A Moment Like You (The Baker’s Creek Billionaire Brothers #2) - Claudia Burgoa Page 0,1
worth.
Love…well, that’s a messy transaction, and many of us choose to stay away from it. I’ve never been married, but I have acquaintances who are attached to a significant other. Yeah, sure, for a lot, our way of living sounds cold. But, it’s practical. If someone can’t deal with their wife, they get themselves a mistress. Most likely the wife is fucking their best friend, her yoga instructor, or some random guy she met while shopping.
Debra Merkel, my mom, was known as a cut-throat businesswoman. She was cold, calculating, and assertive. She knew that marrying William would be the best move of her career and would benefit her company. My father was hard to catch. A lot harder than she anticipated.
She played all her cards until she found herself desperate and—she thought a baby would convince him to take the ultimate step. Mommy dearest swore she had everything under control until she found herself pregnant with the child of a man who wasn’t interested in marriage—at least not with her.
Sure, he bought her a penthouse across from Central Park and pretended to be a hard worker and devoted boyfriend. He was never with us.
I was around eight when she found out that he had played her. He already had a wife and two children from that marriage. But there was more. He had seven children in total. Debra’s son, Henry Lloyd Merkel Aldridge, was one of the bastards—me.
Well played, William.
“You can’t trust anyone, Henry. The only person you can count on is you,” Grandpa would repeat. “The day I die, you will own everything my grandfather built and I’ve procured. The day your father dies make sure to claim your part and build an empire.”
Cyril Merkel died four years ago, and I became the sole owner of Merkel Hotels and Spas. I continue his legacy and keep building a bigger empire. Every year, I make sure Merkel adapts to the needs of our guests and the world.
I didn’t think much about William nor was I expecting him to leave me anything when he passed away.
It feels like an eternity since I heard the news that he died, when it was only a few weeks ago when it happened. I never had a good relationship with him. He was a difficult man and a terrible father. Every person who did business with him swore that he never lost. Every move he made was well planned, and whoever tried to cross him paid for it.
There was never a way around him. If he set his eye on something, it always got done the way he strategized it.
After his death, I thought it was the end of him. How foolish of me. It was just the beginning. All of a sudden, the brothers I barely acknowledged came back into my life. The money I don’t want is waiting for me.
Here is where things get interesting though. In order to get my cut of this giant inheritance, I have to move from New York City to his hometown. Thanks to the Merkel fortune, I don’t need to stick around.
It’s not that easy. While my father might’ve been a fucking asshole, the man was brilliant.
And he always played to win.
There’s more at stake than just his money. If any of his sons walk away, he destroys the livelihoods of thousands of people. William wasn’t only heartless but vindictive. I’m still wondering what it is that we did to him.
He had seven children. None of us asked to come into this world. We only wanted his attention, and we only got his rejection and now his punishment.
I tried to be heartless, to say fuck him and everyone else. My brother, Hayes, worked hard to convince me to stay. That guy cares too much. He spent weeks talking to each of us, trying to persuade us to take a leap of faith. So here I am moving to the middle of nowhere Oregon, in a town called Baker’s Creek where I have to live for the next eighteen months with my brothers so I can claim an inheritance I don’t want and save a town I don’t give a fuck about.
For years I lived by myself. Now, I share a house with my brothers, Beacon, Vance, Mills, his son Arden, Pierce, his wife Leyla, Hayes, and his fiancée Blaire. Daddy dearest stipulated that we should be there with our significant others too. Thank fuck I’m not emotionally attached, or this would be a circus.