AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They can’t touch our personal fortune, Crew.”
I exhale and sit up, relieved the walls stay where they should. “Did you do it?”
“No.” My father’s answer is swift and sure. “But…it happened.”
“What do you mean,it happened?”
“Beckett Stanley was leaking information. I found out what he was doing, and I took care of it.”
“Not by telling the authorities, I gather.”
“You know the issues that would have caused. I got rid of him and appointed Isabel to the board in his place.”
I scoff. “Issues. Sort of like the issues we’re dealing with now?”
“There’s no evidence. They won’t be able to do anything.”
I press my palms to my eyes and groan. “Jesus, Dad.”
My father studies me like I’m a science experiment. “What’s the real issue?”
“There needs to be another issue than being investigated and having stock in free fall and—”
“Crew.”
“She married me for my money,” I bite out. “She married the future CEO of a billion-dollar company. Not…this. She’ll get questions. It might even affectHauteandrouge.”
My father blinks, appearing genuinely off-guard. “This is about Scarlett?”
“Do I have another wife?” I snap. I look at my hands, clenching them into fists. “I love her, Dad. I love her so fucking much. I’m pissed at you and I’m worried about the company, but I’m fucking terrified this will change everything between us.”
A slight raise of his eyebrow is my father’s only response to the whiskey-fueled declaration. Normally, I’d rather chew on razor blades than discuss this with my father. “You have more to offer her than money, Crew.”
One of the nicer things my father has ever said to me. But… “She married meformy money,” I repeat.
“She’s the sole heir to billions and is making tens of millions off that magazine and clothing line. You really think she married you for money? She didn’t need to get married, and she didn’t need the money. Scarlett picked you. She chose to marry you.”
“Her father told her to,” I mumble.
“Because they’re so close? Because she’s easily manipulated?”
I scoff.
My father knows how to employ sarcasm. Who knew? “You must have wondered why the engagement was between you and her, not Oliver and her?”
“Oliver needed to travel and manage the international holdings, while I would make New York my home base and strengthen the family business brand.” I parrot the line he told the two of us for years.
“I decided that later. When Hanson and I first spoke about a potential arrangement, the agreement was thatOliverand Scarlett would get married. He’s oldest and stands to inherit just as much as you do. It was the logical choice, on the face of things.”
I look up. “What?”
My father strokes his chin, looking at the fire, not me. “Hanson came back to me a year later, when you were sixteen and Oliver was almost an adult. Said he would honor the agreement, but only if it changed toyouand Scarlett. He was adamant about it. Something—someone—changed his mind. The only reason I ever figured he changed the terms was…he told her.”
I’m the reason you’re first in line.
I thought she meant our marriage when she said that.
“Don’t assume she didn’t choose you, Crew.”
