“I have it handled,” he said.
Liar.If he had handled it, Ma wouldn’t have been calling me from the edge, trying to make me see the mess he created.
“No, you don’t,” I said. “If everything was handled, she wouldn’t be talking downsizing and liquidation. So here we are.”
He stayed quiet, and that silence told me everything… he was scrambling, trying to figure out how much I knew and how much he could still control.
“I’m not here to argue about whether or not you fucked up,” I said. “What’s done is done. I’m here to talk about the merger.”
That got him. He sat up straighter, eyes narrowing just a bit.
“Go on.”
“I’ll do it,” I said. “I’ll marry Victoria.”
A flicker of surprise crossed his face. His tells were small, but I caught them. I always did. He thought I wouldn’t bend, and part of me hated that I was.
“You’re serious?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “But it’s not happening on your timeline. Or theirs.”
He folded his hands. “What do you want?”
“One year,” I said. “We announce an engagement. We do the public bullshit. You secure your deal. But the wedding doesn’t happen until a year from now.”
I leaned back, letting him hear the weight of my terms.
“In that time, I finish what I’m building with my new locations. I keep full control of Fire & Frost. No one touches my company papers, my recipes, my team.”
“That was never in question,” he said.
Everything is in question with you,I almost said, but kept it to myself.
“I’m saying it out loud anyway,” I replied. “And I’m not playing house with some stranger for your optics. If thismarriage is happening, I need time to see if she’s someone I can tolerate without wanting to drink myself to sleep every night.”
He exhaled slowly. “The Hargroves will want?—”
“I don’t give a fuck what they want,” I cut in. My patience thinned fast around him. “I’m the one you need. I’m the one you trying to sell. If they want me attached to their little princess that bad, they’ll take what they can get. One year. That’s my offer.”
He sat back, thinking. Probably running numbers in his head and realizing Ma was right about how bad things were and hating that he needed me at all.
“You would do this,” he said finally. “After everything you said.”
I held his stare.Yeah. Because Ma didn’t deserve to lose everything because of your pride.
“I’m not doing it for you,” I said. “I’m doing it for Ma. And for the people under this company who didn’t ask to be dragged into your bad decisions.”
He nodded once, slow, accepting the checkmate.
“I can work with a year.”
“Then work with it,” I said, standing. “Send me whatever paperwork I need to see. Don’t blindside me again. I’ll play my part, but I’m not your puppet.”
“We’re still family,” he said, watching me like he wanted the words to mean something.
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s why I’m still here.”
I walked out before the conversation could turn into something else, before he said something that pissed me off, or before I said something I couldn’t take back. I was doing this for Ma. Once I hit the hallway, the weight of it finally landed. A whole damn year tied to a woman I didn’t want, helping rebuild a company I didn’t break, fixing a mess my father still refused to admit he caused. Part of me wanted to walk out of that house and never look back.
