Page 15 of Her Ex's Father
Iampanicking.
I thought I had accepted the arrangement with Derrick. A business marriage. We’d share polite dinners, have a child within three years to satisfy the contract, and live largely separate lives. It was cold, calculated, and… tolerable.
But this?
This is the man I used to callMr. Bronson. The man who once offered me a firm handshake and nothing else while discussing shipping numbers with my father when I was twenty-one and still stealing vodka from the liquor cabinet.
He’s intimidating. Gorgeous. Ice-eyed and made of stone and power. And now he’s my husband.
What. The. Hell.
I shove my hands through my hair and stand, pacing toward the massive windows overlooking the mountains. Smudgingangry tears away, my freckles are revealed, but it’s not worth seeing if the artist can do another touch-up. I’m half-tempted to pull a runner, like my intended did.
“I don’t know what to do. I can’t even think straight.”
“Well,” Stella says slowly, “step one: try to figure out where Derrick is. Becausethat’sthe real mystery here. I mean, what happens if he pops back up?”
I nod, focusing on that. The fact that no one seems to know where Derrick went—least of all his father. He’s not answering calls. He hasn’t been spotted since last night. Either he ran… or something happened.
“What if…” my sister muses, pulling herself onto the arm of a massive armchair, “he was in love with someone else? We couldn’t really blame him for that, right?”
I roll my eyes, arms clasped around my middle. “Does Derrick Bronson strike you as the kind of guy who falls hard, Stella? Really?”
She laughs, head thrown back, so carefree that I’m momentarily reminded whyItook on the responsibility of making a business deal of a marriage—to letherfind love. Real love.
Stella stands and joins me at the window. “You really okay, Maddie?”
I want to lie.
But my voice comes out in a whisper: “No. I’m married. To a man who should’ve been my father-in-law. I’ve completely torched my reputation. And now I have to walk into a dining room full of people who are probably already texting Page Six.”
She winces. “Yeah. The Carters looked like they were going to have a coronary. Honestly, I’d be surprised if they even socialize with Mom and Dad after this.”
I should care, but I don’t; I like the Carters. If they never set foot on our ranch again, I wouldn’t blame them.
“I don’t even know if this marriage is legal. It happened so fast.”
“It’s legal,” Stella confirms. “They filed it with the on-site officiant. I overheard the planner say it’s all been registered. And that Mom wants to spin it as a ‘romantic twist of fate.’”
Of course she does.
“There’s definitely nothing romantic about this,” I blurt out, and almost throw in:just animal lust.
I clap a hand over my mouth as Stella watches me, confused. Ican’tadmit that in the last few hours I’ve felt more attraction to a man my father’s age than I have to any of the guys who I’ve flirted with in bars or on the ranch.
“Okay,” I mutter. “So, I’m married. To Benedict Bronson. And everyone knows it.”
“Exactly.”
I sit back on the edge of the bed, staring at the floor. “I just have to suck it up.”
Stella frowns. “What?”
I meet her eyes. “If I back out now, our parents are done. You know what’s going on with the books.”
Her expression darkens. “You’re talking about Haider.”
I nod. “It was worse than they let on. He siphoned off funds fortwo years. My wedding to Derrick was the only reason Dad got the Bronsons to re-up the contract with Crown & Range. They agreed to this years ago, and couldn’t break it. We losethisdeal, and the company goes under.”
