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I’m just about to like the video when a shadowy figure looms tall over me. Turning, I find Alfie wearing his standard power suit—dark pinstripe, white shirt, navy tie—and an impatient expression. Alfie is giving the welcome speech this morning before the departmental heads take their turns. Spouses aren’t supposed to attend the all-hands meetings today, but since I owe Lenox, if he wants, I’m going to let him listen in.
“This is not where we agreed to meet. I’ve been waiting for you for over half an hour.”
Oh. I completely forgot about his texts after Lenox sent him that link, and well, all the sex after.
“I’m sorry. It slipped my mind, and yoga ran longer than I thought. Do you want a coffee?”
“Georgia!” the guy behind the counter shouts, and I go over and grab the cardboard tray, lifting mine out and taking a sip. I’m going to need this more than I thought.
“I’ve already had mine,” he hisses in displeasure. “Can we go somewhere and talk privately?”
“Of course.”
He starts walking along the corridor, glancing around, and then heads over to the high-stakes slot room that is empty at this early hour.
“Georgia, what on earth is going on?” he starts without any preamble. “Please tell me you didn’t actually marry the Neanderthal, and if you did, tell me you have a prenup bigger than Texas.”
I set the tray of coffee down on the floor beside my feet, still holding mine in my hands. “Yes, I actually married Lenox. He’s not a Neanderthal. He’s someone I’ve loved for a very long time.” Not a total lie per se, just a bit of a stretch of the truth. “And yes, we have a prenup. He signed it without hesitation and made no amendments. He gets nothing out of this other than me.”
Alfie sighs, his rigid posture slacking. “I don’t like it, Georgia. Your father would like it even less.”
I stare down at the plastic lid of my coffee. “I couldn’t marry Ezra. I told you this. I told him this. But none of you would listen.”
“Marrying Ezra is how this company stays together. It’s how it grows. It’s how we ensure it’s a family company without any outside interference because your children would one day be the largest owners with my ten percent and your fifty-four. Don’t you see that? Don’t you see the power of that? The necessity for Monroe?”
When he puts it like that, it makes me feel selfish and self-centered, but then I think about Ezra. About what our relationship was like and how he was treating me. About the fact that he’s having me followed and was blatantly using me. Who’s to say Alfie isn’t doing the same thing under the guise of fatherly love and concern?
I lift my chin. “It will stay in the family. My fifty-four percent aren’t going anywhere, and I will continue as chairwoman of the board.”
“We had an arrangement, Georgia. You signed the contract. You marry Ezra and inherit the fifty-four percent and our families tie together, securing ownership of Monroe Securities for future generations. Everyone gets what they want.”
“Except for me,” I state clearly. “What was I getting out of this other than being used as a pawn by all of you?”
“How about your wealth, security, and comfort? How about the security of your father’s company? Is that not good enough for you?” He curses under his breath and runs a hand through his slicked-back hair, trying to rein himself in. “Christ, Georgia. Couldn’t you at least have tried with Ezra? I get it, sometimes marriages don’t work out, but you could have tried.”
“I did try. I tried a lot.”
“I told you I’d talk to him for you. That I’d get him to be less…”
“Controlling, manipulative, stalkerish,” I finish for him, and he sighs again, this time harder. I wonder if this is how he was with his wife. She was a quiet, sweet woman who ended up losing control of her car and going off the side of a cliff into the Pacific about ten years ago. He never remarried or dated after her, as far as I know.
“He just loves you and felt you slipping through his fingers. Please, divorce this Lenox person and marry Ezra. For us. For Monroe.”
“The irony is, I never wanted the money. All I’ve ever wanted is a normal life. Something all of you have tried to take away from me time and time again. Marrying Ezra meant giving up my career and my freedom. It meant dealing with his controlling ways. No thanks. The only contract I ever signed was a prenup. My father’s will never stipulated who I marry, just that in order to inherit the shares, I have to be married.” I shrug nonchalantly. “So I got married. Problem solved.”
He takes a deep breath, but his composure is slipping. “You will get an annulment or a divorce. Whichever is fastest. Then you will marry Ezra as your father wanted.”
It's interesting… he’s the CEO of the company now, earning plenty of money, not to mention the ten percent of Monroe he already owns. Is this just about money or power or even controlling Monroe? Or is this about something else? Something deeper? Something more dangerous than what meets the eye?
“No. I’m sorry, Alfie, because you’ve always been like a second father to me, but I won’t be doing that. I will never marry Ezra. I don’t know why my father was so adamant that I marry him, but it doesn’t matter now. I’m married to Lenox. And there is nothing you can do now to change that.”
“Don’t be a fool, Georgia. Your wall of dumb muscle might have been smart enough to sign the prenup, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t only with you for the money and is easily swayed by greedy things.”
I smirk. “Don’t be a fool, Alfie. Lenox Moore is a hell of a lot more than dumb muscle and doesn’t give a shit about my money. You might want to do your homework and learn how he’s connected to me before you start speaking about things you know nothing about.” I pick up the coffee from the floor and walk off, so very done with him and this conversation. “You know what we women hate most about you men? How you think you have the right to be high-handed and judgmental over our choices. Newsflash: You don’t. I’m married to Lenox, and that’s final.”
There isn’t anything he can do now.
After I speak to the attorney and my father’s financial company, I’ll own fifty-four percent of Monroe Securities. And while I have no intention of actually running the company, I also have no intention of letting it go either. Certainly not to Alfie and Ezra and their greedy things. It’s funny or not so much, all I’ve ever wanted was a simple, quiet life. And the only time I’ve ever had anything remotely close was in college and graduate school.
