Single Mom Wanted for Fake Marriage: A Billionaire Romance

by Aubrey Dark

  “We gave you the details weeks ago!” Sanders cried.

  “And now you’ve called a meeting, during my honeymoon, in order to shut out my wife’s part of the inheritance and make her irrelevant to this business. A meeting which I was not invited to.”

  “We weren’t going to finalize anything today,” Dexter said, his jaw clenched.

  Sanders chimed in.

  “But your honeymoon was scheduled to last until after the inheritance split of the voting rights, Will. We couldn’t wait that long.”

  “You might have given me some notice.”

  “You were on your honeymoon. We didn’t want to bother you.”

  “I’m bothered,” I said flatly.

  I turned back to the head of the committee. There was no use in arguing with my brothers. It wasn’t them who would be deciding whether or not Sierra gained a portion of the voting rights.

  “What’s the basis for this claim?” I asked him. “I thought my father’s wishes were clear.”

  He cleared his throat again, staring down at the papers in front of him. I could tell that my standing above the table had him nervous.

  “Well—ah—the wording of the trust deed gives us some leeway as to the direct wishes of your father. It isn’t—isn’t exactly certain whether he meant to direct the voting rights of the company to his direct heirs at the time, or… or to those who are in existence at the moment of disbursal.” The head of the board paused. “Also, the legitimacy of your marriage with Sierra Barlow has been called into question.”

  I glared daggers at my brothers.

  “Legitimacy?”

  The head of the committee continued.

  “The abruptness of the marriage, the fact that her previous marriage had not been annulled until two days before your ceremony—”

  “None of that proves illegitimacy,” I interrupted.

  “No,” he said, raising both hands palms up. “But it certainly… suggests it.”

  “So you’re going against my father’s wishes because something suggests that our marriage might not be legitimate.”

  “The voting rights are significant,” the head said. “We need to be certain that legitimacy is preserved.”

  “What do you want? A declaration of my eternal love? A signature from a priest? I have no way to prove that our marriage is legitimate.”

  “I do.”

  The voice was so soft that I almost thought I’d imagined it. All of the committee members turned to look at my new bride.

  “You have proof of the legitimacy of this marriage?” the head said.

  She lifted her chin and leaned forward over the table.

  “Yes,” she said, and there was only the slightest tremor in her voice as she spoke. “I’m pregnant.”

  Chapter 32

  I expected William to be astonished when I told him I was pregnant. I don’t know what reaction exactly I was expecting—a jaw drop, raised eyebrows, a gasp of surprise. But he didn’t react at all except for a brief flutter of his eyelashes.

  Everybody else at the table, on the other hand, was in various stages of shock. Sanders and Dexter both jumped out of their chairs and leapt over to William, grabbing him in a group hug.

  “Are you serious!?”

  “Bro, for real?”

  “Congratulations! Congratulations, Sierra!”

  The board erupted into noises of excitement, and I was hugged by both brothers, then Shawna, who looked at me intently before offering her own congratulations and slipping back away.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Dexter asked, his surprise tempered by suspicion.

  William only shook his head, a faint smile on his face.

  “Why do you think?”

  “Alright, I get it,” Dexter said. “It’s not fair of us to dig into your privacy like that.”

  “I’m sorry,” Sanders said.

  “Thank you,” William said.

  “Wow, though,” Sanders said, running his hand through his dark hair. “I mean, wow.”

  Wow was right. I stared at William, waiting for a reaction. But he didn’t give anything away. It was as though he had already known.

  Had he already known?

  “But at the same time,” Dexter was saying, “this doesn’t change the fact that you’re going to take over the voting rights of the company with this marriage if it goes through. You’ll run the company.”

  “I already run the company,” William said, sounding piqued.

  “But we want to have a say,” Sanders said. “We want a chance to be a part of it as much as you do.”

  “Gentlemen? Everyone?”

  The head of the board was speaking. We all hushed. I was trembling inside, although trying to appear calm and happy on the outside. How had William known I was pregnant? Had he guessed?

  “We’re going to discuss this in private, now that this new information has come to light. Do any of you wish to say anything else before we convene?”

  “There’s not much more to say,” William said, his voice full of confidence. “I’m sure the board will do the right thing by my family to respect my father’s wishes.”

  “Dexter? Sanders?”

  The two brothers shook their heads. They seemed stupefied by the revelation that William and I were going to have a baby. It was the reaction I’d expected from William himself, and I was disappointed that I hadn’t gotten it.

  “We’ll reconvene after lunch at one o’clock,” the board said. “If we can come to a decision at that time, it will be made public, and either way we can continue on with business as usual. Members of the committee, let’s take a five minute break while the others clear out.”

  Dexter and Sanders filed out of the conference room before us. Shawna tailed William as he pulled out my chair for me and gave me a light kiss on the lips.

  My heart fluttered. The kiss was chaste, sexless—and yet it still stirred in me all of the emotions of the night before. I wanted to throw my arms around William, but instead I let him escort me out on his arm.

  In the hallway, William kept moving past Dexter and Sanders.

  “Bro, want to go to lunch?” Sanders chirped.

  “Not today,” William said, his voice cool. “We’ll see you back at the board meeting.”

  “Congratulations again, Sierra,” Dexter said, abashed.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  William led me down the hall and into the elevator. Shawna trailed in after us. As soon as the doors closed, she turned.

  “Brilliant plan,” she said. A cold smile spread over her face. “Did you or William come up with it?”

  My body went numb.

  “It was all Sierra,” William said. He put one arm around me and squeezed. “She’s the genius.”

  “It’s perfect - they won’t be able to prove anything before the inheritance assets are split,” Shawna continued.

  “A perfect lie,” William agreed.

  I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek. A rush of emotion waved through me.

  That was why William hadn’t looked surprised. He thought I was lying. I wanted to cry.

  He didn’t want a kid. He didn’t even suspect that I could be pregnant. It was just another piece of a plan for his business. That’s what he really cared about—his company.

  Shawna and William chattered on together, going through the details of the inheritance deed as the elevator swept down, floor by floor. And I stared hard at the marble tile floor and pretended that I was lying about being pregnant.

  It came naturally to me. All my life, I’d been lying to men. And now I was lying again. Only this time I was lying to someone I didn’t want to lie to. I wanted to shake William by the shoulders and yell in his face that I was telling the truth. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and break down in front of him and show him that I wasn’t the strong woman he thought I was—that I was vulnerable and awful. That I’d made a huge mistake and that I didn’t know what to do now.

  Instead, I stood t
here mutely until the elevator doors opened. William had to put his hand on my back before I could force myself to step out into the brightness of the lobby.

  “You’re the best, you know that?” he asked. His arm drew me close and he pressed a warm kiss against my temple. Although my body responded to his kiss, inside I shuddered. If he knew the truth…

  No. He wouldn’t know. Not now.

  “Thanks!” I said, forcing myself into a blithe smile. “So. Where do you want to go to lunch?”

  One o’clock rolled around. To my relief, William and Shawna had moved on past my “lie.” I’d spent all of lunch in relative silence, while they discussed some contracts about the business. It only made me feel more isolated to listen to them talking. I was completely outside of this part of William’s life, and would always be.

  The image of the pregnancy test with two pink lines swam up into my mind as we returned to the conference room. I wouldn’t be able to hide it from William forever. We were supposed to be married for a year after the inheritance. And I wasn’t going to be able to keep my pregnancy secret for more than a few months.

  If I kept the baby.

  As William sat down next to me at the conference room table, I glanced over at him. His dark hair swept across his brows as he focused intently on the papers in front of him. The rational answer was easy to come up with. I shouldn’t keep his baby. He obviously didn’t want a child. Even though he’d warmed up to Kit, there was no way he would want a kid of his own.

  Not only that, but I worried about what he would think of my motives. I’d lied to him, hadn’t I? He would think that I’d gotten pregnant on purpose. For his money. I swallowed hard as I thought about how angry he would be.

  No, that much was clear. He wouldn’t ever want to keep the baby.

  But I did.

  The thought came unbidden to my mind. As I looked at William, I thought about what his baby would look like. Our baby. As scared as it made me to think about it, I couldn’t help the thread of emotion that wound itself tightly around my heart, pulling me to the only conclusion.

  I wanted to keep his baby. Even if he didn’t want to be a father, I wanted his child. It was a selfish thought, but I couldn’t drive the feeling away. Looking down, I found that I’d unconsciously laced my fingers over my belly.

  Our baby.

  “After some consideration, the board has come to a conclusion about the standing of the heirs in the situation before us,” the man at the front of the table was saying. His hair was white, pure white, like Bobbi’s. I felt a pang of pressure as I thought about William’s mom. She’d been so good to me. What would she think once she found out?

  “There is an argument to be made for either side… while the strict interpretation of the trust deed is that…many mitigating factors…”

  The man droned on and on. I didn’t listen. Instead, I watched William’s face. His beautiful face. Those lips that had kissed the breath away from me last night. Those eyes that had pierced into mine as he spoke his vows, stealing my heart away. His aquiline nose, his strong square jaw, his profile. Which features would the baby have?

  “…we cannot in good conscience allow for a hold on the majority of voting rights by one of the direct heirs. The voting rights will be split as before, with one third passing on to each son.”

  Suddenly, William’s face turned dark, and he stood up. I blinked hard. What had happened?

  “That’s not fair—” William sputtered.

  “It’s our decision,” the man with white hair was saying. “William, you’ve done a wonderful job running this company. We hope that your brothers will take your history into consideration as they exercise their voting rights. But in the interests of your father’s wishes, we have to come down on this side.”

  “If there’s a way to appeal—”

  What was going on? I’d thought my pregnancy had erased any doubt. But William’s sweet face had turned angry.

  “William, your job is to make your case clearly to your brothers. This is a family matter now. Not one for the company.”

  The man closed the folder in front of him. William’s shoulders dropped. Shawna looked aghast.

  Sanders came over to William and held out a hand to him.

  “Will, you know we’ll listen to you.”

  William only shook his head and turned away. Without so much as a glance back at me, he strode out of the conference room.

  “Sorry,” I said, my confusion still ringing through my ears. “He’s emotional about this. I—I should go after him.”

  “Tell him we’re not doing this to hurt him,” Dexter said, coming up next to Sanders. “This isn’t about us ganging up on him. We’d never do that. We just want what’s fair.”

  “Of course,” I said numbly.

  What would happen now? The plan hadn’t worked. Would he want a divorce? Surely he wouldn’t want to be married to me for another year. All of a sudden, my future dropped away. I was left standing on the edge of a cliff, with no idea what would happen once I took another step forward.

  “And congratulations,” Sanders was saying to me. “You know, about the baby.”

  “Yeah,” Dexter added. “Congratulations. We’ll let you tell Mom, okay?”

  “Okay,” I said. I didn’t know what William would want to do, and I was completely torn. I wished that I could accept their heartfelt congratulations. I wished to God that I was really a part of their family. But now…

  I had no idea what I was.

  Turning, I rushed after William, but he’d already gotten in the elevator. Flushing hard, I ran to the stairs and raced down five stories to make it to the bottom floor. My heart was pumping hard as I made it to the last step. He was already striding across the lobby, with Shawna following him closely, taking notes as he spoke rapidly.

  I ran and caught up to him at the door.

  “William!”

  He spun around, as though he had forgotten I existed.

  “William, if there’s anything I can do—”

  “There’s nothing you can do. It’s not your problem anymore.”

  “Should I—”

  “Just go home. Call a taxi, okay? I’ll talk with you later. I need to meet with my lawyer.”

  His lips pressed together as he looked at me. And I saw him as he saw me. As a mistake. My cheeks burned.

  “But—”

  “Don’t worry,” he said, his voice growing irritated. “It’s not your problem.”

  “Okay.” My lips mouthed the word, but I didn’t have the breath to voice it. That was the end of it, then. My heart sank as he walked away, my eyes burning with tears I wasn’t allowed to cry.

  It wasn’t my problem.

  Chapter 33

  My brothers had completely screwed everything up. I burned with indignation as the lawyer pored over the contract with me once more. He hadn’t been able to do a damned thing about it, though. The wording was clear that the board was in charge of interpreting the deed.

  Dammit. Dammit!

  It was evening when I finally got home. I heard Sierra in the nursery, talking with Teresa as Kit burbled happily in a sing-song voice. It was that voice that made my heart freeze up.

  I couldn’t let this go on for any longer. It didn’t matter what my brothers thought, or the rest of my family. I couldn’t play father to Kit any longer. It wasn’t fair to her, or to Sierra. As much as it would pain me to see them go, it was better to rip the bandaid off cleanly. She would suffer less now than if we waited a year before splitting. And while I’d written her contract up so that the decision was up to me in this eventuality, I knew that I couldn’t keep her here against her will.

  Dammit.

  Inside the nursery, I saw Teresa and Sierra laughing as Kit tried to balance a book on top of her head. Such a sweet scene. I took a deep breath and rapped my knuckles against the entryway.

  “Sierra?” I said.

  “William!”

  The smile faded from her face as she saw me
. It was like a candle flame being extinguished with a cold breath. Her expression turned hard as she stood up.

  “Let’s talk in my study,” I said.

  “Alright,” she said, sounding more subservient than I would have liked.

  “I mean, unless you’re busy. It can wait—”

  “That’s fine,” she said, pressing a smile on her lips that I knew was fake. “We’ve already had dinner.”

  “Thanks,” I said, waving at Teresa before leaving the room. We walked up to the study. Sierra was silent as I opened the door for her. She turned to face me once the door was closed. Her eyes were beautiful but pained, the deep chestnut brown radiating worry. It made me want to sweep her up into my arms, to kiss away her worry. But of course I couldn’t do that.

  She wasn’t mine anymore. There was no reason for her to stay.

  I inhaled before speaking.

  “We can have the marriage annulled as soon as you wish,” I said. “Obviously we don’t need to stay in the marriage if there’s no benefit to be had.”

  Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, and she looked down.

  “Is that what’s in the contract?” Sierra asked. Her voice was monotonous, unemotional. I couldn’t read her.

  “It’s my decision. But I’ll hold up my end of the bargain.”

  “Then it’s over? Just like that?”

  Her hands clasped together in front of her. Her face was completely impassive, inscrutable.

  “You’ll have to talk more with the lawyers, but yes,” I said. “Shawna has arranged a court meeting tomorrow with the judge that signed our marriage paperwork. You sign the papers, I sign the papers, it’s over.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  “It doesn’t have to be complicated.”

  Of course it was more complicated than what I’d said. I didn’t want her to leave, after all. But I wasn’t going to throw my emotions in the way of her future and Kit’s.

  “Okay,” she repeated.

  “Here,” I said, pulling out the check I’d already written. “The two million for your trouble.”

  She took the check silently, folding it so that it was invisible in her clasped hands. Sierra the thief. Sierra the pickpocket.