Marrying my father's friend, in love with my best friend

The dinner end up with those words of his and no one spoke a words further. They ate in silence, each group talking among themselves.

When the dinner was over, they went to the living room for some tea. Ivy instead went to the bar, she was off the mood to have hypocrite chat with them. All by herself, she gulped glasses of wine one by one with no care.

"Ivy," someone called her from behind. She turned on her chair to see who were calling her and to no surprise, it was her cousin Michael, the one with whom she was competing the post of CEO with, the son of her elder uncle.

"What do you want Mr. Stone ?" she asked, swirling the glass of wine in her hands. Her legs crossed one on the other, she looked at him with a bored expression on her face.

"Are you okay?" he asked concerned. It was his first time to see her in such a state. She was drinking to no end. The Ivy he knew was always behaving with grace, never letting else than perfection display to the outside world. Nothing like what she was displaying since the moment she arrived.

"Ohhh, you're worry about me," she said in a sarcastic tone.

"You don't have to be, I'm perfectly fine," she took a sip of her glass.

"Ivy…"

"Like I told you Mr. Stone, you have no reason to be worry of and is not as if we are close or something for you to be worry about," Ivy said.

He lower his eyes, in the past when they were young, they were close. Ivy used to call him big brother since he was older than her. But due to the different of treatment they got from their grandparent and the rivalry, they fell apart and became worse than strangers.

"And if I want to be close to you? To have the relation we had in the past. I hate the situation Ivy," he missed his sister. All his other cousins was eyeing, jealousy and envy obvious in their gaze. Hate, he dare to say they felt it for him, but the only one he couldn't stand was the pitiful look Ivy always gave him every time they met. Pathetic, he felt in front of her.

"You want things to be back to normal?" she said not looking at him, her eyes was glued on her glass of wine.

"Yes, I'm ready to do anything,"

"Then…" she looked up at him "Back off for the position of CEO and let me take after my father and I promise you would have your sister back," what made her took her distance from him wasn't the way they were been treated nor their rivalry. For her, you could be both rival and friend, one didn't stop the other.

What made her took her distance from him was the fact he never defended her, not even once. When she was been bully or accused or mocked by their family he never stood up for her. When they kept on looking down on her and wanting him to be the next CEO, he remained silent, taking all the praise without caring about her. How could she call such a person brother? Her friends with whom they weren't related by blood always stood up for her. Mocking her was mocking them.

Michael face fell and a frown appeared on his face, he seem troubled.

"Ivy you know I can't….." he tried to explain.

"Why?" she smile "Why can't you do it? It's not like you can't and we all know that place is legitimately mine, you entered in the picture just because of grandfather persistence. If you back off and said you don't want it, no one would force you too," she said but she knew his answers to her question before asking.

He was a coward with no personality. He hated the way they treated her but he was too afraid to go against his grandfather and father. He was nothing but just an obedient dog who followed every of their words, a person pleaser who couldn't stood for what he wants. Pathetic, the type of person she hate.

"Stop wasting your breathe then. Since you can't do such a simple thing for me, you are no worthy to be my brother," she putted the glass in her hand on the bar.

"Don't come to me again for such a rubbish," she left him fix in place.

Michael clenched his fist, he knew very well he was a coward. He had no desire to take that position but with the pressure coming from his parents, he couldn't do otherwise. He always wanted to stand for her but the fear in him was bigger than his wish to help. It was something he hated the most in himself.

Ivy got to the living room, her eyes scanned the room in searched of her father but she couldn't spot him. She smirked, it always amused her how the family seems to be divide in to two, those supporting her father and the other their grandfather. Those supporting her father were all around her mother while those supporting her grandfather were around her grandmother.

She when to her mother who was sitting on the couch, her father came to the view exiting her grandfather office. She leaned to her mother and whispered in her ears

"I'm heading back,"

Sofia wanted to ask what was going on with her, she wanted to ask since she entered but refrained herself due to the place they were. Something was wrong with her daughter, she never drank like she did, that too never in public.

Sofia nodded her head. Ivy gave a smile to her father who even if he was engaged in a conversation with her uncle had his eyes fixed on her. She could only concluded her planed failed. She failed to hide her trouble from them. She nodded before heading back, all she wanted now was to be alone with no one else and sort out her thoughts.