Bab 18: Miller vs. Miller

"Where—"

"Just let him be," Jay told Maya as he refused to let go of her. "You've done enough damage."

"Me?" Maya questioned as she looked around.

The crowd had begun to disperse, but her cousin, Gary, was clearly unhappy with her interference.

"Can't you see he's hurting?" Jay asked as Maya noticed her cousin marching up to them.

Gary was turning red as a tomato in anger.

To be honest it seemed quite comical to Maya. She knew that Gary and his father never liked her branch of the family, probably because despite her being born a woman, their grandfather still favored her as heir.

"How dare you embarrass your own family in public?!" Gary hissed as he tried to keep his voice as low as possible.

It was enough that Maya, a woman, had made him back down, but she had also defended him against a man that had abandoned and hurt her. Someone who had ruined their good family name by manipulating her and leaving her alone to face all the challenges after.

"And there is the matter of Oliver Wright, clearly your old friend is madly in love with you and you have the gall to embarrass the Wright family?! I'm ashamed to be related to you, Maya!" Gary said as his brown eyes burned in anger.

"Oliver knows where we stand," Maya argued.

Behind her, Oliver walked up just as Gary was speaking to him.

"Mr. Miller, your cousin is a very good childhood friend," Oliver said in a chilling tone as he looked down at the man before him.

Gary was quite short compared to him, reaching only until Oliver's shoulders. Gary shrank back as Oliver reprimanded him, this was not what he had expected.

"Mr. Wright, I simply wanted to lecture my cousin on how she should be kinder to you," Gary said as his voice became softer and more apologetic. "After all, you owe my cousin nothing and are helping her out of the kindness of your heart."

"My relationship with your cousin is none of your business, Mr. Miller," Oliver's voice raised slightly as he started to get even more annoyed with Gary.

Gary took a step back as he slowly accepted that there was no way that he would win against Oliver Wright.

"From the moment I started to court your cousin until the time I proposed, I was well aware that her heart was closed off to love," Oliver calmly explained as a storm of emotions raged within himself.

"Then I apologize for my cousin, she led you on—"

"I have done no such thing, Gary!" Maya gasped as her cousin through an accusation towards her in an attempt to save his own skin.

"Mr. Miller, I think you should leave," Oliver said as his expression darkened and he pushed Maya defensively behind him.

To his surprise, Maya did not fight him on this and simply stood with Jay.

"We will talk at home," Gary threatened as he walked out of the venue with several members of his staff that he had taken with him.

The trio watched as Gary begrudgingly left the ballroom, practically stomping out like a four-year-old with a tantrum.

"Well that was mature of him," Jay chuckled as he defused the situation.

"Thank you," Maya said as she ignored Jay's joke and turned her attention to Oliver. "I know that I did embarrass you earlier, I didn't mean to do it."

Oliver smiled and nodded as he offered his hand for Maya to shake.

"What's this?" Maya asked, smiling at her old friend, slapping his hand away.

"You said we should just go back to the old days when our friendship was innocent and we could just enjoy one another's company," Oliver told her as he held out his hand again. "I fell the moment I met you as a child, so this is me making an attempt at an innocent friendship."

Maya smiled and sighed as she took his hand and shook it.

"You're silly," She chuckled.

"Oliver Wright, thirty-one years old, Vice President for Marketing and Business Development at DLR Enterprises, Arlington City branch," He said in a very formal tone.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Wright," Maya giggled. "Maya Miller, twenty-seven, Marketing and Public Relations Manager for iSees Corporation."

Maya laughed as Oliver released her hand, behind them, Jay looked towards the door in the distance.

He knew that Nate would be standing there, watching from afar as the woman he loved laughed with a man he believed to be his love rival.

"Sir, they will be introducing the guest of honor soon," Clark told Nathaniel over the phone as he watched the interaction between Maya and Oliver.

He couldn't help but feel jealous as she laughed with the other man. It seemed so effortless, so natural, he wondered when she would be able to smile and laugh around him so lightly as well.

"Sir?" Clark called out again on the phone, snapping Nathaniel from his thoughts and back to the matter at hand.

"I'm on my way up," Nathaniel turned around, putting the scene in the ballroom behind him.

He shouldn't look at men that were lesser than him, shouldn't he be more confident? He was more capable than Oliver, the man was his employee.

He also had a deeper bond with Maya, or so he wanted to believe. They had loved so deeply, he believed that if he could just show that to her again she would see how much he still loved her and how much he regretted leaving her without an explanation.

But for now, the matter of Maya and Oliver could wait, there was a fish he wanted to catch.

"I want you to find everything out about Gary Miller," Nathaniel was not about to allow a man like him go without any consequences.

"And what would you want me to do with that information, boss?" Clark asked. He wasn't used to his boss giving simple orders, there was usually something more.

"Hold on to it, I want his cousin to decide how he should suffer,"

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