Page 4 of The Rancher's Rejected Bride
"If we're done now—-" The tinge of impatience in Nicholas' voice made Bee bite her lip. "I still have work to finish..."
Bee managed to summon a smile. "Of course. I totally understand."
The words seemed truthful enough, and yet in her eyes he seemed to catch a flicker of hurt.
Which would even make less sense,Nicholas thought irritably,than everything she had said so far.What the hell did she have to be upset about? She was Daniel's friend, dammit, not his, and all he owed her he had already done.
Nicholas purposely turned away as the family butler escorted Tabitha inside his house, and as he made his way to the stable, he remembered the envelope she had given him.
Danny says it's his wedding gift,the girl had said.
He pulled the envelope out of his pocket, and tearing it open, a piece of paper fell out. A single QR code was printed on it, and Nicholas frowned.What the hell?He scanned the code with his phone, and it took him to a password-protected page.
Since this was his son, Nicholas typed the namePetula,and the page started to load. A couple of photos showed up first, and Nicholas' gaze narrowed when he saw his son and Tabitha standing in what suspiciously seemed like a judge's private chambers.
He clicked on theNext Pagelink, and what seemed like a scanned document started loading.
A document that appeared to be...
Nicholas swore under his breath when his worst fears were confirmed.
His lawyer answered at the second ring, and Nicholas didn't waste time with small talk. "I need you to check something for me," he said tightly.
Sensing the urgency in his client's tone, Joe silently waved for his secretary to leave and waited for the doors to close before reaching for his pen, saying, "Give me the basics, and I'll get to it right away."
"I think I'm married."
"Congratula—-"
"Without my knowledge," Nicholas interrupted.
"Shit."
"My son might be involved."
And it just kept getting shittier,Joe thought as he started scribbling. "I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
An email arrived at Nicholas' inbox exactly seventeen minutes later, with several documents attached. The first one was a marriage contract...between him and one Tabitha Sandler, and with his own eighteen-year-old son standing for him in proxy.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
It became instantly clear to him that Daniel had forged his signature on the documents as well as committing dozens of other crimes along the way. Joe's email showed that Daniel had put up a dating firm called Hearts' Match, and it didn't appear to be a coincidence at all that his son's company could be easily mistaken for Heart'sMatch, the matchmaking agency that Nicholas' childhood friend Charlotte owned.
Joe's third set of documents was a contract brokered by Daniel's company, and specified in it was a list of conditions that both Nicholas and Tabitha had to meet. One party failing to do so would be sufficient grounds for divorce, with Nicholas apparently agreeing to transfer half of his fortune...to Tabitha's name.
When Nicholas called his lawyer for the second time, Joe appeared to be expecting it, having picked up the call before the first ring had even ended.
The older man also beat him to speaking, saying heavily, "If you don't want to risk Ms. Sandler suing your son for fraud and God knows what else, your best bet is to play it safe and keep your new wife happy while I try finding you a loophole."
"Goddammit, Joe."
"You're not paying me a fortune to lie to you."
Nicholas' fist clenched against the urge to punch a hole into the nearest wall.Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.Why the hell would Daniel do something asinine as this?
"How long do you think it will take you to get me out of this mess?"
"It will help if you can track your son for me—-"
