Two| No

                                        

                                              

                                

                                    
                                
                                  
                                      
                                  
                                  
                                    
                                      
                                      
                                    
                                  
                                 
                                
                                
                              
                              
My assistant puts my coffee cup beside me and I pick it up immediately for a sip. The whiskey burns my throat. I have her disguise the alcohol as coffee so I can get through these grown men and women speak over each other. 
They're like those seagulls from Finding Nemo. All fighting over a fish. Only the fish here is to give the best idea and save this hospital. All these rich men decided to overcharge everyone for treatment and now the people hate them. 
I cannot understand a word and it is not the alcohol. It's the annoying sound of my father running his mouth. "I urge you all to discuss this like normal people." He says. As if he wasn't the one yelling the most. Absolute psycho.
After my maternal grandfather, the previous duke passed away, his estate and title passed onto my mother. She was his only child and he made adjustments in his will to make sure a woman could be his successor because people before him were grade A misogynists. 
She got his title which she passed onto me. She said she didn't understand any of this enough. As if I did. My mother meets with high society people and goes to charities and hospitals and even then she decided to put her duchy on my shoulders. 
I didn't do any of what she did. I didn't go to meet dying children to give them hope that things would get better. I didn't donate money to good causes. I didn't care about anything enough to do all this. But then it all changed.
I became the youngest Duke of Halesbury around six years ago. But that wasn't my goal. I never cared for the riches and duties and noble blood or whatever else exists. I had other shit to do. 
While I've been the head of the duchy for six years, I haven't stayed home for more than a few months at a time. I lived on that shitty island. 
And I enjoyed every second of it. 
I still remember the boy I was before that night. Before I lost almost everything. I was naive. Foolish even. I was hurt because daddy dearest was mean. 
I grew up after that. I went back to Mount Palacia from that hospital. I buried Joëlle with my own two hands and I buried her right beside me. 
Even in death, Joëlle stays beside Hadrian. 
I hope she rolls in there in absolute agony. I hope she hates her resting place beside me and I hope she rots. 
She fucking ruined my life. 
I told her about my childhood. I told her how I never felt loved and she decided to use me. She decided to hit me right where it hurt the most. I fucking hope her ghost still roams around this planet and that she never finds peace. 
I loved her. Even after she died, I fucking loved her. She made me hate myself because I couldn't stop loving her even after all she did. It took me years to get where I am now. 
Many years and many dead bodies. 
"What do you think, Mr Crawford?" I look at the man who questioned me and then at my assistant. Her notebook is right in front of her, and she did take notes. Thank goodness because I tune out these toddlers most of the time.