Chapter 139
ASHLEY
How in the world did my family get to the point where the media gets wind of my brother’s engagement being called off BEFORE I do? I have a trillion questions for Ashton but I save them for later seeing as father has had him on the hot seat for close to three hours since I returned from work.
Ashton sits upright in the chair with a bland expression on his face while father yells, badgering him with questions. Mother is somewhere upstairs consoling Mila but too afraid to assure her that Ashton would change his mind. The rest of my brothers are with me in father’s study, taking turns to grill Ashton for his rash decision which could affect us in more ways than one.
"How could you just wake up and decide to break off your engagement with the daughter of the CEO of Spellman Group? Were you drunk or high? What made you think that’s a decision you can arbitrarily make?" Father thunders.
"The daughter of the CEO of Spellman Group?" Ashton reiterates with a smug expression, followed by a low chuckle that further infuriates father. "Why can’t it just be Mila? Don’t you get it? I warned you about commercializing my relationship. When you started shipping Mila and I together immediately after learning whose child she was, I warned you to give us time to grow on each other, organically. You refused. Instead, you kept sucking the life out of our fledging friendship by pushing too hard for us to be lovers and then a married couple. Somewhere along the line, you even foisted those dreams on Mila and she hasn’t been recognizable ever since. What you failed to remember is that I am not Asher who is wired to always do what pleases you. I’M DONE WITH THAT SHAM OF A RELATIONSHIP."
"Ashton!" Asher cautions him with a look.
"No, let him talk." Father stubs out his cigar and smiles crookedly at his second son. "You think you’re special, don’t you? You think your headstrongness makes you special? What you fail to realize is that I have enough obedient sons to survive on. I have three other faces just like yours to work with. I could easily make you disappear for an entire year and nobody outside this home would notice or care."
"Father."
His raised hand shuts me up. Uncomfortable with where this conversation is going, I trade glances with Ashal and Asher. Are they really going to let father say such things to Ashton? If father says things like that, half the time he’s already made the arrangements to make it happen.
"The point I am making, Ashton, is that I don’t consider YOU indispensable in this group. It’s awfully easy for any of your brothers to play you. They just have to be unnecessarily rude and act before they think."
"I highly doubt that. Your obedient sons can’t play me because I live unscripted. They would have to defy you in the face of serious consequences, not according to the script you handed down to them. "Ashton turns to wink at Asher. "Up for the challenge, little Brett?"