I want a family and a husband that's the thing I envy the most about my friends."

"If you did find someone else to run it for you other than me. There is no guarantees you would get the family you want."

"I know.  I'm thirty-three, I know my father didn't want me because I was defective. I have asthma by the way and my adopted mother once she had her own kids didn't need me anymore. My birth mother used me as a prop."

"So because of that you felt you wanted someone else to run your company?"

"No, I want to be a mum and I need to find the right guy who doesn't see my money before me. That's why I'm here you don't need my money and as for my company. I think you will run it well because you're interested in what we do there."

"Why did you accept it. The company I mean?"

"Meghan gave it to me and after hearing what my dad said about me in the hallway when he took her hostage. The plan was to make it fail once I was in charge of it. But I remembered the people I worked with when I was a secretary. I wasn't prepared to let people lose their livelihood because of my petty revenge."

"That's very magnanimous of you."

"Not really, someone I knew who worked there had cancer. If she lost her job her health insurance would have stopped. My adopted dad broke the law to make sure I lived. Making sure other people had the chance to at least live was the least I could do."

He grins at her, "I've never met anyone like you before."

"Thanks I think.'

"It's a compliment."

"You keep asking about me but you haven't really opened up yet," says April. Do you have a girlfriend and when is your birthday?"

"I don't have a girlfriend and my birthday is Christmas Day. I'm not a workaholic I work hard but I don't play hard either. My dad wants me to run his company but I don't want to. I have other ambitions. He's disappointed in me and likes to tell me so. When granddad died he expected me to take over but I refused. Granddad understand and supported me doing what makes me happy."

"You must miss him a lot."

He chokes up for a moment, "Everyday. I told dad to start showing Micah how to run the company and thankful he is doing just that. But I'm a disappointment to him. Mum you haven't met her yet. She lives in London because she understands what Menden is for. Why my dad is the way he is. She doesn't like it here so she stays in London and comes here only when she has to."

"I'm sorry that's so sad. You must miss her terribly."

"I'm only in Menden at the weekends. I stay in London for the rest of the week."

"Your gran lives here she must be lonely in that big house by herself."

"The staff and dad are here and she goes to some clubs."

"I'm sorry I bought the subject up."

"April we need to get to know each other because if we marry. I will be in charge of your billion dollar company. You will get a new title and will be in society magazines."

"I'm already in magazines Ashton."

"But not as Lady Adams."

"Why do you think of all the women you gran could pick for you she choose a controversial American heiress?"

"We need each other because we are both broken and in pain."

"Yes but why not someone who isn't broken. Someone from a good family with no scandals attached to her?"

"Who knows. Five years ago you never met your birth father and I gather you have never spoken to him after the hallway incident. He maybe tied to you by blood but your adopted family is your family."

She starts to cry, "You're right. I need to make an effort to get to know my brother and sister again. They have never treated me badly and I became focused on Meghan instead of them."

"Let them know you're serious about having a relationship with them."

"I will."

More emails come through, "I can't believe you deal with all this by yourself."

"Well I do Ashton."

"I'll leave you to it."

"Okay, " April continues working on her emails for the next hour and a half. Ashton brings her a cup of tea. "Thank you. What's your town house in London like?"

"Big, it's a five story house with a underground pool. I have a butler and a housekeeper who lives there full time."

"I can't wait to see it. I always wanted to have a picnic in Hyde Park."

"Well we can definitely do that when we get to London. Have you had many boyfriends? Is anyone going to run to the tabloids and give a story about the new Lady Adams?"

"I had the usually boyfriends in college and high school and someone I was seeing seriously before the truth of my parentage came out. My best friend Mindy set me up on several blind dates. Nothing came of it. One guy actually gave me his resume, I kid you not on our date."

"If this Mindy is setting you up with guys like that maybe she shouldn't be in your life. How did you meet her?"

"After the truth came out I was sat eating alone in a restaurant and she ask if she could join me. We exchange numbers and we became friends then when I got that mam's company she introduced me to some of her other friends. They then became my friends as well."

"What about the friends you had before the truth came out?"

"They didn't want to know me anymore because of what those people did."

"I'm sorry, they weren't true friends and don't hate me for saying so but I thing Mindy targeted you."

"I know she did I figured it out when I was paying for everything. I'm stopped doing that by the way. She kept pestering me to give her husband a job in the company. I refused, he's a stockbroker and he makes good money but not our kind of money and I don't hire friends unqualified husbands."

"You're smart to figure out they were using you."