Page 52 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 4

“And he is my boss!” Muriel snapped, something I’d never seen her do in all the years she’d worked for us. Usually, Muriel was the epitome of class and professionalism. The woman spun around, her gaze shooting lasers at Maggie. “I’ll have you know, my job is to keep his empire running smoothly while he’s playing dead. You may not know this,Nurse Ratchet, but he is responsible for over sixty businesses, ten of which he is on the board of directors for.”

“So? Like I give a fig what goes on in the corporate world.” Maggie twirled her hand in the air in a whoop-dee-doo gesture. “My goal is to get him healed with as little scarring and pain as possible. Your health is your wealth.”

“And my goal is to ensure the lights stay on, and for the hundreds of thousands of employees working for him to get paid on time. Or would you like to answer those calls from angry CEOs he’s made dozens of promises to?”

“Oh shit, Pookie. You are rich rich. Way to go big guy!” Maggie congratulated.

“Yeah,” Gio let out a long, tired breath. “Muriel, you’re doing a wonderful job. Feel free to come back in an hour when I’ve been poked and prodded and bandaged up like a mummy. Thank you.”

“Make that two to three hours. After your sponge bath, you’re taking a nap.”

“All I’ve done is sleep since we got here,” Gio complained.

“You heal when you sleep. Besides, you’ll be taking the muscle relaxer, and I don’t believe you want to make important business decisions while under the influence of medication.In my vast experience, those two things don’t really go well together.”

“Two to three hours?” Muriel croaked, her face becoming tight with tension.

“Jules, love of my life, can you help Muriel run the show while I’m incapacitated? Be my second-in-command?” Gio asked.

“Uh, yeah. Whatever you need. We can table anything I don’t know for sure, which will probably be most things, but I can certainly try.”

“Darling, I have the utmost faith in your abilities to make well-informed decisions. Muriel will advise. Let’s not make things sit on the backburner until we return from the dead. As Muriel said, the bills must be paid, and you’re a co-signer on all my bank accounts. The banks will process anything we sign until a death certificate is provided as proof of our passing. It’s business as usual until then. And since we didn’t die, nothing has to change.”

“Wait…what? I’m a co-signer? I thought we had separate accounts.”

He shook his head. “No darling. When I married you, I married you. That means my dynasty is now yours. Congratulations, your net worth just went up about forty billion.”

“For fucks sake, do you think you could have mentioned that?” I gulped, stunned he’d be so reckless. Then again, it absolutely said a lot about how he feels about our marriage.

“When? During our Vegas wedding, Bianca’s assault, the fight I had with Brenden, the lawyers working on the contract stuff, or the explosion? We’ve been a little busy. Besides, I just assumed you knew.”

“Well, what about my twenty million?” I taunted, pretending to take affront.

“You can take it out anytime you want. Transfer it today if you’d like. You have access to everything. Isn’t that right, Muriel?”

She nodded. “Yes. Mr. Falco asked me to make the adjustment to all of his holdings and bank accounts the morning after you were married. It’s all set.”

“You’re insane, you know that, right? No man worth what you are marries a woman without a prenup.” I fully expected his lawyers to follow up with all of that once we were settled, but then I forgot about it.

“I’m insanely in love with you, yes. If you want to rob me blind, that’s your prerogative,” Gio hissed as Maggie ignored all of us and started cleansing his wounds.

“And what about the money I bring to our marriage?” I asked. I didn’t have a lot available to me in liquid cash, but I still had the business and outside investments, not to mention half of my parents’ estate now that the wills defaulted back to the originals. And even though the papers noted Brenden as the real estate “magnate” I was the one that now owned seventy-five percent of Falco & Myers.

“Do with it what you want. It’s yours.”

“But your money is now mine too?” I tilted my head and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Didn’t you just say fuck the patriarchy a minute ago? You now have complete control over every detail of our lives. Be happy.”

I slumped forward. “I am happy, but you could have told me,” I whined and crawled on the bed, putting my face close to his.

“Jules, baby, it’s just money. I need you to help Muriel keep our employees from jumping ship. Can you do that for me?” He gritted his teeth as Maggie tended to a particularly sensitive spot.

I held his hand. “I can do that. I’d do anything for you,” I whispered and leaned forward and kissed his lips.

He kissed me back for all of a second before he grunted, his body trembling as he worked through the painful process of having his wounds cleaned.

“I’m going to go help Muriel for the next little bit and then I’ll come back to learn how to sponge bathe you.”

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