Page 78 of Hot Puck
“Natalie, I’m in the backend of their family’s business, they don’t need your money.”
“It’s not about the money.”
“Then what is it about? Talk to me. I know a decade ago I convinced you a marriage of convenience was the best option, but that was to gain access to your trust funds and control of your Redding stocks but if there had been another way I’d have pushed for that.”
“You aren’t to blame for Johnathon. We chose him because Grandfather would approve of him. And we knew I could function without his interference because all he wanted was money. It gave me a small amount of freedom to do what I had to to get out from under my grandfather’s thumb.”
“And it gave the old man someone other than you he could control.”
“Yes.”
“What you want to do is about you being in control. Of four lives. Think about that. Think about what you’re planning, who you’re behaving like.”
If Eli had slapped me, it wouldn’t have stung more than his words. “I amnothinglike my grandfather. I wouldneveruse my connection or money to control them. I’m giving Chase the choice. Marriage or guardianship or adoption of the girls.”
“I don’t have anything about guardianship or adopting the girls on my desk.”
“No. Because if he agrees to a union between us, what we do about the girls will change.”
“I don’t like it.”
“I don’t care!” I suck in a breath, lower my head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that. I do care what you think, but this isn’t like Johnathon. You said yourself, Chase isn’t going to say yes for my money. Did you know he’s paid me ten thousand a month for expenses since he moved in? And that doesn’t include the takeout and groceries he’s paid for.”
“Okay, so this isn’t about money. It could still blow up like?—”
“No. Chase is nothing like Johnathon. If you came down here and spent time with him and the girls, you’d see that.”
“I’ve been busy spending my time digging into Limitless.” I open my mouth to say thank you when he goes on. “And I think I do know Chase, a little. He emails me every day to check in on the business. To ask my advice on what he should do with the company long term. He isn’t as uninvolved as you planned for him to be.”
“He what? Since when?”
“Since you asked me to handle things for him.”
“Wow. I didn’t know that.” I put Eli in charge of Limitless so Chase could concentrate on the girls and hockey. Obviously, he’s far more capable than I gave him credit for because he’s still involved and his game is almost perfect and the girls are thriving.
“Natalie, I’m not trying to talk you out of doing what you and Chase think is best, but I want you to really think about the repercussions of a second marriage of convenience. Don’t you want a family? Children of your own?”
“I kind of have them.” I can’t help the smile that curls my lips. “They might not call me mom, and the plan is to make sure Candace doesn’t as she grows up, but that’s the role I have in their lives.”
“And you want to make that legal. For you as well as them.”
“Yes. I want them to have the security of me as a guardian in whatever way we make that happen.”
“Chase is onboard with this?”
“I think so. We’ve talked about it.” Eli doesn’t need to know it’s only been a few words here and there. “But we need to iron out the details. There has been so much going on with the move, start of the school year and season that we haven’t done it yet.”
“Then do it. Today. When you see him next, hash out what you both want and then get back to me. I won’t do anything with this paperwork until I hear from both of you that this is what you really want.”
“You’re being a pain.”
“No. I’m doing what I have no legal right to do. Being a parent to a child that isn’t mine.”
Eli hangs up before I can say a word past the lump in my throat.
I know he tried to get custody of me after Mom and Dad died, and I know my grandfather put a stop to it, threatened to ruin him if he pushed for it.
There was no love for me in my grandfather’s heart. Some would say Albert Redding didn’t have a heart at all, but he loved himself, so there had to be something in that cold chest of his. And it didn’t matter that he didn’t, or couldn’t love me, he would never give up anything he considered his.
