AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m not going behind your back. It was the only option I had.”
“I guess it won’t matter then if I call Mr. Lancaster back and tell him I didn’t know you were married until his call.”
“No,” I growled. “Don’t you fucking dare do that.”
The only way my mother could contest the will and make sure she
received the full inheritance was if she could prove I entered into a false marriage. That I used Evie to collect the money. It was hard to believe this wasn’t my father’s plan from the beginning. He had pitted the two of us against each other.
I sighed. “I had to get married in order to receive my inheritance. My father’s will was clear. But if you tell Lancaster that you’ve never heard of Evie or my relationship with her, it will discredit the marriage. I’ll end up with nothing. I won’t have the money to complete the investment.”
“Her name is Evie?”
“Yes, she’s an old friend from high school,” I admitted. “Can you go along with this, Sasha? I need to know we’re still partners.”
“You were forced to get married and the first person you thought of was an old high school girlfriend?” Her voice sounded distant.
“She was never my girlfriend back then.” Those details seemed pointless right now. I had to make sure Sasha wasn’t a risk to our plan.
“You felt like you had no other options?”
“That’s right. I needed someone who didn’t care about the money. Someone I could trust to do this.”
“And there was no one else you trusted. I see.”
Oh holy fuck.
“Sasha, I didn’t mean….”
She hung up before I could explain my elopement was part of a drunken sexfest. Although, that wouldn’t have gone over any better.
I sat in the kitchen while I waited for the gourmet coffee to brew. Sasha and I hadn’t been involved in six years. I didn’t think about her as an ex anymore. It was a quick three months of dating and fucking, that ended when we realized we could dominate the sports business world together. She was practical and brilliant. I stopped paying attention to how beautiful she was.
Everything between us was about the company. We didn’t discuss our personal lives. But lately, she had been pushy. She had been digging into my life when she hadn’t before.
I shook my head. I never thought about asking her to marry me for the will.
Evie was there when the idea formed. It wasn’t thought out. Not as drunk as we were.
I looked up when she walked down the hall, wearing my shirt. She was stunning.
She smiled softly. “Do I smell coffee?”
Sasha couldn’t make me second-guess my decision. I had no regrets. Evie was exactly what I wanted.
22
Evie
I sat and listened while Jeremy gave me the rundown on the details of the press conference for today. I’d never participated in a press conference, much less attended one. I was completely out of my element. We drank coffee and I ate fruit at the small bistro table tucked in the corner of his commercial-grade kitchen.
“Whatever you’re doing while I speak, make sure your left hand stays visible,” he instructed. “I want everyone to see that rock.” It was going to take me a while to get used to wearing it. It was ostentatious. No one would doubt Jeremy Hartwell had marked me as his wife.
“Why can’t we release a marriage announcement like normal people do?” I pleaded. “We could hire a photographer and put a picture with a nice recap of the ceremony at the Magnolia Inn in the paper,” I suggested.
“We aren’t normal. And neither is this marriage.” He sighed. “My mother is coming for this money. She’s going to do whatever she can to prove we aren’t real. We can’t give her the ammunition. So we’re going full blast on this. I want every news outlet there. All the entertainment sites. Everyone who has interviewed me over the years. Business. Sports. Celebrity beat reporters. All of it.” He waved his hands in the air. “I want us to be the top story tonight.”
“What if it doesn’t work? What if we aren’t convincing?” I had a nervous pit in my stomach. I had no idea how I would make it through a full press event without throwing up.
