Page 34 of Stolen Hearts

“Massimo isn’t wrong. Technically speaking, in the event of Luca’s death, his sonwouldinherit the terms of this contract, which means he’d be within his rights—” She stops and scowls. “I mean, within his rights as written in this goddamn thing—to marry Callie.However…” she looks up and grins. “There’s a grace period.”

“What??”

Callie bolts out of her seat, her eyes wide and the first splash of color in her face I’ve seen in her cheeks since that fucker landed.

“Yeah, it’s right here.” Elsa snorts. “What an arrogant, narcissistic prick.”

Hades lifts a brow. “Who?”

“Luca. He literally added in a ‘grieving period’. It’s worded weirdly, but essentially it says in the event of his death before the contract is fulfilled, i.e., before he marries Callie, she’s allowed a period to mourn Luca’s death.”

Hades snorts. Callie’s lips purse again, her hand clenching and unclenching over and over at her side. It takes a lot—alot—not to go to her. But I don’t.

I can’t.

“And in that period,” Elsa continues, “it goes on to say that if she ‘finds comfort and love elsewhere’, she’s free tomarry someone else, and not Massimo.”

Well, shit. That sounds like good news.

Hades looks up, grinning. “Wait, that’s it? Callie could literally marry some friend of hers just for the hell of it, for like, whatever period of time, and it cancels out the whole thing with that Massimo fucker?”

Elsa nods slowly. Deimos clears his throat, his brows knit together darkly.

“Why the hell would he put that in there? I mean, the grieving period is pure narcissistic horseshit, I agree. But why the part about allowing her to avoid marrying Massimo? It’s like a fucking get out of jail free card.”

“Because Massimo got along with his father about as well as we did with ours,” Ares growls quietly. “It’s sort of an open secret. I don’t know if anyone knows the details why, but they were definitely not close.”

Kratos frowns. “So, what, this was Luca’s way of giving the finger to Massimo in the event of his own death?”

“I don’t think so.” I shake my head, eyeing the contract on the desk before I raise my eyes to the rest of them. “I think it was a warning to his son.”

Ares nods. “That’d be my guess, too. There’s going to be an identical blood-marker in Luca’s safe laying out the same terms. I’d bet anything that little clause was put in there as a subtle warning to Massimo that killing his own father wouldn’t automatically get him Callie, and by proxy, an alliance with our family. That also makes sense given the rumors I heard months ago about Massimonotbeing in his father’s will or his plans for the future of their organization. Clearly, they made up before Luca’s heart attack, given that Massimodidinherit his father’s fortune and throne.”

“That makes the next part a whole lot more logical,” Elsa murmurs, peering further at the document. “It only stipulates that Callie be married to this potential other party for one year in order to cancel the blood-marker completely. Again, in the event that Luca is dead before she and he marry.”

She winces as she looks over to Callie.

“So, you’d potentially have to marry somebody else for a year.”

Hades shrugs again, still grinning as he claps his hands and strides over to his sister. He rubs her shoulders and then gives her a hug. “Hey, Cals, cheer up! This is great! Pick a friend. Pickanyone. So, you have to marry them for a year on paper. So what—”

Ares clears his throat uncomfortably. When we all look at him, I frown at the grim expression on his face.

“It’s… Uh…” he looks away, raking his fingers down his jaw. “It’s slightly more complicated than that, I’m afraid.”

Deimos frowns. “Explain.”

“As you know, Thermopylae Acquisitions has had a killer quarter. A killertwoquarters.” He frowns. “Actually, we’ve completely blown the roof off expectations. That place is legitprintingmoney right now.”

Hades’ brow furrows. “Bro, that’s generally considered a good thing.”

“Yeah, well…” His mouth thins. “The taxes on that kind of income aren’t. But, little known fact, there’s a tax ceiling on net income over five hundred million in New York for individuals under the age of twenty-three.”

Something snaps into place in my head.

Oh fuck.

Slowly, I see it dawn on a few other faces, one by one.

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