Chapter Twenty-Eight
Riley
My whole body was numb but I still felt his kiss. Landon pressed trembling lips to my cheek and whispered those heart-stopping words again.
"I'll wait for you."
Then he was gone, striding out of our small apartment and down the rickety steps to the parking lot. He left the door open in his wake and I stepped toward it, then panicked. I heard his sports car rev to life and I spun to search for my car keys. Then I realized I was only wearing the oversized t-shirt I’d slept in. I spun toward my bedroom and was too dizzy to move.
In the blur around me, I saw Anna peek out of her bedroom door. She saw me stumbling around in circles and ran over to give me a steadying hug.
"Oh, Riley, I can't believe it. I heard everything," Anna said.
"Me too." Owen appeared from the bathroom, his face pale.
I brushed back hot tears and gave my friends a crooked smile. "I'm glad you heard everything because I'm not sure what just happened."
Owen flung the lumpy blanket off the sofa and patted the place next to him so I would sit down. Anna helped me over and perched on the arm next to me.
Owen took my hand and squeezed. "He's giving it all up for you. Can you even imagine how much money he's walking away from? More than most people would see in ten lifetimes, and he's turning his back on it to wait for you."
Anna nudged me. "Why didn't you go after him? You didn't say anything. You just let him leave. Are you sure you want to let him lose his whole legacy?"
I yanked free from Owen and buried my face in my hands. "How am I supposed to know what I want? This is all totally insane. What just happened?"
Anna knelt down in front of me and laughed. "Honey, you're not dreaming. Landon just marched in here and chose you over his entire family fortune."
"He told me he'd wait for me. All so I can fulfill my grandfather's wishes and earn my own tiny trust fund." The room reeled around me again. "How can he do that?"
Owen wrapped an arm around me but smiled at Anna. "Come on, Riley, wake up. Landon Michel loves you."
I rocketed off the couch and paced around our tiny, messy apartment. "I need to get ready. I need to make a phone call. Oh, shit! I've got class in an hour. What am I going to do?"
Anna stood up and held out both arms as if taming an animal. "Don't worry about classes for today. You're skipping them. I'm skipping work, too, and we're all going to figure this out."
"Oh no, not me,” Owen said. “I’m going to work."
Anna whacked him on the shoulder.
"You're not going anywhere," I said, "because first, you owe me a favor."
* * * * *
Owen had his orders and was on his way. I had showered, dressed, and untangled my hair in a flurry. Anna put out my favorite outfit to give me courage, and next to it was a hot cup of coffee spiked with whiskey.
"I thought you might need it," she called from the kitchen. "Now drink it and get in here. I found the phone number."
I pulled on my favorite jeans and the perfect white blouse Anna had given me. Underneath was a necklace that Anna had unearthed and laid out. I clasped it around my neck and pressed it to my heart. Grandpa had given this necklace to Mom on the day I was born.
"Okay, I can do this," I said and joined Anna in the kitchen.
"I'm dialing." Anna punched in the numbers, waited for the phone to ring, and then handed it to me. "Good luck."
Lyla answered on the third ring and her crisp voice sent an avalanche of anxiety down my spine. "Lyla Townsend, and who might this be?"
"Riley. Riley Cullen. We've met a few times at, um, Golden Bluff. Your cousin Landon is, uh—"
"I know who you are, Ms. Cullen. What on earth are you doing calling me this early?" Her voice had a sharp edge to it.
"I thought you should know that Landon was just here," I said.
Lyla sucked in air between her teeth. "This morning? That's impossible. He would have had to leave right after dawn."
Her cold dismissal boiled my blood. "Do you want to know what he told me or not?"
There was a long pause before she responded. "I think I can assume what made him race to your apartment this morning. Why are you calling me, Ms. Cullen? You must be aware that this is the biggest mistake Landon will ever make."
"You have no idea what has happened between us," I snapped. Anna squeezed my arm and reminded me of the plan. "I'm calling you because, like it or not, we both care for Landon, and it's time we cleared the air."
"I have nothing more to say to you," Lyla said.
"Then shut up and let me tell you about my trust fund."
Anna blew me a kiss and retreated to her bedroom to give me privacy.
"Your trust fund?" Lyla's voice was shaken.
"I'm not the penniless gold-digger you think I am. In fact, Ms. Townsend, I'm the only one who has ever defended your actions. I know you’re trying to protect your family, but you're doing it all wrong."
She sniffled. "I don't understand."
I took a deep breath. "My grandfather left me a healthy trust fund, but like Landon’s, my inheritance has certain conditions. See, I know about family trying to protect each other because my trust fund requires me to wait until at least age twenty-eight before I get married. To save me from the mistakes my mother made."
"And how old are you?" Lyla asked in a choked voice.
"Twenty-six. Do you see the problem? Do you finally see what you've done?"
She cleared her throat. "This is ridiculous. Landon's worth more than whatever your trust fund could be. Hundreds of times over."
"But I told him it was important to me to honor my grandfather's wishes," I said.
Two long beats later, the tears were apparent in Lyla's voice. "You refused Landon. Oh god, Landon."
"I didn't even give him the chance to propose. How could I, when all my grandfather ever wanted was what was best for me? Family's like that, Ms. Townsend —we make hard choices because we don't want to disappoint each other."
"So you and Landon are not engaged to be married?" Her voice was choked with sadness.
The full wave of emotions came crashing over me. The whole time we had talked I had felt dry and calm, but now I knew that was only the undertow gathering a tsunami.
"I told the only man I've ever truly loved that my grandfather's wishes were more important than his timetable." My voice rose above the waves of heartache. "I would have said 'yes,' but I thought he was only using me to secure his fortune. You put that awful thought in my head. Landon's not like you —he wasn't even thinking about the money! He tried to propose to me days ago, but that's when I told him about my own trust fund."
Lyla cried into the phone. "He tried to propose to you the day I told him about the conditions of his inheritance, didn't he?"
"Except I screwed it all up. I didn't know about any of that, and I told him I was going to wait. Now, what do you think of that, Ms. Townsend? He's giving up everything his family ever worked for to wait for me. He's giving it all to you because he thinks that's what you want."
"That's not what I want," she whispered.
"From what I've seen, that's all you've ever wanted. You chased everyone away that ever loved you because it got in the way of business. So, as one last piece of business, I thought you should know that I told Landon 'no.' That should tie up all the loose ends and make you happy."
She pulled herself together with one brittle breath. "I'm sorry, Ms. Cullen, but I'm a very busy person. If that's all the business we have to discuss, I must be going."
The phone went dead and all my hope and energy emptied out of me.
Anna edged down the hallway and met my overflowing eyes. "Did it go as planned?"
I collapsed on the saggy sofa. "I have no idea. Either it worked, or I just made everything so much worse."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Landon
I pulled my car into the garage where James was waiting. He took one look at my face and pul
led a bottle of rye whiskey and two lowball glasses from a cabinet. He set up two folding chairs under the sunny garage window and had my first drink poured before I got out of the car.
"I can't go back inside," I said.
James nodded and held out the glass. "Go ahead and take a minute. Or two."
He watched me knock back the drink, poured me another, and then got up to continue working. The cover was off my father's favorite Italian convertible, and James was checking the fluids.
The alcohol dimmed my thoughts and opened my mouth.
"Andrew thinks that just because I'm loaded I can marry whoever I want." I reached for the bottle and poured another two fingers of whiskey. "I could pull out my phone and dial any one of sixty numbers and find a fiancée within the hour."
"From my understanding, women like to be proposed to by sober individuals." James rolled up his sleeves and checked the oil.
I heard my words slur. "I could marry anyone I wanted to and then everything would be fine. Maybe I will, just to ruin Lyla's shitty plans."
James very carefully dried off the dipstick. His normally neutral face, the mark of an excellent staff member, creased into a frown. The effect was sobering, so I poured another two fingers from his bottle.
"We all know you’ll decide what’s best, sir," James said.
"Jesus, you've seen me in diapers. Can we just be James and Landon for a minute?" I waved the almost empty bottle at him. "This might be one of the last times we get to hang out before Lyla rips into the place. She's gonna leave her mark, that's for sure."
James slammed closed the hood of the convertible and made me jump. "We've had about all we can handle of this. The whole staff is ready to give her a piece of our mind. Today."
I swayed to my feet. "Come on, you can't totally blame her. I'm the one letting everyone down. Why can't I just pick up the phone and find some gold-digger of a wife? It would solve everything."
"Give me your phone." When I handed it over, he tossed it far across the garage.
I strained to hear where it fell and when I turned around, James was gone. I shuffled over to watch him mount the front steps then the floor tipped beneath me. I had just enough time to slip into the supple leather seats of the convertible before I passed out cold.
* * * * *
My head was still pounding on Monday morning, but I tightened the choking tie and slipped on my suit coat. The image in the mirror surprised me again and I stopped to scratch my chin. I had trimmed my lazy beard down to close-cropped stubble. I wouldn't go clean-shaven, but I was prepared to look my best.
Again, a deafening silence met me on the top of the grand staircase. The household staff had slipped into a furtive mourning and were most likely holed up in the staff room behind the kitchen. James never told me what he’d said to Lyla, but I hadn't seen her since I passed out in the garage.
My vision blurred when I reached the front door and for a moment I wondered if it was possible I was still drunk. Then I blinked away the stinging tears and stepped out to face my friends.
Each and every one of the people who made Golden Bluff both a showcase and a home stood on the front steps. My butler was rigid in his black suit and the housekeeper resplendent in her best dress and crisp white apron. Every staff member down to the assistant gardeners was in full uniform. They lined the front steps for a royal send-off.
I knew them each by name and made sure they heard me despite the choked sound of my voice. I shook every hand and saw too many tears until I reached James in the driveway.
"Why?" I asked him.
He broke protocol and gave me a loving smile. "Remember that everyone here wants what you want, sir. Good luck today."
Their hopeful faces stayed with me the whole drive up the coast. Not even the bright sparkle of the Pacific Ocean could distract me. Over and over again, I counted the days to my birthday. Less than three months to find each staff member the perfect position elsewhere. Three months to break up the only family I had left.
I pulled onto the steep streets that led to San Francisco's Financial District. From the top of the hill, I could see our main headquarters —an enormous, dominating building with my family name in story-high gold letters across the top. As I drove toward it, a helicopter skimmed the skyline and landed on top of the Michel Building.
"Thanks, Vinny. I shouldn't be long," I told the eager valet who sprang forward to open my car door. "I wish you could keep it running, but you know how the trustees like to talk."
The young valet snorted. "Yeah, to everyone but us. I mean, sorry, sir. Good luck, sir."
I clapped him on the shoulder and headed through the imposing glass doors. "Thompson, glad you've got the place under control," I called to the security guard. He gave me a nod and a quick salute.
It would have been easy to stall in the lobby and talk to the dozens of employees I recognized, but then I saw Owen. I tried to be polite as well as quick, but he caught me at the private elevator.
"Mr. Michel, Landon. Can I still call you Landon?" Owen gulped.
"Sorry, but I'm late for a very important meeting." I kept my eyes on the elevator doors.
"I told her," Owen blurted. "I had to tell Riley. I'm sorry, but she needed to know what she was doing. I didn't know it would get so screwed up."
"Did you do it so she'd get back together with you?" I asked.
Owen stumbled back. "No. God, no. Is that what it looks like? Shit. I just want what's best for Riley and telling her seemed like the right thing to do."
I softened and shook his hand. "You saved me the trouble of explaining it myself. Though I wish you had told me before I stuck my foot in my mouth so badly."
The private elevator doors slid open and I stepped inside. Owen risked the security guard's wrath by grabbing the door. "So you really were going to ask her to marry you just because you loved her?"
"I still love her," I said and let the doors close between us.
My heart hammered all the way to the top floor. I still loved Riley. I would always love Riley, and that was the one thought that was going to get me through this hell.
The elevator doors opened and an attendant held them for me. Two others pulled open the doors of the boardroom and I saw the wall of suits waiting for me.
I paused long enough to straighten my tie, then I marched into the boardroom and let the attendants shut the doors behind me. Two stiff rows of board members lined the long table, and Lyla stood at the head.
I shoved aside the empty chair waiting for me at the foot of the table and cleared my throat. "Please, don't get up. What I have to say won't take very much of your time—"
Lyla cut me off. "Now that we are all in attendance, today's meeting of the Board of Trustees can come to order."
"Today's meeting?" Something in the way she emphasized today’s caught me off-guard.
"Yes, Landon. The board had an emergency meeting yesterday, but we were unable to reach you. Now, there is no reason for you to address the board because everything has been decided." Lyla laced her fingers together over a leather portfolio of papers. "We’re here for the final formalities and the signing."
A blast of anger made my voice too loud. "You couldn't wait another day? Just one more day?"
"Landon, please, you need to listen—"
"No," I snapped. "You couldn't even give me one more day so that I could accept my defeat with a small amount of grace. You had to take that from me, too?"
She started speaking but I couldn’t hear her. The roaring in my ears and the ridiculously long conference table made it impossible to understand what she was saying.
The board member to my right cleared his throat. "Pull yourself together, Mr. Michel. Your father abhorred shows of emotion in the boardroom. This is business."
I took a deep breath. "This is my business, and I will not let my last act as head of this corporation be hijacked by my usurper."
"We tried to contact you, Landon," Lyla spoke up from the far head of the table.
<
br /> "May I speak, Ms. Townsend?" The man that had addressed me struggled to his feet. Under the crown of white hair, I recognized one of my father's closest business associates, Mr. Tambor.
He cleared his throat and addressed me in front of the full Board of Trustees. "As you know, Landon, we have been watching you carefully the last few years. It is our business to oversee the direction and future of the Michel Fund, a charge we take very seriously."
Mr. Tambor gestured for me to sit, but I shook my head. "I'll stand before the execution squad, thank you very much."
His lips quirked, but he smothered the smile and continued. "You may be aware that the Board of Trustees retains the power to grant extensions, change, or overrule the contracts that structure our many companies, properties, and funds. This includes your personal family finances as well as the Michel trust fund."
I nodded and shot Lyla a look. Her face was a pale mask, but her eyes held mine for a moment before she lowered them.
"Ms. Townsend requested that we hold an emergency meeting yesterday to recommend—"
"Yes, I know. I know exactly what Ms. Townsend has recommended, and I'm here to sign the papers and be done with it."
Mr. Tambor raised an eyebrow. "Was that you accepting defeat with grace?"
"I wasn't given the chance, but I'm not here to cry over missed chances—"
"Mr. Michel." The old man's voice crackled with authority. "You were notified of yesterday's meeting but were unavailable. Perhaps as you continue to streamline our corporate protocols you will remember communication is a helpful tool." He held up a hand to stop my interruption. "As I was trying to say before, the Board of Trustees has taken Ms. Townsend's latest recommendation under advisement, and we have decided to fully revoke the requirement of marriage before the age of thirty-five. Your inheritance will come into full effect on your thirty-fifth birthday whether or not you are married."
All the air deserted my lungs and I sank into my chair. The wheels squeaked as I pulled myself to the table and tried to find my voice again.
Mr. Tambor tugged his suit coat into place, sat down, and patted my hand. "Ms. Townsend was very persuasive yesterday and all on your behalf. Though it is a personal note and outside our normal scope of business, I believe you should know that she impressed upon us that you may need a little more time to find the perfect match."
Torn_An Alpha Billionaire Romance Page 51