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“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, love, and that’s the only reason I’ll allow anyone to say that I’ll never be as handsome as Clifford Anders,” I winked, teasing her and trying to lighten her mood. “What the hell happened, anyway? Did you catch him with someone?”
“It’s his family,” she said, her eyes drawn to the calm sea beyond the shoreline. “They want me to stop modeling and believe I’m a bad mark on the family.”
“God,” I shook my head, “I hate to remind you of what I’m sure you were already warned about, but that family will not bend for anyone they think is making a spectacle of their family name. There are many things they consider to be drawing negative attention.”
“They told Cliff that I need to stop allowing the paparazzi to follow me around—as if that is up to me—and they don’t like that I’m using the family name while I work. You know, I work for numerous designers, and they don’t want that to ruin their reputation with all the others. They’re concerned that it will show preferential treatment or some ridiculous nonsense. God forbid Laura Anders doesn’t get dressed for the Met Gala by Christian Dior because of a job I did, right?”
“I don’t even know how to advise you on this,” I said truthfully. “This is most certainly not my wheelhouse.”
“Isn’t it, though?” she questioned as if I had the secret code to an upstart fitting in with a family that has protected its generational wealth for over a century.
“It’s not.”
“Well, you’ve made a life for yourself and a career outside your family’s money. Clifford can do the same. It’s the only way our marriage can be saved. I can’t be ordered to end my professional career because it’s unsuitable for the family.”
“You have to,” Mark said sternly, coming out to join us. “And, hey. It’s not a good look for you two to be out here alone, given what she and Cliff are going through right now.” Mark shot me a warning look.
I reclined against my chair. “Good look or not, this poor thing,” I pointed to Candice, “is having a time from hell with Old Man Anders and that wife of his. She’s just taking a breather.”
“It’s not appropriate,” Mark insisted, and for a second, I felt sorry for this bastard, too.
“I’m not fucking her on the porch, Mark,” I said, having had enough of my brother treating me like I was twelve years old again. “Everyone in there can shove their opinions up their asses, although they’re so damn tight, they probably couldn’t squeeze in a mechanical pencil lead if they tried.”
That prompted a laugh from both Mark and Candice, and I shrugged. I honestly didn’t give a fuck what the assholes in that house thought about how this looked.
“Jesus, if they are so fucking worried about Candice, why the hell are they putting her in a position to seek help from the black sheep of the family?” I questioned.
“What’s going on with you and Cliff?” Mark questioned her.
“You haven’t heard yet either?”
“Unless something is official,” Mark answered, “we haven’t heard anything. What’s going on?”
“I told you. She’s having problems with his family.”
“It’s more than that. I’m filing for a divorce,” she said softly, and if I were taking a drink of something, I’d have spewed it across the room at that statement.
Divorce? Oh, no. Big bad news.
“Now, we shall have the greatest scandal to have hit in quite some time,” I said. “Is it really so bad that you’re filing for divorce?”
“I can’t do all these rules. His parents control our lives, and he won’t stand up to them. It’s ruining everything.”
“You see?” I said, looking at Mark. “This is the reason I’m not settling down.”
“Huh?” Mark questioned.
“It’s this shit,” I said. I was disturbed that this woman loved and adored her husband, but his fucking family was tearing their marriage apart, and it was taboo for him to stand up to them. “Jesus, she can’t even have a job without his family calling the shots.”
“Relax, John,” Mark said. “You already get away with what Seb and I can’t. You’ll be just fine.”
He was right about that. I’d put boundaries on this bullshit years ago when I left and broke away from what was required of me. If I was ever guilt-tripped into believing that I still had rules to follow in any aspect of my life, I manipulated my role as the baby in the family and used it to my advantage.
It sucked that Candice and Cliff were seeing their home destroyed from the inside out, but it was best to get out before she had a child. There was no way anyone on the outside would raise an heir of the Anders family. She’d probably never see that child again.
I couldn’t and wouldn’t bring anyone into a family like mine because if, by some miracle, I fell in love with someone, they wouldn’t be a high-society debutant like my mother, groomed to do what was expected of them. They’d be an average person like Candice—just another outsider for the rich and powerful to bend to their will.
That wasn’t a fate I wished on anyone.
