Page 11 of Finding Forever

He made a scoffing sound and shook his head curtly as if in rejection of that idea.

“Not fucking likely.”

“He believes he has you exactly where he wants you. If seven months of negotiations didn’t scare you off, then he likely thinks you’re willing to do anything for this deal.”

“He’d be wrong.”

“Do you want Lambecrete?”

His gaze bored into her face with laser-like intensity and she shifted uncomfortably beneath that piercing stare. “Notthatmuch.”

“If you helpme, I can ensure you get it.”

“Help you how?”

She swallowed enfolding her arms around her body and taking a few steps backward until the backs of her knees hit the bed. She sat down and inhaled deeply.

“My mother died when I was twelve. She loved me, she wanted to protect me. I know that. Part of that protection was entrusting my inheritance to someone she believed she could trust, someone who would always put me first. She’d been married to Granger only a couple of years at that point. We had no other family and she didn’t want to leave me and my interests in the hands of an impersonal board. I know she did what she thought was best. She put my inheritance in trust until I was twenty-five. Or married. Whichever came first. With the caveat that—if Granger did not think I was ready to manage my own wealth at the age of twenty-five—he could extend the period up to an additional five years.”

She swallowed heavily, shuddering as she considered how Granger had abused her mother’s trust—literally and figuratively—over the years.

“I’m twenty-seven. Suffice it to say, to the surprise of no oneat all, Granger didnotthink I was ready to manage my own wealth two years ago. But he’s getting desperate, he’ll lose control of my money in just under three years. And he’s now been hinting at me marrying—” Her voice broke on the last word and she shook her head. “Marrying his nephew… Richard. Once I marry I—supposedly—will have control of my own funds and assets. But I know… I justknowthat if I marry someone like Richard—someone firmly in my stepfather’s corner—Granger will find a way to take that control away from me. He and his daughters have been trying to undermine my self-esteem for years, making me feel small, incompetent, stupid, incapable at pretty much everything I do.” She privately acknowledged that they had been more successful than she would’ve liked. Even though she’d known what they were doing, the relentless mockery, criticism, and negativity had eaten away at her dignity and self-confidence. Like slowly dripping acid corroding away at metal. She hated that they’d done that to her, hated that she’d allowed it.

“He’s kept me hidden away at a boarding school for fifteen years,” she continued, bitterness seeping into her determinedly unemotional voice. “First, as a student, and then I was stronglyencouragedto stay there as a teaching assistant. He refused to release any funds for my college tuition—stating it would be wasted on someone with my mediocre intelligence. He has absolute and iron clad control over my life. I have no doubt that if I marry Richard, I would lose what little agency I have left.

“But… Icanmarry someone else. That night, at the gala, it was the first time I’d ever been allowed to attend any kind of function without him always hovering and controlling whom I spoke to or interacted with. He had to cancel at the last minute, but he thought because my stepsisters were there, I’d be more closely monitored than I was. Iabsolutelyknew who you were, Niall Caden Hawthorne, and at first—even though I knew my stepfather pretty muchdespisedyou and your family—Ibelieved that you cut from the same cloth as Granger and Richard…” He made a disgusted noise, but his glowering gaze never deviated from her face.

He’d shown very little reaction or emotion while she spoke and Fern worried that everything she was saying was falling on deaf, unsympathetic ears. Maybe he didn’t care. Why should he? She was a stranger to him and perhaps she’d chosen unwisely, but at this moment in time, she had little choice but to follow through. Because if not Cade Hawthorne, then whom? She had absolutely no other options.

“But you’re not like them, are you?” Her question was almost pleading. “I sensed it that night. I could tell that you were different. You’ll help me.”

“How am I supposed to help you?” he suddenly grated out, his voice harsh, curt, and more than a little terrifying. “And—more to the point—why should I? Because we had sex? That’s a lot of baggage to pin on a guy for a quick, mediocre fuck.”

She swallowed again, trying not to flinch at his words. It was nothing she hadn’t expected.

“I cangiveyou Lambecrete.”

“We’re on the verge of finalizing the deal for Lambecrete. I don’t see what incentive I have to help you if that’s the only thing of real value you have to offer me.”

“Fortwo hundred million pounds!” she pointed out, her voice shaking with fear and frustration. “And rest assured, there will be so many strings attached to that deal, you’ll be trying to unravel your way through all his bullshit for months to come still. If I were to marry, Granger’s trusteeship falls away and my assets will be released into my name.”

“If you were to marryme,you mean?” His voice dripped with cynicism and she flinched.

“Yes, of course.”

“And how exactly does that make you different from Granger? From your sisters?”

“They’re not my sisters,” she corrected stiffly. “And I’m different because I’m not looking for a permanent arrangement, Cade. Marrymeand Lambecrete is yours. No strings, no hidden clauses. All I ask is that the marriage lasts three years. Until I’m thirty. If we divorced before then Granger would find a way to regain control of my trust. You’re an attorney, right? You write the terms of our marriage contract; you make sure you get the best deal possible out of this union. Lambecrete at no cost whatsoever. All I want is the clear, written stipulation that you’ll leave everything else alone.”

“Why would you trust me to leave the rest alone?”

“Because you don’t need it. You don’t want it. I’ve done my due diligence. You’ve got your own money, much more than I stand to inherit. The only thing you and your family want from me is Lambecrete, and I’ll happily gift it to you. Call it my dowry.”

“Look, this is?—”

“It’s a lot,” she completed for him. “I know it is. Marrying a stranger. You know next to nothing about me.”

“Yeah, and why is that?” he asked, his eyes diamond hard and glittering with suspicion.

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