The Single Mother

Phoenix King- Chapter 4- Discovery

"PHOENIX! PAY ATTENTION WHEN MR. KNIGHT SPEAKS TO YOU!" My father shrieked at me, grabbing my attention away from my thoughts about the mysterious girl that just signed her life away.

"So-sorry Dad. My head was stuck in the clouds." I stammered, getting slightly embarrassed when I glance at Mr. Knight, who was staring directly through my soul.

"So, Phoenix, we all saw that my daughter signed the contract and since she signed it, it shouldn't be too hard for you to sign it too." Casey mused while he sat down behind his desk and folded his hands over each other.

Casey Knight would have been an imitating man, if I hadn't known that he was a gambler, a bad businessman and lawyer. I heard a rumour that he had banished his daughter from his house for making a 'bad life decision' but, if the rumours were true, then he's be the biggest hypocrite in history because he make terrible life choices too.

"Mr. Knight, will you please pass over the contract? I'd like to be left alone for a bit to... fully understand the fine print." I calmly stated wanting to finish my train of thoughts in peace.

I'd also like to do some research on the quiet, mysterious and intriguing, Talla Knight, if I'm to be betrothed to her, I'd at least like to know how old she is, what her education is and when her birthday.

"I'll leave you to read and what-not Phoenix, but I'll be back in a couple of minutes to discuss this once again." Mr. Knight nodded and left the room with my father trailing behind him. Not long after they're gone I hear the click of the door locking itself.

As I scanned through the fine print, my mind swirled with questions that I needed to be answered as soon as possible and my eyes bulged as I read numerous statements that both Talla and I must follow. Some of the requirements were so ridiculous that I huffed out a laugh whereas others seemed reasonable or plausible in areas.

The first of the questionable fine print was written about 50% of the profits earned from both the companies has to be split evenly to both my family and the Knights. Why would my father and Mr. Knight need to split the money? I knew both of our businesses were doing just fine and because my parents owned the Knight's business as well, I could positively answer that both the businesses don't need extra money to buy some new business expense.

A plausible rule, that really only applied to me, consisted of the fact that I was to give Talla a job as my personal assistant to make the story sound better for the press. As the contract stated 'We [Tall and I] will convince that press that Talla came to work for Phoenix since she hated her old job and couldn't work at her parents company as they had no jobs available at the time. Once we [Talla and I] had gotten to know each other we fell in love and began dating in secret.' The thing that through me off a little from this part of the contract was that I couldn't act for shit and I didn't know how good Talla was. We also had to be engaged for two years if I was to receive the CEO position I wanted to desperately take over from my father.

The third and final part of the contract's fine print was the most reasonable out of all of it. Talla and I have to have a public engagement, talk to the media and go on the big talk shows such as Jimmy Fallon, Ellen, Oprah to tell our beautiful love story. The other part of this that was reasonable agreement was that Talla had to move in with me. The part that almost made me choke on my water was the claim that I am to help Talla look after her DAUGHTER, Sianna Knight.

A sudden memory of a little toddler that I had spotted at the dinner tonight popped into my mind. So... the child that I thought was Talla's younger sister was actually her baby. None of this made sense to me. Talla couldn't have been in a previous relationship with someone before her parents forced her to do this, that's just too cruel. Maybe her partner had died? Or they split?

Deciding that my guesses about Talla and her daughter weren't being solved to my standards, I whipped my phone out of my pocket and began vigorously googling, Instagram and Facebook stalking anyone with the same name as the Knight's daughter.

The amount of false profiles that I stumbled across with the same name as Talla was unbelievable. Not even a single person looked similar to her, none of them had to same facial features, hair colour or eye colour. Sighing and giving up on finding the mystery girl, I found myself typing 'Casey Knight' into the search bar. Numerous articles were displayed in the search just about Casey and Phoebe Knights suddenly M.I.A daughter.

One news site screamed for my attention and after clicking on the link that took me straight to the article, I found the information it held didn't disappoint me. The writer claimed that Talla Knight was raped three years ago while walking past a bar in her way home from a schoolmates party. When the once close family discovered that Talla was pregnant and keeping the baby, she was cast outside of the lavish family home and forced to work for her own home and money, not before living on the streets for a few weeks.

While scumming through the distressing article, I could feel my mouth begin to gap open and my eyebrows rise. Who would do that to their very own daughter? The citizens at the pub claimed they heard her cries for help, so why did no one swoop in and intervene?

I understood why she signed the contract now. It wasn't for her parents, it was for her daughter. That little, adorable toddler with the bright ocean blue eyes and the chestnut brown hair. While thinking about the tiny girl, I reached for the pen located on Casey's desk and signed my name next to Talla's.
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Hey everyone! Thanks for enjoying this story and sticking around. I know it's taken me awhile to update this but I'm currently focusing on The Fighter.

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-OceanBlues