Конкурент. Уровень 4: 1100 слов. Вэнь Цзиньхай

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СКАЧАТЬ who kept the joint family dinners his mother insisted on civil, even in the face of insurmountable odds. Between them they’d even hidden the fact that Thea and Zeke had slept together on the villa terrace during the rehearsal dinner from the hundred guests inside. Maybe they were meant to be together.

      And even if it didn’t last, the marriage would have served its purpose as a spectacular PR stunt for Morrison-Ashton and Flynn would be free to find a bride who’d give him heirs by the dozen, if he wanted. Win-win, really.

      ‘I’m sure,’ she said, and Flynn smiled.

      ‘Then let’s go to church.’

      * * *

      Flynn wasn’t his brother. He didn’t like surprises, didn’t want the risk-taking high, or the buzz from making spur-of-the-moment decisions that Zeke seemed to crave. Flynn liked to work from a plan, to know what was coming and prepare accordingly. His very existence, and the fact of his birth, was the definition of unplanned—but Flynn had always felt that there was no reason his life had to follow the same pattern.

      A childhood of believing he was an ‘unexpected variable’, or just a straightforward ‘mistake’—depending on whether he was eavesdropping on his father or mother’s conversation at the time—had made it very clear to him how deviating from a plan could screw things up. Never mind that he’d been the plan. It was Zeke who had come along and screwed everything up. But Zeke was blood, the true heir they’d really wanted but thought they couldn’t have. Not somebody else’s unwanted child, brought in to fill a void as a last resort.

      If his parents had stuck with the plan and never had Zeke, Flynn’s life could have been very, very different.

      So Flynn prized structure, deliverables, timescales and, above all, a plan. But today, his wedding day, didn’t appear to be about what Flynn liked or wanted.

      He’d heard that before, from married friends. How the wedding day became all about the bride and her mother and her friends, and all the groom really had to do was show up and say ‘I do’. Of course, every single one of those friends had actually married the woman they got engaged to...

      Fear had clenched in his chest as Thea ran out of the door, tearing his carefully worked plan to shreds. Three years he’d been planning this, talking with his father, and hers, making sure they used the wedding to its full potential. Two years working on Thea, agreeing terms, gentling her along.

      In the end, all the planning in the world hadn’t been enough. Thea was gone, and that left him with...Helena.

      Helena wasn’t part of the plan, not even a little bit. She was another unplanned variable, he supposed. But maybe that meant something. Maybe together they could be more than a list of mistakes, of unexpected consequences.

      Either way, she was the closest he was going to get to following his plan for the day.

      He couldn’t hide the relief he felt when he realised that Helena really planned to go through with her proposal. Yes, marrying his fiancée’s sister raised its own collection of problems. And, yes, an argument could be made that any family or business situation that required this level of absurd subterfuge was seriously screwed up. And yet Flynn found himself agreeing that it was the best of a short list of bad options. Maybe it wasn’t the original strategy, but it could at least be considered a contingency plan. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t discussed the possibility with his father, before settling on Thea as the most beneficial to the company.

      This wasn’t a love match and it never had been. Whichever of the Morrison sisters walked down the aisle on his arm, the purpose was served. Thea might have understood a little better what she was letting herself in for, but Helena wasn’t completely ignorant of the situation either.

      Morrison-Ashton needed this. Its board, investors—everyone—needed to know that the future of the company was in safe hands.

      And hands didn’t come safer than Flynn Ashton’s.

      Flynn had his own reasons for wanting the match, of course, but surely Helena would realise that too. Thea had, quickly enough.

      The company needed the PR boost and, even before he’d really believed he might inherit it one day, Morrison-Ashton had always been Flynn’s priority. Now he stood to be CEO within the year...and he needed this more than ever. He needed the authenticity the match gave him. Married to one of the Morrison sisters, it wouldn’t matter that he wasn’t true Ashton blood. His adoption ceased to matter. Even the fact that his adoption had come through just as Ezekiel and Isabella Ashton had discovered that they were expecting their own flesh and blood child, Zeke, lost meaning as anything more than a crippling irony.

      As a child, he’d been surplus to requirements, an inconvenience once the Ashtons had what they’d really wanted all along. And, as he’d grown older, he’d been a weapon in his father’s hand, used to whip Zeke into shape, to make him earn his inheritance by fighting Flynn for every advantage, every opportunity. But as the husband of Thea—or Helena—Morrison, Flynn would be legitimate. Deserving.

      He’d belong at last.

      Taking Helena’s hand, he led her out of Thea’s dressing room, down the stairs and out of the front door into the blazing Tuscan sunshine. With her body close against his, he could feel the tension in its lines and wondered how fast her heart must be beating right now. Maybe even as hard and fast as his.

      Because, despite all his rational thoughts, Flynn couldn’t quite lie to himself well enough to pretend there wasn’t a chance this would prove to be a colossal mistake. This doesn’t have to be a permanent arrangement. Helena’s words echoed around his head. To her, this was only temporary; she was a stand-in bride for the occasion. But temporary didn’t fulfil Flynn’s needs for this marriage.

      He needed permanence, he needed authenticity and he needed heirs. That was the plan and, given everything else that had gone wrong, he had to cling on to those facts. Once he married Helena, she was his for life.

      He’d just have to figure out a way to convince her that he could be enough for her, that he was worth staying for. Once they got through this horrendous, confusing day.

      Flynn blinked in the sunlight. Everything felt somehow more real outside. The summer sounds on the breeze—insects and dry leaves—disappeared behind a peal of bells from the chapel below.

      This was really happening. Maybe not the way he’d planned, but the outcome would be more or less the same. He would have made it at last, the moment Helena said ‘I do’. And she would, he was sure. She’d been so fierce, so determined to make this work. Why? he wondered suddenly. What did it matter to her? Or was she just so afraid of their parents’ wrath that she’d do anything to appease them?

      Maybe he’d ask her. Afterwards.

      They walked down the path to the chapel in silence, as quickly as Helena’s heels would allow. Flynn glanced down at her feet, catching glimpses of the flamingo-pink satin heels that would have matched her bridesmaid’s dress. Thea must have run out in her shoes.

      Helena’s gaze flicked down and she gave him a rueful smile. ‘She took the veil, too. Shame, really. We could have kept my face hidden until it was all over, otherwise.’

      Something caught in Flynn’s chest. Maybe his wedding to Thea hadn’t been a grand epic romance but it had been better than this. Helena deserved better than this.

      ‘I СКАЧАТЬ