Heiress in Disguise

ALEX’s POV

I squinted at the sudden burst of sunlight in my room. As I tried to pry my eyes open, I saw that Henry was already standing there, waiting for me.

“Good morning,” came his annoying voice.

I groaned and flipped to my side, turning away from him.

I’ve never slept in a room this big and a bed this comfy so naturally, the moment I was done with dinner and was already bathed, I slept in an instant. It was one of the most peaceful sleeps I had and I don’t intend to part with it.

“You need to wake up. I’m introducing you to a lot some people today.”

I felt a tug and then in an instant, the thick comforter I had wrapped myself into vanished. I groaned again, my voice hoarse.

“Wake up, Young Lady.” Henry circled the bed and shook me awake.

I didn’t budge.

“I need to introduce you to your new bodyguard.”

I pried one eye open. “What’s wrong with Hale?”

“Nothing is wrong with me,” it was Thomas Hale who answered this time. He entered the room, a young man following closely behind him.

I sat up, aware that my hair was still a tangled mess, but didn’t bother with it.

“This is Dimitri Dulatov. He is your new bodyguard.”

I eyed Dimitri, my eyes still rather blurry from the twelve hour long sleep. I don’t know if it’s just me but he doesn’t look like a bodyguard. If anything, he looked like he’s still in high school. College, at best.

“Are you sure he’s a bodyguard?”

Hale gave me a stern look. “Not all bodyguards look like me, Miss Carter.”

I looked at him. He’s right. Thomas Hale was built like he could take on ten men with just a few moves. Dimitri on the other hand looked like he would snap in two if you just looked at him wrong. Sure, he’s good-looking. But that’s not going to help my case if ever the Harrington family gets their hands on me.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Dimitri said and I snapped out of my thoughts.

“Looking at you like what?”

“Like I’m your weakest option.”

“Are you not?”

Thomas Hale took a step forward, his face calm but with an air of confidence. “I assure you, Miss Carter, Dimitri here will be able to protect you. He’s the best of his class and he’s skilled in both combat and weapons training.”

“He looks like he’s still in high school.”

“We made sure to choose a candidate that would fit that description.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And why?”

“Because he will be accompanying you within the walls of Montfort Academy.”

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

We’ve circled fifth avenue more than five hours already. If my toes could speak, they’d be screaming because for some odd reason, Henry made me tag along to buy stuff for school. Which was weird because normally, people this rich don’t even bother showing up in stores. The store shows up to them.

I plopped down on one of the heavily upholstered chairs in Bottega Veneta. Henry, along with his army of fashion consultants and stylists, were busy working their way into building me a closet.

“Remind me, why am I here again?” I asked him once he came close enough to me.

Henry places a sweater on me, squinted and then turned to the consultants behind him. “I think it will do nicely with the black coat.”

All of them nodded, muttering praises at Henry’s good taste.

“Why am I even here?” I asked again, my limbs hanging lifelessly beside me.

He glanced at me. “Because we need to actually see you to be able to dress you. We don’t know your style yet.”

“That’s because you never asked me what it is.”

He smiled at me, the kind of smile that makes you think that the reason he never asked you what your style was is because your style is sh*t.

Well, I say, you can’t really blame me. If you grew up with only the donation bins at your local mall as your solitary source of clothes, you’d have a mismatched style, too.

“Here.” Dimitri handed me a glass bottle. At first glance, I thought it was wine. But it was clear enough that you’d think it was water.

I took it and looked at the label. Svalbarði. I scoffed out loud. “What the hell is this?”

“It’s water.”

“It looks like wine.”

Dimitri tried his best not to raise an eyebrow at me. “It’s water. Read it. It says there Polar Iceberg Water.”

My eyes narrowed at the label. “What? Normal water is too cheap for you, now?”

He sighed and snatched the bottle from me. I snatched it back.

“I didn’t say I’m not going to drink it,” I hissed at him. He grabbed the bottle again, opening it, and then handed it back to me with a straw. I rolled my eyes but still drank it anyway.

He kept staring. I kept drinking.

I don’t want to give out any sign in my expression that says I actually enjoyed the water. Who knew water could taste this good? It feels like eating snow or cotton candy just maybe minus the aftertaste.

After I finished the entire bottle, I handed it back to him.

He accepted it with a slight head tilt. “What do you think of it?”

“Meh.”

I caught a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips and I looked away. I guess my delight was way too easy to read on my face.

After buying clothes, we finally got back into the car. But just when I thought that it was over, we stopped in front of yet another store. This time, it was Kinokuniya.

My face crumpled into a frown. “We aren’t done?”

Henry escorted me out of the car. “We’re still going to pick up some of your school supplies. Don’t worry, we’ll be quick.”

“You said that, too, about the clothes shopping.”

“And I was truthful, wasn’t I?”

I shot him a glare but he had already left me at the foyer. He was too busy talking with other sales associates that I couldn’t even get a single word out to him. When Dimitri noticed this, he grabbed a small basket for me.

“You can pick out some things you want in the store. No one will be mad at you.”

I looked up at him. “Henry will be. I tried getting a shirt and he threw it away.”

“To be fair, that shirt was ugly.”

I snatched the basket from him in a huff and circled the store on my own, rolling my eyes. I got books, stationery, and anything cute that I could find and dumped it into the basket. By the time I filled up two, Henry was already waiting by the counter.

“I see you’ve enjoyed yourself,” he said as he watched Dimitri place the baskets on the counter.

I smiled. “I think I did. Can we make a stop at Barnes & Noble? I want to pick out some more books.”

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Monday was already fast approaching and I still had a dozen questions left to ask Henry. He’s quite elusive, you see. By the time I’m awake, he’s already left. And by the time I’m asleep, that’s when he decides to come home.

For the last three days, there’s only been me and Dimitri. And whatever questions I have, he doesn’t have the right answer to them anyway.

I shoved a spoonful of ice cream into my mouth, sighing. “Are you sure you have no idea who he was?”

Dimitri looked up at me, closing the book he’s buried his face into for the last few hours. “I’ve already told you all I know about your grandfather. He’s a rich billionaire, he’s a no-nonsense businessman, and he’s a genius.”

“But I already know that!” I placed the tub of ice cream back on the table and scanned the bookshelves again. I don’t know what exactly it was that I’m looking for, but I need some answers. “You really have no idea who your employer was?”

“Listen, just like you, I came here after the billionaire was dead. I’ve never even met him. So, technically, you’re my employer.”

I grabbed a book. It was another one of the Harringtons’ autobiographies. “So, what do we know, then?”

“That your grandfather came from a long line of bankers. By the third generation, they’ve expanded to oil, built an entire town somewhere up north and started mining, and then… that’s it. That’s where the billions came from.”

“What about my mother?”

“I only know what you know. That she’s a genius herself. Your grandfather was fond of her. She was just like him.”

At this point, I don’t know if the reason why my fingers were shaking uncontrollably was because I ate too much ice cream or because I’m about to cry.

I flipped through the old, yellowed pages of the book and clenched my teeth so hard I thought it was going to crack. “If that was true, he wouldn’t have let her die alone in a trailer park.”

“But she wasn’t alone.”

“Yeah. Like that’s any better. Shooting yourself in front of a four year old kid.” I shoved the book back on the shelf and turned to him. “She was staring blankly at me when she pulled the trigger, you know?”

Dimitri straightened up from his seat. He looked mildly uncomfortable but he still gave me a small smile. “If it’ll help you feel any better, my brother went crazy and tried to kill me when I was eight. I visited him just a year ago. He doesn’t even recognize me with the amount of pills they’ve put him in.”

I blinked. He did, too.

“Wow,” was all I could manage to say. “We’re both f*cked up, then?”

He chuckled, turning back to his book. “I guess that’s it. That’s why they put us together.”

I stared at him for a minute before I turned my attention on the painting hanging on the wall, just a little above the Harrington crest. It was Reginald Harrington, his face pulled into a serious expression, looking down on us.

Sometimes, I can’t tell if he was being genuine about all this. If he really wanted to help me, make up for all those years that I had no one by my side. Or if I was just a part of his one big power move. A last ‘f*ck you’ to the world.

Well, guess what. F*ck you, too.