CHAPTER 2 STORY TIME

JADE’S POV “Not,” Hannah says, yanking my phone away from me in one swift motion. Why not?” I ask exasperatedly, and she shifts before staring right at me. “I can’t let you do something so degrading considering your reputation,” she says. “What reputation?” I ask as I slide my phone over to her. “Don’t forget that working as a waitress is as important as any other job,” I continue, trying to convince her and myself that this is a good idea. I don’t care if you work as a waitress or a bartender, but I do care where you do,” she replies almost immediately. “You know that the Millers have business with Alfonso’s cafe, so it’d be a very bad idea to accept their job offer,” she replies. “Why?” I inquired thoroughly about how vital this job offer could be for me. “What if you run into one of them?” She tried, but I just shook my head. “Throughout the time I was involved with their family, Dylan never went there, and most of them despise coffee.” “You never know,” she sings, which makes me smile. You must think that this is one of your unrealistic romance novels where I meet my soulmate while I work, don’t you?” Possibly,” she admits, and I shake my head. Well, it’s not Han, and the sooner you understand that, the sooner you’ll help me find a job.” “There’s a vacancy at the club, and you know Mateo likes you a little too much,” she tells me as she goes through her phone absentmindedly. “Duly noted, but I’d rather work as a waitress than in a club’s bar.” I blow a tiny raspberry before resting my arms on the table. “Besides, I have a few more job applications left, so until then, I will have to wait. “Suit yourself,” she tells me, getting up from the dark red stool, which she slides back under the counter. “I’ve got to run, but I’ll be back later in the evening with Peter, okay?” She asked, arranging her stuff as she waited for my reply. “Whatever, “ I reply, following her to the front door before locking it immediately. She leaves. I slide down and drop to the floor, leaning my head on the door and closing my eyes in thought. When did everything start going wrong? I ask myself again and again until I drift off. ********************************* Jade Mackenzie Thomas. That’s my name, and it has been bringing me all sorts of ill luck. Maybe I just attract bad things at this point because that’s what it feels like. I was born into a family of four, which you’ve probably guessed by now. Despite what I might think about my parents now, they were once normal and loving like any other parent. They raised my brother and me well enough and were always there for us, whether emotionally, financially, or morally. This may be hard to accept because I once knew them. I once loved them more than anything, but now that all those memories are tainted, I’m not so sure anymore. My brother, Scott, was once my best friend. We weren’t the typical siblings who would bicker and fight all the time like most would. We were as thick as thieves Which made me believe we would never grow apart, so imagine how surprised I was when he took off to God knows where for who knows what. On the other hand, my engagement to Dylan Miller was like any other business merger. Our families, of course, thought it was a good idea to “unite” for whatever selfish reasons they had until that idea wasn’t so perfect anymore. It all started coming apart when my Dad became a prime suspect in one of the hottest fraud cases in the country. He was, of course, declared innocent, but that attention alone made his reputation take a hit. The only problem at the time was that we didn’t realize how huge of a hit it was. The media attention, the defamatory articles, and everything else in circulation caused people to believe he was actually involved in whatever it was. The Millers, being who they were and still are, decided not to help since it would also “taint” their image, which they worked so hard for. Instead, they left us to dry and ended up calling off the engagement to prevent a similar scandal that could affect them. I’m sure they are the ones who also helped spread degrading rumors about our entire family and lineage, which was probably the trigger that caused my Dad to do what he did. To hold onto any dignity I had left, I signed the contract, which stated that I would break up with Dylan immediately, stop contacting him for any reason, and last but certainly not least, return everything I had received during our engagement. I only got the documents saying that some time ago and haven’t summoned the courage to meet him until now. It was supposed to be a quick interaction, at least in my head. I would obviously pop in,shove the diamond ring down his throat, and never see him again. But as always, Dylan remains too strong-headed and impractical. I was actually trying to make small talk before doing what I planned to, but he, of course, took it the wrong way and tried to talk me into his deranged plan. As you’ve probably guessed, it included us being against the world and fighting for our “happiness and love,” whatever that means. The problem was that there was something significant wrong with the plan, which was Dylan himself. Being a coward from birth, I’m almost sure he couldn’t do anything without running it past his mother, who was the leader of the household in the meantime after their Dad died. There was no way in hell I would let him talk me into something so stupid, so I kindly suggested that we become distant friends. In the meantime, now, winging him, one thing led to another, which caused me to cause the tiny scene I did back at his office. You may be wondering who would take over their multi-million when the time was right and could have concluded that it would be Dylan. It isn’t, by the way, which isn’t surprising to me since no one would want a spineless idiot as an heir to such a mighty empire. Someone else in their family who, although I haven’t met personally, has quite an exciting story to tell him. He’s supposed to be a distant cousin to the family, but how distant could he be since they’re practically handing everything over to him when he’s been practically outside the country his entire life and is only present for pressing family occasions for a day or two as I’ve heard in numerous gossip circles. From what I’ve seen, I’d guess that Dylan probably doesn’t fancy him as much as other people seem to. Then again, I wouldn’t like him much if I were in my ex-fiancé’s position. All I managed to gather about him since Dylan didn’t want to talk about him much, was that he was roughly twenty-eight years old, he was a very calculated and intelligent businessman who had a fortune, and he wasn’t the type to date carelessly since he had no dating scandals or articles unlike most successful men and his name. Greyson Alexander Miller.