She frowned. “Isn’t that what you want?”
“Not exactly.” He picked up his drink and sat back. “I want to quit working for him and work for myself. I told him two years ago that I was leaving to open my own firm. I wasn’t intending to compete directly with him. Vorstoben takes on complex, billion-dollar projects. Factories and resorts. I’ve always seen a need for highly skilled, bespoke services. Projects that are challenging in a different way. When I told him I was leaving, Otto promoted me to CEO. He said he would retire once I married his daughter and gift us the company after a year of marriage. He let me believe all this time that his daughter was Mira.”
“Oh.” Until Axel said that, his proposal had been a joke. Now the determination she read in him was rolling over her like a cool, frothy tide. It should have frozen her to the bone, but it rocked her while sand shifted beneath her feet. Nothing was solid. She was being tossed around and tugged out to sea.
Tugged by a god who would not take no for an answer.
That’s been called off. You’re the woman I’m looking for.
Her heart began to thud as though he was pursuing her through the dark city streets.
“I agreed to his offer.” He was still holding her gaze, filling her ears with the smooth timbre of his voice. “I poured myself into Vorstoben, believing it would be mine as soon as Mira and I married. He wouldn’t let us set a date. Wouldn’t finalize the terms.” He took a gulp of scotch and bared his teeth at the burn. “A month ago, I said I wouldn’t wait any longer. He offered me this.” He took up a slim envelope from the pile and unfolded what looked like a contract of several pages. “It promises that if I marry hisbiologicaldaughter, he’ll honor the terms he set two years ago. That was when Mira and I both learned she isn’t his daughter. And that you are.”
“That’s how he told her?” She didn’t know Mira, but she felt the other woman’s shock on a visceral level, and the unmooring sensation it must have caused her. “That’s horrible. Why do you even work for someone who acts like that?”
“Call it a deep need to express myself through executive movement,” he said with heavy sarcasm. “He gave me opportunities and valuable experience when I needed it. That inspired a certain loyalty in me, but you’re right. He’s not nice. On the other hand, he’s made it clear he won’t leave the company to Mira, so I’m not trying to steal it from her. I only want what he promised me.”
“I don’t understand how you think he could use me, though?”
“He’ll offer you his fortune if you marry me,” he said simply and pointed at the contract. “He knows damned well that you would feel this hesitancy you’re showing. Who would marry a stranger? It’s a ridiculous ask.”
“Thank you.” These were the first sensible words he’d said all night.
“He would use your reservation to string me along, but I’ve reached the end of my forbearance. According to this contract…” he gave the pages a ruffle “…upon marrying me, Otto’sbiologicaldaughter stands to inherit all of this.” He filtered through the papers again and showed her a list of properties. The value tallied up to a hefty nine figures. The largest asset was Vorstoben, making up more than half.
Joy almost swallowed her tongue.
“I imagine Lorena felt some guilt at denying you the fortune you were entitled to inherit, once she realized Otto was balking at leaving it to Mira.”
“But that’s adoption.” Joy shot to her feet and paced away in agitation. “You can drive yourself crazy thinking about the life you might have had if you had been raised by your birth mother. I’m really happy with the upbringing I had, though.” Wendy hadn’t been able to get pregnant again after having David. She had longed for a daughter, and Joy had arrived days after David started school. Joy had had her full, doting attention. “Mom and I were super close. That’s why I waited until she was gone to even contact the agency. I’ve never had fantasies that anyone would come along andrescueme.”
“Good. That’s not why I’m here.”
“No, you want to marry me to get your hands on things that aren’t even mine!” She waved at the table.
“Only Vorstoben.” He swallowed the last of his drink and sucked his teeth. “I already own a number of shares in it. Once I gain the ones that contract awards me, I will be the majority shareholder, which grants me total control. So I won’t let him renege. Not again.”
“But that comes atmyexpense. I don’t want to be used by either of you.” She shook her head, honestly wondering if she’d taken some of that weird cough medicine that gave her squirrely dreams. “No. There’s no reason for me to agree to any of this.”
At that moment, the door lock hummed. Heskel stepped inside and held the door open for the room service trolley to be pushed in by a server. As the server began setting the table, Heskel gave Joy a diffident nod.
“I apologize for the interruption, Ms. Youngston, but I have a few questions regarding your father’s care. Is there any interest in a full-service senior building? There’s one located near your sister-in-law that seems very well recommended. The cost is comparable to purchasing and retrofitting a home for accessibility, then hiring appropriate staff, so I thought it makes sense to explore it?”
“Puh… Pardon? I haven’t agreed to anything.” She threw that at Axel, alarmed.
“This is for discussion purposes.” Axel rose and set aside his empty glass. “Heskel is pulling together options to present to your father. You seemed concerned that your brother will visit your father less often, now that his wife lives across the country. I asked Heskel to include a plan that moves your father closer to his grandchildren. If he chooses to stay in his current home and have a nurse come daily, that’s up to him, but with my resources you can offer more far-reaching solutions.”
“But I don’t have your resources. Not unless—”
“Exactly,” Axel cut in. “Include it,” he instructed Heskel. “With a timeline on when the move could be accomplished.”
“Of course. I’ll be across the hall. Please text if you need anything.” Heskel accepted the bill from the server and signed it, then followed the server out the door.
Axel drew out a chair for Joy at the dining table.
She sat as though in a trance, mind incapable of grasping a solid thought. She was halfway through the soup course before its delicate taste traveled from her tongue to her brain. Even then, she couldn’t have said if she liked it.
“I’m probably not even her.” At this point, she didn’t know if a negative result would be a relief or a devastating loss.
