A prickle of unease settles deep inside me. Where the hell is he going with this?
“So, she did a good thing, right?” My breath becomes trapped in my lungs as I try to process all of this newly gleaned information.
Dad shakes his head before blowing out a lengthy breath. “I suppose it’s good for the Rothchilds. Keaton now has the leverage to legally take the company from us. With all the supporting documents, compliments of Grandma Rose, he can prove that the company was stolen from his family and we’ll be left with nothing. Actually, it’ll be much worse than that because if he wins, which I assume he will from everything I’ve looked at, he’ll sue us for interest that was lost on company profits for the past eighty years.”
What!
How could Grandma Rose do this to us? Why would she deliberately try to ruin our family?
And here I’d thought it was Kingsley trying to mindfuck me. Turns out it was Grandma Rose playing games from beyond the grave. “Is there anything we can do to prevent Keaton from taking us to court?”
“We have one avenue that allows us to avoid losing the company and drowning in debt.”
Thank fuck.
When Dad remains silent, Austin mutters, “Tell her.”
I glance back at my brother. By the pinched expression he’s wearing, I realize he knows what’s coming and doesn’t like it.
“Tell her what you did!” he shouts.
My father flinches before saying in halting tones, “Keaton will drop the lawsuit if you agree to marry his son.”
For a heartbeat, I stare. It’s as if all the oxygen has been sucked out of the room and I can’t breathe.
This is a joke, right?
I wait for someone to chuckle. Instead, the tension continues to escalate until high-pitched laughter fills the air. It takes a moment to realize that it’s coming from me.
“That’s not funny,” I croak.
Dad’s solemn expression never falters, which only scares me more. “It wasn’t meant to be.”
“Why would he want that?” It feels as if I’m being strangled from the inside out. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would he want his son to marry the great-great-granddaughter of the man who probably murdered his great-grandfather and stole his legacy?”
Dad’s shoulders slump. “It’s his way of extracting a pound of flesh. The idea is when you and Kingsley have children, it’ll be a mix of both our blood, and no one will be able to steal anything from them again.”
A wave of shock slides through me.
Marriage?
Children?
With Kingsley?
Are these people insane? I’m an eighteen-year-old girl in her senior year of high school! How can I be expected to get married? I’ve barely had a boyfriend. In fact, I’ve only slept with—
Kingsley.
“Sweetie?” Mom clears her throat and for the first time since this horrific conversation began, my gaze shifts to her. She’s been so quiet that I almost forgot she was sitting beside Dad. “I know this is a shock,” she bites her lower lip and glances away, “but we need you to do this. Everything we had in Chicago is gone. The house, our jobs, the little bit of savings we had in the bank. It’s all gone. What your grandmother left us is tied up in the house and company. With the provisions she added to the will, we can’t sell anything for ten years. Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t give the company to Keaton. All the proceeds would revert to charity.” Her lips twist with bitterness. “It was your grandmother’s ultimate parting gift to us. But,” she gulps, forcing out the rest in a rush, “as long as you agree to marry Kingsley, the Hawthornes retain ownership of the company and continue to split the profits.”
What the fuck?
That’s so messed up. How is any of this real? This isn’t the eighteen-hundreds. They can’t marry me off to save themselves.
I shake my head to clear it of the black haze attempting to press in at the edges. I keep expecting them to burst into laughter and scream—got you! Just kidding. When they remain sickeningly silent, I realize that isn’t going to happen.
“Are you really asking me to do this?” I claw at my throat, feeling lightheaded.
“I’m sorry,” Dad mumbles. “If there was another way…”
“Isn’t there?” It takes effort to blink back the tears that prick my eyes. “Isn’t there something else that can be done?”
“No, the company lawyers have been pouring over both the will and the affidavit your grandmother signed with a fine-tooth comb. They’re both ironclad. You either marry Kingsley or Keaton takes the company and bankrupts us. That’s the choice.”
As the reality of his words sink in, my knees buckle, and I collapse. Austin catches me with a grunt, his arms locking around my chest to hold me up.
This is lunacy. They can’t seriously be asking me to marry someone I barely know. When it comes down to it, I’m a kid. My entire life is stretched out ahead of me. I’ve only begun to work on my applications for…