Page 2 of The Wife Deception
"I am not exactly fine with it. But I need your family business, and I am willing to do anything to have it."
"Even marry a woman with a terrible reputation like mine?"
A small smile played on my lips. Funny how she didn't look like I thought she would. At that moment, she looked more like a librarian than a party girl. Even though she was trying so hard to appear unbothered, I could sense that it was all an act.
"A woman who knows what she is. Refreshing."
"Most people hide behind fakeries. I prefer to be upfront at the outset."
She was as mercenary as her grandfather. That was a good thing, right? Better a mercenary than someone fooling themselves into believing love might grow out of the marriage. But something wasn't adding up. I couldn't understand why,and I should have ran out of that decrepit house as soon as Kenneth mentioned his proposal, but something else, a much greater force, kept me rooted.
"What's in it for you?" I asked.
"Money. Plain and simple."
"Ah. Your grandfather said he will release your trust fund if you marry someone he approves of or something like that?"
She gave a slight shrug. "Something like that."
"And you are willing to marry me, an old man, to get it?"
She chuckled. "You've just turned forty. That's hardly old. I think twenty-six-year-old me can survive."
"You looked me up?"
"I never go into a business deal blind, Nolan Hawthorne."
Aelinsat straight, her back flat against the rococo sofa. Her well-manicured hands clasped on top of her lap. The sophistication she commanded made me wonder if the stories I heard about her were true. Because right now, she looked like she would make a good wife for any man, especially one in high society. There was something familiar about her. She reminded me of my mother and not in a good way. But aren't they the same breed? High-class women who like to party and don't care how the bill is paid?
Escaping women resembling my mother, only to wed one. The irony was not lost on me.
"Good," I said. "I'll talk to my lawyers to draft a prenup and they'll be in touch with you soon."
I didn't have to marry her forever. In two years, I would achieve my goals, and I would be a happily divorced man, possessing an empire surpassing even my father's wildest dreams.
2
Aire
"What did he say?"
Kenneth sounded more anxious than I had ever heard him sound. I could hear his cane hitting the gravel and his feet shuffling towards where I stood.I waited until my grandfather stepped in front of me to respond. His posture immediately buckled as soon as Nolan's car was out of sight. He staggered to the closest support structure, the courtyard wall. Not me. Never me. His attempts at displaying virality had barely worked. Nolan could see through my grandfather, but he was too stubborn to realize it. He could barely walkwithout at least a cane. What he truly needed was a walker, but good luck raising that idea to him.
He clung to the wall, almost falling, and subsequently recovered.
"He wanted to know if I was consenting."
Grandfather scoffed. A cough followed. "Weak man. Obsessed with trivialities." he coughed again. "You can see it in the way he runs his business—" He coughed again. His entire body heaving. The black pinstriped suit he wore ballooning as he bowled over. I rushed over to help him up, but he swatted my hands away. Large globs of phlegm came out of his mouth and flew onto the gravel. He straightened, turned back towards the house and I strolled behind him, my hands hovering around him in case he stumbled again. "You can see the way he runs his business," he continued as though nothing had happened. "He's a pitiful replacement for his father."
Given that his company was about to fail, it was quite ironic. Hawthorne's rapid growth and high profits were evident, even to someone as business-naïve as myself. Meanwhile, debt and layoffs overwhelmed W. Burgess.
Every business article I had read during my little googling of him had praised Nolan Hawthorne's business acumen and how he turned around what was once a failing family businessinto a dominant force.
"It's going to be interesting," Grandfather coughed again, "to see how he will react when he finally gets what he deserves. I will never forgive that man for…" he trailed off when he realized he had been referring to the other Nolan. The current Nolan's father. A man who died a few years ago. "Anyway," he began again, "did he suspect anything?"
"If he did, he didn't show it." Nolan had scanned me up and down with his microscopic gaze. Undressing me with those gray eyes. His gaze wouldn't have seemed unsettling were he less attractive. I knew he was hot. I had seen an image of him, but the raw masculinity he exuded in real life surprised me. My whole body reacted to his presence as if meeting a man for the very first time.
"Ha! Idiot. I told you it was going to work. A simple nose job and now you two look almost identical.
