Chapter 1
Adrian
Well that plan couldn’t have been executed better. I have spent the better part of these past two years plotting and scheming different scenarios that would bring Morgan Lane back to me. Back in college, I was certain that one day, I’d make Morgan my wife, and we would walk together into the sunset in perfect bliss.
Morgan’s parents, Jim and Lana Lane, had practically engineered the perfect woman for me and delivered her to my dorm building’s doorstep. Morgan’s unmistakable beauty with her hazel eyes, long lean limbs (always with a hint of summer sun), pearly white smile, and perfect strawberry blonde hair is every young man’s wet dream. Top that with her prep school education and years of etiquette lessons, and she is the perfect woman to have on my arm at every social event as I eventually take over my father’s company and bring it to the top of the industrial manufacturing market.
My life had always gone according to plan. On my first day of freshman year at college, Morgan literally fell into my life and became what I always knew would be part of my future. I was standing in front of the bulletin board in the entry way of my dorm, checking out the posted flyers for all of the Greek rush week parties when something crashed into my back, sending me tumbling to the ground.
“Oh my gosh, you’re bleeding, I’m so sorry!” The tiny-framed, blonde-haired beauty gasped as she entered my field of vision.
“I’m bleeding?” I asked, a little disoriented from the fall. I must have hit my head on the way down.
“Your eyebrow…it’s cut...let me help you up,” she said while extending her tiny hand. “I have a first aid kit in my room, let me take care of that cut for you. It’s the least I can do after pushing you over like that. You must have hit your eye on the way down.”
“Sweetheart, I’m twice your size. I doubt you were the cause of my tumble just now, I easily outweigh your sexy little frame,” I teased, deciding to flirt a little with the hottie before me.
“It was my fault, I’m so sorry. I was walking past you just as a few guys carrying a couch through the door plowed right into me. They must not have seen me. Anyway, the guy walking backwards was moving pretty fast and when he hit me, I fell right into your back, and you went down. I’m serious about your cut though, it looks pretty bad. I don’t think you need stitches, but you should really let me take care of it. I’m Morgan, by the way.”
“Adrian Thompson. It’s nice to meet you, Morgan.”
“Nice to meet you too, Adrian. I’m just down the hall, room 103. Shall we?” Morgan asked as she turned to walk toward her room, gesturing for me to join her.
After Morgan cleaned my cut, I asked her to dinner to thank her for taking such great care of me. What I didn’t tell her was that from the moment I’d laid eyes on her, I knew she’d be mine forever so we might as well start getting to know each other. During that dinner, I found out that Morgan and I had a lot in common. We both came from affluent families, having fathers who owned large corporations. Morgan talked about her strict upbringing and her aspirations to make something of herself someday, which was something I truly admired. We quickly became a couple, and spent the next four years completely smitten with each other. Our families grew close, spending holidays and other vacations together, and I think our parents had secretly planned our inevitable nuptials at the country club they had decided to join together.
Close to the end of our senior year, I found an apartment in the city, somewhat close to my father’s corporate headquarters. It was always part of the plan for me to take over at Thompson Manufacturing once my dad was ready for retirement. I asked Morgan to move in with me and was planning on proposing during dinner on the night of our graduation. As her parents hadn’t allowed her to live anywhere but her single room in campus dorms, Morgan hadn’t ever had a roommate or even experienced living with someone. I thought she would jump at the chance to move out of the dorms and in with me so we could get settled into our new life. Like I said, my life had always gone according to plan.
Morgan threw the first of two of the biggest curveballs of my life the night I asked her to move in with me. I had taken her to a nice restaurant near campus, and asked her over dessert. Morgan’s eyes quickly filled with tears, and instead of accepting my offer, she let me know that she had been accepted into grad school, and thought we should break up. She went on to explain that although she loved me very much, she needed to forge a life and career for herself, and she needed to do that alone. I knew she had always wanted a career, but I figured she would get a job in her field and work a few years before we started churning out children, then she would stay at home with them in our country house while I commuted back and forth to the city every day. I had no idea she aspired to further her education and become a corporate mogul of her own one day as well, and I certainly had no idea she wanted to do that without me in her life.