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James
Iwas drowning, barely able to hold my head above water. For weeks, I’d gone into the office I despised and watched my father. Everything from his swagger to the smirk he wore on his face pissed me off. I hated the way he treated his employees and how he flirted with the women in the office. He didn’t even care that he was doing it in front of his son.
I walked behind him into his office and shut the door, taking the seat across from him. I stared out the floor to ceiling windows and dreamed of the life I had been planning before everything imploded. I wanted a small house, somewhere secluded where I could fix it up the way I wanted, with my own bare hands. I wanted to celebrate holidays with my wife, not stepping a foot into my parents’ house. Their elaborate holiday parties were enough to choke me. But the thought of being away from them and just living my life the way I always wanted was now a distant dream.
“James, are you even paying attention?” my father snapped.
I slowly turned and looked at him, my face a mask, hiding my true emotions. Disgust, embarrassment, hatred…I would die here in the office day by day, each hour more painful than the last.
He sighed and tossed down his pen. “We need to set a date for the wedding.”
I could already feel my eyes glazing over at the mere mention of a wedding. I would be forced to stand up there in an uncomfortable suit, surrounded by men I hated, all in a farce of a marriage that would make me miserable.
“I need time,” I said, my voice nearly cracking.
For the first time ever, I saw something like sympathy cross my father’s face. He ran his finger over the top of his lip and leaned back in his seat as he stared at me. “What if I made a deal with you?”
I shifted in my seat, prepared for whatever he threw at me. Deals were made all the time with Horace Langston. They just usually weren’t very beneficial to the other parties involved. “Such as?”
“We need this deal made now. There’s no time to delay. But I get the feeling you don’t want a big wedding.”
“I don’t want a wedding at all,” I retorted.
“Duly noted,” he nodded. “But it must happen. So, what if we were to have all the proper paperwork prepared? You wouldn’t even have to attend a ceremony.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “How is that possible?”
“We’re Langstons,” he laughed. “We can do anything.”
“And what exactly would this get me? Wedding or not, I would still be married and miserable.”
“I’ll give you six months,” he came back immediately. “Sign the paperwork to make it legal. Then you’ll get six months of freedom. You won’t hear from me or have to attend any meetings during that time. You go do whatever it is you need to do in order to prepare yourself for stepping in as CEO. In the meantime, I’ll handle everything, including the board.”
“And how would that look?” I asked. “My wife and I showing up married one day won’t exactly work for the society pages.”
He shrugged slightly. “A whirlwind romance…” he posed. “Desperately in love and wanting to elope without the world watching. We can spin it as a fairytale romance. You took an extended honeymoon to have some time to yourselves before taking over the company.”
It sounded too good to be true. And six months really wasn’t much considering I was giving up my life for this company. On the other hand, it was six months where I could be myself and find some peace and acceptance of my current situation. “And I wouldn’t have to see Kimberley?”
“No.”
I leaned back in my chair and stared at him, sure I was missing something. “What exactly is the contract for this marriage?”
“It’s your typical contract. The company shares are split evenly as long as the marriage remains intact.”
“And if one of us wants out?”
“Then the spouse that files for divorce would have to sell shares as compensation.”
“How long?” I asked, my eyes narrowing in on him.
He held my stare, not wanting to tell me. But he had to. He knew I would never enter a contract like this without knowing. “Five years.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Is that it?”
“And two children,” he added.
“Wow, you’re not asking a lot, are you?”
