Rain relentlessly slashes against windows glowing orange with the light inside, roaring as it bounces across the gravel driveway. The butlers had managed to bring everything that needed saving inside before the rain could build, but they'd been pelted with heavy drops in the process, receiving gratitude from the Jauregui family when they dried off before setting the table for lunch.
This meal is important, Lauren can tell by the tension hanging in the air, but she isn't sure as to why until she is told halfway through the meal.
"You can't do that!" She protests, leaping out of her seat at the long dining table and sending her chair scraping across the floor.
"I already did, Lauren." Her father retorts in a calm voice from the head of the table, "It's too late to change it now, I've signed the contract. You'll be expected to do so tomorrow morning for professionalism's sake and you'll be officially handed over to the Cabellos."
"Well- Well, doesn't Mom have to sign it too? Since she's also a CEO?" Lauren points out, surmising that at least her mother will be on her side.
"She already has." Her dad goes on, making Lauren's jaw drop and eyes widen.
"You agreed to this bullshit too!?" She blurts, turning now to the silent woman.
"Language, Lauren." Her mother finally looks up at her with an empty expression—something Lauren has only seen in boardrooms—as she scolds her. She just as quickly turns back to her meal, not wanting to reveal her true feelings to her eldest daughter in fear her reluctance be used against her. Of course she's hesitant to send her child off to live at a stranger's house for a month, and the Cabellos at that, but Mike has convinced her of the positives of the deal and she'd have to have been crazy to not take it.
"It's final, and it's for our future. Don't you want Chris and Taylor to have a good shot at life?" Mike adds, raising a brow at his second oldest child.
Lauren sighs. Of course, she wants the best for her sister, but why does that mean that she has to go and live with the Cabellos, who she's been taught to hate all her life?
The Jaureguis and Cabellos are business rivals and have been for as long as Lauren can remember, before she was born even. The two families shared a penthouse building at one time, and little Lauren grew to associate any trip to the hallway with cold glares and, at her age, childishly exposed tongues shared between herself and the other family's eldest, Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao. The Cabellos moved away when Camila got to the first year of school so that she could attend an even more prestigious academy, and now the families only hold their hostile interactions at press events or company balls, both of which Lauren desperately tries (and usually manages) to avoid.
Alas, all of her arguments are to no avail. She'll have to sign that contact tomorrow or be forced to bend to its will anyway. She'll move in with the Cabellos for god knows what reason, and for an indefinite amount of time.
What on worth did the Cabellos want with her?
Lauren awakes with a pit in her stomach the following morning. The rain left room for clear air last night, and the sun shines brightly down on their estate. Despite the gleeful weather, dread settles deep inside her core. It doesn't leave as she gets dressed and ready, donning a business-casual look consisting of slacks, a fashionably-loose shirt, and a blazer, as is usual for her. It doesn't leave as she gets into the car and is driven to the tall glass building which houses the Jauregui empire's HQ. It only grows when she picks up that silver pen in front of her parents, her siblings, and Mr and Mrs Cabello. Camila Is nowhere to be seen, but that doesn't calm Lauren.
Her hand shakes as she signs at the bottom of the paper after reading it. She doesn't exactly agree with some of the clauses of this contract, but she'd rather go down with some of her pride intact than with all of it shattered.
