“Think about it for a minute, Nova. He made that change after someone burned down his club. He was likely scared someone might come after you. Seeing you fitted with a husband might have been tied to a safety concern.”
And that’s the missing piece that makes everything else click into place. “You were never going to get paid to run his businesses, were you? It would have been to make sure his house and property sold for a fair amount and that fancy lawyer of his doesn’t run off with my inheritance, right?”
I look at him for a long, hard moment. “I either have to get married on paper, as you put it or I’m destitute. I have two more years of school. Two years and no way to pay for it. No job I can get in this small town would be enough to pay for college. I guess, I’ll be waiting tables at the local diner.”
“There’s more, girl. Vulture didn’t want to take a chance that you’d get your inheritance and pour it all into the business. What if the economy took a downturn? You’d spend every cent he left you to keep that trucking company going, right? He didn’t want to chain you to the life he built. He wanted you to have the resources to build the fuckin’ life that you wanted.”
“You’re damn right I would do everything I could to preserve my grandfather’s legacy. Honoring him is what I want for myself. What’s so wrong about that?”
“Nothing. I thought you’d say that. It’s why I found you a nice man to marry. He’s from a good family who would beat his ass if he put a finger on you.”
“I don’t want an arranged marriage, Cray. It’s humiliating, wrong and might even be considered fraud.”
“It’s a gray area. How are they gonna prove you ain’t properly married? Besides, the addendum didn’t say anything about being in love or staying married. It just said you had to get married. If you want to save Vulture’s legacy and pay for college, you need to be practical,” he says. “You can wait until you’re thirty or get married. Those are the only options your grandfather left you.”
I sit and glare at my uncle, not sure what to make of all this.
“I’m not trying to force your hand here, Nova. You know that I’ve never asked you for any fuckin’ thing in my entire life. I’m askin’ you now to at least go with me tomorrow morning and talk to this accountant. If it doesn’t feel right, then say no. Will you do that much for me?”
I come to my feet and gaze out into his yard, wondering how my life got fucked up, so fast.
“Yeah, sure, Cray. I’ll meet the guy. I’m not making any promises. As of right now, I’m saying no way in hell.”
“Sleep on it. I’ll pick you up at the trucking office in the morning around eleven and go to meet with him together.”
And that’s how my uncle wrangled me into considering an arranged marriage with a complete stranger. As I get into my vintage car and drive off, I think of what a shitty situation my uncle is putting me in.
Halfway home, I get several rapid-fire text messages from my ex. I’m not sure he actually qualifies as an ex. We went out afew times, enough for him to get attached. I broke up with him when he got controlling and belligerent and he’s been texting me for months, swinging back and forth between cursing me out and love bombing me. This dude clearly doesn’t even know what he wants.
I glance at my messages at a red light and don’t like what I see.
Chapter 2
Mica
The Hendricks’ ledger has an error on line forty-seven. Four hundred dollars has been misclassified as a capital expense when it should be an operating expense. I make a quick notation and move on.
“Excuse me, sir,” my new office assistant says from the doorway. She has a cup of coffee in one hand and the legal pad she uses for notes in the other.
I wave her into my office. “I told you to call me Mica. Everyone does.”
“Yes, sir. I mean, Mica.” Handing me the coffee, she pulls the legal pad against her chest. “Are you finished with the Hendricks audit yet?”
“No. I’m about halfway through it. We need to call them and schedule a meeting for Friday afternoon. If that doesn’t fit into their schedule, look in my appointment book for an opening and put them on my schedule.”
She makes a note on the legal pad. “Yes, sir. I wanted to remind you that you have the regional small business consortium lunch on Thursday.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” I tell her. “I’d forgotten about that event.”
She smiles, and heads for the door. “I’ll let you know if anything urgent comes in.”
“Thank you, Rachel.”
The door closes and I get back to the audit. After that, I take a moment to stretch and then pull up the quarterly summary for the club’s three businesses. Two always have a positive cash flow but one needs attention. We’re hemorrhaging cash and I need to know why. Being an accountant made me the natural choice as treasurer for our club. My family and club brothers trust me to make sure financial issues are caught early and addressed thoroughly.
I’m knee-deep into the quarterly summary when my intercom buzzes.
“Excuse me, sir.” Rachel’s voice sounds off, like she’s anxious or alarmed. “You have visitors, sir. They say they’re family.”
