BILLIONAIRE'S LOVE

Few moments later, Ashton and his assistant came to their table with the waitress that she showed them the table before. Ashley stood up and shook her hands with him as a greeting when both Sherin and Sasha stood up too. "Nice to meet you again miss Nicole" Ashton said with a small smile playing on his lips.

"Nice to meet you too Mr Parker" Ashley said with a small smile of her own. After shaking her hand with Ashley, he turned to Sherin and smirked before extending his hand to her who took it shyly. He brought her palm to his lips and kissed the back of her hand maintaining his smirk. She blushed as she pulled her hand back and sat on her seat and everyone mimicked her.

"I hope you don't mind having me here" Sherin said feeling awkward. "Oh no there is nothing like that. In Fact I'm pleased to have you" Ashton said with a cheeky grin and Ashley coughed, trying to control her smile. "Shall we start with the Meeting?" Ashton asked looking at Ashley who nodded her head.

They ordered coffee for themselves before Sasha opened the laptop and have the presentation to Ashley who checked it before turning the screen to Ashton and his assistant and started explaining, Sasha giving necessary inputs whenever needed and Sherin kept looking at him, admiring his profile while he caught her staring sometimes but didn't commented on it.

They wrapped up the meeting in one and half hours and both the teams closed their laptops. Ashton's assistant whispered something in his ear before they nodded at each other looking completely serious while Ashley was reading the contract again before signing it.

Sasha was wrapping up her notes and laptop while Sherin was looking at Ashton secretly acting like she was busy doing something on her mobile.

Ashton gazed at Sherin and she bit her lip getting caught for the nth time in the day and hit her head lightly with the mobile before turning away. He chuckled slowly and looked at Ashley who gave him the contract papers to sign. He signed them after checking them for a minute and shook his hand with Ashley and winked at Sherin and said "hope you enjoyed the show miss Smith.

I'm glad for that" and walked away with his assistant without looking back as he buttoned his coat. Sasha and Ashley looked at her and her face turned completely red making Sasha giggle which Ashley cracked a smile unable to keep a straight face.

When Ashley asked the waitress to pay the bill, she said that it was already paid, making her annoyed. According to her, she has to pay for the things she brought. She shook her head and turned to Sasha and said "take these files and go to the office. Cancel my other works today and postpone them to next week. I have to go out with Sherin on some personal work so I won't be available today.

You can leave at the regular timings after locking my cabin and yours" Ashley said, pressing more on personal work as if telling Sherin that she was not done with the talk they left in the restaurant.

Sasha nodded her head and suggested "can we be here for sometime ma'am? I'll cancel the schedule for the day and you can talk to the clients yourself so that they won't think it's an excuse?" Ashley nodded her head and said "that will work" and sat on her chair while Sherin busied herself in her mobile while Sasha and Ashley were doing their work.

After half an hour, Sasha wrapped up her work and bid them bye and walked away from the place. "Do you want to talk here?" Ashley asked and Sherin nodded her head in no. "Let's talk at your house or mine" Sherin suggested and Ashley shrugged with an okay before standing up from her place and Sherin followed her cue and they left the restaurant.

Zane opened the door for both of them and they sat inside before Zane settled himself in the driver's seat. "Where should I drive to ma'am?" He asked politely looking at Ashley who looked at him and said "to my mansion. The address is already entered on the map" Ashley murmured and sat on the farthest corner in the back seat while Sherin sat on the other.

Zane started the car after nodding his head silently. The ride was silent for the first few minutes when Sherin sighed loudly and turned to Ashley "I want to talk now itself I can't wait." Ashley nodded her head slightly, not at all ready to speak something which she hates to death.

"For the starters, why Ash? Why don't you care about them?" Sherin asked as she kept her mobile in her pocket and turned her upper half body to Ashley who mimicked her stance and raised her eyebrows. "Why do you actually want me to care for them?" She retorted with an expressionless face. Sherin narrowed her eyes and said "as I told before, they are your parents" making Ashley roll her eyes.

Unknown to them, Zane was hearing everything along with driving.

"I don't care," Ashley said and Sherin scoffed. "When did you turn this heartless?' Sherin asked with a glare making Ashley chuckle dryly. "I wasn't heartless, I was made to be heartless. They made me like this" Ashley said, her voice filled with rage. Sherin frowned "why?"

"You don't know anything. You literally don't know anything that I have gone through and you can't judge me now because I don't care for them" Ashley said, pointing her finger at Sherin who's frown deepened at her words. "That doesn't change the fact that they are your parents," Sherin said, letting out a frustrated breath.

"That doesn't change the fact that they are the reason I wasn't depressed too" Ashley yelled loudly, making Sherin flinch. "They became like that because of you. It was you who ran away. It was you who put them through it. It was you because of whom they lost their daughter" Sherin yelled back, unable to control herself anymore.

Ashley froze on her spot and went numb. She couldn't believe her blamed her for everything happened. She blamed her for having goals and achieving them.

She even tried to do what her parents wanted to but that didn't made her happy and her parents were pressuring her with so many hopes and started cursing her that depressed her and they even locked her in room and did much more stuff that Ashley felt running away to achieve her dreams would be better than suiciding and her only bestfriend blamed her for that. She didn't expect it. At Least from her.

She was left speechless. Sherin realised what she said and looked at her with wide eyes when she realised what she spoke.

"Ash I didn't mean to..." She was about to touch Ashley's hand when she backed away and Ashley closed her eyes as they brimmed with tears threatening to spill. But she didn't want to cry.

She fisted her hands and turned to the window for a second and wiped a tear that fell from her eyes and turned to Sherin who was looking at her blankly and she couldn't decipher whether she was feeling guilty or not.

"I didn't mean to say that" Sherin said in a low voice after a few seconds and Ashley raised her eyebrows and said "you sure as hell meant Everything you have been speaking from morning miss." "Fine I did mean it. That's what you have been. You have been selfish all the while that you didn't for once think about them. You didn't think about what they are going through and how they are now.

And when you find out that I'm caring, you stop me too. Then what should I understand from this huh? You changed completely Ash. You weren't the girl I know. You didn't think about their reputation or anything " Sherin said glaring at her even though she didn't mean the words she said before, she means whatever she told now and she knows that.

Ashley took a deep breath before she yelled, her voice much frustrated and filled with pain "You don't have any right to judge me when you were not there when I was struggling everyday crying into pillows trying to focus on what my parents wanted from me and feeling completely depressed that I was suicidal and was traumatized.

And as if that was not enough they used to lock me in my room completely from everyone's contact making me feel lonely because they wanted me to do what they wished for. I was depressed, I cried, I screamed, I did everything I could until I couldn't take it anymore and ran away and that didn't stop with that.

They call me whenever they feel like and abuse me with words they used to whenever I rejected what they wanted from me and it was happening till date. You weren't there with me at a single place when I needed someone to tell me that it was okay or to support me so you don't have a single right to tell me that I should care for them when they wanted me dead.

Don't you dare bring up this topic again Or else the consequences will be really bad and stop caring for them."