'And spite's as good a reason to take his power'
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Almost twenty years ago, Logan Roy had an affair with Elizabeth Ronan's mother, one that ended in her divorce and a number of rather unsavoury news s...
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|| PROLOGUE ||
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Twenty years ago, Elizabeth Ronan's father found out that his wife had being having an affair with media Billionaire and CEO of Waystar Royco, Logan Roy.
This precipitated a swift divorce, after which her mother, Lady Louise Barclay, gave up custody of Elizabeth and left her in New York to return to England.
But that had not been the end of it, as not even a month later, the whole world seemed to know about the affair too.
The details of how or why Louise and Logan's relationship ended so bitterly were never revealed to Elizabeth, all she knew was that paparazzi started following her and her father around, taking pictures of her coming out of school and going to the park.
All of which had been organised by Logan Roy, who weaponised the papers he owned in the UK to smear her mother's name in upper-class British society.
Elizabeth could still remember one of the headlines word for word:
'Lady Louise's Shame – Heir to Barclay fortune abandons daughter in New York with dubious ex-husband.'
With all of that considered, it would have been fair to assume that Elizabeth would never want anything to do with Logan, his company, or his family ever again.
But decades later, at the age of thirty, she was sitting in a restaurant across from Shiv Roy, being interviewed for the job as her assistant.
Elizabeth was desperate for a well-paying job and when she'd heard through her connections from her last assistant position that Shiv Roy was looking for one of her own, she had found herself being persuaded to apply.
At first the idea had repelled her, but then she'd thought on it and realised that she would be screwed if people judged her based upon her mother's character, so how was it fair to do the same to Shiv? Especially when the job she was offering paid so well.
Besides, there was no reason for Shiv to know who she was. Elizabeth had her father's last name—which her mother had never taken—and she doubted she'd come up in conversation with Logan.
Shiv would never have to know who she was.
In hindsight, she had been naive to believe that things would play out like that.
"So-" Shiv began, brushing her long ginger hair over her shoulder as she took a sip of her drink. "-You have a degree in fine art, and your last job was working for a world-famous artist in London. That sort of sounds like you were living the dream, no?"
"I was." Elizabeth agreed honestly, smoothing out her skirt.
She had been the assistant of award-winning portrait artist Moira Doherty for four years, and it had been the happiest time of her life.
"But two months ago you quit out of the blue to return to New York. Why?" Shiv eyes narrowed, analysing Elizabeth's reaction.
"How do you know I left on short notice?" Elizabeth cocked her head to the side.
Shiv's thin brows pulled together.
"Oh please, you didn't think I was going to look into you?"
Elizabeth had realised it was stupid question as soon as it had come out of her mouth.
She was a Roy. There was probably nothing she couldn't find out about someone.
"Tell me why." Shiv pressed leaning back in her chair a small smirk in her face.
Elizabeth decided to be straight-forward. Something told her Shiv would respect her being direct.
"If you found that out, I'm sure you know why."
"Still...I'd like to hear it from the horse's mouth."
Elizabeth brushed a few of her blonde locks out of her eyes and took in a steadying breath.
"My father got diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. He could have one year or three, but I've been in England since I was eighteen and I don't want to miss anymore time with him."
She'd found out months ago and it still hurt to even say the words.
Shiv just stared her.
She was going to make Elizabeth say it.
Fine.
She had nothing to be ashamed about.
"I'm guessing if you know all of that, then you also know who my mother is."
"Of course, I do, it's not exactly hard information to find. So, let's cut the shit. Are you only applying for this job to use me to fuck with my dad?"
"Can I be honest?" Elizabeth asked, sitting a little straighter.
She felt better now it was out in the open.
"Please do." Shiv said equivocally.
"You knew who I was and still chose to interview me, so you must be as desperate as I've heard you are to find an assistant. And while working for you is far from my dream job, I can promise you that I'll be really fucking good at it. I think Logan Roy is a vile man, but quite frankly I'm too concerned with providing for my own father to be worrying about yours. And if I did want to fuck with him, trust me when I say I could find better ways to do it than by working for you."
When she finished speaking, the clattering of cutlery and the hum of casual chatter washed over them.
"I appreciate your candour." Shiv smirked, fiddling with the stem of her wine glass.
Elizabeth was urged on by the reaction.
Perhaps working for her wouldn't be so bad.
"Well, considering who your family are and the fact that you work with politicians, I can imagine it's quite refreshing for someone not to lie right to your face."
Shiv let out a small scoff of amusement, but her face quickly returned to its stern expression.
"Okay. Let's say I give you this job. How do I know I can trust you?"
