Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
At the time, the most notable guy in the game was Dimitri Marcello. He had an affinity for “investing” in businesses he thought had a future, but unfortunately for me, he was conniving, and instead of his repayment terms simply being paying back the money he loaned out with an exorbitant interest rate, Dimitri Marcello liked to requests stocks, shares of the company, and even ownership rights. By all accounts, Dimitri Marcello owned a piece of my dad’s company, and just like good ol’ Richard Foxx had handed down his problems to me, so too did Dimitri pass his investments off to his son Dante, Malia’s boss.
My father had a lawyer grind his way through his contract with Dimitri for a loophole, and they believed they’d found one. All of the terms listed in the contract were bound to my father as the owner of the company. He figured that if he passed the company over to his son, the terms would no longer apply. It was technically true, but Dimitri didn’t build his dark empire on being a fool. There was a fine print clause that required any children my father hoped to pass his empire off to be married before they could take control of the company and that the ownership must be in both the child and their significant other’s names. Dimitri was an old fashioned guy who believed it takes a strong partnership to run a business, or so my father believed.
Originally, I was given a simple objective: marry any woman you find, stay married long enough to get the business out of the Marcello’s clutches, then I could divorce her and move on with my life. I wasn’t a monster; I was going to pay some woman a hefty fee to be my pretend wife for a few months, but then Malia showed up. Dante, now in control of his father’s business, agreed to honor the terms of the contract if I got married, and suggested that Malia be the lucky lady. She came with a very strongly worded “recommendation” from Dante and my father agreed. Dante would release my father from the contract, but with partial ownership in Malia’s name and Malia working for Dante; we’d never be free of the Marcellos.
“I can tell from your silence that you see my point,” Malia said, breaking my stream of thoughts. “What’s so wrong with me? I could be a great wife.”
“You work for the man extorting my father, so you’ll have to excuse me for thinking that marriage would have more than a few holes.”
Malia leaned forward. “Both of us are stuck under the thumbs of the men who run our lives, Harley. All I’m saying is that, if we really wanted to, we could turn this marriage into a huge win for us both. I owe the Marcello’s a great debt, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t take an opportunity to get from under them if I saw one. I’m no different from any other little girl. I want to get married and have a family just like the rest. I think we could have a good life together.”
Part of me thought she may be telling the truth, but the fact remained that I didn’t feel that way about Malia and wasn’t interested in having a sham marriage to a woman I didn’t love because of a mistake my father made before I was even born. I would figure out a way to get myself out of the mess my dad put me in, I just needed more time.
“I’m betting you wouldn’t turn on Dante,” I responded, “and I’m not putting myself in his line of fire for you or my dad.”
Malia stood up from the chair, her warm expression going cold in an instant. “Fine. Forced it is, but mark my words Foxx. You’ll regret not doing things my way.”
She stormed out, slamming my office door behind her. She probably wasn’t wrong about regretting my choice, but if I didn’t have my integrity, I didn’t have anything.
3
Huxley
Alexa had seriously underestimated my ability to bother her incessantly until I got my way. It started with phone calls until she blocked my number, then direct messages on social media until she blocked me there, then we turned to my favorite game: emails. There was no limit to them. I started with my existing email address, but she’d caught on by then and blocked the address after just one email. So I created a new one. ItsMeAlexa@gmail.com. She could block the address, but she couldn’t keep me from creating a new one every time she blocked one. I kept a running list of all the ones I’d made so I could go back and have the accounts deleted later. AlexaYouKnowIHaveEndlessPatience@gmail.com, JustAcceptTheJobAndMoney@gmail.com, DoYouHonestlyThinkImGonnaGiveUp@gmail.com, and my personal favorite HFHFMedia@gmail.com; that one was my favorite because at first glance it wasn’t me, but in reality it was.