“Thank God.” Alex laughed, but it faded fast. “How’s Charlotte doing with everything?”
I hesitated, but only for a second. “She’s perfect for the role. Even if it’s fake. How about you? Any progress yet?”
His mouth tightened into a hard line. “Things aren’t going as smoothly on my end.”
No surprise there.“What’s Gregory doing now?” I asked.
“It’s not him.” Alex sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s my dad. He’s hellbent on this match. More so than I realized.”
My stomach dropped. “How set is he really, Alex?”
“He’s already met with the estate lawyers. That set. They’re prepping all the paperwork as we speak. If she marries Gregory, she’ll get access to the trust our grandfather set up.”
I sat up straighter. “The Westwood grandfather?”
“That’s the one,” he confirmed.
“Damn.”
That trust fund was the stuff of whispered legend, an old-money war chest large enough to buy half of Chicago. Alex rubbed a hand over his face. “Gregory’s been circling, following up after the meetings with the lawyers and hammering out terms. Dad is eating it up, taking it as a sign of his devotion and dedication to the arrangement.”
I let out a low whistle. “He’s really that set on pushing her into this?”
“Oh yeah. He thinks Charlotte marrying Gregory is the best thing since sliced bread. It’s good for the family optics, business consolidation, and her finally accessing her trust only when she’ssettled.”
I leaned back in the armchair by the window, my ankle crossed over my knee and my phone propped against it. “If she marries him, she gets access to her inheritance?”
Alex nodded. “Yep. That’s the way our grandfather set it up before he died. It’s the same structure the rest of us have.”
I’d known bits of that, but hearing it spelled out made a cold chill settle behind my ribs. This was a similar setup to what the other Westwood brothers had gone through, get married, unlock the trust, and climb a few notches in the family business.
There was a system to it, a strategy. It was damn clinical, but at least they’d each benefited from it in one way or another. Charlotte, on the other hand, had been completely sidelined business-wise.
It seemed to me that she’d always been on the periphery, present but not included. Suddenly, I found myself wondering why. She was smart as hell, yet as far as I knew, she’d never shown even a flicker of interest in working with them.
Except now, after spending real time with her, I kind of got it. Numbers, financial portfolios, and business expansions just weren’t her. From what I’d seen, she was more like Sadie, listening to her heart first, tender where the rest of us were steel.
Like my sister, Charlotte would probably give away her entire inheritance just to make someone else’s life easier. And if she married Gregory?
“Let me guess,” I said. “He gets access to her wealth as soon as they sign on the dotted line.”
“Bingo,” Alex muttered. “To be honest, he’s not even pretending it’s about anything else. That’s why we need to stop it before it gains traction. I don’t know exactly how far Gregory and Dad have gotten, but I don’t like the direction this is going in at all.”
I exhaled slowly, my protective instincts kicking in so hard, it unsettled me. “So, what? If she signs that contract, he drains her dry and rides off with her money?”
“That’s the working theory,” Alex said. “While he’s at it, he’ll treat her like an accessory the entire time.”
My pulse thudded a low, angry beat beneath my skin.Over my dead damn body.
As soon as the call ended, I shoved my phone into my back pocket and pushed off the armchair, fully intending on taking Charlotte around the ranch to distract myself from how badly I wanted to throttle her father. She’d been curious about everything so far, her eyes wide whenever we ventured out there, just soaking it all in.
Showing her the place would keep her close—and stop me from calling up the pilot and getting arrested for assault in Chicago. I headed downstairs, already picturing her with that oversized T-shirt she slept in drowning her frame and her hair twisted up into a messy halo, but a flash of white in the kitchen stopped me cold.
A note sat in the center of the counter, and when I picked it up, I sighed.
Trent,
Your mom picked me up. Hanging out with my favorite Shepard today.
