Clashing Hearts

5

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Carter's POV

Athena seemed so determined to buy the museum. She was fighting me tooth and nail! She must be very bored with her life doing the daily routine-- unreasonably spending money.

I could not let her take the museum, our family had been wanting to get hold of the property for ages. Mr. Murphy was just too stubborn to sell his property to us before.

Strategy. I need strategy to divert Athena's attention away from this museum and to influence Mr. Murphy's decision.

"Follow me this way." Mr. Murphy said as he went ahead of us.

"This museum is not a good investment for you. You're young, free and single-- you should make valuable investment like stocks, bonds, gold or real estate that will rise in value. It would give you more freedom. But this museum, you will lose a great deal of money." The advice I gave her was true. She would be wasting a lot of money in this museum-- and a lot more when she would restore the place. "I doubt that you could get the return of your investment in thirty years."

Athena stopped and faced me squarely. One hand went to her waist as she looked at me. Her eyes were hard and filled with dislike.

"I had half of the contents here appraised by an expert and it cost much more than the price that I would be paying Mr. Murphy. He has too many unique and original arts, paintings and artifacts that every billionaire would be willing to pay in an auction at any price to display in their living room."

Damn it. Being a billionaire's daughter, she knew too much about the weaknesses of every billionaire -- acquiring the most expensive original artifacts, his name plastered in newspaper headlines for days, being listed in the Guinness book of records for winning the auction and displaying the item in their huge living room to brag to friends.

"I need this property Athena, very badly, so I can start my own hotel. I can help you get another museum, I'll use my family's connection. I swear we can make it possible for a week or a month's time."

I had not missed her flare of temper. Her eyes widen as she continued to glare at me.

"I'm not going to back out. This museum is going to be mine." She said firmly, like a real spoiled brat! "I already talked to Mr. Murphy for many days, we agreed that he's going to sell his property to me. Everything turned out really good until you're here and meddling our negotiation. Don't you have any decency to respect our agreement?"

Respect. Respect. She's talking about respect now. A word that never existed in our vocabularies from the moment we met.

I cleared my throat and replied to her in a very calm manner. "He negotiated to us first. He promised that if ever he would sell his property, it would be to US. That's very clear."

"Ha! Can you prove it? Do you have that documented? You really think I'm stupid!"

I shook my head. This girl is impossible! "Did you hear me say you're stupid? You said it baby, not me." I chuckled. We were back at our own game again - the provoking game.

She stared at me and I stared back. Oh yeah, my favorite, the staring game.

"Don't ever call me baby again. Or I swear..."

"What are you going to do... baby..."

"Stop it!" She hissed.

I just loved her expression. It was priceless, couldn't help but to chuckle.