The Landon billionaires [EXCLUSIVELY on Dreame]

CHAPTER ONE: THE MARRIAGE BLACKMAIL

NINE YEARS LATER....

Chase Landon gaped unbelievably at the man sitting opposite him trying hard to retain his fury. He clenched his fists tightly at his sides and felt the frustration of not being able to land a few punches on the face facing him. The only thing preventing him from doing so was not because he was not a violent person – but because the man sitting in front of him was his dear father.

Without a word, he stood up staring out the big corner window of his office, and for the first time, he was unable to enjoy the view. Usually, he loved watching the towering buildings with their lavish lights along Broad Street, one of the busiest streets in Philadelphia. It seemed that the shock of the recently delivered news rendered him impervious to the charm of the city.

That was a first for him in ten years; the time his family had moved from West Virginia to settle in one of the states posh cities. To be among the "rich" as his father so casually called them. Never realizing that they would never be one of them. One of the rich. Oh, his family had the money all right. Thanks to his father winning a lottery which had pioneered their move to a bigger city.

Money was not an issue since his father had invested wisely and over the years they had multiplied the amount they had initially won by tenfold. Chase could not help feeling cynical about the way society still treated them. Like dirt.

Not to their face, of course. Their world was too artificial to confront them with true feelings. Everything was said behind their backs. Chase was aware of every wagging tongue hissing derogatory remarks in every social event his family attended. Or of every female desperate to catch his attention only because he was rich and when he ignored them, they would call him a "poor rich".

Now his father was trying to marry him off to one of them. No, not trying. Forcing. Chase could not hold back the rage threatening to explode inside him. It was not a fire recently lit. It was a wrath which had been kindled since ten years ago when everyone had refused to accept them as part of their world. They were always called the Landons in their snootiest tones, not in a flattering way though.

At first, he had believed that the snobs were shunning them only because they had just arrived in the city. With time, everybody would accept them as one of their own. Time and again he'd been proven wrong. The rich society – the crème de la crème – would never accept them for who they were. Instead, they would always be judged on who they had been.

Not that Chase was ashamed of who he had been. Back then, even if they had been poor, his family had been close. Loving. Yet, after the acquisition of their first company, everyone had drifted apart. His father had become too desperate to make his place in the new world, his mother had become too desperate to remain the obedient wife, and his siblings had been too desperate to accommodate to their new lives.

He had been too desperate to keep the family from disassembling; something inevitable now he could see. The family which had once been so close was now so broken that they barely spoke to each other. Not unless it profited them in one way or another.

Like now. His father approaching him after almost four months of absolute silence. Even now, he had not even bothered to ask him about his health or anything mundane. Peter Landon had no time for social niceties; he was one of the leading industrialists in United States rendering him so busy even for his own children. His father was here to order him to marry one of those heiresses because he believed it would be profitable for him and his business.

Bitter regret filled him. He had always wanted to invest in his own company, but he had been so distracted by his family problems that he had never felt the time was right. Now to think that his own father was blackmailing to disinherit him if he did not marry one of those petty flamingos.