“I’ll buy new ones.”
“Can you tell me what the problem is? I know Mother and Ravina are bitchy, but—”
“It’s not them.” My lips pressed together for a second before I launched into my… complication. “I spoke with the attorney and Dad royally put the screws to me.”
“What do you mean?” I had his full attention now.
“The marriage thing in the will is solid. No way around it. I have to have a Mrs. Baines by the end of the year, or everything in the estate goes to charity.”
His eyes widened, then he grinned. “You’re fucking with me. You had me for a second.”
“Stanton, I am not fucking with you. This is legit.”
He slanted his head. “I don’t get it. The company has never been better. Business is soaring. Why now?”
“No idea. I was going to ask you. And why me? You should be the one going through this.”
“Me?”
“Yes, dammit. You’re the oldest.”
My brother grabbed his crutch and went to stand. As I attempted to assist him, his hand shot out. “I’ve got this. I’m getting stronger by the day and therapy is helping.” I was proud of his progress as I watched. “Tris, Dad was extremely proud of how much you built your business on your own, so I get why he left you in charge. He always told me I was too reckless in my personal life and we often had words over it. But I’m baffled over the marriage part.”
My brother and I stared at each other. Then he snapped his fingers. “Heirs.”
“What?” I stupidly asked.
“Dad used to get after me about serious relationships because I was only with women for the sex. He knew it and said it was disappointing. Maybe he thought you were different.”
A spiteful laugh came out of me. “I’m not. Maybe if Dad had married a loving woman, we both would’ve been different. The last thing I want is to have kids. Every time that thought enters my mind, all I can think of is how we were raised and what an awful life it was. I didn’t remotely enjoy life until I left this family, sorry to say.”
“I get it. Mother didn’t make it easy on us.”
“Why the fuck did Dad marry her?”
Stanton moved in front of me. “You honestly don’t know?”
“No, or I wouldn’t be asking.”
“He loved her, hard as that pill is to swallow.”
Was my brother still on pain meds? How could anyone love that iceberg of a woman?
“Dad and I talked a lot, and I mean about everything. The family, you, Mother. He told me he fell so hard for her the first time they met, he had trouble functioning. He knew how she was toward us. She never wanted kids. He was the one who did. She made him promise we’d go to boarding school and have nannies. He kept the promise. He regretted that he was away so much because she never spent time with us, but as he said, she was upfront about that from the beginning.”
I took a seat in an empty chair next to the one he’d vacated. My temples throbbed as I massaged them in hopes of alleviating the ache. “Do you remember how I used to come into your room when we were young, like not much older than five or six?”
“Yeah. You’d come running if there was a bad thunderstorm.”
“One night when Dad was away, I ran to Mother’s room, and she pushed me out. She didn’t give a damn that I was scared shitless. I remember the scornful look on her face when all I wanted was to feel safe. That’s when I began coming to your room.”
“I remember that look well. I used to sleep under my bed when I got scared. That was before you came along. I was actually glad when you started showing up.”
I scoffed at that. “You never said anything.”
“Of course not. I was the big brother. I had to act like it.”
Memories of those times rolled over me in waves. “That’s why I don’t ever want kids. She poisoned me.”
He shrugged. “She did the opposite to me. If I ever have them, I’ll be the best parent possible.”
“That’s a different take. I don’t think I have it in me. After all those years of fending for myself, I’m not sure I have the nurturing gene.” How could I? I’d never been exposed to it.
Stanton tapped my leg with his crutch. “Sure you do. All you have to do is treat the kid like you wanted to be treated and never were.”
He made a good point. However, kids were not in my future. “Back to the heirs part. I don’t think that’s it. If it were, Dad would’ve made that a condition of his will too.”
“Great point. Now that we have that solved, what are you going to do?” Stanton asked.
“I don’t fucking know. I’m not even dating anyone, much less close to asking a woman to marry me.”
“Oh, come on. Any woman would jump at the chance. Make it a contractual thing.”
“Do you mind explaining that ridiculous idea?” My brother had lost his mind. A contractual thing? Wasn’t marriage already a legal contract?
After he sat back down and propped up the broken leg, all without my help, he did just that. “You could do a five-year deal or something like that. Have your lawyer draw up a contract to make everything legit, and then find the right woman. When the time is up, you go your separate ways, and she gets a parting gift.”
“Parting gift?”
“Don’t be so obtuse. Pay her off for the time invested.”
I leaned forward and cast him a dubious glance. “Have you lost it? I can’t pay anyone off. First, I don’t even know anyone to pay.”
“Listen to me, bro. All I’m saying is find someone, anyone, you can get along with for a few years. Hell, a couple of years at the very least. Have the contract drawn up and do it.”
Jesus, this room had gotten small. I jumped out of the chair, went to the window, and opened it to get some air. “It’s easy for you to say. You’re not the one who has to get married.”
“I’ll give you that, but I’d do it if I had to in order to save the family fortune. Don’t you know anyone?”
A beautiful face with aqua eyes and framed by blonde hair came to mind. But hell, she barely wanted to go to dinner with me. Marriage? I was pretty sure her answer would be hell to the fucking no.
My brother chuckled. “From the look on your face, I already have the answer. What are you waiting for?”
“Yeah, if you knew the story, you’d know I had a snowball’s chance in Hell of making that happen.”
“You won’t know if you don’t try. Now get your ass out of here and go to her. Time’s running out.”
My brain was going to explode. All this shit happening at once was more than I was used to. Marrying someone? By the end of the year? Absurd!
Chapter Twenty
English
“Stuart, what are you doing here?”
“I came by to see you and talk some sense into you.”
My phone was in my hand, so I pressed Dad’s name as secretively as I could. When he answered, I had it on speaker so he could hear everything.
“Stuart, there’s an order of protection out on you. You’re not supposed to be here.”