Hopefully, tomorrow will bring me some clarity.
***
Nope. Clarity is bullshit and I’m convinced someone upstairs hates me.
That or my father has lost his damn mind.
I stare across the dining room table at my father, trying like hell to wrap my head around what he just said. He wants me to get married?
“You want me to do what?” I can hear the confusion in my own voice and my father lets out a little grunt of annoyance, like he can’t believe I’m questioning him.
“Annabel would make for a fine wife, Owen.” Annabel is my father’s top competitor’s daughter. She’s really nice and attractive. We’ve gone out, and I use that term loosely because it wasn’t a date, several times for events, and yeah, he’s right, I bet she would be a great wife but that husband in question won’t be me.
“I’m sure she’d make someone very happy one day.”
He sighs, grabbing his linen napkin and dabbing his mouth as he assesses me. “Look, I’m not saying marry her tomorrow. Take her out, get to know her. Court her...” He waves his napkin at me before placing it back in his lap. “Then in a few months, you can propose. Who knows, maybe you’ll even fall in love.”
It takes everything in me to not roll my eyes at this absurdity. “That’s not going to happen.”
He tilts his head as if in thought, and I think for a moment he’s going to come to his senses. To realize that this whole idea is ridiculous, but of course he doesn’t and the next words out of his mouth only prove to show just how far gone he is. “That’s true. Love isn’t necessary anyway.” Then he picks up his fork and begins working on his food again, like the conversation is over.
I rear back in astonishment, hands fisting my pant legs. I’m not a violent person. I do my best to keep a level head in all things. I have to be in the corporate world, but right now it’s taking everything in me to not slam my hand on the table in outrage.
“Father, you misunderstood. Not only is falling in love never going to happen, but marrying her, hell, even dating her… Never going to happen.”
He sets his fork down, the loud clinking harsh against my ears. “And why not?” He has that tone that I’ve hated since I was a child, like I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. Surely he has to see that he’s the crazy one right now. “Your refusal makes no sense to me. We need the alliance. It will help the business astronomically. Think of the future. It’s not like you won’t need an heir to pass down to anyway.”
Heir? Wife? Like my entire future is some kind of shopping list—a transaction? “I won’t do it.”
He waves me off like an annoying gnat. “Take her out. Russel and Annabel are flying here in two weeks and staying for a long weekend. I expect you to be there to meet them at the airport. Youwilltake her out and show her a good time. This is not an option.”
I’ve known my whole life how money-starving this man is, but never thought he would stoop to this level, using me to get what he wants. I clear my throat, the half-eaten salmon settling in my stomach like lead and I have to fight the urge to puke. “Fine,” I manage through gritted teeth, knowing he won’t let this go. I stand from the table, the napkin from my lap falling to the floor. I bend down to pick it up so the maid doesn’t have to, and toss it on my half-eaten plate. I don’t say another word, just turn and exit the dining room, needing to get the hell away from him.
“Where are you going?” he calls out, but I don’t answer. I shrug into my coat that was hanging by the door and have my hand on the knob, ready to snatch it open, when my father’s voice rings out loudly in the space once more. “I’ll have Diana email Linus with the details.”
I freeze, my hand clenching the handle so hard that I’m surprised it doesn’t break under my hold. “His name is Lance!” I shout back, then pull the door open and step outside before slamming the door closed behind me.
Yeah, it’s childish but I don’t have it in me to care. I stomp to my car, muttering angrily under my breath the whole way. “Six months. Lance has been working for me for six. Fucking. Months. How hard is it to get his name right?”
Settling inside, I lean back heavily against the seat, closing my eyes and inhaling and exhaling slowly. Marriage. Children. A perfect cookie-cutter world.
I try to imagine it, try to picture a life like that. Yeah, it sounds great, but I’m not ready for it. Especially when I haven’t even figured myself out yet.
Suddenly, a moment of panic rushes over me like a noose wrapping itself around my neck. What if I never figure it out? What if I never get to experience all these things I’m curious to try?
No, that can’t be how this ends for me. It won’t be. I just need to make it happen somehow.
Chapter three
Lance
I’m irritated and trying like hell to not be, but today is one of those days where everything that can go wrong will.
It’s storming outside, meaning the power in my apartment tripped and I woke up late because my alarm never went off. In my haste to leave my place, I left my work tablet. Starbucks didn’t have any vanilla syrup so I had to get a mocha frappuccino instead, and then to top it all off, I got a flat tire two miles from the office and had to change it in the rain because roadside assistance is just too expensive these days. I did my best to hold my umbrella but that proved to be impossible while I was using a tire iron at the same time.
So here I am, drenched, looking like a wet rat as I head to my desk. I pass multiple people but no one says a word. My guess would be the pissed-off expression I have on my face has them steering clear.
Smart. Really fucking smart.
