Marriage Offered, Love Declined: Part 2
Words, 2,034
Part 2
With a sigh, Sebastian leans back, studying me, determining just how serious I am. After a long moment of deliberation, he says softly, “I don’t believe in love and happily ever after, but it has been brought to my attention that a... a wife could be useful to me.” He pauses, frowning at this piece of information between us as if not at all happy about it. Whether he’s unhappy he brought it up, or unhappy that someone dared to tell him he should have something he doesn’t have, I’m unsure.
Then, as if trying to explain it to himself, he says, “It helps with the business side of things. Often I’m in need of someone to travel with me or to entertain associates. At the moment, that is the only thing I ‘lack.’”
“A wife,” I wheeze. “You need a wife?”
And did he just say he doesn’t believe in love? There have been rumours of heartbreak, yes, but…
“Are you…are you serious?” I stutter.
“Deadly.”
“Let me get this straight,” I say, my mind spinning. “You’re saying that if I marry you, you’ll loan me the money?”
“That is what I am offering.” He leans back, the faintest shadow of discomfort crossing his face before his expression hardens again.
“So that’s it? Just marry you, play the dutiful wife, and secure the loan—no questions asked?” I blink, trying to process his audacity. “Do you hear how ridiculous this sounds?”
What about Shaun? What would Shaun think? Our anniversary is coming up, and I’m sure I know what he’s planning.
“Yes,” he says flatly. “Take some time if you need it, think it over.”
It’s apparent he believes we’re done and expects me to leave, but I’m still glued to my seat from the shock and the absolute absurdity of his proposal.
“I don’t love you,” I tell him.
“Good.”
His quick response might just be more shocking than the offer he put forward.
“Love without marriage is…well, it doesn’t make any sense.” My voice is timid, as if trying to be reproachful, but is more of a question.
“Love is for people who want to lose themselves in another person and don’t care about losing control over their emotions.”
“Is that what you think? That love weakens people?”
“I think that love is something that I can do without.”
“So if we get married, you’re saying that love wouldn’t be part of the equation?”
“Correct.”
“But…Don’t you want to experience love?”
“I loved once. It ended badly. I’m not repeating it.”
I shake my head. So the rumours really are true. He was in love once. And now he’s given up. To think that he’s willing to go through life not loving someone…Whoever has done this to him is a real piece of work. Not that it has stopped him from dating.
“I rarely see you without female company,” I point out, ignoring the way his attention has once again returned to his work. “If you need a wife, why don’t you ask someone to marry you? In fact, haven’t you been seeing Carmen Young? You were with her at Shaun’s birthday.”
“We’ve been seeing each other, yes, but lately she’s wanted more than I’m able to give her.”
“You mean, love?”
“Exactly.”
I feel terrible for Carmen, clearly desperate for something this man will never give her. Perhaps she knew from the start, perhaps he warned her he wouldn’t love her the way he just warned me, but when it comes to matters of the heart, it’s an unpredictable organ.
“Keeping the heart safe isn’t always possible, you know?” I say gently.
“Words of a true romantic.”
“I take it your matchmaking doesn’t take love into account.”
“It’s useless in business mergers.”
Heat floods my cheeks. “Love is never useless.”
“Agree to disagree.”
His response, flippant yet arrogant, needles me.
“What makes you think our marriage would be any different? What if I fall in love with you or you fall in love with me?” The challenge slips out too quickly.
Sebastian lays an arm flat in front of him on his desk and glares at me. “I’m not going to fall in love with you, Olivia. And if you’d ever agreed to my absurd proposition, I would have warned you to never let yourself fall in love with me. Our marriage would be based on an understanding.”
“So you’re aware it’s an outrageous proposition?”
“Of course I’m aware, though likely for different reasons than the ones you believe.” He narrows his black eyes. “But you were the one who insisted you needed help and would do anything for it. Any. Thing.”
“I did say that, but… What about Shaun?”
“What about him?”
“He’s your brother.”
“Is he?” he drawls condescendingly.
“I mean, how do you expect you would explain this to him?”
“I wouldn’t. I would expect this deal to be kept between the two of us.”
“But how do you imagine I’m supposed to explain to him that instead of waiting for him to propose, I decided to marry you?”
“Tell him you had a change of heart, realized I’m the superior brother, and want me for my money.”
He smiles at this, highlighting just how much bad blood is between the brothers. It’s obvious he has no regard for his brother’s feelings. Nor my reputation for that matter.
“He’ll think I’m a gold-digger,” I point out. “In fact, everyone will think I’m a gold-digger, switching brothers like that. Surely, you don’t want to be married to a woman with that reputation. We’ll be the talk of the town.”
“People will talk no matter what, and most of them say what I tell them to say.” Sebastian waves a hand dismissively. “One of the benefits of money.”
“No, absolutely not. I can’t do it,” I say, finally turning him down.
My answer has to be no. I can’t be considering it. I am not considering it. Sebastian might be my only salvation, but marrying for money and not love? I have read countless romance novels and dreamed of finding my one true love for years. I want to be in love with my husband when I say ‘I do.’
“Very good,” Sebastian says, as if it matters nought to him. “We’re done here then.”
It’s a dismissal. I’m supposed to get up. Leave. Yet, I can’t seem to make my brain work with my knees and legs because he was right about one thing: I said I would do anything. Without his help, my whole world implodes. His lifeline and deal are outrageous, but it’s the only one on offer. Any others I might be able to seek out will come from shadier characters who are likely to ask for more than Sebastian has. Not to mention, there’s no way any loan shark will agree to loan the Monroes money now.
After several minutes, I’m still sitting there because I haven’t been able to walk out of his office and acknowledge that the one opportunity I had to secure a loan is blown. Sebastian looks at me and raises an eyebrow. “Why haven’t you left yet?” His eyes tick between mine, and he almost looks perturbed as he murmurs, “You’re actually considering it?”
I shake my head. The fact I am still seated in his office, however, speaks louder than my head-shake.
Sebastian nods, and I think he’s going to let my obvious weakness go, or at least unremarked on. Instead, he says, “If you agree to marry me, the money won’t be a loan; it will be a gift to your parents for the bride I’ll be receiving. In return, I want an heir, someone to take over from me when I want to retire.”
My body heats, a combination of humiliation and something I can’t put my finger on. It can only be disgust because, effectively, he just offered to buy my services. It’s a sickening and gut-churning thought.
“I would be expected to share your bed?” I choke out.
In his world, people don’t blink at buying whatever they want—including a wife. My family’s old wealth could never compete with the Winters empire.
“Naturally. Who else are you planning to sleep with for the duration of our marriage?”
His words take my breath away as my mind flashes to see those same dark eyes now intent on me, darker and hazier above me in bed, the two of us tangled in bed sheets as he focused on me completely. My mouth turns to dust, my heart racing as heat rushes through me in response to the crazy vision.
“That depends on how long our marriage is expected to last,” I say, nearly strangling on the word
“I would consider it a permanent arrangement.”
“Permanent?” I repeat.
“Permanent,” he confirms.
“It would be a marriage in every way, then? We would only be sleeping with each other?”
For the first time since I walked in here, he actually looks amused by something I’ve said. “Are you asking me if I’ll be a faithful husband? Rest assured, I will be discreet should it come to that.”
My mouth gapes, prompting him to hide a smirk at my reaction. Bastard. He is openly admitting to me that he might have affairs or keep a mistress. Oh, but he’ll be discreet. Guaranteed he expects me to be faithful, though. The idea makes me sick to the pit of my stomach.
A shrill chirp cuts through my anger, and it takes me a second to realize it’s my phone vibrating and ringing in my bag. When I take out my phone, I see that it’s Mum. I told her I wouldn’t be available this afternoon, so if she is calling, it must be urgent. I glance at Sebastian, and he motions for me to pick it up. Before I can, she hangs up and then calls again.
I pick up immediately. “Mum, is everything alright?”
My mother sobs on the other end. It takes me a minute to piece together what she is trying to tell me. My father has just tried to kill himself. He’s in the ICU at Sydney Smith Hospital, and she needs me. Please come straight there because she needs me, Johnny needs me. My father needs me.
It takes me several attempts to hang up the phone, likely because I’m trembling so much my fingers no longer work like they should.
“What’s wrong?” Sebastian demands, standing and approaching.
“Hospital. I have to get to the hospital. Now.”
“Of course, I’ll have my driver take you.”
A moment later, I hear him on the phone, “Nicole, cancel my meetings for the rest of the afternoon. Yes, even the Checkheart meeting.”
My body feels numb as Sebastian ushers me out of his office and into a large underground car park via a private elevator. Despite everything, I’m grateful for his solid presence beside me, his arm around me, as it’s likely the only thing keeping me upright. After opening the door to an awaiting black car, he helps me in before sliding in next to me, asking the driver to take us to Sydney Smith. Either he heard my mother, or he asked me where we need to go. I’m not sure. My mind is a jumble.
This is exactly the type of thing I hope to avoid by coming to Sebastian. Outrageous. His proposal is outrageous. If I marry him, my life will be over, my desire for love never fulfilled, and my reputation one of gold-digging, but it’s a small price to pay for the happiness of the three people I love most in the world. With the money as a gift instead of a loan, my family will be free from the debtors and financial ruin kept at bay.
I turn to him now to find him watching me, studying me with something that could be concern, but is likely disgruntlement over having his day so thoroughly interrupted.
I force myself to meet his gaze. “I’ll do it,” I say, each word heavy and final. “I’ll marry you. Just save my family.”
The slight nod he gives me feels like a victory—for him, not me.