Blaire: I need popcorn before I head home to watch this show. What a twist!
I check Twitter, and the town is already bustling with the news of Henry’s fiancée.
The Facebook group is even worse. There’s a poll about who is going to be out of town—the fiancée, or me.
“Okay, let’s sit down and review everything,” Fitz says. “Where are we camping?”
“The dining table,” I redirect them, giving them the wi-fi password.
“Pierce and I will be looking into this. Why don’t you go and see what’s going on in the house?” Fitz suggests.
“I’ll stay and help,” I volunteer because the other option is heading to my parents and asking Dad to make churros. I’ll dip them in chocolate and wash the sugar down with champagne to forget my sorrows.
Unfortunately, my parents are in New York, and I’m on my own until they are back.
“You should come with me,” Henry requests, pulling me closer to him.
“I’d rather stay here, searching for some answers.”
He grasps my arms delicately and looks at me. “I beg you to trust me. This… I should’ve tried harder to get this resolved when I got the chance. I failed you, and I’m sorry.”
“I want to say this is okay, but…it feels as if a thousand knives are stabbing my heart,” I confess.
“Hey, I promise this love won’t die and that I won’t let anything destroy it. This isn’t just a summer night that’s about to end. I said it before and I’ll repeat it always, this is the beginning of our forever.”
He captures my mouth and wraps us in one of those slow, intense kisses only he knows how to give. Though, this one is hot, possessive, and desperate. I press my whole body onto him, and he lifts me into his arms. My legs circle around his body, and he walks up the stairs. Our tongues tangle, my hands grasp him as if trying not to hold onto the last strand of hope.
We’re in my room, ripping each other’s clothes off, desperately trying to find a way to fuse with each other before he has to go and try to solve something that might tear us apart. I feel as if my body is ripping at the seams—as if I’m crumbling. Rage beams through my core as he thrusts himself inside me, deeper and deeper.
Claiming me.
Reminding me he’s mine.
Only mine.
I don’t cry, but the pain is searing me.
When he’s done, he kisses me one last time and says, “Please trust me. I’ll come back. I love you. You’re the beginning and the rest of my life. One day we’ll be a family, and you’ll forgive me for causing you this pain. I never intended to do it.” He places a hand on my chin, stares at me seriously, and asks. “I’m not my father, right?”
“No. You’re my Henry,” I assure him.
He leaves, closing the bedroom door behind him.
And I swear, I can see a few broken pieces of our hearts shattered on the floor. But I don’t cry because I trust that we’ll put them back together.
After I take a shower and get dressed, I head back downstairs where Pierce, Leyla, and Fitz are working.
“Good. She’s ready to join us. Ready to kick some ass?” Fitz asks.
They brief me on what they’ve done so far. Pierce explains that the amendments aren’t important, because both parties have to concur before they can make any modifications. Our main focus is on how to dissolve the original agreement.
Fitz taps on the table and says, “We found our first roadblock. I won’t lie to you. It’s not looking good. In order to break this agreement, the parties have to live in the same place for at least three months to demonstrate they aren’t compatible.”
“I thought he had to pay ten million,” Pierce interjects and then starts scanning the document faster. “Do you know if my fucking brother read this before he signed?”
I’m numbed, but this isn’t the first time I’ve worked on autopilot. “Not to my knowledge. Honestly, I knew about it, but I never read it either.”
Why would I care? It’s his life, at least it only affected his life until now. Who knew it’s unavoidable and it might break me forever?
“My guess is he didn’t care because his grandfather made all the decisions for him,” Fitz answers. “I wasn’t their lawyer at the time they prepared this, but I can tell you that Cyril hated when anyone questioned him, including Henry. Whatever he said was law. I can see twenty-two-year-old Henry signing this contract saying, ‘Fuck it. I’ll fix it later.’”
“Well, he never did,” Pierce says, taking a deep breath. “Do we have a contingency plan?”
I clutch my arms around my body and ask, “Why? Is there more?”
“This fucking contract doesn’t give him many options to terminate it, and it screws him pretty bad if he doesn’t end it properly.”
“How bad?” I swallow the big knot forming in my throat.
“He could potentially lose Merkel to the Edelsteins.”
“No,” I blurt. “He’s not losing it. Why are rich people so…so—"
“Fucking arrogant?” Fitz answers. “Not all of us are, but…there are a lot of exceptions.”
It occurs to me that Henry wouldn’t just lose to the house, and he’s a lot like his grandfather. There has to be something that can get him out of this mess. “Would the Edelsteins lose their company if it’s the other way around?”
“Yes. Look deep, because there might be something to our advantage. Cyril wouldn’t just make this equally fair. He always played an angle,” Fitz responds.
“We can fight this by claiming it was signed without the proper legal representation?” I say, grasping for straws.
“Yes, but my brother is going to sound like an idiot, and while we get this invalidated, he has to play the part. Parrish is claiming that legally, she should be living with us because according to this paper, they have a serious relationship.”
“They don’t, but you’re right,” I say frustrated with this new turn of events, because no matter what we do, “He’s going to try to claim that we omitted this information and argue that we didn’t follow the stipulations as required.”
Leyla looks at Pierce. “You can’t let him do that. These people, they don’t have any place to go if we…”
“Hey, I got this. The town will be safe,” Pierce says, placing his hand on top of hers. “Trust me. Okay, Lei?”
She nods a couple of times.
“That doesn’t mean I can’t keep her away from your man, Sophia,” he says. “While I figure out this part, she might have to stay with us to avoid forfeiting the inheritance”
“In the house?” I swallow.
There are only eight rooms in the mansion. Yes, I’m sure it doesn’t sound like a small property, but when you have nine adults and a toddler living in one house, there isn’t enough space. I’d know. I’ve stayed there every night for the past month. Where is she going to stay?
“Can she stay somewhere else?”
He gives me a sad glance and shrugs. “We can try to negotiate, but I can’t make any promises, sweetheart.”