Page 96 of The Love Bandits

I try not to lean forward in my seat. “Oh? Are you two having problems?”

He glances around, confirms most of the people he knows wouldn’t be caught dead here, and also that the bartender doesn’t give a shit about anything but pounding down peanuts and whatever he’s watching on his phone, and says, “My father never thought much of me. He…he died young, but he’d already made a will.”

He pauses, takes a drink of the beer.

“I have a trust…a trust with a lot of money in it, but I don’t gain full access to it until I’m thirty-four, the age my father was when he ‘built his empire.’ Everything was symbolic with him.”

“You don’t seem to be hurting financially,” I point out.

“No,” he says with a bitter smile. “I get an allowance from the trust. I’m a thirty-three-year-old man withan allowance.”

“What’s the catch?” I ask, because if there wasn’t one, we wouldn’t be here.

He glances at the bored bartender again before saying, “I have to be married by the time I’m thirty-four. That’s the only way I’ll get full access. If I’m not married, I’ll lose it—and the business deal I’ve been working on for six months goes down the drain.”

I whistle. “Does your sister get the same deal?”

“No,” he says tightly. “She had a smaller trust, but it’s all hers. He thought I was weak and would need to tether myself to someone stronger to succeed. He gave my mother full veto power over my bride.”

“Ah.” Only…Mrs. Rosings has made it very fucking clear she doesn’t want Anthony to marry Nina, so why hasn’t she exercised this supposed veto power?

“I can see you’re wondering why she hasn’t said no,” he says with a grunt. “After my father died, she promised me she’d never use that clause against me.”

“You’re worried she’ll change her mind,” I comment.

“No.” He runs his finger over the condensation on his glass of beer. “I mean…maybe she will, but that’s not what I’m really worried about. I’m worried she’s right. Nina knows about my father’s will. We started seeing each other right after Christmas, and it was casual. It wasfun. We went to amusement parks and shitty restaurants and dive bars. She didn’t know who I was, not really, and I didn’t know much about her other than that she wasn’t really career-driven. But we got drunk one night, and I told her about my father’s will and my birthday coming up in January. Less than a year away. She’s the one who said she’d marry me to help me gain the trust. So we got engaged, and all of this was set in motion, and she’schanged.”

“Do you have a prenup?” I ask.

A corner of his mouth lifts. “My mother’s right. Nina’s marrying me for the money, but I’m marrying her for the money too.” He turns the glass around in his hand, takes a long pull before saying, “There’s no prenup. There’s no money if there’s no wedding. That’s something else we agreed on.”

He must see the doubt on my face because he snorts and says, “It’s not just the business deal that gets buried if I don’t get the money. The company will die, and I’ll go down in Marshall history as the Smith who lost itall.”

“Where does the money go if it doesn’t go to you?”

“Causes I don’t particularly believe in. Insult to injury. He knew what he was doing.”

“He knew what causes you supported as a twelve-year-old?” I ask doubtfully.

“He knew what causes my motherdidn’tsupport. Anything to drive a wedge between people.”

I genuinely feel for him. I may not have ever known my father, but it’s easier to guess that your old man’s a dick who doesn’t care about you than to spend your life in the shadow ofthat knowledge. Then again, the only semi-parent I had besides foster parents who came and went like the wind is currently holding my brother hostage.

“Well, shit,” I say. “That’s a hard pill to swallow.”

“I don’t know what to do,” he admits, sitting back. “If I don’t marry her, I’m fucked, but I’m starting to think that if I do marry her—”

“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” I agree.

Based on what he’s told me, he definitely had motivation to steal that necklace, but I don’t think he’d be sitting here with me if he had it.

It’s still possible Nina has it.

This confirms she’s definitely motivated by money. She probably doesn’t want to marry him any more than he wants to marry her—and it’s possible she took the necklace and is only sticking around because she’s worried the person who replaced it might figure out it was her.

“But it’s too late to find anyone else,” he says, slumping back. My birthday’s in two and half months.”

“You could find someone else who’d do it for the money, but then you’d sort of be in the same fix. You said she’s changed…howhas she changed?”

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