CARBON COPY

Chapter 14: A Disappointing Union

Chapter 14: A Disappointing Union

Unknown Location, Baltiney, New York...(1992)

     The sound of the windshield wipers had been the only noise aside from the engine in the car and a few labored breaths as Simon continued to navigate the rather expensive town car through the falling rain as Mr. and Mrs. Windward sat in the backseat as silent as the stars and stared out their respective windows. Silas Windward had been a rather typical stern businessman with an impassive expression and dark eyes that seemed to be capable of reading into another's very soul once one looked into them. Mrs. Beth Windward had been something else, the bitterness and resentment not at all gone as she sat prudent and bothered as she glared out the window at the falling rain, not at all wishing to speak with or look upon her husband who had been an odd thing considering what she'd been up to in the hotel with the young lad when she'd been a well-married woman with two children to speak of.

"You didn't have to hit him." she huffed wrinkling her nose up as she turned her head to glare at his still largely impassive husband.

The silent and seemingly impassive man better known as Silvanus "Silas" Elrod Sylvester Windward II had been a rather prominent businessman and vastly wealthy due to his family and their position when it came to all things of commercial industry. He'd been the vastly educated and well-bred firstborn son of ruthless business mogul Silvanus "Silas" Elrod Sylvester Windward I and his lovely wife Eileen Katherine Windward, who had given birth to triplet sons Jeffery "Jeff" Aaron Windward and Jeremy Allen Windward and Jason Anthony Windward when Silas II was just sixteen years of age.

As the elder son of a prominent business dynasty in the making Silas was desperate for affection and to prove himself worthy of being a Windward to the point of obsession and personal destruction. He'd been so focused on his reputation and business to please his father that he'd often neglected much of his own life just to see it done. Something that cost him a good deal of love and respect from his wife Elizabeth Katherine Conyers-Windward.

Between them, both Silas II and Beth had three children two girls, Katherine Leanne Windward "Kathy" who was their eldest, Caroline "Carrie" Judith Windward their middle child, and their only son and the baby of the family, Everett "Rhett" Silas Elrod Windward.

Kathy had taken after both her parents being ambitious as her father and headstrong as her mother, so much so that when she'd been a little girl she was determined to be the next to run the family company when the time came. Sadly, her backward-thinking grandfather had no such intention to allow such a thing and did his worst to steer her clear of any talk of it to the point of her outright forgoing her dream and becoming something of a rebel turning her back on everything she had ever once held dear including her father whom she warred with often.

Carrie had been independent for quite a bit not wishing to follow in anyone's footsteps let alone either of her parents, she'd been more into music and art and spent her days with layabouts more often than not and obsessing over artistic expression and free thinking protests than anything else. She'd gotten the piercings and the tattoos that always made her parents cringe and rubbed it in their faces despite not being as bold as her elder sister in the wake of her blatant disregard for their father.

Everett had been quite different from his older sisters. He had loved his mother a good deal but he was very fond of his father even if he'd been terrified of him and struggled to live up to the man's expectations of what he'd want in his only son. Rhett had been the only member of the Windward household that didn't have any contempt for his father but Silas II more or less assumed he did and made himself scarce nonetheless. Everett was a chubby nerd of a boy and often the butt of many jokes and pranks as a child to the point of embarrassment. No one took him seriously as the next possible heir to the Windward fortune and as a result, he mostly kept to himself being invisible even in his household until the proper time for family photo-ops or conventions.

Silas had never given any indication that he cared one way or another about it as he'd always seemed to have his mind fixated on business and his family's rather impressive reputation. He'd been groomed from birth to take on the responsibility of his father's legacy and had prepared for it in more ways than one only for his father to select an outsider to co-run the company with him whom Silas outright despised.

Ian Corban had been a thorn in Silas II's side ever since he slithered his way into the company as an intern and wormed his way up top to his father's ear with plans to become the next CEO in place of the son that Silas I seemed to be so disappointed in so often.

At the present moment, Silas II gritted his teeth when thinking about the slimeball worming his way into his company and tried his best to keep a firm lid on his ever-boiling brand of temper.

"You didn't have to hit that poor boy, Silas," said Beth once more in a huff. "He's probably going to need a doctor."

Silas turned his attention from his wayward thoughts and back to his less-than-faithful wife.

"If he does it'll be on your dime, not mine," he replied rather coldly before the car stopped and the ever-prompt assistant known as Simon Wheeler parked and climbed out of the driver seat to open the door for him.

Beth Windward huffed once more as Silas ventured around the car and held out his hand for her to take as she slowly extended it to him and they moved about the rain and toward the entrance of the building they were due to be inside with relative ease. It was always unnerving how seamless it had been to watch them both go from outright despising each other to looking to be happily in love when it came to the flashing lights of cameras and the watchful eyes of their apparent public.

"Ain't that a shame," said Simon watching them venture inside the building as if all had been well between them when he knew all too well that it wasn't.