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Peoplealwayssaidthatmoney didn’t buy you happiness.
Ten million dollars.
Peach had money coming out of her ears.
And what people said was right. The money wasn’t making her happy at all. The money had led to her losing all her friends. Losing the man she had called Daddy. Losing her old life back in Connecticut.
Now, she was driving a hire car, traveling toward a ranch that wasn’t rightfully hers, wondering how things had gotten so messed up.
She had tried calling Daisy and Kiera, hoping to confess the whole sorry story to them. How hurt she’d been when Kiera had decided to move to Miami. How jealous she’d been of them both, and how she’d agreed to this stupid marriage pact as a way of trying to feel good about herself.
But Daisy was too sad to talk to her right now. Apparently, she’d ruined Daisy’s wedding by booking the venue that Daisy was meant to get married in. Daisy was taking it personally, assuming that Peach had done it on purpose somehow. A punishment for leaving Connecticut and convincing Kiera to go with her.
She knew that because Kierawastalking to her. But Kiera was using a lot of angry words. She told Peach that she’d been “freaked out” by her behavior lately. That it seemed like Peach was “acting up” by marrying Isaac. Trying to “prove a point” to them by marrying someone who was “totally wrong” for her. She even cussed a couple times. Said that she cared about Peach, that she loved her, but that she needed some time to cool off before they could hang out properly again.
Peach told Kiera that she could explain everything, but Kiera didn’t reply. Peach would have to wait.
It sucked, to be honest, that her best friends weren’t more supportive of her marriage. Even though she’d messed up by inadvertently stealing Daisy’s wedding venue, her friends could have at least tried to be there for her a bit more. She had gotten married! That was huge! Not only that, but, for a while at least, she’d actuallylikedIsaac. Their marriage had felt… real.
Ah well. Her friends didn’t care about her, and neither did Isaac.
Now, she was doing the only thing that shecoulddo. She was following through on a plan. Trying to make something of herself, because otherwise… there was nothing.
Teddy was in a carrier in the back of the car and they were heading to the ranch.
“I know what you’re thinking Teddy,” Peach called back to her little dog. “You think I’m mean. But if Isaac can’t have that ranch, then isn’t it better thatIhave it instead of some, some… property developer?”
Teddy didn’t respond. He was asleep, most likely.
Peach kept her eyes on the road, but her heart was in her throat. None of this felt right. It felt like she was sneaking around behind Isaac’s back. Stealing from him.
Obviously, she’d thought about buying Isaac’s ranch and then giving it to him. But that was risky. Because if she did that, and he just took it from her, she’d lost five million dollars. And she got the feeling that she’d be lucky to see the other five million he said he’d pay her. Sure, they’d signed a contract… but then they’d broken the terms of it. They’d consummated the marriage, which meant they could no longer get it annulled. Which meant that technically, he didn’t have to pay her.
Oh, man. She’d been so foolish. That’s probably why he’d done it. He’d slept with her so he didn’t have to pay her the full amount.
And now he was trying to trick her into getting that first five million back by pretending that her ranch was his.
“When will I ever learn, Teddy?” she asked. “I’m too trusting. This whole arrangement was obviously too good to be true.”
She began piecing it all together now. Remembering how Isaac had treated her that first time they met. Yelling “No animals” at her like she was nothing but dirt on the bottom of his shoe. This whole thing had probably been a ruse to humiliate her. Pretend to be into her. Pretend to be giving her ten million dollars. And at the same time, he could trick her to into buying his family ranch because he knew his aunt would never sell it tohim.
Ugh, it all seemed so obvious now. The way that life coach had encouraged her to think big. To buy a big patch of land. He’d even been the one to open up the real estate website. The one that had the ranch for sale on it.
Silly, silly Peach. She should have stayed in her lane. The poor girl from Connecticut, sweeping up animal hair and working herself to the bone at the dog shelter. That was her destiny. As ifshecould have been a millionaire!
Except… shedidhave five million dollars.
And shehadbought a ranch with it.
Soif shedidn’tgive the ranch to Isaac…
Maybe she had outsmarted him?
*
Mess everywhere. Old mattresses. Heaps of rotting rubbish. Thin, sick-looking cows. How on earth was this place worth five million?
“You seen enough yet?” snapped the old woman. She had been surprisingly unfriendly with Peach the whole time. You’d think she would have been delighted to meet the sucker who was paying her way too much money to take this dump off her hands.
