Conflict of Heart

Chapter 2

"Who does that Damien think he is, anyway?" Isabella spat as she entered her office, the door closing behind her with a resonating boom. "Going on about how I'm too young to be the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company!"

She marched to her desk and sat down in the plush leather seat, booting up her computer with a harsh poke.

After all, you are a girl.

Isabella scowled as she roughly opened the bottom drawer of her desk, revealing her secret stash of an assortment of chocolates. She chose a Ferrero Roche and quickly unwrapped it before plopping the whole chocolate into her mouth.

"The nerve," she muttered with her mouth full as she began searching his name on a whim, her fingers slamming against the tops of the keys as she typed.

It took a moment, but she soon found out that he was the son of Avery Ethridge, one of Forbes most powerful women and the founder of the booming empire known as Ethridge Pharmaceuticals.

She scoffed and grabbed another chocolate.

Her tendency to stress-eat sent warning bells in her mind, but she could not find it in herself to care at that moment. She felt the nut crush between her teeth with one powerful chomp as she tapped her foot impatiently on the floor and skimmed through the website's content.

While Nathan Walker was nothing but a doting and loving husband and father, he was the complete opposite in the business world—one whose achievements would not easily be surpassed. Many had questioned Isabella's competence for following in her father's footsteps. Some stated that she was too young take on such a position. She had been twenty-five years of age at the time while others used the excuse of her being a woman.

A woman! In what century were they still living?

While she understood people being somewhat wary due to her age, there was no educational reason why she would not succeed because of her sex, and she poured every effort into proving those chauvinists wrong.

Damien Ethridge will be the latest addition to that list.

Isabella glowered at the screen as she grabbed, yet another, chocolate and sprung to her feet, marching up and down her office as she angrily munched on the sweet in her grasp.

Really, why was the man so against her being a woman in power anyway? From what she had gathered in her brief skimming, his own mother was the founder of the world's largest pharmaceutical company. There were fewer men more powerful than Mrs Ethridge—no doubt about that.

What could possibly be his excuse for believing women inadequate?

So deep was Isabella in thought that she didn't register the fact that a person had entered her office until a beautiful, feminine voice cut through her distracted mind.

"Whoa, Izzy, what did that poor chocolate ever do to you?"

Isabella's attention snapped towards the door, and the scowl on her face disintegrated as an ear-splitting grin took its place. She quickly swallowed the last bite of her treat before rushing to her sister.

"Rosa!" she yelled, clasping her in a tight embrace.

Giggles erupted from the women as they parted, and Isabella took a moment to look over her sister's features. Their difference in birth being only a year made the two inseparable from young, but although Rosa was younger, she stood three inches taller than Isabella with a supermodel-like body and sapphire blue eyes the exact replica of their father's. Her midnight black hair enhanced the olive complexion of her skin, and her dark bangs teased the tops of her eyes.