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I shook my head, sighing. “You think too logically. There’s one thing you’re not considering.”
“What is that?”
“Emotions. I have them. And right now, most of them are dedicated to hating your guts. So, you’ll have to meet me halfway.”
He tucked his phone back into his pocket, sliding the knife into its concealed holster. “What is it that you want?”
I wondered if he realized that the picture-perfect veneer he’d worked so hard to erect had begun to crumble before me. Sure, a lot of moving parts made up Zachary Sun, and I didn’t understand 99.99% of them. But I’d figured out one important thing. Something dark and unusual lurked beneath the most eligible bachelor in the Northern Hemisphere. Something terrifying he didn’t want the outside world to see.
“You can keep your crappy traditional wage structure. I want no part of it.” I inched closer, just to push his boundaries, reveling at the way his jaw set at my proximity. “You’ll pay me in the form of legal fees. Cover the six-figure retainer and hourly fee, then pay me minimum wage over the table and fifty bucks per hour under it.” The last thing I wanted was to line Vera’s pockets while enriching my own.
Zach didn’t even flinch at the number. “You don’t want the money to reach your stepmother.”
“Correct. And money is no issue for you.”
“I’ll do you one better. I’ll hire you the best fucking lawyers in the DMV.”
I swallowed, trying hard to keep the emotions at bay. I knew it sounded too good to be true, and yet, I couldn’t stop myself from hoping. Hope was the cruelest form of punishment. Normally, I knew better than to let it trickle into my system. But I was tired and foolish and, for the first time in my life, a little sorry for myself.
I held his gaze. “You understand that, whatever goes toward that lawyer, I can never pay back, right?”
“I can afford a whole continent of you, Farrow.”Ofyou, notforyou. Just one letter shy of romantic. “And you’ll have representation so ruthless that Mrs. Ballantine will run to the settlement table before you even file the first motion.”
I shook my head, frantic eyes darting in her direction, cursing myself for forgetting our proximity. “She can’t know I lawyered up.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
I pressed my lips together, staring hard at his throat. At the long, elegant column. Masculine and thick. I’d never uttered these next words to anyone before. But I needed to. He was my only shot at this. What a cruel twist of fate. My salvation had come from the devil.
“There’s a second clause to our agreement.” I tucked my upper lip in my mouth, biting down, toying with the words I feared would sound crazy. “I need you to hire a private investigator to look into the will. Dad would never keep me out of it. He just wouldn’t.”
“Consider it done.”
He didn’t question why I’d fight for a cleaning business, like the lawyers had during the free consults. Didn’t advise me to abandon Dad’s legacy. Didn’t judge me for mourning the future I’d lost. The one where I retired from fencing with an Olympic gold, and Dad and I ran Maid in Maryland together. Just the two of us.
In fact, his face never wavered from its default blank canvas. No judgment, no disbelief, no condescension. Just boredom and a dash of impatience for whatever meeting had him glancing at his watch every now and then. I appreciated the simplicity of his selfishness. Zachary Sun cared about himself and only himself. Anything outside of that purview didn’t deserve his concern.
Zach casted a warning look. “No more asks.” He produced his phone, did a few swipes, and handed it to me. “You should not be rewarded for your appalling behavior.”
I peered down at the screen, noting the name of an AI app he’d just acquired by force. It transcribed conversations and converted them into contracts in real time, discarding all the useless back and forth in between. We operated on different levels, him and I. The sooner I accepted that, the less miserable the next six months would be.
I scribbled my chicken-scratch signature on the screen and licked my lips, half exhilarated, half shocked at what just happened. I’d thought he’d intended to pull me into his lap and give me a good spanking. Instead, I escaped with a new job far cushier than my current one and the opportunity to finally run away from a horrible fate.
He retrieved his phone from me, careful not to make physical contact.
I squinted. “You can’t possibly be doing this as a slap on the wrist or to beat me at Go.” But I wasn’t so sure. Rich people spent their money in crazy ways. That’s why the rest of us wanted to eat them. “What else do you have to gain from this?”
“I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.” His frosty tone warned me to toss his phone down the garbage disposal and escape while I could. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some words to exchange with your…mother.”
He stalked toward the living room, not sparing me a glance on his way out of the kitchen.
“Hey, Zach?”
He stopped but didn’t turn around. “Yes, Little Octopus?”
Was the stupid, absurd nickname actually growing on me? It wasn’t sexy at all, but I kind of liked the meaning.
I grinned. “I figured it out.”
