Chapter 5: The request

I drove back from the city with the image of Julian’s new life burned into the back of my eyelids, and the more I thought about his happy face, the more I realized that simply selling his suits and wine wouldn't be enough to keep Lily safe. If he ever decided to come back once the heat died down, he would use the law and the family name to take everything from me, so I knew I needed a protector who had more power than the entire Hart family board combined.

I pulled into the driveway of the estate and saw Alexander’s car was gone, but the air in the house felt heavy with the secrets I was keeping, and I spent the rest of the evening sitting on the floor of the nursery while I watched Lily sleep and planned my next move.

​The next morning, I didn't bother calling for an appointment, I just put on a sharp black dress and drove straight to the glass skyscraper where Alexander ran his empire from the top floor. The receptionist tried to tell me he was in a meeting with some overseas investors, but I just walked past her desk and told her that if she didn't open the door for me, I would make sure her boss heard exactly how she treated his family.

She looked terrified and pressed the buzzer to let me into the private elevator, and when the doors opened into his office, the room was silent except for the faint hum of the air conditioning and the sound of Alexander tapping a pen against his mahogany desk.

​He looked up as I walked in, and he didn't seem surprised to see me at all, he just gestured for me to sit in one of the leather chairs while he finished a phone call about some shipping lanes in Asia. I looked around the room, noting the expensive art and the way the city looked so small from up here, and I realized that this was the world I needed to belong to if I wanted to survive. He finally hung up the phone and leaned back, watching me with that same intense gaze that always made me feel like he was reading my thoughts, and he asked me if I had recovered from our little trip to the city yesterday.

​"I didn't come here to talk about yesterday, Alexander, I came here because I’ve been thinking about what you said regarding the estate and my future," I said, leaning forward and placing my purse on his desk while I tried to keep my voice from shaking. I told him that I knew he had been watching over me for a long time, and that I wasn't blind to the way he had stepped in to handle Martha and the creditors when I was too busy dealing with the fallout of the "accident."

​"You’re a smart woman, Josephine, and I think you’re finally starting to realize that being a widow in this family is a very dangerous position to be in if you don't have a strong hand holding yours," he replied, and he got up from his chair to walk over to the window, looking out at the skyline while he kept his back to me. He told me that the board was already meeting behind my back to discuss taking away my voting rights, and that even with his help, it was going to be a long and dirty fight to keep my inheritance.

​"Then let's give them something else to talk about, something that will make them so afraid they won't even dare to mention my name in a boardroom again," I said, and he turned around slowly, his eyebrows raised as if he were waiting for me to catch up to the thought he already had. I stood up and walked over to him, stopping just a few inches away so I could see the flecks of gold in his dark eyes, and I told him that a business partnership wasn't enough to secure my daughter's life.

​"I want us to get married, Alexander, and I don't mean a real marriage with feelings and romance, I mean a legal contract that puts your name next to mine on every piece of paper I sign," I said, the words coming out faster now because I wanted to get them out before I lost my nerve.

I explained that if he became my husband, Julian would never be able to reclaim his place in the family even if he rose from the grave, and Martha would have to bow to me every time I walked into a room.

​I expected him to laugh or maybe even tell me I was being ridiculous, but he just stood there in total silence while the clock on the wall ticked away the seconds. He reached out and placed his hand on the side of my neck, his thumb brushing over my jawline in a way that felt like a claim, and he leaned down until his breath was warm against my ear.

​"I’ve waited twenty years for you to ask me that, Josephine, and I’ve spent every one of those years watching you waste your loyalty on a man who didn't deserve to breathe the same air as you," he whispered, his voice sounding deeper and more dangerous than I had ever heard it. He pulled back just enough to look me in the eye, and the expression on his face made me realize that I might have walked into a trap of my own making, but it was too late to turn back now.

​"But if we do this, if you become my wife, there is no going back to the way things were, and I will expect you to be mine in every sense of the word," he said, and I felt a shiver of fear and excitement shoot through me