Wilson's Hard Lesson (88 page)

Rachel took Daniel’s arm in her hands as she led him through
the corridors of the office building. Daniel was surprised by Rachel’s strength
despite the pain that she was surely feeling at that moment. Daniel remained
silent until they were outside of his father’s office.

“Why are we here?” Daniel asked surprised. Daniel thought
that Rachel was going to march to David’s office and confront him, so appearing
at his father’s door instead was definitely shocking.

“I can’t really confront David about this because he could
easily lie,” Rachel said and hesitated before knocking on Jeffery’s door. It
wasn’t that Rachel didn’t believe Daniel, she just wanted to get confirmation
from the man who started this whole thing, Jeffery Marshalls. “I want to hear
it from your father’s lips. I want to hear it from the man that has the two of
you competing for his company.”

“That is… a really good idea.” Daniel had to admit. He knew
the girl was intelligent, but he didn’t know that she was this sharp.

“Come in,” Rachel turned the doorknob at the sound of
Jeffery’s voice. Jeffery’s eyes widen in delight when he saw Rachel walking in;
however, he arched his brow when he saw Daniel, and not David, accompanying
her. “Well it’s a surprise to see you two here. How can I help the both of
you?” Jeffery asked and Rachel finally let go of Daniel’s arm.

“I’m so sorry to disturb you at work, but I just had a quick
question to ask you. Is it true that you told David and Daniel that whoever
marries first and bares you a grandchild would inherit your company?” Rachel
already knew the answer to that question before Jeffery confirmed it. The way his
eyes widened in shock told on her. Jeffery’s eyes went towards Daniel’s before
he answered that question.

“Ah, so I see Daniel’s told you about that. Yes it’s true,
and I guess since the two of you are in my office, you believe that David’s
only dating you in attempts to get you to marry him. Am I correct?” Rachel
blushed, but she nodded her head.

“I have a confession,” Rachel began and lowered her eyes to
the ground. “David and I haven’t really been dating. I met him through a mail
order bride agency and up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t even know him. We
were supposed to get married anyways, but as soon as I laid eyes on him, it was
love at first sight for me. David ask me to tell you that we met in a park so
that you wouldn’t disown him. I see now that was only a ploy so that he could
win by default.” Jeffery was up to his feet instantly and slammed his fists
onto his table.

“Damn it! I knew he was full of it!” Jeffery yelled. He
thought that David was trying to pull one over on him, but when he saw how he
interacted with Rachel, he believed that his son had changed in his ways
because he met someone who completed him. “Tsk, I don’t know why I thought a
man who fooled around in his office and break a female’s heart so close to the
time he was ‘supposedly’ with you would change his ways” Jeffery shook his
head. The way that Rachel was looking at him told Jeffery that his ‘brotherly’
competition might have been too harsh on the boys. Jeffery wanted whoever
placed in charge to make it a real family business, not a bought one.

“I’m sorry,” Daniel said looking at his father, “But I
needed to tell her. I didn’t want such a great woman to be led on the way that
David was leading her on.” Jeffery nodded his head in agreement. He loved
David, but Rachel was far too lovely to be taken advantage of like that.

“So what will you do now?” Jeffery asked raising his
eyebrow. Rachel appeared to have been at a loss for words.

“Well, I definitely won’t be able to marry him like this. He
doesn’t truly care for me and I hated the way he was going to trick you into
giving him the company.” Rachel said. Daniel grabbed her hand in his and stared
her straight in the eyes.

“Whatever you do, I will definitely be here to support you.”
Rachel’s eyes glistened with unshed tears because unlike David, she knew for a
fact that Daniel’s words were true.

“So will I,” Jeffery chimed in. “I will help you with
everything so don’t you worry about a thing,” Rachel smiled at this. She was
happy that someone genuinely cared for her and was willing to come to her aid
even though they were going against their very own kin.

“Thank you,” Rachel said and her tears spilled from her
eyes.

*****

“I love you,” Daniel moaned as his hips thrusted into Rachel
nice and slow. The newlyweds writhed in pleasure on the warm beach of their
private honeymoon spot in Hawaii. Rachel was embarrassed that they were making
love in public, but this was private property and no one would be able to
access this part of the beach anyway.

“I love you… too,” Rachel moaned into Daniel’s hungry mouth.
It’s been several months since everything went south with David. After Daniel
and Jeffery told Rachel what David was plotting, she immediately ended their
engagement and left David’s residence. David tried his hardest to convince
Rachel that his brother and father were lying, but she was hearing none of
that. Jeffery and Daniel intervened and put David on the spot and after losing
the battle between his father and brother, David up and quit the company.

“How dare you make it seem like I’m the bad guy here! Dad
it’s your fault for putting us on the spot like this! But whatever, I don’t
care. I don’t give a damn about you or this worthless company!” Like a five
year old throwing a temper tantrum, David quit and moved out of the home bought
for him by his father. Jeffery was hurt by this but so be it. He was growing
tired of David’s deceitful ways and manipulate attitude. When David left,
Jeffery gave Lydia David’s job because after years of watching David work, she
knew how to do many of the same things that he did. So losing David wasn’t as
bad as David tried to make them think it’ll be.

“Get on top now. I want to watch you ride me.” Daniel said
and positioned them so that Rachel was on top of him. Rachel blushed but she
did what she was told and rode him slow and so passionately that she was
driving them both mad.

“I’m… I’m so happy that I’m here with you,” Rachel said as
she increased the speed of her hips. Her walls clenched around Daniel’s aching
length and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to last much longer.

“Me too… You’re everything to me,” Daniel bit out and
gripped Rachel’s hips and made her move faster. “Ah!” he groaned as his orgasm
was rapidly approaching. After everything had happened, Daniel was there for
Rachel. He helped her move out of David’s house and Jeffery purchased a condo
for Rachel. Daniel and Rachel started spending a lot of time together and
eventually Rachel started returning Daniel’s feelings. After dating for a
while, Daniel popped the question and Rachel eagerly accepted his proposal.
“I’m coming!” Daniel arched his back and squeezed harder on Rachel’s hips.

“Ah!” Rachel’s moans were loud and pleasured filled as she
fell apart on top of Daniel. After they both were spent, Rachel lied on top of
Daniel and he wrapped his arms around her. Daniel was the happiest man in the
world because not only was he with the women of his dreams, but he’d also
inherit his father’s company after Jeffery is gone. The best part of it all was
that he was inheriting it the right way, through true love.

“I love you so much, Rachel Marshalls.” Daniel murmured as
he held Rachel tight and picked her up into his arms once he stood.

“I love you too, Daniel Marshalls.” Daniel smiled and
carried his bride into their honeymoon beach house. Everything was amazing with
them and he was glad that Rachel didn’t have to worry about being a mail order
bride in order to live a comfortable life. Rachel was truly a strong woman and
when she expressed her need to work, Daniel was one hundred percent behind her.
If Rachel wanted to find herself, he’d stand behind her, plus it’ll be good for
Rachel to put her degree to work. If Rachel could support Daniel, Daniel could
certainly support the one that he loved because unlike David, he didn’t view
Rachel as an object meant to be used. Daniel viewed Rachel as an important
woman in his life, his wife by love, not a wife picked out for him because she
was employed as a mail order bride.

By: Krista Sparks

The Sacked Mail Order Bride

© Krista Sparks, 2016 – All rights
reserved

Published by Steamy Reads4U

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or reviews.

This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, businesses,
places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s
imagination or used in a fictitious manner.  Any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, or actual events are purely coincidental.  This book is
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Warning

This book contains explicit content intended for readers 18+
years old.

If you are under 18 years old, or are not comfortable with
adult content, please close this book now.

I thought the night I watched Father’s print shop burn to
the ground would be worst of my life.  We’d been abed when there was a
thunderous boom. Going outdoors, we saw the conflagration, violently oversized
from the very first moments. Towering orange tongues of flame curled
heavenward, nearly reaching the stars, while plumes of foul-smelling oily smoke
banked all around us.

“Dear God in heaven!” Father said, clenching at his chest.
“This is a catastrophe!”

In that moment, I feared I would lose my darling Father.
He’d already borne so much loss and tragedy – my Mother’s passing when I was
but five years old, then losing my older brother Henry to a Union bullet. The
war had taken everyone’s fortune, and rebuilding hadn’t been easy. The print
shop was only just beginning to turn a profit, and now it was in flames.

“It will be all right,” I tried to assure him. “Surely the
fire brigade will save the shop!”  And truly, those stalwart brave gentlemen
did come rushing through the night, bells clanging and their spotted dog
howling with a devilish glee. They worked feverishly at the pump, sending up a
spray of water that proved to be wholly inadequate against the conflagration.

“We’ve got to let it go, Mr. Calhoun,” the fire marshal said
to Father before too long. “We might be able to save the house, but that fire
there’s just too hot. It’ll have to burn itself out.”

Father stood as if he were frozen in place. His mouth was
open, but no sounds were coming out. He shook his head as if to say no, but
neither the fire marshal nor I were inclined to pay attention to that.

“Please!” I beseeched the good man. “Save the house. It’s
all Papa and I have left in this world!”

The fire marshal nodded, and I could see from the look in
his eyes that my proclamation was not news to him. “We’ll do our best, ma’am.”
He gently guided Father and I further away from the burning shop. “We’ve got to
pull the wagon through this way. Take care you don’t get hurt!”

The smoke thickened, all but obscuring our view as the fire
brigade began to soak down the side of our home and the thin strip of lawn that
separated our domicile from our livelihood.  Abandoned, the flames consuming
the shop redoubled their efforts. There was a mighty crack, as loud as a
rifle’s report, and I had to fight to not cover my ears.

“That’s the ridgepole going,” Father said. “The roof’s not
long for this world.”

I’d heard my father sorrowful before. But never to the
extent of the heartbreak echoing through his voice right now; he was absolutely
despondent.

“We will rebuild, Papa.”

Father shook his head. “No, Abigail. We won’t. This is the
end of the road for me.” He hung his head and kicked at the ground. “The good
Lord’s decided I was never meant to be a happy man. And seeing as that’s the
legacy I’ve left you, I’m truly sorry.”

Father’s comments about an unhappy legacy puzzled me, but I
put them down to the heat of the moment. While I always try to look for the
hopeful path out of any situation, I know that not everyone can do that. So I
held my peace and stood by Father, watching as the fire consumed itself.

When the print shop had been reduced to no more than a
forest of standing smoking timbers, and the smoke had died away to a
low-profile fog that clung to our ankles, Father shook his head. “I’m going to
bed. Perhaps when I wake up, this will all have been a bad dream. Or perhaps
the Lord will be merciful, and I won’t wake up at all!”

“Don’t say that, Papa!” I tried to embrace my Father, but he
would have none of my affections. In fact he shoved me away gruffly; an action
so shocking that I could not help but cry aloud.

“Don’t mind him, miss,” the fire marshal said. He took his
helmet off, revealing a white line across his forehead where the smoke had not yet
reached his skin. “Your Father’s had a great upset and he’s not in his right
mind.”

“Well, I’m upset too!” I exclaimed.

The fire marshal nodded. “But you’re a lady, and ladies are
cut from a stronger cloth than gentlemen.”

I raised an eyebrow. The messaging I’d heard from my
youngest days was quite the contrary: women were the fair sex, gentle creatures
who needed protection from the harsh world. Acting as if one were the least bit
capable opened one’s self up to stern reproach and vicious gossip.

“Disappointment is a ladies’ lot in life, more often than
not,” the fire marshal said. “And she’s no choice but to bear it with what
grace she can muster. That takes strength.”

Shakespeare has never failed me. Many long hours I have
passed with my own dear Mother’s cherished volume in my lap, finding
inspiration and solace in the Bard’s immortal words. “Perhaps,” I told the fire
marshal. “It may be that this lady will take up arms against her sea of
troubles, and in so doing, end them.”

The marshal chuckled. “That will take strength too.”

I nodded and stepped toward the steaming wreck of the shop.
Perhaps the presses, which were wrought of heavy iron, weren’t damaged beyond
repair. Whatever could be salvaged wouldn’t need to be replaced – a small
comfort, perhaps, but it might make the dawn easier for my Father to bear if he
knew he didn’t need to start again entirely from scratch. “Let us hope I’m
equal to the task.”

He caught my arm and stopped my progress. “It’s still plenty
hot in there, Miss, and I don’t need you setting your skirts ablaze. I’d never
hear the end of it.”

“Father wouldn’t blame you,” I said.

“It’s not your Father I’m worried about,” the fire marshal
replied. Again, there was something in his expression that made me feel as if
he knew something I did not.  “Whatever’s there worth saving will be there when
it’s cooled off.”