Chapter 1: RICHARD
"Richard Wellington, I have had enough of your insolence! You must get a wife for yourself, or better still just get one of those your numerous chicks pregnant" Edward Wellington, the billionaire philanthropist, a great designer and fashion mogul still handsome in his early sixties with dark hair graying at the edges, dark keen eyes and a face that shines in every picture or ad he’s featured in especially when stretched in a smile. The man I call my father, stormed.
Anger swelled in me, blinding and hot. Who was he to tell me what to do? I might be his son, but that doesn’t give him the audacity to impose life changing decisions on me.
"My dear, your father is right, with your condition no one knows what can happen and when, so for the sake of the empire, just give us an heir" my mom, the famous model and actress still dazzling in her fifties with long dark lustrous hair, gray eyes, well accentuated nose, red lips, an ageless face like that of an angel and a body like that of a goddess, Claire Wellington added.
I really can’t count how many times I’ve been forced to listen to this. I just wish they would care about me more than their empire.
The Wellington Empire was a fashion brand that had reigned for generations. It was a legacy with designs that can’t be rivaled, and now it has fallen on me to uphold the legacy. But first of all, I must get married and sire an heir to maintain our position as the head family.
I was about to give them a response, when my mom continued looking away from me to her husband,
"But honey, surely you don’t mean that he should impregnate any girl. Imagine the ruin that would do to our reputation and with the new collection a few months from launch, a scandal is the last thing we need. Besides, I’m already planning something "
"At this rate, I care less of our name and I don’t give a fuck about the collection. I have the Elders breathing down my neck, ready to install another if your hothead of a son dies without an heir, so whatever you are planning, hasten up" My father finished, running his hand on hair as he rose and paced the room.
For my father to swear, they must really have him at the balls. "Should have known this was the handiwork of those gaffers" I thought to myself. The Elders were heads of the four founding families of the supposed Wellington Empire... or should I say, my Empire.
They were Lord Thomas Grey, Lord Henry Fisher, Lord Frederick Day and Lord William Manson, these men had been trying to usurp my family from overseeing the empire for years now. Even their ancestors had tried and I wager their future generations will still continue in such fruitless attempts.