The Arrangement Read online

  THE ARRANGEMENT

  PRIVILEGE & PRESTIGE SERIES

  CASSIE VERANO

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  THIS EBOOK IS A WORK of fiction. Names, characters, places, and situations are complete creative works of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

  Resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental.

  Any unauthorized reprint or use of this book or any portion thereof is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.

  Copyright © 2020 Cassie Verano

  All Rights Reserved

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  [email protected]

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  PROLOGUE – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 1 – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 2 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 3 - XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 4 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 5 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 6 – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 7 – XIOMARA (2 MONTHS LATER)

  CHAPTER 8 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 9 – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 10 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 11 – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 12 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 13 – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 14 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 15 – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 16 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 17 – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 18 – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 19 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 20 – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 21 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 22 – XIOMARA

  CHAPTER 23 – LAKE

  CHAPTER 24 – XIOMARA

  EPILOGUE - CHAPTER 25 – LAKE (1 ½ YEAR LATER)

  SNEAK PEEK AT THE DANCE

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  PROLOGUE – XIOMARA

  TO UNDERSTAND WHY I made the choices I did, you must understand my story; know my people. The things I’ve done most would say that they weren’t who I was, not reflective of the person they knew.

  I wasn’t a cheater, they’d say. Maybe he forced her hand. He seduced her because that wasn’t who she was. Maybe it’s all a lie, and she had done none of it.

  I beg to differ. If someone’s capable of doing it, then maybe that’s who they were all along. Just waiting like a butterfly for the perfect time to break forth from their cocoon.

  My father hails from a city called Dharan in Nepal. The values and norms his family held shaped his life views and eventually impacted my life.

  My family moved from Dharan to the United States when my father was just a teenager, just before starting his high school career. That change would shift many of the values my father held dear, but there were some that he would never let go of.

  One of my father's immediate changes after college graduation was changing his name from Gaurav Shah to Gaurav Sheffield. Although he was proud of his culture, he wanted people to see him as an American, and he felt it was an important business move.

  My father’s parents and grandparents came together to find a suitable wife for him when he turned eighteen. His arranged marriage was a welcome and expected part of his life. And for seven years, it was perfect, though the union yielded no children. A few months before their eighth year of marriage, his wife, Maira, died in an airplane crash on a flight back to her city, Itahari.

  When his parents approached him with the idea of another arranged marriage just three years later, he shunned the suggestion. My father was already falling for an Eritrean model who’d done some commercials for his company.

  Within one year of meeting her, my father asked the woman for her hand in marriage. That woman was Semira Tesfay. After their first three years of marriage, she would produce two daughters to my father, myself, and my sister, Senait.

  My mother is much younger than my father, and while his wealth didn’t sway her, the power and authority he held did. Even after she’d grown comfortable in a relationship with him, she still stood in awe of his presence. And my father used that same power over my mother to get her to yield to his demands.

  However, now and then, she would show that she held genuine power. His love for her would always take a backseat to anything else. And that was going to be my saving grace.

  My mother understood early on that he would instill the values of his Indian culture in his children. And because he loved her, he agreed that she, too, could instill certain Eritrean values in us, also, as long as they didn’t conflict with his beliefs.

  There was one value that he was unwavering about. Arranged marriage.

  My father insisted that was the best way to ensure that his daughters married well, someone of equivalent standing and that the marriage would be successful. My father’s culture believed that elders knew what it would take to make a successful marriage. They also would understand what qualities to look for in a mate and who would pair best with whom.

  Although my mother’s Eritrean culture held the same beliefs, she didn’t. My mother was a bit more radical in her thinking and believed that her girls should marry for love. Her parents hadn’t been pleased with her when she’d bucked their traditional thinking and found a husband of her own.

  It had created a rift between her and her family that healed in time but still caused there to be a strain between my father and his in-laws.

  My father wouldn’t budge on his thoughts about whom we should marry, and in time my mother agreed with him.

  I trusted that judgment for years, and although most of my classmates didn’t have an arranged marriage forecast for their future, I was okay with it. After all, that would be my sister’s lot in life, and many other family members on both sides of my family.

  Lake Chambers was the reason that my mindset shifted. Eleventh grade Lake Chambers was not the same Lake Chambers of middle school, but to him, I was still the same Xiomara Sheffield, his best friend.

  Although I knew that I could never have Lake, I knew that I wanted more than what my father offered. I wanted someone that made me excited when they stepped into a room. Someone who had the power to make my heartbeat speed up and my thighs tingly. A man who could leave me thinking of nothing but him for hours on end. And I doubted I would find that in an arranged marriage.

  As I began foolishly to espouse my theories on true love, my parents saw the shift in me. My father tried everything that he could to get me back in line. Nothing helped. I stood firm on my beliefs. I wanted to marry a man who loved me and made me happy, and my father felt that I could have all of that in an arranged marriage. I knew better.

  So, he used the one thing that he knew would bring me back in line. His company. The only thing I’d desired since I’d learned to talk more than I desired true love.

  Settling into the idea of an arranged marriage almost took the life out of me. Especially after I returned home after a ten-year absence to learn about business management at the helm of a leading company in the country.

  Unsurprisingly, it would be Lake Chambers who breathed life back into me again. But I never expected his simple suggestion would change me in ways I’d never expected. Or lead me down a path that I could not turn back from, changing and revealing my heart’s true desire hidden underneath years of persuasion at my father’s hands.

  CHAPTER 1 – XIOMARA

  “HONEY, ARE YOU READY?”

  “I guess, Mom. What about Dad...is he...is he okay?”

  “He’ll be okay, yes. The doctor gave implicit instructions that he could not return to work in the capacity he was in before. But you know you
r father.”

  “But didn’t they say that once before, Mom?” I asked, tossing a few things into my suitcase.

  She sighed, and it didn’t sound too promising.

  “Yes, they did. I hope one day he’ll listen. He’s so stubborn about so many things. Maybe your return home will be precisely what he needs to adhere to this time. With you taking control of the company and all.”

  I sat down on the side of my bed with a nightgown resting across my lap. Tucking one hand underneath my armpit, I clutched the phone tight in my other hand.

  Closing my eyes, I practiced breathing in and out. There was no reason to worry Mom beyond what she already was. Letting her know about my misgivings and concerns wouldn’t help things; it would only delay the inevitable.

  He’d had a heart attack three years ago, and I’d assumed that it was time for me to return home then. But after visiting him in the hospital and seeing how well he was faring, I wasn’t so sure. Two days later, upon his release, he was back at work as if nothing had happened and insistent that I return to New York.

  Knowing that it was a battle that I would never win, I followed my father’s instructions and returned home to New York City.

  “Can I speak to him?” I asked, reaching down to fiddle with the nightgown on my lap.

  “Sure, baby. But please...try not to upset him, okay?”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  I could hear the phone shuffling and then muffled voices in the background as I tried to shore up my emotions. The last thing my father needed was to hear me breaking down on the phone.

  “Hello?”

  His gruff voice sounded a bit tired, winded even.

  “Daddy?”

  “Sugar Pop,” he said and wheezed out a bit of laughter that caused a frown to settle in on my forehead.

  “How’re you feeling?” I asked.

  “Oh, well. You know how everyone is around here. Everybody gets all worked up for nothing.”

  “Is it really nothing, Daddy?”

  I could hear him blowing out a breath on the other line.

  “Well, you know, my old heart just doesn’t quite work how it used to. I’m fine...and I’ll be fine, but I guess they’re right. It’s about time for the old man to take a step back. Time to relax and enjoy what I’ve worked hard for. That’s all. And I’ll do that once you’re here and settled in again. Married to Russell.”

  I smiled. Leave it to my daddy to always put a positive spin on something for the sake of one of his girls. He wasn’t just that way with me, but even with my mom and sister, Senait.

  “Sugar Pop, have you spoken with Russell?”

  “Yes, I spoke with him yesterday evening. He and his family are expecting me and have planned a dinner for me upon my return. His mother will call mom to finalize the details.”

  “That’s great news. Do you have everything in order?”

  My eyes dropped, and I forced a smile to my face so he would hear it in my voice.

  “Yes, I’ll be there first thing tomorrow morning. I’ve already booked my flight, and I’m packing as we speak.”

  “And your job? Is everything in order with that? Do you need me to call Cathy?”

  “No. No, I’ll be fine. She and I have everything in order. I have finished up all of my duties, and I’m free to go. And as it relates to my replacement, well...let’s just say that we’ve been preparing her for this for some time now.”

  “That’s my baby girl. You’ve always got all of your ducks in a row.”

  “Like father, like daughter. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” I remarked, paraphrasing and quoting old sayings.

  “Well, your Mom is standing beside me telling me I need to get off the phone now.”

  “Okay, Daddy. I love you.”

  “Love you, too, Sugar Pop.”

  “Mara, do we need to send a car service for you, or do you want me to send your sister?” my mom asked when she returned on the line.

  “You can send a car service. I don’t trust Senait’s driving, and besides...I’m sure she has better plans than picking up her big sister from the airport.”

  Laughing, my mom said, “I wish we could settle that one down.”

  “Yeah,” I mumbled, the smile dropping from my lips.

  “Okay, then we’ll see you in the morning. Text me the details of your flight, and I’ll make sure that someone is there first thing tomorrow.”

  “Sure, Mom. Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  I sat on the edge of my bed staring at the nightgown for several minutes with the phone barely staying in my hand. A buzz for a notification went off, reminding me that there was still lots of work to do.

  In some ways, I was ready to return home to Sunset Harbor. The last time that I’d been there was three years prior, and I’d been in and out so quick I hadn’t had time to visit anyone.

  This time would be different. Whether I visited people didn’t matter. Traveling around in a small town the size of Sunset Harbor, I was likely to run into someone at some point.

  And that list of folks I didn’t want to run into was small. Comprising one person.

  Lake Chambers.

  The only reason I wasn’t ready to return.

  Although I knew he now owned the Durham Dragons, I also knew that his home was still in Sunset Harbor. There was no way that I wouldn’t see him again after all this time.

  Ten years. That’s how long it had been since I’d seen him last.

  It was strange how someone could go from being one of your closest friends to that guy all in one summer. Unfortunately, he didn’t reciprocate the intensity of the feelings that stirred up within me during the summer before our senior year.

  I’d pushed those feelings down to protect my heart and our friendship. However, that only went so far because jealousy rose within every time I saw him with another girl during our senior year. And going off to college hadn’t made it any better.

  Every summer, he returned, and so did I, still struggling with those same feelings.

  But the last summer, when things came to a head, that’s when I knew that I needed to break the cycle.

  Upon hearing of a position with Burlington, Fairfield, and Wake, a software firm in New York, I immediately applied for it. It had been my father’s suggestion to move, and I’d jumped at the opportunity. I’d only requested that my father not intervene since he and Robert Burlington and Cathy Wake were old friends.

  I needed to know that I could get the position on my merit. And I had. I’d left Sunset Harbor and hadn’t turned back.

  What baffled me at the moment was when I realized my palms were clammy, and my mouth hung open, and I was struggling to breathe.

  All of this at just the thought of seeing Lake Chambers again. God forbid I ran into him. I had no idea how my body might react.

  CHAPTER 2 – LAKE

  I STRUGGLED TO MAINTAIN even breathing, emotional control, and an impassive expression on my face.

  A gut punch.

  A jab to the nose resulting in a stinging sensation.

  My head whirling as a dizzying sensation settled all around me.

  I fought through the fog of memories that threatened to overwhelm me. Shocked at my body’s response. I hadn’t expected this at all.

  But neither had I expected to see her. Or the resulting feelings.

  It was odd how, after all this time, those same emotions came rushing back, stomping over everything in their path.

  Guilt. Shame. Laughter. Desire.

  Ten years. That’s how long it had been since I’d lain eyes on her. And yet, with how my heart pounded in my chest, you’d think it was just yesterday.

  The voice speaking beside me forced me to shift my attention back to the current moment.

  “Mr. Chambers, the Dragons had a winning season last year until we reached the championship, and everything seemed to fall apart in the last game. Just when we thought Durham would bring home the trophy, the Seattle Strikes dominated the last
quarter. Are you predicting a winning season again this year, and if so, what plans does the team have in place to ensure we bring home the championship?” Nancy Yarborough of WSKH-6 asked.

  Looking beyond her into the crowd, I watched as my players and coaches worked the crowd. Realistically, I was second-guessing if I’d seen who I thought I’d seen. How in the hell could my feelings still be this strong after all this time? After all, I’d done.

  “We’ve made some important staffing changes, recruited Ahsan Morton, who took the Atlanta Thundercats to the playoffs two years straight and won both. He’s looking for another championship ring, and I know he and Omari Johnson will make a strong leadership to get our team what we’re looking for. There will be some adjustments to our strategy this year we didn’t implement last year to address gaps in our defense. But I will not divulge those secrets,” I chuckled, running my hand through my hair.

  “There has been speculation, Mr. Chambers, that the truth behind the team failing to gain the championship win is because of your age. Suggesting that perhaps you’re not mature enough to make decisions the team needs to win. What do you say about that? Does being thirty-three, the youngest NBA sports franchise controlling owner, have anything to do with this?”

  “No, it doesn’t. I say that whoever feels that way knows nothing about ball or business. I’ve had this team for three years, successfully turning it around. When I purchased the team, we were about to lose it to Tennessee. I made many changes in the first year that were unpopular, and people condemned me for it. Those same changes put us in the championship last year. This year, I’ve made more changes that will assure us of the championship next year.”

  “You sound certain of that, Mr. Chambers.”

  “Just as certain as I am that today’s festival is going to be a great success,” I said, redirecting her attention to the purpose of her interview.

  I was ready to end it.

  “Speaking of this festival, the Durham Dragons puts it on annually for the community of Sunset Harbor. Can you tell us what led to this decision?”