The Marriage Sacrifice

“What do you say, Sage? Give me a chance. Give us a chance. Give this a chance?”

He looked so sincere, and she was tired of fighting these feelings and him. Why keep fighting the truth? It was pointless.

“Okay.”

“I didn’t hear you.”

“I said okay.” She shouted the last word and then laughed as he began to rain kisses on her lips, face, and neck.

She needed to learn to stop doubting herself.

****

Dom stared out across the city once again. The big office felt like a huge weight on his shoulders. The check to the photographer in the park had bounced. He had no money. No funds. Nothing.

The company was officially bankrupt. He didn’t even have enough money to declare himself bankrupt.

No one knew the state of affairs.

Everyone was going about their business, and unless he married Sage in two days, their entire paychecks would also bounce.

Running a hand down his face, he didn’t know how he got to this point. Going over his life, he thought of all the luxury trips he’d taken. World tours on expensive yachts. The homes he’d stayed in. The overpriced hotels that weren’t worth the price anymore. At the time, they had been perfect, but now, it was the extra dollars he could use for his company.

His father had told him this very morning there was nothing.

He couldn’t even bring himself to look at the man he once admired.

This company was going under unless Johnson Boyle stayed true to his promise and he got the funds on Friday.

All for marrying his daughter.

Sage.

The girl he was making fall in love with him. He was also succeeding; he was sure of it. The way she’d looked at him at the park, her nerves, her fears. He got it.

Love. It wasn’t something he’d ever experienced in his life.

Yet, with Sage, it was there. Every single second he was with her, he forgot about the deal he’d made, the company, the debts, all of it.

There was no way he could talk to her about this. She’d believe the past couple of weeks had been fake.

They hadn’t.

It had started out as a plan to make her fall in love with him, but it hadn’t stayed that way. His feelings for this woman had taken him by surprise.

Now, if she knew what he’d agreed to with Johnson, she would never believe him. Everything in his life was hanging in the balance.

The woman he loved.

The company.

His reputation.

All of it.

If only he’d not pissed away the early parts of his life thinking the money would be with him forever, he wouldn’t be in this position now.

He pressed his fingers against his eyes, trying and failing to clear his head. To think.

The guy from the paper was going to run his story, only now he was going to include a broke playboy making an heiress fall in love with him. He had nothing.

No way of stopping the story.

If it got to the papers before his wedding, everything was over. Hundreds and thousands of people would lose their jobs.

It wasn’t just this one company. It would be all of them.

Gone.

There was a knock on the door.

He turned to see Alice in the doorway. She was the only one who knew the complete truth. The person he trusted with the company secrets.

“Hey, Alice. More bad news?” he asked.

“I got a call from the electric company. They will be cutting the power by the end of the week.”

“Great, just great.” It was far from it.

He gripped the back of his chair and laughed.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Am I okay?” He looked around the office. “The company that I have spent my entire life taking for granted is in the ground. We’ve gone so deep into the red I can’t even get us out of it. The only way to do is to marry a woman that I’m falling in love with.”

“You love Sage?” Alice closed the door behind her, giving them privacy.

“I do. There’s no doubt in my mind. I love her more than anything.”

“That’s good though, right? You don’t want to spend the rest of your life with a woman you can’t stand.”

“But she doesn’t know the truth. Johnson told me the way to save this company is to marry his daughter. He knows what I agreed to, and now a fucking media asshole is going to print this story.” He burst out laughing. “This wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

“You make it sound like it’s the end.”

“Isn’t it?” he asked. “Look around. I can’t save this. I could if I had just enough money, but there’s not enough. My dad invested in the wrong fucking people and the wrong companies. This place is going down. I won’t even have electricity to this place come Friday.”

“Then send an email. Tell every single staff member they have the day off in celebration. Have your wedding, make the deal, get the electricity back on. Send payment to the guy, or you could ask the editor or owner for a deal. Tell them they’ll get an exclusive with you and Sage if they don’t run his story.”