Prologue- Sealed fates
"Thank you son, I knew I could count on you. God be with you".
That was it.
My fate was sealed.
Just like that, I was being shipped out to another company. I had leave behind everything I knew and had grown to love to go to a company that I detested just because I was trying to be a good son.
People said I was diligent, sweet, mild and sensible. Obedient, even.
But this wasn't called obedience; this was called being a wimp.
Just because my father wanted me to do this thing for him, I dropped everything I had just so he would like me more.
My father, Connor Grayson, the founder of Grayson International, wanted me to 'help out' with the family business. By that he meant planting me as a corporate spy in one of the joint ventures we were having.
It always sucked for me, being the younger son, the runt, the disappointment. All through my childhood, I ended up being second choice to my father, my big brother Darren being preferred over me.
I was deep, wounded or dark, sensitive and I had strong values about trust, truth and love. I let my emotions cloud over my logic.
Definitely not business material.
Call me disadvantaged or inexperienced, I have never had my father come up to me and ask for a favor. Never.
I knew he was let down when I chose to major in arts in college and then go into interior designing. But when he started his interior designing firm of Grayson International, I thought maybe he did it for me.
But no. Not my father.
He did it only because the Company had ventures and establishments in almost every other sector of the world. Why come short on anything?
But that venture was my life line. Because I became very good at what I loved doing and it soon became my pride and joy to run the firm.
And of course, father and Darren simply had to be kill-joys and decided that I would be perfect for a large scale corporate espionage.
So here I was, unable to stand up for what I really wanted, and allowed my father to make the decision for me.
I doubt if my father ever wanted this for me. It would be hard to imagine a parent saying, 'My son will be a corporate spy, one day'. And yet, my father never seemed more proud of me than right now. When I was finally doing something he wanted me to do. Maybe that's why I was okay with going the distance for him. Because I could finally prove my worth to him?
However unlikely that seemed, it was the truth that every Grayson had to prove himself. Darren had passed the test with flying colors, even without trying. Sense the sarcasm.
We were in a heated corporate war against Ford Industries, another MNC just like us. Ford Industries were on par with Grayson International in every possible way and the competition was just cut-throat.
It almost seemed as if this corporate war would result in a total reconstruction of the world's economy. That was how gigantic these two super power corporations were. World War III was finally here.
Due to an inconvenient, unplanned circumstance, the two companies were forced to sign a merger contract. At least one or two of their sectors had to be merged into a single company.
And my father, being the shrewd businessman that he is, decided to nominate the interior designing firm for the merger.
'Something that won't deeply affect the growth of Grayson International' he assured me.
But I felt crestfallen; how could he just…sell MY firm like that? Like it didn't matter to him! I was nothing but a business strategy to him.
My father went on to assign me to work in the company under an alias. In a much lower post than I deserved. He wasn't supposed to have his son working in a merged firm but he needed to make sure that Ford Industries weren't trying to buy out the firm. He also needed me to ensure that they didn't buy the 51% shares so they would be the majority share holders and dominate their will on the firm.
I knew my over-competitive father would never admit it, but I knew that Ford Industries were making him nervous and he needed me. Maybe Darren couldn't do it because he was much more famous that I was.
Whatever it was, for the first time in 22 years, I felt like my father depended on me. And that, was a feeling that I would do anything to retain. Anything. Even if it was illegal.
Even if it meant giving up someone who would come to matter more to me than the rest of the world combined.
Because I knew that I was a good son.
Yours truly
Spencer Grayson
My life has always been about whether I could attend the Paris Fashion Week, if Jimmy Choo and Versace would fill my wardrobe or if I would go to the Hamptons in the summer weekends.
I was tired of people looking at me like I was rich and spoilt. Oh don't get me wrong, I am rich. But I am certainly not spoilt.
My father, Michael Ford, made sure that my big sister Dana and I worked for whatever we got to enjoy. He made sure we had all the necessary comforts without taking advantage of them. Dad started Ford Industries from scratch and built it from ground up with his father.
Dana and I were raised in a very close-knit, loving and open family atmosphere and we planned on keeping it that way. I knew for a fact that Dana was frustrated by the fact that she was also seen as incompetent because she was wealthy. But everything changed after Dana became a designer, very upscale and adventurous. I enjoyed modeling for her from time to time but I was getting annoyed by the fact that people never took me seriously.
Well, we used to get along so well…..
Until one day, when I kinda became friends with her fiancé. And he turned out to be this creep who fell in love with me and refused to dump my sister. He wanted to play the both of us and weaved out a nice story at my expense to my sister, when I threatened to tell on him.
Dana, for some reason, believed him and went on to just shut me out of her life for good. That was 1 year ago and Dana still never got over the fact that her fiancé cheated on her with me and I didn't tell her about it.
She dumped him, of course. But she never forgave me. My father told me that he believed me when I tried to explain. But even to this day, I've had my doubts on whether he really does.
I tried valiantly to be a part of Dana's life; just as hard as she tried to keep me out of it. Dana fell hard for that guy and I knew that it stung to even look at me. All I represented in her life was the one thing she couldn't have. True love.
Now, she was one of the most celebrated designers I knew. I keep thinking that that was what I had to do to be treated as, well….normal.
My father earned his own bread with his own blood, sweat and tears and simply expected us to do the same. Or in the very least, not take the wealth for granted.
He didn't marry rich either. My mother was his high school classmate, a background like his own. My parents were both fully of values and morals that they made sure Dana and I had before we made our own decisions.
They thought I was just some snooty, arrogant rich girl. But I wasn't. I had the fire, the drive to prove myself from very early on and now, I finally had a way to do it.
The Ford Industries' interior designing firm.
I worked in it and made the best in the business. Well that was until the merger. I had to sign the company over to a joint venture between Ford Industries and Grayson International. My father was very apologetic because there had been no choice. The situation was unavoidable and this was the best outcome from it. But I guess I was okay with it.
One thing I wasn't okay with was me not being allowed to work in the firm any longer. It was against the rules or something.
Urgh! That was just so infuriating!
My father didn't want me working in that firm for some strange reason and I knew that I just HAD to. I said my father was all for hard work, but he was against me being on a mission. Plus, he had Dana egging him on to kick me out of the firm. I think my mother never forgave me either. Well, not that I doubted it, Dana was always her favorite.
I only hoped that my father and Dana could keep it professional, in terms of me working at the new firm.
Grayson International was gaining on us and we just had to be better than them at this. We had to buy up that extra 1% share so we could impose our views on the firm. I had to make that happen.
Maybe then, I could finally shed the whole 'you're-a-dainty-rich-brat' look that I got from everyone I met. Maybe then, I could earn some more respect. But right now, I was sick of being misjudged. By my mother, my father, by Dana and the people around me.
I would change how they all looked at me. I would change whatever bad they could have ever thought of me.
Yours truly
Juliana Ford