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By now, you should know all the money is yours—well, as much as they’d allow me to give you. I had to split it equally between my male grandchildren—I’ve given my apologies to Elle because I tried and failed where she’s concerned—and I had to make up stupid conditions so they’d take me seriously. Skipping an entire generation isn’t an easy thing to do, especially when your lawyer is old enough to have worked for your own father. But at least with marrying, they assumed that would bring in enough capital to balance the request.
The thing is, I don’t give a toss who you marry.
Marry that Darcy fellow, or a beggar, or the queerest poof you can find in Europe and spend your days loving each other and doing good.
Because that’s all I’m going to ask of you.
To do good.
Be the man I wasn’t.
I love you the most, Emmy.
My throat immediately clogs up, and I drop my hand to my lap, head spinning with all the words.
“You okay?” Christian asks softly.
I numbly hand him the letter and after he finishes, he utters a soft, “wow.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not going to pretend to understand any of it, but he clearly thought a lot of you to want you to have all of his money. The whole lawyers and stuff makes my head spin, but overall, he must have really loved you.”
“He did.” I swipe at my nose to keep myself from crying.Thisis why I wanted to wait until I was home. Christian doesn’t need to witness my breaking down. “Fuck.”
“What are you gonna do?” His face falls. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me. Obviously. But if you need to talk it out, we can.”
“Thank you. I just … I wassoready to leave. To walk away. But how can I walk away after that?”
He hums in agreement. “Makes it a bit harder.”
“I’m not sure what to do next.”
“You could always marry someone. Anyone. Get the money. Donate it or something andthendisappear.”
“Marrying someone isn’t that simple.”
This is the part most people don’t get. In my family, thereareno divorces, no escape plan if this doesn’t go well. I shake my head. “There’s a whole process for courting someone in my family, and I don’t like anyone enough to go through that process.” I take a breath. “Besides, anyone I marry will want that money tied into clauses in our prenups. No one wants to marry a rich man who’ll gamble it all away, for example.”
“Hmm …” His eyes go all unfocused as he stares at the wall. “You could marry someone already in on your plans? Someone who’d be happy to cut ties with you once it was over.”
“There isn’t a single person I know who’d allow that.”
“Yeah, but there are people whowould. You might have to pay them …” He shakes his phone at me. “But given the guy who stood me up has a thriving business as a date for hire, I’d imagine you could find a, uh,husbandfor hire?”
“They’d know immediately if the person’s family didn’t have money.”
“Could they stop you?”
“Me? No. But someone like that could easily be bought off.”
“What if it was someone they couldn’t?”
I cock my head, watching as a smile stretches over his face. “What do you mean?”
“Look, I’m going to throw this out there, and I swear I have no ulterior motives, but it’s up to you if you want to believe me or not. My parents have a lot of money, yeah? Most of my family does. And sure, I have no access to any of it, but would your parents actually know that?”
I narrow my eyes. “What are you saying?”
