Page 57 of One Night in Hawaii

The board meeting was dragging on, and I couldn’t concentrate. My mind was back in Hawaii, with Shiloh. I knew I had to focus, but every time I looked at my notes, the letters seemed to swim before my eyes. I took a sip of my coffee, but the bitter taste only made my head throb.

I wondered if Shiloh knew how much she had changed me in just a week. I had never felt so alive, so free. And now, back in this stuffy boardroom, I felt like a caged animal. I wanted to run, to scream, to do anything but sit here and pretend to care about the numbers and projections on the screen in front of me.

After the meeting, I stayed behind to take a few notes.

“Sir?” Kim was standing in the doorway.

“Yes?”

“Your father is waiting for you in your office. He’s brought along a Mr. Shipley.”

The family lawyer. I didn’t have to guess what the meeting was about. “Thank you. Can you please hold my calls?”

“Of course.”

I went to my office and saw my father and the lawyer had already made themselves comfortable. I asked for the meeting with the lawyer. I didn’t need my father involved.

I took a seat and waited. “Well? Can we burn that contract?”

“No,” Dad answered. “The wedding needs to happen. We’ve looked at every option. She’s not interested in a buyout.”

“Of course not,” I said, scoffing. “The end game was to get her hands on my company. She’s looking at the long game. She knows ten million is a drop in the bucket compared to what she might earn over ten years. She’s not going away calmly.”

“You would be better off marrying her,” Dad said. “You can divorce three years in with the same payout without the business shares, assuming there aren’t any children. If you have children, her payout will be significantly higher.”

“I don’t want to marry her,” I said. “I’ve had some time to think about it, but it’s just not what I want to do. Neither of us would be happy.”

“We have contracts in place,” my father insisted. “Our family’s reputation is at stake.”

I leaned back in my chair, feeling the tension bubbling up inside me. “I don’t care about the family reputation. I care about my own happiness. And I won’t let you or anyone else dictate my life.”

The lawyer cleared his throat. “Mr. Ryatt, I understand your frustration, but we must honor the agreements that have been made. If you refuse to marry Ashley, she will take legal action against you and the company.”

I gritted my teeth, feeling trapped. “What kind of legal action?”

I knew there was another shoe that was going to drop. My father wouldn’t be this riled up if there was an easy fix to the problem.

“Ashley’s father has suggested she will sue for damages if you refuse to marry her,” Dad said.

My heart sank at the thought of being forced into a loveless marriage. But with the threat of a lawsuit looming over me, I felt like I had no other choice.

“Sue me for what?” I asked.

The lawyer cleared his throat. “They claim you’re refusing to marry her because you discovered she has fertility issues. The contract specifically states that is not grounds to break the contract.”

“Fertility issues?” I asked with confusion. “What the hell is that about? Since when? She’s been on the pill so she doesn’t get pregnant until we’re ready.”

“Apparently, she has documentation that proves she may have a hard time getting pregnant,” Dad said.

“That’s news to me,” I said. “How could I use that as an excuse not to marry her if I didn’t know about it?”

“She claims you did know,” the lawyer said.

“I didn’t!”

“You have to understand, there is no way out of this,” Dad said. “You need to marry her. You can divorce her down the road, but for at least the next three years, consider yourself shackled.”

He checked his watch, implying he had somewhere to be. That worked for me.

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