What Connor Wants... (BWWM)

CHAPTER ONE : BACHELOR

Connor's father stomped into his office, yelling at his son with a fury that could only be matched by a deranged man's. Guessing the reason for his father's anger was a task he dared not think of, as it would be like running down a rabbit hole.

His father's face had turned blood red with anger. Then, a few months ago, his father had retired, a decision that had thrilled Connor as he had been waiting years for that opportunity. It had only been through Connor that the family business had picked itself off the ground after his father had nearly burned it.

His father walked towards Connor's office desk and slammed his hands onto Connor's table, causing him to stop typing away on his laptop. "I left you my entire company so that you could run it, to prove yourself worthy before the investors, and yet you could not do that!" His father continued yelling, but nothing truly bothered Connor.

Before Connor could ask his father what his father was so angry about, he whipped out a tabloid and slammed it against the desk. One look at it, and Connor understood why his father was mad at him.

For the past few months, his name has been sprawled all over the tabloids, naming him as a player who does nothing but party with rich women and takes them to bed. Then, finally, the tabloid sprawled onto his desk with a picture of him and a hot blonde-haired woman, and he remembered her from two nights ago.

The headline had it wrong; he had not bedded her, nor had he given her a chance to think he could offer her anything more than friendship.

"Well, father, this isn't my fault; the girl just jumped on top of me and—" Connor tried to argue, but once again, his father was not having any of it. In his eyes, Connor had made a mockery of him once again. Connor hated that his father thought so poorly of him, and he badly wanted to change the old man's mind.

"What? Son, can't you do anything right?" Connor's father yelled at him again. His whole life was built on pleasing his father, and now, a part of him did not care what his father thought of him. Of course, Connor knew he was not guilty of what the tabloids accused him of, but he could not help but wonder how many mistakes his father had made over the years.

"She threw herself at me, Father; that's what I'm trying to say to you, but it seems you are not listening to me." Connor stood from his office chair and looked into his father's eyes, holding nothing but resentment towards him.

Why do I even try to please this man? Connor asked himself.

"Of course, she did, just like every other woman photographed with you in the tabloids for the past few months. It is days like this that I wonder whether you are my real son?" His father's assumption hurt Connor, but like all the other years, he had learned to hide his true feelings from his father.

His father leaned in over his table and looked Connor in the eyes, and Connor did just that.

"Are you a whore or a business executive?" His father's words rang through the room; even worse, they rang in Connors's ears.

"I am a businessman, father, and I will never bring the name of our company to the ground," Connor told his father.

Unlike your father. Connor thought of all the times he heard his mother crying inside her room whenever his father was caught with another woman.

"Good. I suggest you find a beautiful young woman to marry and clear this mess up. I am done covering up for you," His father informed him, and this had Connor pausing for just a moment. Connor watched as his father straightened his tie and smiled at him.

It took minutes until it dawned on him that his father was serious about him getting married, and he hated that idea. But, on the other hand, he loved his single life; being single meant he could do whatever he wanted and whenever he wanted to do it.

"Well, father, I'm just waiting for the right woman to come along and steal my heart away," he informed his father, who was uninterested in what Connor said.

Connor's father walked over to his side of the desk. Connor was at least two to three inches taller than his father. His father had jet-black hair and spots of grey peeking out, but there was one thing that people could not overlook: he looked just like his father.

"Son, you are thirty-two years of age. You're not getting any younger. As for the right woman, that woman does not exist," His father informed Connor, and his father's words were not that encouraging.

"Well, look at you and Mom. I mean, how long have you two been married now?" Connor questioned his father, but his father laughed aloud.

"How am I supposed to know? Your mother and I have been married for years," His father let out, and Connor sank back into his chair, dumbstruck by his father's answer.

Connor could not believe his father did not remember how long he had been married to his mother. No surprise there, his mother was unlike any other woman, she had given birth to Connor, his twin sisters, and had dealt with her husband's hurtful behavior, and not once did she ever complain.

"How do you mean you don't know? You and Mom have been married for years now, and you keep talking about how much you had to fight off men back in high school just to get her attention," Connor reminded his father, hoping that it would jog his memory.

"Well, son, I lied." His father said it plainly, as though it were nothing.

"Lied about what exactly?" He asked his father. Connor hoped that his father was fooling around, and he tried not to jump to conclusions.

"Son, I mean your mother, and I never met you in high school. Your mother and I married because my family needed land to expand our architectural business and your mother's family-owned land. Both families needed an heir," His father confessed. His father's confession blew his mind; for years, Connor thought that his parent's love story was one straight out of a storybook, and now that the truth was out, it was all a lie.

"So what you're saying is that your marriage is a business deal!" He asked his father, hoping that he would deny it.

"Yes, it was. But, look on the bright side, we've been married for a long time now," his father informed him, as though all this would not eventually affect how he viewed their marriage.

Connor knew who my father was; he had always known him to be a cunning man, but an arranged marriage between his mother and father was absurd.

"Father, are you trying to say you lied to me all these years?" Connor asked his father the entire time he looked into his father's eyes, perhaps hoping his father would show some remorse.

"Son, you don't always have to marry for love; you can do it for interest's sake. You are smart, so this business is growing beyond what I would have done. Remember, Connor, we do what's right for business." Without saying another word, his father left Connor's office, slamming the door behind him.

Connor hated that he was shocked at his father's behavior when his father proudly displayed it without a care in the world, but he did pity his mother. She was the complete opposite of Connor's father. Whereas his father was cunning with evil intentions, his mother was caring and compassionate.

Connor's mother, along with his twin sisters, had always been supportive and showed up for each milestone he reached in life. But, on the other hand, his father had never been involved; he was always in the office, making one bad investment after another and sinking the company into more debt than before.

Connor stood up from his chair and looked out of his office window; terrible idea because the city suddenly looked dim.

"You are such a smart bastard!" Connor yelled out, hating his father for playing with his mother's emotions like that. He wanted to drive home and tell his mother, but there was no use in doing that; she must have already known and had kept this secret the entire time.

He knew that his mother was the kind of woman who wanted to keep the peace no matter what, and the last thing he wanted was to bring up the past and hurt his mother more than his father did.