I let out a humorless laugh. “Where do you want me to start?”
“How about the beginning?” He finally stepped back and perched his butt on the edge of the table, arms folding. He held my gaze. “What’s really going on here, Will?”
“You put the three of us in this position,” I said, every ounce of frustration I’d been feeling bleeding into my tone. “You set it up like it was some kind of strategic gameshow and now we’re all just supposed to just carry on like nothing is wrong.”
“Nothing is wrong,” he said. “The contracts are signed. The parties involved are satisfied. It’s an arrangement that benefits everyone.”
“Does it?” I challenged. “I’m not so sure. It seems to me like the only one whofeelslike they’re benefiting is you.”
His eyes flashed with warning, his chin lifting ever so slightly. “Be careful, Will.”
“No.” I scoffed, my head shaking. “Yoube careful. This isn’t just a business deal, Alex. It’s her life, and Jesse’s.”
“They both agreed to it. Besides, it’s not Jesse in here right now. It’s you. He didn’t seem to have any problem with it when we were talking earlier.”
“That’s only because you’re paying him to do what you want him to do. You said it yourself. Jesse loves money. He’s not doing this because it’s what he wants, Alex.”
“What exactly are you accusing me of?”
“Fine. You want me to say it? I’ll say it. You know Jesse doesn’t want this. You know he’s only doing it for the money and because now he feels like he owes it tome. That’s further than you’ve gone with anyone else. Further even than you went for Charlotte.”
I thought he was going to argue, but instead, he paled completely. Clearly, I’d just hit him where it hurt.
“I amnotour father,” he said firmly. “If that’s what you’re insinuating?—”
“I’m not insinuating it anymore, but you’re right. You’re not Dad. You’re getting worse than he ever was, and still, you keep using that line whenever things get uncomfortable. You cling to it like there’s some kind of distinction that separates you from him, but there’s isn’t. Not anymore.”
He scoffed. “I’m not forcing anyone into anything. Jesse and Eliza both agreed to this. I saw an opportunity for the whole family and I took it.”
A snort of disbelieving, dry laughter shot out of me. “Now you’re reasoning like him too, but what about Eliza, huh? Because of you, she’s marrying a complete stranger.”
Alex’s mouth opened like he had a response ready, but something stopped him dead in his tracks as he looked back atme. Suddenly, his eyebrows shot up and he blinked a few times too many. “Oh.”
“Oh, what?”
“So that’s what this is about,” he said quietly, his head tilting as he kept looking at me like all the pieces of the puzzle lived on my face and they were sliding into position one by one. “You fell in love with her. It wasn’t just a physical thing between you.”
I crossed my arms, falling back a step as my head shook. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t do that,” I said, my voice tight. “Don’t reduce this to a neatly packaged conclusion just so you can ignore the actual problem.”
“Okay. Well, the actual problem, the way I see it, is that you got involved where you shouldn’t have.”
“You literally fucking told me to get involved. Begged me. Even promised I’d get money too, which I don’t want, by the way.”
“I asked you to step in for him temporarily. It’s not my fault you caught feelings, and you don’t get to blow it all up just because you fell into bed with her,” he argued. “Besides, Eliza already signed the contract. It’s done. She knows what she agreed to.”
“Does she?” I retorted. “That’s funny. See, the last time I checked, she thought she was agreeing to marry one person and got someone else entirely.”
“That’s been corrected,” he said.
“Corrected?” I scoffed. “This wasn’t some clerical error, Alex.”
“Our family is shelling out a fortune on this wedding,” he said, his voice morphing into that familiar, controlled tone he used when he switched from tolerant brother to authoritativeCEO. “James has invested massive amounts of his own wealth in our business. This isn’t about you, Will.”
“No,” I said. “It never is.”
