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“Hospitals are so depressing.” She collapses into the seat across from me. Pulling her phone from her pocket, she folds her long legs and exhales. “Dash got us three side-by-side rooms at the Marriott. That man never misses a meal. Or a good night’s rest. I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on sleeping tonight.”
If these minutes are so precious to Nicola, I’ve no idea why she’s wasting them on me, but I don’t dare mention that.
“Burke and Dorian are going at it in there,” she says as if she read my mind. “I needed a breather.”
“Going at it?”
“I always thought if I had a sister, she’d be my best friend.” She ignores my question. “Sure, there would be fights. That comes with the territory. But I always thought she’d be my ride or die, you know? Do you have a sister?”
I shake my head. “Only child.”
“I was supposed to have two of them,” she says. “Well, I had two of them. Before I was born. Though, if they were still around, I probably wouldn’t be here. It’s weird to think of it that way, but in that regard, I guess we were never meant to be sisters. Not in this lifetime anyway.”
“Redmond told me about them last night. Such an awful tragedy.”
“He probably didn’t tell you he’d been drinking the night of the car crash, did he?” She sits straight, darkening her phone screen as she directs her full attention to me.
I frown. “No . . .”
“Of course not. He likes to leave that part out.” She rolls her eyes. “I love my father. I do. He’s a brilliant, loving man. But he has his demons. We all do.” She swallows, pressing her lips into a hard line. “The men in this family, they like to rewrite history sometimes. My father does it, my grandfather did it, and his father before him.”
I don’t know what she’s getting at, but I’m all ears.
“Burke is no different,” she continues. “You should know that before you marry him.”
“If you’re trying to talk me out of marrying him, Nicola, with all due respect, this isn’t the time or place—”
“If not now, when?” she asks with a shrug. “If my father passes, I have a feeling my brother’s going to rush you off to the nearest chapel, use this tragedy as a way to lock you down.”
“I don’t think he’s like that.”
“Then you don’t know him very well.” She arches a brow. “I just find it convenient that as soon as he loses one fiancée, he picks up another—just in time for our father to take his last dying breath. Never mind that he has to be engaged or married in order to collect his third of the inheritance.”
My jaw falls.
Burke has only ever told me that his father was getting older and that it was his wish to see his children happy and committed; he mentioned his father’s health wasn’t the greatest, but he never once mentioned his inheritance or any such clause.
“What? Like you didn’t know . . .” She swats her manicured hand at me. “For all I know, the two of you are in on this together. Lord knows he doesn’t look at you the way he used to look at his ex. And don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you look at Dorian when you think no one’s watching.”
“Nicola, I—”
“I’m guessing Dorian’s your backup plan? If it doesn’t work out with Burke, you’ll set your sights on his little brother. Good luck with that.” She chuckles. “Dorian is too free spirited for his own good. The day that man marries is the day hell freezes over.”
I’m processing all this as fast as I can, rendering me speechless.
The fact that Dorian’s willing to stand up for his own convictions and bypass an enormous inheritance only makes me appreciate him more.
“Why do you look so shocked?” she asks. “I pegged you as a terrible actress from the moment you walked in, but you’re this close to getting a Razzie Award.”
“I’m sorry, I’m just . . .” I collect my thoughts, careful not to let anything slip. Despite originally being led to believe I was simply helping Burke give his elderly father a summer to remember, I realize now I was nothing more than a pawn in a sick and twisted inheritance game.
Burke lied to me by omission.
Even if our arrangement was nothing more than a transaction with a million-dollar price tag attached to it, it has cost me everything.
On top of that, if the truth ever comes out, I’ll look just as self-serving as him, something that I imagine might make Dorian hate me more than he already does—if that’s possible.
I hate that I was blinded by all those zeros, that I took Burke’s word at face value and agreed to help him because I was convinced it was a sweet and innocent endeavor and not a chess move.
