As he spoke, it felt like Thor had thrown his hammer right at my larynx. My throat felt so tight, I could barely breathe, but Dad kept calm, rising and pacing around his desk.
“Court is a bastard, I’ll agree to that. The position he put his wife and children in is inexcusable, and my guess is that Jane?—”
“Dr. Jane Thayer,” I corrected under my breath. “She’sthathighly educated and they’ve reduced her to?—”
“Dr. Thayer, then,” Dad amended with a sly, knowing kind of smile I chose to ignore. I didn’t give a fuck what he thought he knew right now.
My heart was still pounding, but it wasn’t from the thrill of knowing the chase was almost at an end. It was now hammering like a writhing thing against my ribs because what had been done to Jane was an archaic form of patriarchal torture.
After just having fought this very system for my sister, I was about as sick of this bullshit as anyone. At least it’d had a happy ending for Charlotte, but Jane was earning a pittance while her beach bum uncle squandered every last chance she might’ve had of pulling her family business up by its bootstraps.
I didn’t think it could get any worse, but then dad continued. “It’s likely she’s been holding her family up on what remains of her trust fund, which, by all accounts, couldn’t have beenthatmuch to begin with.”
My entire body stilled and yet he just kept going like the bad news fairy, intent on beating me over the head with a stick. “All her siblings are younger and their trust funds are still tangled up in the estate at large, seized with the rest of their wealth. She was the only one past the age of twenty-five when all of this happened, which means her fund was in her name by then.”
“What did Nora say about all this?” I asked.
Dad gave me a look that said I wouldn’t like the answer. “She told me that Jane has been single handedly funding her brothers’ college tuition as well as managing all the family expenses. Currently, she has three brothers in school and the youngest has his heart set on Yale.”
I thought of the Ubers, the cab rides, and the cheap wine, and it all suddenly made a sickening kind of sense to me. Dad slid the rest of the stack of paperwork across the desk in my direction. I didn’t even have to look to know what it was. I’d had a feeling that was where he was going with this.
“She’ll never agree to it,” I said, my jaw flexed. “Trust me, she’s not the type.”
“She doesn’t have much of a choice.” He sat back in his chair, hooking his ankle across his knee as his gaze caught mine and held it. “Other companies are noticing Thayer Steelworks’ fall. It’s an empire, normally a well-oiled machine, but as it stands, the entire company is at risk of collapse. You have the opportunity to take it.”
“I’d be getting those votes through marriage and putting my own wife in as CEO.”
“It’s perfectly legal.”
“It’s social suicide.”
“For who? Jane? Her family?” Dad shook his head, that familiar glint in his eyes that told me he absolutely intended on standing firm in this decision. “Her father dug their graves fiveyears ago. If it’s our family you’re worried about, don’t. We’ve been through worse.”
I ground my teeth, but he wasn’t wrong. “Does Jane know this is on the table yet?”
“It’s likely. Nora and I agreed last night that it was the best course of action. An arranged marriage between our families would save hers and allow you to swoop in and put their company safely under our wing. With Nora’s two votes and the two you’d get, you’ll have majority over the board and you’ll effectively be saving Thayer Steelworks from ruin.”
It was a perfect plan, flawless and so simple I could shout, but right now, I felt like my chest was made of lead. Out of everything he’d told me today, one phrase in particular kept playing on a loop in my head.
She doesn’t have much of a choice.
“The courthouse opens on Monday,” Dad said as if it was a completely done deal. “I’ve taken the liberty of having everything written out and drafted. This is the prenup and her cut of the family estate. All that’s left on your end is deciding what you’re willing to give her.”
I snatched the papers off the desk. “She won’t go for it.”
“Have you asked?” Dad arched a brow at me. “You’d be surprised by what lengths people will go to when they’ve lost everything, Alex. Pray you’ll never be in her situation. Never know what true desperation feels like. It’s awful, but this means you get a wife and she keeps her chin above water. You’re saving her, son. She won’t turn you down. Trust me, but go talk to her. I made the deal, but it’s time for you to go seal it.”
CHAPTER 9
JANE
The familiar, blacked-out luxury sedan idled on the curb outside my family’s house. For the last ten minutes, I’d been sitting by the window in the foyer looking at it, but I wasn’t sure how long he had been out there.
It was also a total mystery to me whether Alex was going to come in or if he was waiting for me to come out. At this point, it was safe to assume he had my phone number, even if I hadn’t given it to him myself.
Between Colin and Zach’s friendship, my mother and his father’s agreement, and their intention of acquiring our company regardless, I had no doubt that he had the means to contact me. He just hadn’t done it yet, so I hadn’t known he was coming and I didn’t know what he was expecting to happen next.
The last thing I needed to deal with this morning was my future husband lurking outside my home. To say I’d slept like shit last night was the understatement of the century.
