The Secret Successor

CHAPTER 01

Russell was driving in a borrowed Range Rover, going to a familiar children's amusement park, where he was going to surprise his girlfriend by proposing to her in front of all of his schoolmates.

Russell’s mobile kept ringing from the medium flood of messages his friends kept sending. Most of these same friends wouldn’t even look at his face for long in general, but things have been different ever since he started dating his current girlfriend. Though his vlog account didn’t have many followers, a few loyal followers were now wishing him good luck, and he felt grateful for their kind messages.

He never felt so happy and also so anxious before, hoping that none of his friends would mess things up for him. Even though he was driving and stealing glances at the mobile fixed on a heart-shaped stand, one of his hands still held a small gray box that he kept rubbing with his fingers. It wasn’t just what his friends might do that worried him. Would his proposal get accepted or not? That was his biggest worry.

Natasha, his girlfriend loved gray color, which was why he completely filled his life with gray at the moment. The rented suit he was wearing, his borrowed car, his polished old shoes, and everything around him was gray, except the love in his heart. Even his mobile, a fake Vertu Constellation, was covered up with a fashionable gray cover. The love in his heart for Natasha, however, was as white as ever.

He still remembered the words she first told him when he was in highschool and met her at a friend’s birthday party: I like gray, and gray looks great on you.

She told him those words when everyone else at the party ignored him.

Russell had been dating her for over seven months now, and she had allowed him to kiss her a few times, but she straightforwardly told him ‘sex only after marriage.’ Natasha was beautiful as well as rich, so she had many men chase after her basically her whole life. Russell even fought some of his friends after she became close with him. However, he didn’t quite care about those who envied him, even though he had felt bad for them.

Before his thoughts ended, he squeezed the brake pedal with his foot. The car smoothly stopped at the park. Natasha, the woman of his dreams, was waiting outside, sitting on a bench, and playing with a leaf.

How sweet of her, he thought.

Russell was a decently handsome fellow, but he definitely wasn’t the best face in his circle. Natasha, however, was a man-magnet. Her perfect golden brown hair and eyes would make even hard-hearted men look at her at least twice. However, she had never dated anyone for over six months, except with Russell, so Russell had dared and prepared to take things to the next stage.

He put the gray box in his pocket and stepped out of the car, feeling the beating of his heart palpably. She came up to him with her hands behind and suddenly threw leaves at his face. Russell was pleasantly surprised by her action, not just because she had thrown leaves at him, but ‘ILU’ was written on all those leaves. He couldn’t take a step in any direction, afraid of crushing those lovely green leaves. Russell thought of packing them in a plastic cover and preserving them, but then she stepped on the leaves in order to hug him. Her hug made Russell forget about the leaves. She kissed him on the cheek, and seeing it as an opportunity, he kissed her on the cheek as well.

“Our friends are all waiting. Let’s go, Rustless,” Natasha held his hand and took him into the park. Rustless was the nickname she had given him. She was always energetic and athletic. She was great at games and cultural activities, so, naturally, she wanted to participate now as well. A lot of activities had been planned for entertainment. Russell had used a significant portion of his savings to buy the rings and book the entire park for the whole day, so there were no outsiders to disturb these two, except their schoolmates to play witness.

Natasha and Russell soon joined with their friends. 41 in total. In two-person teams, they played one game after another for more than an hour, which included swimming, shooting, playing polo and table tennis. In one game, Russell carried Natasha in his arms and raced with others. Unfortunately, he got second place because a red-haired guy kept blocking his way while staying ahead. In another round where women carried men on their backs, Natasha carried Russell and won the first place by a wide margin. Nevertheless, she was sweating, huffing and puffing at the end.

“You are much heavier than you look, Russell,” Natasha couldn’t keep a straight face and crashed on her bum.

Russell was also down on both of his knees right next to her. He took out a gray box from his pocket and opened it, revealing the brown diamond rings. “Will you bear my weight for a lifetime?”

Natasha’s expression momentarily froze. “Rustless… you…” she got up to her feet, but he was still down on his knees. She covered her mouth emotionally. Her face gained color. Her brows sweetly furled in. A streak of light began to shine in her brown eyes that reflected his face.

All signs pointed to her nodding any second now.

All their friends gathered around at a distance with smiles on their faces, but none of them said a word, not wanting to influence her decision.

“Natasha…” Russell asked again, a lot more straightforwardly this time, “Will you marry me?”

He had kept his eyes on her without blinking all this while. She was beginning to react to his proposal, and a loud music utterly abused the ongoing peace. It was Natasha’s phone that just started ringing. She took her mobile out, thinking to reject the call, but after seeing the caller’s name, her finger stopped a centimeter away from the screen, “Dad.”

“Your dad?” Russell buried all the tension beneath a pleasant smile. “Go on. Talk to him.”

“It’s your dad,” she responded.

“My dad?” as Russell looked more than a little puzzled, she answered the call.

“Uncle Arnold?”

“Yes, Little Nut,” Arnold’s voice was quite friendly as he was one of her father’s close friends, and he had met her numerous times in the past. When she was a kid, her family wasn’t that rich, and Arnold used to feed her nuts as they were her favorite. “I can’t reach Russell’s mobile. Is he with you?”

Russell was already signaling her by making an x-mark with his arms. He clearly didn’t want to talk to his dad at the moment.

“Y-Yes, uncle,” Natasha’s words deflated Russell. “Just a second,” she handed the mobile to him, whispering to Russell that she couldn’t lie.

“D-Dad,” Russell spoke in a loud voice but then walked to the side so he could speak privately. “I’m quite busy right now. Whatever this is, we’ll talk later.”

“I won’t take long,” Arnold's voice was neither friendly nor hostile. “Just wanted to say I’ve arranged a marriage for you.”

“Oh, okay, you don’t need to call me just to say that… wait, what?” Russell ended up speaking out loud, but then he cleared his throat. “Are you kidding me?” he hissed. “A marriage? You didn’t even say anything about this beforehand.”

“You’re not an employee, Russell. You’re my son,” Arnold’s voice turned a bit cold.

Russell frowned. “Dad…” he kept his voice low. “I was in the middle of proposing to Natasha when you called!”

“Oh, and what did she say?” he asked in a little curious tone.

“You called before she could answer!” Russell’s brows twitched in annoyance.

“Is that so? Then don’t wait for her answer and just come home. There are a lot of things we need to talk about.”

“Huh? You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Russell didn’t hide his disappointment. “I love Natasha, Dad!”

“And I love you, son, but if you don’t listen to me, I will be forced to think I don’t even have a son. I hope you don’t stretch things that far. I know you won’t. I’ll be waiting, so come home quickly.”

“W-Wait,” before Russell could say anything, the call ended. Russell clenched the mobile in utter frustration and anxiety.

His friends were all waiting. More importantly, Natasha was still waiting. Russell’s heart was not in his control as he approached his girlfriend. “S-Something urgent came up. I need to go home, Natasha, but I want to hear your decision. Will you marry—”

As he looked into her brown eyes, something struck his face. He didn’t even realize what it was until a couple of seconds passed.

Natasha had just slapped him. His entire world flipped upside down. “N-Natasha… why?” tears welled up in his eyes, “don’t you love me?”

“I do, no, I did, but how could you propose to me like this?” she fumed, plucking her mobile from his hand. “You don’t even have a proper job, so how do you expect me to marry you? You disappointed me, Russell. I thought you were more sensible than this. You spoiled my day.” Even though she kept walking, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Russell raised his hand and yelled, “Wait!” he hurried over. “Please, Natasha, let’s talk about this.”

Natasha didn’t stop.

Russell’s heart shook as she didn’t even look at him anymore. He tried to hold her hand, but she didn’t let him touch her. As she entered her black Alfa Romeo SUV and left, Russell’s eyes melted into tears.

Russell could hear some of his friends giggling and whispering behind him.

“He deserved it.”

“I saw this coming though.”

“He’s an average Joe with no job. How could he expect Natasha to marry him? He’s not even worthy to lick her boots. She only dated him because she probably wanted to try something different.”

“Yeah. I thought Natasha went crazy when she started dating him, but it all makes sense now.”

Their words cut deep into Russell’s heart. Many of his friends walked away from there with either smiles or relieved looks on their faces.

The red-haired guy among the friends was still standing in the back and called someone on his phone. “Sir, this is Gage. I’ve got good news. Young Master’s proposal failed miserably.”