My One And Only (Original Work)

Chapter Thirteen

Sean’s story…

                “I want to tell you the real story of my life, and I hope you can listen to it till the end. Any decisions that you may want to make, please do so after I finished this story. My father is the Chairman of Bell Flower Industries, specializing in door-bells ranging from normal houses to castles and palaces. He took over the business from his father, who took over the business from his father and so on. As the only son in my family, I was supposed to take over the chain of businesses that spread over internationally.       

                I have an older sister named Sophia Richardson, and I love her a lot. She was like a friend, a sister and also sometimes a mother to me. You see, I lost my mother when I was fifteen and Sophia had been there to guide me through. She is five years older than me, but she was more matured than other girls her age.

                My father had been pushing me since I was a kid to learn about the business so that he could hand it over to me when I reached the age of twenty, but I had other plans in mind. I never liked business as I hated figures and numbers, so I failed my mathematics on purpose for my final exam in high school. My father was so furious with me that he beat me up for that. I was so angry that I vowed that I will never step into the Bell Flower Building till the day I die.

                My sister, who didn’t want to see us fighting, told my father that she will learn about the business so that she could take it over from my father. My father doesn’t believe that girls can do business, but my sister proved to him that she was more than capable than other guys around, and soon she started going to work with my father, and right now she’s the President of Bell Flower Industries. She was a woman of steel, but she could still be soft-hearted with her brother, me.

                My father soon forgot about the anger he had with me when I told him that I wanted to go to college to study after high school. He thought that I had changed into a new leaf, but when I told him I want to go into the advertising field, he got furious with me again. He then sought the help of his best friend to keep me in his grasp.

                His best friend is Mr. Godfrey Thomas, who is also Jessica’s father. Mr. Godfrey and my father had already made a pact since before we were born that they would get us married. When I wanted to go to college, Jessica was just going to finish her high school, so my father told me that we would get engaged right after her graduation. I protested the idea because I never had any feelings for Jessica. I knew her since we were kids, and I see her as nothing more than a younger sister. I thought that she saw me as an elder brother too, but she was agreeing full-heartedly with our fathers.

                I ran away from home in rebellion but my father got people to bring me back home, and locked me up in my house until I agreed to get engaged to her. I hated all three of them at that time, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I realized that if I didn’t agree to the engagement, then I would be locked up in my house for eternity. I only agreed to the engagement because my father said that he would finance my studies in any field as long as I got engaged to Jessica. I realized that he was so disappointed that I didn’t want to take over the business that he found another way to make his business prosper. He had no faith in Sophia as I did.

                He told me that if I married Jessica, then Mr. Thomas’s business of crystals would be merged with my father’s company and our profits would be doubled. He told me if I didn’t want to take over the company, then the least I could do was to help him grow his business. He said that is all he asked from me. I agreed because I am his son. He has been taking care of me, and getting married to someone I already know to help in my father’s business was just another way of repaying him. Jessica and her father needn’t know the reason I agreed to marry her, as it is of convenience to both parties.”