The Man I Thought I Trusted - E. L. Todd Page 0,67

You didn’t even tell me to bring my lawyer.”

“I didn’t know it would be that extensive—”

“Or you didn’t want me to have a chance to even look at anything. Dax, I live in the world of corporate greed, and I know exactly how these situations play out. I have less power than you, so you abused your power over me to get everything you wanted without even bothering to explain what I was signing. You took advantage of me.”

He shook his head, his eyes becoming more distressed. “It wasn’t like that.”

“It was exactly like that,” I snapped. “We both know I couldn’t care less about your money, that I love you despite your wealth, not because of it. I wasn’t offended when you asked me to sign it because it’s nothing personal. But this behavior indicates that you don’t trust me at all, that you want me to sign my life away without even giving me any transparency at all.” I couldn’t sit still anymore, and I got to my feet because I needed to move; I needed to step away so everyone wasn’t so close to me.

Dax was on his feet quickly, then came after me. “Let’s just forget the prenup, alright? I’ll have it voided tomorrow.”

“It was never about the prenup, and you know that.”

“Well, here’s me being transparent. Here’s me shredding all of that to be with you. Even if you took all my money someday, it would still be worth it to be with you now. So let’s just forget it—”

“I’ve lived in this world since I graduated college, and being in that environment just reminds me why I hate it so much. Money is the root of all evil, and look what it did to us.”

He stood in front of me with his hands squeezed tightly into fists, a terrified look in his eyes. “It’s done nothing to us. I’m sorry how that was handled, but Renee is pulling the strings here—not me.”

“I’m not marrying Renee. I’m marrying you. Why is she the one orchestrating all this?” I raised my voice as I became angrier. “Why were you sitting across the table from me instead of beside me? Don’t you see what happened? We were enemies.”

He shook his head. “That’s not what happened.”

“That was exactly what happened. I don’t want to live in this world. I don’t want to be married to a man who lives his life this way. Who serves his fiancée mounds of paperwork like that? What did you even have me sign?”

He came closer to me. “Look, that was Renee protecting her assets. It doesn’t have anything to do with us.”

“You could’ve met with me first and told me everything in those documents, and I would’ve believed you. You could have outlined what happens in the event you die and I survive you. You could’ve told me how our wealth would be handed down to our children, if I would be entitled to your life insurance if you got hit by a bus, but I don’t know any of that because it’s buried in a mountain of paperwork. There was no conversation. Not a single word.”

“Alright.” He breathed hard like he’d just run a mile, wore a look full of despair, like he didn’t know how to handle this situation. “Let’s start over. We’ll go through everything together—”

“You shouldn’t have to do that just because I requested it. You should’ve done that in the first place. Didn’t you think we should talk about this? No. You completely took control and didn’t think I was important enough to be part of the conversation.”

“I’m telling you, it wasn’t like that. I wouldn’t even have asked you to sign anything if Renee didn’t make me.” All the veins in his arm started to pop, along with the ones in his neck. He threw his arms down in ferocity. “Don’t let this divide us. You know I love you and trust you. I’ll resign from the company and sign over all my shares to my sister tomorrow, and we can go live in a regular apartment with regular lives. Nothing is more important to me in this world than you.”

I dropped my chin, my eyes becoming moist once again.

“Sweetheart, please.”

My hands moved to my hips, and I closed my eyes, feeling the tears drip down my cheeks. “This is always going to be a problem, isn’t it?”

He was quiet.

“You lied about who you were because you didn’t trust me to know that you were a