Rise Of The Disgraced Heir

Ian groaned as his alarm went off.

He had self defense training with Camilla and their instructor at 8am today. He didn't realize how late he had managed to crawl back into bed. It was already 4am by the time he made it back to his room.

Ian took a deep breath and sighed before finally getting up and dragging himself to his bathroom to prepare for the day.

Just as he was dressing up, he heard the doorbell go off repeatedly.

He groaned at the noise, grabbing his shirt and making his way down to the first floor of his place.

The doorbell didn't stop till he yanked the door open to find Camilla with her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face.

When she realized that he didn't have a shirt on, she gasped and covered her eyes.

"Ian, put a shirt on!" Camilla shouted.

"It's just my chest." Ian grumbled as he placed his shirt over his head and did as Camilla asked. "Why are you even here? We still have thirty minutes before we have to head down to the gym."

"I want breakfast." Camilla simply said as she kept her hands on her eyes. "Do you have a shirt on yet?" She asked.

"Yes." Ian grumbled.

Camilla quickly walked into his room and slammed the door behind her as she marched to his kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Ian asked Camilla as he chased after her.

"I told you, I want to eat breakfast." Camilla told Ian as she opened his fridge and took out some food.

A maid quickly appeared and took it from Camilla.

Camilla tried to protest but the maid told her that it was her job to cook and clean after them.

In the end Camilla gave in and let the maid cook for them.

"Don't you have your own kitchen?" Ian asked as he walked over to the coffee machine.

This time the maid didn't try to stop him from making his own coffee as she cooked their breakfast.

"I do, but it's boring being all alone." Camilla said with a frown. "I'm tired of eating all of my meals alone, I don't want to. I can always just swing by here and save the maids some work of cooking for the two of us and cleaning after the two of us."

"Fine, fine." Ian said as he gave in to her plan. "You can have your meals here with me. I just need to know what you like and don't like and what you are allergic to."

"With all due respect Mr. Lim, Miss Montero." The maid said as she joined in on the conversation. "We already know these details. It was part of your dossier that we needed to memorize." She explained.

"Wow, the Reyeses are thorough." Camilla said as she was shocked that the staff knew details like those.

"Marco is thorough." Ian said as he shook his head. "We need to learn from him, to be like him or better."

Camilla nodded in agreement.

"So you'll have dinner and breakfast here everyday?" Ian asked.

"Yes, well as long as you don't have Jas over." Camilla told Ian. "I don't think Jas likes me."

"She has to like you, I'm stuck with you." Ian said with a laugh.

"Well till she is comfortable with me I will do my best to stay away, I don't want to strain your relationship with her." Camilla offered. "I can already see this job taking a toll on your relationship."

Ian took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he could already see how difficult his conversation with Jas was going to be.

There was also the issue of her family losing money because she was associated with him. Ian didn't want the Ortegas to suffer because of him, it wasn't right.

"Earth to Ian, are you still there?" Camilla asked as she waved her hand in front of him.

"Yeah, I was just thinking." Ian said with a frown.

"Breakfast." The maid said as she laid out a platter of sandwiches in front of Ian and Camilla. "It's a good thing the two of you both like bacon and egg sandwiches, cooking for you two would be a pain if you had different preferences." She said with a smile before walking back into the kitchen.

"Wait." Ian called out. "Is it alright if we run through the meal plan for the rest of the week later, right after our self defence classes?" Ian asked the maid.

"Yeah, sure." She said with a nod.

"What's your name, by the way?" Camilla asked.

"Jane." The maid said with a smile.

"Thanks Jane." Camilla said as she pointed at her food.

Jane simply nodded and left them alone.

"You're used to having maids and servants, aren't you?" Camilla asked Ian.

"We did, a long time ago. But things are different for my family now." Ian said with a shrug.

"I saw your file by the way." Camilla told Ian. "Well your family file, it was assigned to me last night. I was shocked when I saw it."

"Well, what do you want to ask?" Ian said as he braced himself, he knew telling Camilla about what happened to his family would force him to relive all the trauma and the pain. But it was inevitable, he had to repeat his story every so often.

"How did you survive through all of that?" Camilla asked. "How did you survive and now thrive? You are amazing."

Ian was caught by surprise with her question. No one had ever asked him that, they normally focused on all the loss and all the pain, but never what happened after.

"Are you alright?" Camilla asked Ian as she gave him a very confused look.

"Yes, I'm fine." Ian said with a nod as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"So how did you?" Camilla asked as she waited for his answer.

"You know, no one has ever asked me that." Ian said as he laughed. "Usually I have prepared answers for all of the usual questions, but for this one I don't."

"Then don't give me a generic answer, tell me the truth." Camilla said with a smile.

"I didn't." Ian shrugged. "I didn't survive it. Everything I went through beat me black and blue. It changed me, it damaged me, it morphed me into someone different."

"For the better, I hope." Camilla said as she looked at Ian.

"I think I changed for the better." Ian said with a smile. "If I had stayed the same reckless boy I once was, I would never survive in the real world."

"You are lucky then." Camilla told Ian.

"Lucky?" Ian asked.

"Yup, lucky." Camilla said with a nod. "You are lucky that tragedy made you stronger, it made you better. If it hadn't happened things could have become worse."

"I guess that's true. I wasn't exactly the best person before we lost everything." Ian said as he remembered how horrible he was growing up. He was spoiled to the bone, and all the hardships he went through made him realize how bad he was.

"Sometimes, bad things have to happen to us to make our lives better." Camilla said in a weak voice.

Ian could feel that her words meant something to her, something she hid deep inside her. But he didn't want to push her to tell him if she wasn't ready.

They would be working together for years, he knew she would tell him eventually. He hoped that she would come to trust him over time.

They would need to learn to trust each other and their boss.

"Oh fuck." Camilla cursed as she looked at her phone.

"What?" Ian asked as he finished his sandwich.

"We're gonna be late." Camilla said as she got off her seat and dragged Ian out the door.