Pride and Promises ✔

Chapter 33

Okayyyy, so... before I start, another BIG THWAAANKKKK YOUUUU to the amazing and extremely talented IceBlueShadows! You're truly an angel. I love, love, love the covers you made! 💝💝 Do check out her cover shop, Kalopsia. You won't believe the amazingness there!

Oh, a fair warning! This might get a little long. Here we go!

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Over the years, there were quite a lot of times when I wanted to leave my body organs and disappear from the solar system. However, none of those times came even close to what I felt the moment Mr. Stone Senior walked in. This time around, only leaving the solar system didn't seem enough. I wanted to fly out of the milky way galaxy and if possible, out of the universe altogether, never to be heard of ever again.

I heard Nate's snicker from beside me but couldn't find the energy to glare at him. I was frozen as I looked at the person who was the legend of the business industry. He had turned a medium scale family business to The Stones Inc., which was now the biggest business franchise of the world. Adrian had further expanded this business to a whole new level, making it an internationally renowned company.

Mr. Stone was handsome even in his fifties. He was tall, just like his son, and had the same black hair, and same facial features. The only feature that was slightly different in them were their eyes. While Mr. Stone had blue eyes as well, they were of a lighter shade as compared to Adrian's electric blue ones. That and the soft, gentle expression of Mr. Stone differentiated him from his son. I had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I had seen him somewhere before in person, that I had heard his deep voice before but I dismissed that notion. It was most like due to me spending too much time with his arrogant son, I mused.

My mind finally seemed to remember that I had company and with great difficulty, stopped searching the biography of the person who was literally standing right in front of me with an unexplainable smile. I couldn't decipher his smile as much I tried to. It was like a mixture of happiness, confusion, hurt, sadness, pride and many more emotions; as if none of his emotions wanted to stay hidden. It seemed like he knew something I didn't know. It made me slightly uneasy but I shook off that thought thinking that I was merely being paranoid.

"Oh, I'm really sorry, Mr. Stone. I... had a misunderstanding. Please do take a seat." I gestured to the seat adjacent to Nate, finally finding the temporarily MIA energy of mine to glare at the obnoxious human being who was silently mimicking both mine and Mr. Stone's gestures.

Mr. Stone shook his head and gave me an easy smile, making him look much younger than and much identical to his son, who had the similar smile on rare occasions. I stopped myself from imagining the smile of the devil in presence of his father before I embarrassed myself more than I already had.

"It's alright, dear. No harm done. I must admit, I'm flattered you mistook me for the younger Stone. However, from what I surmised from your earlier statement, I think I'm better off not resembling my son in that regard." He said, waving his hands in a dismissive manner.

I blushed a bit but couldn't help but smile in awe at his carefree nature. Who would've thought? I'd admired him since my student days. Everytime there was a news about him, I'd look it up, hoping to be just like him one day. I'd always wanted to meet him someday in person, but he stepped down from his position and handed it over to his son before I had even graduated, so I had never had the chance to meet him until today.

I'd completely forgotten that he was one of the largest shareholders of The Stones Inc. and his decision would heavily influence today's meeting outcomes. This realization made me nervous all of the sudden. Mr. Stone was practically my role model in the business world and I didn't want him to be disappointed in me. It was unexplainable but I really wanted his approval on my works.