Page 13 of Heartless Sinner

“I can do better than Eloise.”

“People change, Micah. I believe you have to give them the chance to do so, especially when they’re close to you.”

“Not when it comes to marriage, so my answer is still no. And like I said before, I will find myownwife. I don’t need you to do it.”

He stares back at me, unblinking, allowing that annoying silence to crawl back in. He watches me carefully and I can just imagine all the things that are running through his mind.

“You have one week.” His voice takes on a chilling edge with a raw dose of finality to it.

“What?”

“You heard me. This is still my empire. I’m giving you one week to find a wife.” The sternness returns to his face. “You’ve had over a year to prepare for this, Micah. All you’ve done is fuck around. I can only assume you’re not taking this seriously enough.”

“That’s not true.”

“That’s exactly what it looks like from where I’m sitting, so I’m putting my foot down. If you fail to find a wife, I’m going with Eloise, and you two will be married by the end of the month.”

My eyes bulge. “Theendof the month?”

“Luis has someone else lined up for her if you say no.”

“Ihavesaid no.”

“Not by my watch. And if you fight me, you can take the lead on the family in name only, but I’ll put your uncles in charge of the company.”

My blood heats like lava, burning me up from the inside out. “You would seriously do that to me? I’m your heir. Your only son. Putting my uncles in charge of the company is as good as cutting me off.”

“This is not a personal attack, Micah.”

“It sure feels like one.” I’m not sure how he fails to see that.

“There is no one better than you to take over from me. I’d think that even if you weren’t my son and even if we didn’t liveby our inheritance laws. But when you stop being suitable, we have a problem. The two things that are most important to me are family and power. Marrying Eloise ensures both. Unless you find someone else.”

“This is fucking insane.”

“Maybe so. But I want to make sure I leave my legacy the way I want it with a strong foundation.”

This is tying me up to beat me. Or rather making his last boss move by hitting me with the thing I care about most and binding me to follow his orders.

“Am I understood, Micah?” He gives me an arrogant smile and all I can do is stare back at him, hating what he’s done and the threat of losing everything to my uncles.

“Understood.”

Papà nods once and I can see he thinks he’s trapped me into doing what he wants, but there’s no way in fuck that I’m marrying Eloise or allowing my uncles to get control of the company.

“In other news, how is the situation with the hacking?”

Motherfucker.What a way to slip in a subject change. But that’s typical of him.

My father has perfected the art of not giving a fuck. I thought I was well versed in that art as well, but it turns out the old saying that everyone has a price applies to me, too.

There’s more I want to say with regards to this marriage trap, but maybe it’s best we don’t talk about it anymore. Papà thinks he’s thrown me a rope by giving me a week to figure my shit out. I have to take that as something and work with it.

At the very least, I have to come up with some form of plan.

“It’s under control,” I answer, trying to sound like he hasn’t rattled me. “Brahm and I have set a trap to see if we can find out who’s trying to get into our systems.”

Papà looks pleased to hear that Brahm is helping me. Brahm and I both studied computer science and engineering at college, so anything tech related is our area of expertise. I think he’s also hoping Brahm will join me on the leadership.

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