Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“You are also to stay out of my business. That means you don’t pry into conversations that you do not belong in. If I am having a conversation with a business associate while you are on my arm, you should be talking to their wife or their daughters, or looking around and not listening. Those conversations are not for your ears, is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“In return, you get a roof over your head. You are able to buy whatever you want, and then as I mentioned earlier, in six months we will announce our engagement. Then you will have another five months to plan the wedding. I believe your new card was given to you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. The event we’re going to later is not formal. It will be outside, more of a garden party. Buy what you need. Do what you need to do to be presentable by noon.”
“Yes, sir.”
She was trying to go for malicious compliance. Saying only what I told her she could say. She could do that all day long. Every time the word sir came from her lips, my cock twitched.
“Good girl,” I said before I drained my coffee and stood to head to work.
I had a meeting in twenty minutes, and I had to get into my office at the financial district. There was some business I preferred not to handle in my home.
Hamilton was already waiting by the door with the travel mug of my coffee as well as my copies of the paper which I would skim over in the car.
I stopped when I reached Stella and watched.
She sat there, her arms neatly folded and her breakfast barely touched.
“Do not leave this table until your plate is empty.”
“Yes, sir,” she bit out through clenched teeth.
With a chuckle, I rewarded her reluctant obedience with a kiss on her forehead, confident in her complete submission to my demands.
CHAPTER 20
STELLA
The very last thing I was going to do was buy a fucking garden party dress today.
That breakfast was humiliating.
To make it worse, the majordomo of the house wouldn’t let me get up until I finished my plate. He watched me eat like he was scoring my posture and fork positions.
Judging by the scowl on his face, he disapproved of my table manners, which was ridiculous.
I had been brought up in the best prep schools. I had been taught proper etiquette and manners since I was a child. Lucian could have brought the King of England for dinner, and I would know the proper etiquette.
When I was finally allowed to leave the table, I stormed up to my room, or rather our room, and sat on the bed, trying to figure out what to do. I had two hours before my lawyer would be in for the day.
After the judge ruled against me, I’d tried to reach my lawyer, and again, several times over the next few days. His secretary had been blocking me. It seemed the only way I would be getting ahold of him was to march into his office and demand his attention.
That was my plan, but I had some time to kill first.
I activated my new card and researched conservatorships in the state of New York.
There was so much information, it was starting to make my head spin.
I dug some of the documents out of my purse, needing to reread them. I still couldn’t understand how he’d gotten away with this. Scanning through the paragraphs of indecipherable legalese, I looked for something that almost made sense.
Then I found it, right in front of me, in black and white.
It is the court’s opinion that the sudden death of Ms. Stella Jane Deiderich’s family has left her grief-stricken and in a position where she cannot be trusted to maintain her family’s estates. All assets that would have been bequeathed to her by her parents are to be placed in a trust with Mr. Lucian Manwarring, Sr. In addition to managing her finances, Mr. Manwarring will also be appointed her power of attorney as well as her health care proxy. The list of duties appointed to Mr. Manwarring is as follows…
The list afterward was impressive. It systematically notated that the court had taken away every right I had.
Sure enough, in the middle of that list, it stated that Mr. Manwarring got to decide where I lived, if I went back to school, everything.
He had the right to void any contracts I signed without his approval, including but not limited to leases, employment contracts, and marriage licenses.
I’d give him this much: his lawyers and that judge may have been corrupt, vile men, but they were thorough.
I wasn’t allowed to do anything, at least not until I got back to my lawyer and made him face me and tell me how to fight this.
If Lucian Manwarring expected a docile little ward he could intimidate, threaten, and play with, a little mouse he could turn into a submissive and an obedient housewife, he had another thing coming.