Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
The people who work for me are now safe.
Every artist making music under our label is now safe.
My company is safe.
Everything I have built and worked so hard for is protected.
Overnight, all those shares my aunt had in her will became valueless.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this. I don’t know why no one thought of this in the past four years. Granted, not many people knew about it, but I’m shocked Smitty didn’t come up with the idea. He literally said yesterday, and I quote, “Well, fuck me with a dilly of a pickle and a pine tree. Why didn’t I come up with that myself four years ago?
The tough part is over, but now the even tougher part begins. How do I tell Weland?
I guess the answer to that is I don’t. I roll over in bed after I set my phone on the nightstand and find her propped up on her elbow, watching me. She looks mussed and sunny and highly kissable. She’s clearly a morning person.
“Everything’s going to be okay, isn’t it?” Even her voice is pure, golden sunshine.
It makes my chest ache. I need to get it together here. I nod and throw back the blankets. I’m only wearing my boxers, and I rush to get my clothes on. She slips a robe over her super cute pajamas. The top has a monster on the front, and the bottoms are fries boxes with smiling faces.
“Sterling?” She makes me freeze as I’m about to throw my T-shirt on. I slowly look up and meet her eyes. “You’re leaving, aren’t you?”
I owe it to her to tell her the truth. “What your parents said makes a lot of sense. I know they only helped me because they wanted you free of me,” I say softly.
“That’s not true. They might not like you all that much, but they don’t despise you. Give them time. They’ll come around.”
“They were right, though.” I stride over, take her hand, and sit her down on the end of the bed with me. Her eyes are so big and luminous. They look like they’re going to fill up with tears, but I hope they don’t. Because that would gut me.
“You’re going to tell me that I deserve someone better, aren’t you?” she mumbles.
“It’s not about deserving someone better.” I sigh, and it feels good to force that air out. “It’s about the fact that we’re married because I needed you to marry me, and you needed money. It was an arrangement that was kind of forced on us both. We didn’t come together naturally, and that’s always going to be hanging over us.”
“So you’re leaving because of how we met four years ago, not what’s happened now? Doesn’t it mean anything?”
I have to let her hand go. I don’t have any right to hold it. But then I take it back up again because I can’t help myself. I need to touch her. She grounds me, and I know that’s the opposite of what I’m trying to do here because what I need to do is set her free to live her own life uninterrupted by me and then leave to make sure my new company runs as smoothly as possible and stays out of danger of any and all nefarious cousins.
As I try to find the words, though, Weland’s eyes start to get shiny. She blinks furiously, but her eyes stay a little bit wet. Jesus, it’s enough to make me get hot in the eyes. I haven’t ever bawled in my entire life, and I’m not going to start now. I’ve spent the entirety of my years basically flying solo, even when I kind of had a family, and I know I can’t let my guard down now. This was a nice break. It could have been something wonderful. Maybe in another lifetime, Weland and I could even have been a family together. Her parents could have loved me, her brother would have been a brother-in-law, and I would have had the family I always craved for. Okay, that last bit is a stretch. A big stretch. However, I’m not entirely shocked at the pulsing in my chest. I know I want that. Who doesn’t want to feel loved and accepted?
Shit. Shit on a stick. I’d really like to know what it’s like to have a mom. And a dad. And siblings.
But Weland deserves the chance to meet someone who doesn’t con her into getting married. She deserves a chance to find her better half. The half that really completes her. She wants to stay here, and she loves her family. She doesn’t want to go hopping all over the globe for business and stuff, and I’m not ready to quit. I don’t want to live in Detroit. My business is in Nashville. Even if we could make this work, it would involve so much time apart, and that’s really not fair to her.