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CHAPTER 86
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2026-07-14 15:29:37
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Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 86
ANNA'S POV "I appreciate you thinking of him," I said carefully, "but Jonathan has people handling the board situation already. Lawyers, advisors, people who've known the company for decades." "Of course, of course," my father said, quick to agree in the particular way that always meant he had no intention of actually letting the subject go. "I'm not suggesting he needs rescuing, Anna. I simply thought, given everything I went through with my own company, the lawsuits, the board revolt, all of it, that I might have a perspective worth ten minutes of his time. Sometimes an outside voice sees things the people too close to it can't." I gripped the phone a little tighter, remembering the version of this conversation I'd had with him a dozen times before, always dressed up in language about family and generosity, always somehow ending with him closer to something he wanted than he'd started. I told myself this time might be different. I didn't fully believe it, but I told myself anyway
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 85
ANNA'S POV Jonathan didn't say much on the drive home, and I didn't push him to. I had learned, over the past several months, the difference between a silence that needed filling and a silence that simply needed company, and this one, I could tell, was the second kind. He went straight to the study when we got in, not to work, I realized when I followed him a few minutes later, but simply to sit, staring at nothing in particular, a man trying to hold the pieces of his own history in some kind of order that made sense. A year ago, I might have given him the space I assumed he wanted. I would have gone upstairs, told myself I was respecting his need to process alone, and quietly resented, underneath that respect, how far apart it always seemed to leave us. I thought, standing in the doorway watching him, of the night after Lucas's funeral, when I had done exactly that, retreated to our bedroom and left him alone downstairs for hours, both of us convinced at the time that we were simp
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 84
JONATHAN'S POVMy father poured himself another measure of scotch before he spoke again, and I understood, watching his hand tremble slightly around the glass, that he needed the small ritual of it more than he needed the drink itself."Eighteen months ago, when Whitmore's firm extended that loan, there were conditions attached beyond the interest rate," he said. "I told myself at the time they were minor. Standard protections a lender builds into an agreement of that size. I didn't examine them as closely as I should have, because I was desperate, and desperate men read contracts the way they want to read them rather than the way they're actually written.""What conditions," I said, my voice flat, giving him nothing to soften against."A proxy agreement," he said. "Buried in the fine print, structured to activate only under specific circumstances. If the company ever faced what the document called a material governance crisis, and Jonathan, a murder investigation touching the family,
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 83
JONATHAN'S POV "Jonathan," my father said, before I'd even gotten a word out, "I need you and Anna to come to the house tonight. Now, if you can manage it. I'd rather explain this in person than let you sit with half a story until morning." Something in his voice had changed since the office that afternoon, the careful composure worn thin enough that I could hear the strain underneath it clearly for the first time in longer than I could remember. "We're already on our way," I said, and meant it, keys already in hand. Anna sat beside me on the drive over, quiet, watching the streets pass in the dark, and I was grateful, not for the first time this week, that she'd refused to be left behind for this. Whatever waited at my parents' house, I didn't want to face it without her. My father was waiting in the study when we arrived, alone, a decanter of scotch on the table beside him that looked considerably lower than it should have been for this early in the evening. My mother's absence
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 82
ANNA'S POV "I need a day," Jonathan's father said, before he could finish whatever he'd started to say a moment earlier, some of the composure sliding back over his face like a door quietly closing. "There are people I need to speak with, documents I need in front of me before I explain this properly. I don't want to give you half a story and let you build the wrong conclusions out of it." Jonathan's jaw tightened, and I could see how badly he wanted to press further, to demand the whole truth right there in that office rather than wait another twenty four hours for a version his father had time to shape into something more manageable. But he nodded, tightly, and I understood, watching him, that some part of this restraint was for my benefit as much as his own, a promise he was actively practicing now instead of merely making. We didn't speak much on the drive home. I could feel Jonathan running through a hundred possibilities, none of them good, and I let him have the silence for
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 81
JONATHAN'S POV "Where did I hear it doesn't matter right now," I said, watching Anna across the kitchen table, her eyes fixed on me as intently as they'd been fixed on the screen minutes earlier. "I need to know why her name is connected to a private investigator who's been circling this family for years." My father's voice, when it came again, had lost the easy warmth he usually managed even at this hour. "What investigator." "Diane," I said. "The woman who worked with Rose. Her name is on a retainer agreement tied to Isabela Marchetti, dated six months before any of this started with Rose at all. I want to know what you know about it." The silence on the line stretched long enough that I checked the screen to make sure the call hadn't dropped. "Isabela's family and ours go back a long way," he said finally, careful in a way I recognized from a lifetime of watching him navigate difficult negotiations. "Her father and I have done business together. Socially, our families crossed
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 8
JONATHAN'S POVWalking beside her I could feel how tense she was. I know she must be very nervous and it only amused me. When I got to her house earlier, I was expecting to see her instantly but it took long before she showed up.I was so engrossed in my phone that I didn't notice when she came to the
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 6
JONATHAN'S POV We kept kissing as we made our way into a room in the VIP section. A place I made reserved personally for myself whenever I need to dig into something warm. I grabbed her ass violently and she moaned unbuttoning my shirt.She finally made her way with the buttons and pulled my shir
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 5
"I see that you like her." My dad commented on the drive back home. "She is beautiful." I shrugged, going through my phone. I was letting Lucas know to hold down the VIP slot at the club tonight. "Well, hopefully, this alliance brings more money to the family." My dad smiled at my mom. I was sil
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 4
JONATHAN'S POVMy lips curved in a smile as I glanced at the pretty young lady before me. Hell, those hips were great. I wanted to tell her so, but I knew better than that. Women tend to take compliments into their heads. With a courtesy nod, I shrugged past her and walked into the house. I sat
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