“Roy is a moron. If he takes over?—”
“Stocks will plummet, all of my money will be lost plus the funds of thousands of investors who trusted us. It would be a shame to hurt so many innocent people, especially when there is a simple solution.” He was enjoying this too much.
More than anything, I wanted to make this a lose situation for him. But I couldn’t. He would do it just to spite me. They would bounce back, but not until after pesky things like my electric bill were due. And he’d piled on the guilt. Me not agreeing would have many families losing money, people who couldn’t afford to.
I’m sure the guy I was supposed to marry didn’t want this any more than I did. We could figure out a way for us to live separately or something. I could probably even convince him to have an open marriage where we dated who we wanted.
Yeah, we could do that, and then maybe I could bolster the courage to approach Hess.
“Okay. You win. When’s the wedding?”
Chapter 11
Who is this guy?
Heston
I couldn’t sleep after we got home from the hospital.
I’d maxed my credit card out and couldn’t pay for another visit unless Sebastian gave me an advance. Despite being in hospital a few hours earlier, Dad was sleeping. One of my work colleagues had given me a baby monitor when he and his husband got a new one and I lay in bed, hands behind my head as I listened to Dad’s breathing.
Having agreed to this mad scheme of Sebastian’s and learned as much as I could about Roy on the internet, I bombarded my step-father with questions.
Is it Roy?
What’s he like?
Where will Dad and I live after the marriage?
My father had to stay with me, even after the operation.
Why is he willing to do this?
I worried the guy was so money and power hungry that he put that above his happiness.
And the last and most important one,I assume this is a marriage in name only and I don’t have to sleep with him.
Being forced to have Roy fuck me would be … well… prostituting myself. I thought of all the second sons in past centuries who wouldn’t inherit a title, land or any money from their alpha father, and had been forced into an arranged marriage to further the family’s fortunes. But I was a first and only son and I still inherited nothing.
Sebastian told me to shut up and be grateful he was helping us out of the hole we were in. While he didn’t say “the one you dug for yourselves” he didn’t need to. When Father was alive, my step-father viewed Dad and me as leeches, as though we demanded the minimum amount of alimony because we wanted to hurt Father for falling out of love with Dad.
I must have closed my eyes around five a.m. but when the alarm went off an hour later, I couldn’t lift my head. It was so heavy with worry and exhaustion. But the beeping woke Dad, and he shouted out, asking if I was awake.
“Getting up now.” My head hurt as I staggered to the bathroom with one eye open. The shower woke me up, or as awake as I could be after one hour’s sleep. I made Dad a quick breakfast and, putting his phone by the bed, I headed to the café.
Thank gods I’d worked in the coffee shop for a while and I did everything by rote as I made coffee, served customers cakes and muffins and explained how to pay with a QR code. By the end of my shift, I was drooping—literally. I could no longer slap ona pretend smile, and I was hunched over as I stood in the back room and removed my apron.
Waving to my colleagues, I made my way out the door and embraced the breeze on my face. As I couldn’t afford to park close to where I worked, I made my way across the busy road, intending to head to a quieter street a few blocks over. But a flash of blue in the corner of my eye had me pause. The vehicle stood out amid minivans, 4-wheel drives and sedans ferrying people back and forth.
It was an expensive, low to the ground sports car, and I wondered what happened when the driver reached a speed bump. They must crawl over it and I winced, thinking of it hitting the bump at speed.
It belonged to that guy, the one who stared at me at the country club. I convinced myself it had to be him because that car looked as though it belonged in a country club. And while he may have had legitimate business in this suburban shopping area, he didn’t seem the type to dash into the pharmacy for antacids or the grocery store to pick up tonight’s dinner. Maybe he was a fan of the bánh mì which was the best I’d eaten, not that I’d had one since Father died.
The car was too far away to see who was in the driver’s seat, so I put on my sunglasses and slowed my pace to a stroll before pausing in front of a shop window. To anyone watching, I was admiring my reflection. Instead, I checked out my stalker to see if he was following.
The car had pulled out of the parking space and was crawling along. But this section of the road was thronged with vehicles and people and other drivers beeped their horns. I should havewalked straight ahead for another block, but dashed around the corner and into a convenience store.
The owner was an acquaintance, and he waved as I pressed my face on the glass and waited for the car to zoom straight ahead and out of my life. But he double parked outside the store and I reared away from the window in case he saw me.
