Strings

Chapter 19

Avery

I sit awkwardly at one of the chairs in Hayden's office not knowing what to do, as he left over some 'urgent call'. He said I am to 'hear back' from him soon enough and since I didn't know whether I should wait for him to come back or scatter the hell away from here; I trust my gut and chose the former, for reasons that go beyond me as well; so you know, don't ask.

Bored out of my mind and contemplating whether I am to stay or leave, I walk around his massive office and stop at the wall that displayed his grandeur, success and accomplishments bashfully.

I go over them wide eyed. All I know of Hayden is from a couple of articles and magazines and after looking him up a couple of times, I resisted the urge to google about him again as I thought it was borderline creepy I'd search up 'my own' fiancé at the time.
Atleast that's what I tell myself as it was difficult to get past all the blogs/posts of him with his various 'flings' before finding something actually interesting and worthwhile.

So taking the opportunity I glance over his own personal version of Hall of Fame.
Hayden Xavier Knight, top of his class in Harvard Business School.
Masters from the ever prestigious Oxford University, London.
Huh. Why am I not surprised.

His Forbes cover framed decorating the highly decorated wall even more.
Hayden Xavier Knight makes it to the top of the 30 under 30 of Forbes list at 25 while he was still at Oxford.
Goddamn.
Is this man for real? How was he pursuing one of the toughest masters in literally the best university ever and at the same time expanding his business with remarkable speed and success.
That's enough responsibility for a whole lifetime let alone at the age of what 24-25?

An unfamiliar feeling of pride creeps up at me. Not one of these accomplishments hung up on this wall would've come by easy in the slightest even if Hayden did hail from privileged backgrounds.
Everything here is from his own hard-work and determination and it angered me a little bit how these so called celebrity tabloids conveniently skip over the part where Hayden clearly worked his ass off and can only talk about his lavish lifestyle amongst other things.

I mean if I worked half as hard as he did or was half as accomplished as he was, you bet your ass I would be sleeping around with the hottest models too, no question about it.
The thought makes me laugh as I begin to think of my own career graph as I stare at Hayden's.

Yet something doesn't fit.
Why would someone so accomplished, who's doing so well for himself and his company want to 'settle down' and get married to someone he doesn't even remotely love.
The thought makes me snicker, love is a far off word, why would he marry someone he barely even knows.

It's not like he's getting old or something. He's only 27. He's literally Olivia's age and yet I don't see my sister marrying somebody. 
Then why the sudden need to get married to me, or anyone for that matter?
His life seems to be perfect right upto a few months ago when I was made to sign the marriage contract papers.

I am not stupid, I know that in the business world it's common for the kids of two wealthy families to get married to form some epic merger. In fact this is what was told to me.
But, the Knight's enterprises is still literally at its peak and seems to only go higher under the influence of the young CEO; if anything it's my dad's company that benefitted from this merger.
'Benefitted' would be underplaying it. The merger quite literally saved our company.

So it makes sense why as to why my dad would agree to the marriage, but why the Knights?
The way I see it, they don't benefit from this agreement at all.
If anything, they seem to be the ones who're at the end of a compromise.

The thought is so vile it makes me sick to the stomach. 
Someone's compromise out of a supposedly tough situation was to get married to me.
This was even worse than how I felt when I was told I had to marry Hayden and that I would be given no choice in the matter.
I felt like I was nothing more than a business deal then, but now-
God, now I was a goddamn compromise.