Chapter 6: Rejection

“I refuse.”

Maeve had weighed the offer, and her answer was no.

Dedicating the rest of her life to a family business that would never truly be hers, for people who might never appreciate her and could even come to resent her, was too steep a price, no matter how she looked at it.

Kieran didn’t seem surprised.

“Are you rejecting the proposal as a whole, or only the conditions?” he asked.

“All of it.” She met his gaze without hesitation. “I’ll admit it’s tempting, but it isn’t what I want.”

“I thought you wanted to belong here. To become a true member of the family.”

Maeve studied him. Over the course of their conversation, she had caught glimpses of the man behind his cold, unperturbed exterior.

He wasn’t as untouchable as he appeared. He had burdens of his own, problems that money and authority couldn’t solve.

Somehow, that made him easier to face.

She leaned forward until they were close enough to feel each other’s breath. Kieran seemed taken aback, but he didn’t pull away.

Her lips curved faintly. “Do you know why I fought so hard to become part of this family?”

He didn’t answer. She didn’t need him to.

Holding his icy blue gaze, she said slowly, “You. It’s because of you.”

Confusion flickered across his face. Her smile deepened as she settled back in her chair.

“What does that mean?” he asked, his voice as composed as ever.

She propped her chin on one hand. “To me, you’re a symbol of reassurance. Of stability. With you at the head of this family, I feel safe. Secure.”

Her gaze drifted toward the window, though her thoughts seemed far away.

“After my family’s bankruptcy, all I wanted was a stable life. Something uneventful, without surprises. I realized you could give me that. You were more capable and stronger than my father ever was, and I thought that if I could stay with the Archers, it would be like having a solid retirement plan.”

Her smile faded.

“But now you’re telling me you’re dying. You won’t be here much longer. If that’s the case, staying with this family no longer matters to me. The family I wanted to belong to was the Archers with you at the helm. Without you, it holds no appeal.”

Her confession was so frank that even Kieran, with all his experience, had no immediate response.

Something stirred in his chest.

Soft, warm and almost unfamiliar.

Plenty of people needed him. His family depended on his judgment, and the company relied on his leadership. Yet pride and self-interest kept them from admitting it so plainly.

Maeve had no such reservations. She had looked him in the eye and told him that her sense of security rested on his presence.

He felt needed, and to his surprise, he liked it.

Since learning of his condition, he had moved from denial to acceptance, and finally to indifference.

He knew his death would change things. Some would remember him fondly, others would move on without a second thought, and a few might even welcome his absence.

A wry smile touched his lips.

It was a pity he wouldn’t be around to give Maeve—the one person who seemed to need him most—the security she so desperately wanted.

For a long moment, neither spoke. His fingers rested motionless on the desk.

“I see.”

Even so, he wasn’t ready to accept her refusal.

“Reconsider,” he said. “What I’m offering is the position of head of the family. You wouldn’t be a guest in this house or a fiancée who could be discarded when someone grew bored of her. You would decide who stays and who goes. You would be the one capable of offering others the security you’re looking for.”

He paused, holding her gaze.

“Isn’t that more stable than relying on me instead?”

The study fell silent.

Maeve felt the temptation rise again.

This was exactly why she had to stay alert when sitting across a table from Kieran. He could make even the grimmest future sound like a sound investment.

“Still no,” she said.

Then a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes.

“Unless...”

She leaned forward.

“I want a child. Your child.”

Kieran erupted into a coughing fit.

For once, his composure deserted him. Maeve half rose from her chair, but he lifted a hand to stop her.

Pressing the other against his chest, he forced himself to breathe steadily until the coughing subsided.

A child.

The one thing he had spent his life ensuring would never happen.

He looked at Maeve, at her bright eyes and expectant expression, and the corners of his mouth twitched despite himself.

He had thought her bold earlier. Now he suspected she was too bold for her own good.

With every passing minute, she seemed to grow more uninhibited in his presence, as though learning he was dying had stripped away whatever intimidation she had once felt around him.

“I believe I made it clear that this would be a marriage in name only.”

“Then that’s all the more reason I can’t agree,” she said airily. “I’m twenty-five, and I’ve never even been kissed, let alone been to bed with a man. And you expect me to marry you, give up the chance to experience any of that, and spend the rest of my life without a child of my own?”

Kieran nearly choked again.

Did she really need to tell him all that?

He had known Maeve for years, but he was beginning to suspect he barely knew her at all.

Still, one thing puzzled him. She had been engaged to Curtis for so long, yet she spoke as though their relationship had been entirely platonic.

“But isn’t Curtis your...?”

“Fiancé?” Maeve finished, her lips curling into a sneer. “When things were fine with my family, I never saw him that way. After everything went wrong, I despised him too much to even consider it. The feeling was mutual, of course.”

“Then what was your plan? You would have married him eventually if the engagement hadn’t been cancelled.”

She shrugged as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world. “I would have gone through with it. Sleeping with him would have been a necessary evil if it meant having a child of my own.”

Kieran fell silent.

She would have endured a man she despised for the sake of a child, yet he was asking her to give up that chance entirely for a position she would eventually have to surrender.

For several seconds, the only sound in the study was the faint ticking of the clock on his desk.

Then he leaned back in his chair.

“What would it take for you to change your mind?”