Lethal Wedding (Wedlocked Trilogy Book 2) - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,8

father says quietly. "Of course, you shouldn't marry him.”

I let out a deep sigh of relief.

"You shouldn't marry him, but only if you're okay with losing everything," my father adds.

Shivers run down my spine and I can't feel the tips of my fingers.

"What are you saying?" I ask him, narrowing my eyes.

"I need your help, Aurora. I have never asked you for anything but now I need your help. This is just a marriage. It's nothing serious or life-altering."

I shake my head, unable to believe that my own father is saying this to me.

"Okay, okay," he says, raising his hands in the air in front of him.

He is trying to calm me down, reacting to the bewildered expression on my face.

"Let me explain," he continues. "What I meant is that it's a big thing that you would be doing, I know that. It would be a huge favor to me and your mother and it would help us immensely. But I don't want you to think of it like your life is over. I know that you're no longer dating Henry, but if for some reason you still wanted to or if you met another person that you wanted to be with, you could, of course, be with him."

"Even if I'm married?" I ask.

"Come on now," he says. “We are all grown-ups here. Infidelity is very common in marriage, even ones that start out happy. I'm not saying that you won't be happy, but just in case you aren't…"

"Of course, I wouldn't be happy, I would be marrying a man that I hate. Or at the very least know nothing about. The only reason for a marriage is to save a company that I have nothing to do with."

My father furrows his eyebrows and he sits up more. Pointing his finger in my face, he narrows his eyes until his irises almost disappear.

"Let me explain something to you, honey," he says, using that word of endearment in a completely different way. "Tate Media is everything that I am and it is everything that your mother is. It is our baby. We have nurtured it from when it was a little seed and now it is a giant fucking oak tree. You did nothing to make it grow and we were okay with that. Now, you are the only one who can save it."

"If this is your way of asking me for a favor--" I start to say.

"I don't ask for favors," Dad says. "You either do this for yourself or you don't do it at all. Because don't forget that once they throw me in prison, they will freeze all of our assets, they will sell all of our homes and you and your brother will be left completely penniless. Besides, the fact that all of our employees and all of the pension funds that have invested in the company will lose everything. But no pressure, you do what's right for you."

6

Aurora

I leave my father's hospital room completely brokenhearted. When I first went in there, I thought that we could connect in a way that we haven't for a long time.

I thought that we would speak some truths and really learn about each other.

Perhaps, what has disappointed me most is that I have gotten exactly what I wanted.

I found out who my real father is and that he is not someone that I wanted to know.

Now I have to make a decision.

Despite who he is or who my mother is, there are other considerations. Tate Media is a big company, a conglomerate, where lots of people work whose lives and livelihoods depend on its existence.

If I say no to this deal, then they will all lose their jobs. Unlike them, I don't have a family to support and I can deal with working a crappy job for some time.

What about all these other people who have devoted their lives to my parents' company? What happens to them?

Again, I wish that I could have Henry in my life to talk to. And if not him then at least a close friend or anyone that I could trust.

I have my mother and Ellis, of course, along with a whole bunch of other friends who are just as disconnected from who I am.

No, I need to make this decision on my own.

Later that evening, Franklin knocks on my door. I have invited him here for a talk. He comes in with a smile and a casual swagger, the kind that girls find irresistible.

I