The Revenge Plan: An Arranged Marriage Billionaire Romance

by Piper Knox

  “I don’t think he likes me enough to be oblivious to whatever plan you have in store,”

  “Oh. I know. He wants to use you as a social climbing ladder.” The callousness in his voice stung, “Although, I gotta admit, he seems to like you.” He appeared to be talking to himself, “How did I not notice. He had been eying you ever since he came in. Should have known. I would have asked for a better price.”

  “I’m not doing it Dad. How many times do I have to tell you? I’m not marrying him.”

  He closed the space between us and grabbed me. “Where do you think all of this comes from?” he said shaking me, “For once can you be my daughter and do what’s best for this company! You have ruined us already with your partying, your escapades and all your shenanigans. We had no scandals until you came along.”

  That was a low blow, and he knew it. But it got to me every time. I shook him off, “That’s rich coming from you! You’re the one who stole from the company! You’re the one with all the fraud and embezzlement scandals!”

  “And I did what I could do to remedy them! To fix them! What have you done so far except to wait for dear daddy to get you out of trouble! You barely even work for the company!”

  “That’s because I’ve better things to do!”

  “Like what! Running a charity into the ground? How’s that going so far? Are the African children’s plates full or are they still hungry?”

  Tears distorted my vision. I fought to keep them back. He knew where to kick me, and he knew how to kick hard. Yes, the charity was failing, but it wasn’t all my fault. And it was hardly my charity, I worked there. He never understood that I was a mere employee. The idea of his daughter working for someone else was too much of an embarrassment for him to grasp.

  “You won’t give me mom’s inheritance! That’s why it’s failing!”

  He held his arms akimbo and laughed, “You stupid child! There’s nothing to inherit. You gave it to me, remember. When you signed those papers putting the money into a trust?”

  My mind went back to the time he and his lawyers had ambushed me and asked for my signature. It had sounded very formal and most of the language had gone over my head, and I thought I was doing what was best for me. They had said it was the best for me. Fuck. I should have read the papers.

  “Bryce told you, you would get the money if you came here and you believed him, didn’t you?” He laughed, “He was always the smartest in the bunch.”

  I blinked away my tears and raised my chin, “I’m not marrying him.”

  “But honey, if you don’t, then say bye-bye to your little life. You won’t have anything after this! We won’t have anything after this. But,” he stepped even closer and wiped my tears in a paternal manner that I knew was anything but. His voice was low and deceptively soothing, “you can get all the information we need to restart this business and you can get your inheritance back. I can even buy back the house if you want.”

  “You sold mom’s house?”

  “It had to be done,” he shrugged, “I needed the money.” There were no depths he wasn’t willing to sink to, to get what he wanted and I was tied to him. The only way to break free was to do what he wanted for now, then get out.

  “I need to think about it.”

  “Five minutes,” he said and walked out.

  ◆◆◆

  I couldn’t stay in the library alone. I was feeling claustrophobic even though I was alone. The room was closing in on me and I was getting a little breathless. I rushed out. No one was outside the door. Everyone had sort of dispersed. I trotted down the hall to the study. I wanted somewhere I knew I would be alone, and Dad rarely used the study. Expecting to find no one there, I opened the door. Before I could open it wide enough for anyone to see me enter, I heard voices. It sounded like Caiden was speaking to someone else. Ax. It must be.

  “Why are you doing it though?” that was Ax, “I don’t get you sometimes.”

  “What’s there not to get?”

  “You hate her? Weren’t you the one who said that she’s everything you despise?”

  “I said that?”

  “After that video of hers leaked.”

  “Huh. Who said I’m not marrying her out of spite?”

  “So that’s what you’re doing. It makes little sense though,” venom laced his tone, “After what she did?”

  “She’s a means to an end.”

  “What means?”

  “A means to an end.” I leaned in closer to listen. I wanted to know what he wanted to do to me. Their voices became muffled as they moved further into the room, then they became clearer when they moved again, closer to the door. I heard Axel say, “She’s still hot though.”

  “Really. Didn’t notice.” Caiden’s voice was cold and unaffected. I wonder if father had heard this, would he still think that Caiden liked me?

  Socks, the house cat chose that moment to rush through my legs and into the study. I shrieked at the unexpected brush and rushed out of there before they caught me. Father was in the boardroom with my brothers. I had made my decision. If these two men wanted to use me as a pawn for their little schemes, I was going to show them I wasn’t one to be played with.

  I announced to the room, “I’ll marry him.”

  2

  Coming back to the Lyndell Mansion taking something from them I had always envisioned. It fueled me all day and night. Whenever I felt like things weren’t going my way, I would imagine Julian, his two bastards and his precious daughter, all begging me to spare them. I never imagined it would happen so soon, though. That much was because of them being greedy and incompetent, and less to do with me. Well, technically, I had contributed a little to their downfall. Nudged a few things here and there. Whispered a few words, that sort of thing.

  “Ugh. Why does this place look so… cliché?” Ax asked as we entered the study.

  The Lyndells had invited us to their Hamptons beach house for the deal. I had been here before, when I was a teen. As one of the maid’s children, the Lyndells would ask me to do little errands for them that included watching over their many homes. The last time I was in this study, though, I was with Hailey. And what we had done—

  That was the past. This now. I turned my attention to the present. Ax was right, the place did indeed look like it was your standard mansion here. Everything was white or some shade of blue, a blue brocade covered most of the furnishings and wallpaper. Apart from the enormous desk in the center, there was also a smaller desk on the left side that had awards and medals of all sorts. Most of them were business related. Some were of sailing. The old man was into the sport. Loved it more than his children. At least that’s what he told me once upon a time.

  I lifted a paperweight with a giant gold anchor within a sea of tiny goldfish. It looked expensive. Like it had the same value as a Fabergé egg. “That’s what old money looks like,” I said, examining the gaudy piece before putting it down, “Dull and garish.”

  Ax scoffed, “They won’t be old money for too long.”

  He was right; they were in a crisis even though they didn’t want to show it. Having the meeting here was probably a show of force. Trying to make me feel like he still had options. The man had none. The pitiful financials of Lyndell corporation were proof enough.

  I had planned for this moment for far too long, and finally it was paying off. The Lyndells were going to pay for what they did. Too bad they still had some leverage.

  Ax echoed what I was thinking, “How did that slime know we wanted the company?”

  “Probably had some people look into us. Still, we’re in a better position. They’re the ones begging.”

  “Enough to give you their own daughter it seems.” His eyebrows peaked. Ax had said it as a statement, but I knew it was a question. He wanted to know why I would agree to their deal. He of all people should have some idea, but Ax could be obtuse sometimes.

  “I need to get into their stifling little club, if we want to get anywhere in this business. You
know how they are.”

  Axel’s face brightened in comprehension and then fell a little, “What about me! I have connections!”

  “The luxury goods business is too insular, you know this. It’s such an old boys club. Look at how they’re protecting Lyndell even when they refuse to help him financially. Your father’s tech connections can only get us so far. I need to be in the club.”

  “I get it. But marriage Caiden? Specifically, with her? Especially after what she did to your brother. I mean, she’s hot and all but still.”

  There were many, many other reasons I shouldn’t. He was right; she was hot. I hadn’t expected to feel anything more than an appreciation of her looks when I saw her for the first time in what was a long time. The skip of the heartbeat, the quickening of the pulse and the tightness of the groin when she looked at me, had all taken me by surprise.

  She was still beautiful. God, she was beautiful. Although, it seemed like the hard partying she was known for was taking its toll. There were bags under her eyes, but they did nothing to detract from their arresting gaze. She was entrancing, and it had taken shear willpower to look away from her.

  Now and then throughout the entire meeting, I would feel her pull. I was in a room full of her relatives and all I could think of was expelling everyone, laying her on the table and having my way with her. She had an ability to make men weak. She also had an ability to use them and dump them after she was done.

  I shouldn’t even be here trying to save their failing business. I was offering them a life jacket even though I knew very well that had I been in the same position, they wouldn’t do the same. But that didn’t matter. I knew what I was doing. I had a plan so diabolical that even if I told Ax, I’m sure he would balk at it.

  We launched into a back and forth over why and how I should and shouldn’t do it. I didn’t care. I had been planning this for a while; I would let nothing else hold me back.

  We were in the middle of talking when we heard a noise outside. I peaked at the door and thought I saw a flash of pale pink scurrying away, the same color Hailey was wearing, it wasn’t. It was only a cat. Greyson came soon after, telling us to go back to the boardroom.

  “Have you made your decision?” I asked them as soon as we all settled down. The old man was grinning. His two sons had smirks plastered on their face and the other cronies looked pleased with themselves, if not a little bewildered. Hailey was the only one who didn’t have a smug look of satisfaction. She was the one who responded to me.

  “Yes. I’ll marry you.”

  I suppressed an odd sense of elation growing in me. “Good.” I knew she wouldn’t say no. Their livelihood depended on the deal going through.

  “Under one condition,” she said. I wasn’t expecting this.

  I lifted an eyebrow, “Oh.” All the others turned to her in surprise as well.

  “If we get married, I get a share of your company, as part of the contract.”

  That caught me off guard, “May I remind you you’re in no position to bargain.”

  She shrugged. And just like that, she called my bluff. The little princess was a slimy gold digger like the rest of her family after all. I should have guessed. She must have caught on that I needed this as much as they needed it too.

  She wasn’t asking much. One percent was certainly a lot of money, but I could part with it. “Deal.”

  3

  The weeks leading up to the wedding were the most excruciating, hectic, and inane period I had ever experienced.

  The rush was all because Caiden wanted the wedding to happen as soon as possible. So did my father. I didn’t care either way. The date was set a month to the day of the deal. We hired a wedding planner, or rather, Caiden hired a wedding planner, I simply agreed to it. And she was the most efficient person I had ever come across. In the short time she gave her; she had managed to get almost everything in order.

  One thing that surprised me about this was Caiden’s involvement. The control freak was knee deep in everything wedding related from day one.

  “Why can’t the planner handle it?” I asked him when he called, insisting we meet at the venue.

  “I assume you want this wedding to be in all the fashion spreads? Let’s give them the wedding of the century.”

  Splashy weddings weren’t my thing. I was more of a beach-wedding-with-a-few-of-my-closest-friends kind of girl. My father, who was just as eager to see it go through, was also heavily into the high society wedding. That meant that everyone who was anyone was invited. The guest list was extensive and constantly expanding. And Caiden, who was footing the bill, didn’t even bat an eye at most of the expenses.

  “I’m all for a court wedding. You’re the one who’s all about the splash.”

  “Sure, Hailey,” he said and cut off the call. Idiot, I thought to myself. Half an hour later, I was at what I would consider as the best hotel in New York. It was the fifth option in terms of venues. Caiden had bristled when the wedding planner had told him she couldn’t get other venues because it was wedding season and all the best places were booked. When she announced the hotel was the best she could do, he had said, “I’m the head of a Fortune five hundred company, she’s an heiress. Not some tacky reality show celebrity.”

  The wedding planner had looked like she would go into shock with embarrassment. The thought that he couldn’t get what he wanted, even when the second best would be a dream to other people, was too delicious not to recall from time to time.

  “You’re late,” he announced as soon as I met them in the lobby. Shelly, the wedding planner, looked a little frazzled, probably from being interrogated by him, Caiden looked as well put together as ever. “Only by five minutes,” I said. He muttered something under his breath.

  “I was able to secure this ballroom,” Shelly said, opening the doors to a large room decorated in a white and gold trimming. It had gilded age look that made it perfect for weddings, “It’s the biggest ballroom in town,” she glanced at Caiden who had a frozen looked on his face, “I checked,” she added.

  Caiden observed the room with his hands behind him, “It’s too dull.”

  “Please,” I said to him, “Let’s make it as ostentatious as a Russian mobster’s wedding.”

  “Is there a way you could make it better?”

  Shelly jumped in, “I was thinking of a hanging gardens theme. Something ethereal. Have flowers drooping down the ceiling,” her eyes darted again to him for approval. He nodded, “and we could have a stream of white roses along the walls. Five thousand flowers should cover it.”

  I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows. The flowers alone would cost more than the average wedding.

  “For all the flowers?” Caiden asked.

  “No, just the roses.”

  So, double the cost of the average wedding then.

  Caiden simply nodded, “Fine. Next.”

  With more confidence, Shelly described all the ideas she had for the wedding with enough fervor for the three of us. Without the bride or groom injecting their own ideas, she was like a child given the opportunity to create her dream wedding. All Caiden required was that it would be big and was agreeing to all of her ideas, and from the sound of it, it was going to cost a few million dollars. When she mentioned hiring a fleet of Rolls Royce cars to chauffeur the guests, I thought he would bristle at the idea. He simply nodded when it was mentioned, as if he was agreeing to the confirmation of a takeout order.

  After the venue and other items were agreed on, there were very few meet-ups except for the big ones like the cake and the dress. He called me up early in the morning on dress day.

  “What’s your apartment number?”

  “What do you need that for,” I croaked into my phone. His impersonal voice was like a distant siren through my sleepy head. I had hardly slept and was feeling the deprivation in the form of a headache.

  “It’s eleven o’clock. Was the partying that hard on a Tuesday?”

  I lifted my phone away from my e
ar to check the time. I groaned. He was right about the time, but he was wrong about what had kept me up. If working all night to make sure a shipment of goods stuck in a port halfway across the world would reach its destination, can be called partying, then yes, I guess I was partying.

  I let my head fall back onto the pillow. “I don’t remember working for you. What’s it to you what I do with my time.”

  “I care because you keep coming to our meetings on your own time.”

  “Suck a dick Caiden,” I groaned when I felt the sun streaming into the room hit my face.