Taken By The Arrogant Billionaire

Valerie found herself leaving the company with him to a meeting. Will had travelled on Jared’s order, and it was just the two of them.

She was thankful that she wasn’t fired. She would die if she was.

The meeting place was a private room in a restaurant.

It was with the chairman of Hughes Winery, Clyde Hughes. Like most men who owned a large company, he was a pot-bellied man, with an average face.

She wondered why she found the name familiar. She cursed at her forgetfulness and took note as the meeting proceeded.

Thankfully, this man didn’t stare at her like the Sawyer did.

Jared’s continued the meeting, but he was alert, in case the man’s gaze strayed towards Valerie. She was his!

The meeting ended quite early, and they left for the office.

The ride back was silent. Though, Jared hadn’t said anything, she was still careful not to do anything that could trigger him.

Valerie left the office at closing hours and stopped at a mall to get some clothes.

She looked through the racks for a good wear that was low-priced, but everything here was expensive. Her bank account was going to scream bloody murder if she bought these clothes.

She shook her head and was about to head out of the store, when she heard a voice she found quite familiar.

“Well, well, look who we have here” Valerie stared at them. There were three of them. She knew the first two, but the third girl only looked familiar.

‘Please not now?’ she said inwardly as she gave them a fake smile.

“Samantha. Selena. Long time no see”

These two people almost made her life hell in college, but Layla managed to scare them away.

Samantha scoffed.

“As if you care” she looked at her empty hands and sneered. “Why? Too expensive, that you can’t afford it. Oh, I heard you got fired, so, of course, you can’t. Too bad” She mocked.

Valerie rolled her eyes. Like they could afford it. She heard they were aspiring actress. Emphasis on aspiring.

“Well, our friend here can help you, right, Ava?” She said and giggled.

Ava?

Wasn’t that Ivan’s new girlfriend? She suddenly remembered why the name of the man they had a meeting with sounded familiar. He was the father of this chick, Ava Hughes.

Valerie studied her. She had her hair dyed blonde, had a natural blue eyes and had a great figure which she doubted was natural. Even her nose looked like it had gone through rhinoplasty. Ava was staring at her too.

“Perhaps, are you Valerie?”

Valerie raised a brow, surprised that Ava knew her.

“You know her?”

Samantha snatched the words from her mouth.

“Yes. She’s Ivan’s ex”

Her brows raised even further. Ivan told her?

“Really?” That was Selena. “Thankfully, Ivan knew the right thing to do and broke up with her. She’s bad luck”

Valerie’s hands balled into fists in anger at being reminded of her breakup with Ivan.

In a short while, the said man arrived. Ivan kissed Ava on the lips, not noticing Valerie yet. The other two girls blushed.

“What’s up?”

Samantha suddenly piped up.

“Well, we were just wondering if you could help our friend her pay for whatever she wanted to buy. I think it’s too expensive for her and cannot afford it” she said, with mock worry.

He finally saw her, and she could see surprise on his face.

“Valerie? What are you doing here?”

She found herself getting angry by the question.

“Do you, by any chance, own this place. I have every right to be here. And for your information, I have more than enough to buy things here”

“You don’t have to pretend. I can help you” Ivan said. Her nose flared. At that moment, everything about him disgusted her. She felt like kicking him in the balls.

She grabbed two random dresses from the rack, and proceeded to pay.

“$15, 000 ma’am” the young lady said. Valerie almost cried, but the pigs were watching.

She brought out her card and paid. She collected her package, gave them a stink eye, and left.

She entered a taxi and checked her bank account balance.

She burst into tears, scaring the shit out of the driver. She wailed as passers-by glanced in her direction.

“Madam, are you alright?”

She replied with even louder howls. The man covered a ear with his free hand.

He could not wait for this crazy woman to alight.

The car stopped at her destination, and she got down after giving him the fare and walked home sadly.

************

Sandy sat in the car with Dylan. She had dozens of shopping bags, containing clothes and jewelries, with her. He had insisted on taking her shopping, and informed her earlier that they were going to visit his grandfather the next day.

“So fast?” She had said, horrified. It was no ordinary family, for goodness’ sake.

“It’s okay. My parents are nice” he replied, but that didn’t mollify her at all. She became even more nervous. She had thought she had enough time to prepare herself.

She told the car to stop a few blocks away from her house. It was a luxury car and was going to attract attention from the neighbours. She definitely didn’t want that.

“Thank you for this. Good night, Mr Smi…. Dylan”

He pressed his lips together and nodded tersely.

She walked towards her house, unaware that a certain someone was following her. Dylan finally backed off when she got to the door of her house.

It took them a while to open the door. Layla finally did and she was ushered in. The first thing she noticed was Valerie, sitting on the floor, looking like the world was about to end.

“What’s going on?” Sandy asked, turning to Layla.

She shrugged.

“Valerie here met some of our old college friends, did something crazy and ended up shooting herself in the foot. Hey! Where did you get all this?” Layla snatched a bag from Sandy and checked out the content.

“OMG! This dress is Elvis’s limited edition” she gasped.

“Elvis?”

“Yes. It’s a popular clothing brand. Woah! ”

She raised another one.

“Where did you get the money to buy all this?”

The clothes got Valerie’s attention as she also began to look through it, wowing in amazement, at the exquisiteness of the dresses.

Sandy didn’t want to tell them about it yet.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Er….. an old friend bought it for me” Layla gave her a sidelong glance.

“An old friend, huh?”

Sandy became a little nervous. She knew Layla. She would get to the root of it if she wanted to. Fortunately, Valerie distracted her.

“Layla! Layla! Look at this. This would look good on me, right?”

Sandy heaved a small sigh. She picked two of the dresses.

She picked one bag.

“I’ll take this. You guys can take the others” She knew most of it will go to Valerie, considering Layla didn’t like dresses. She only admired them but couldn’t wear them because it, according to her, made her uncomfortable.

She walked to her room and locked the door. She checked out the dress. The design was simple, yet amazing, no doubt. It was a green trumpet, sleeveless dress, laced with flowers and diamonds of the same colour. She opened the jewelry box and brought out a diamond encrusted necklace.

She also brought out the earrings, which were like a smaller version of the necklace.

She wondered how much this would cost.

Whatever amount it was, it would definitely be chicken feed to them.

Again, the thought of meeting them chilled her to the bone.

************

They agreed to leave by sunset. Layla and Valerie were not home yet, so it was perfect. She only sent them a message saying she was going out and might return late into the night.

Dylan knocked at the door at exactly 6:30 pm. She opened the door and their eyes met.

“You look….. beautiful” he commented.

“Thank you” she said and looked around for any sigh of attention.

“Can we leave now?”

He nodded and walked her to the car, opened the door and only went to seat after she was settled in the car.

Halfway through the ride, she suddenly gasped.