A Royal Entanglement: The Young Royals Book 2 (28 page)

I’d hit rock bottom when Daniel stepped in and pulled me out of, what could have been, a very bad situation.
 
He protected me when my father hadn’t and gave me a reason to change.
 
Falling in love with him had been inevitable, but he had been completely in love with his wife and the affection he felt for me was more one of an older brother than a love interest.
 
He broke my heart, but he also taught me some very valuable lessons and I owed him so much.
 
But as much polishing as he had done to me, I still felt like the trashy girl that he had found in the nightclub.
 
Cinderella was still a maid, Sabrina was still the chauffeur’s daughter and Eliza Doolittle was still a cockney flower girl, regardless of the dresses they wore.

Once I was out of the party scene and had effectively hidden away from the press, the only way to get love and attention from my family had been to pay their bills.
 
They may own a mansion and have a staff to run it, but they had no money and more debts piled up daily.
 
The wage Daniel paid me went to clearing those debts and digging them out of the financial hole that their lavish lifestyle had gotten them into.
 
Marrying Bradley would have secured a more than generous allowance for them, not to mention giving me the stability I so desperately craved.
 
But I couldn’t go through with it.
 
I couldn’t chain myself to a man that I didn’t love just because he had enough money to make my family happy.
 
If my mother had realised just how much Freddie and his family were worth, she would have been the first to push me into a relationship with him.

I was still in shock that Freddie had actually upgraded our fake relationship to a real one.
 
I had never felt about anyone like how I felt about him, not even Daniel.
 
I could look back now and say that what I felt for Daniel wasn’t love, but infatuation.
 
He had been the first man to take care of me and my poor abused heart had fell eagerly.
 
But what I felt for Freddie?
 
That was on a whole different plane.
 
And it scared me.
 
These were not the silly, girlish feelings of a teenage crush.
 
These were very grown up desires and I was at risk of losing my heart to a man I knew I could never have.

That thought stopped me cold.
 
Why was even in this relationship with Freddie?
 
I knew it couldn’t go anywhere.
 
He would never marry someone like me, not with my past and my family.
 
His mother was mollified for now, but when she found out the truth, she would pressure him to marry someone more suitable.
 
His family had a reputation to protect and someone like me, little better than Eliza Doolittle in fancy dress, was definitely not the type of person that they would want attached to their good name.

These thoughts swirled through my head and heart as Freddie twirled me expertly around the dance floor.
 
I operated on autopilot as a cold numbness crept into my heart.
 
I didn’t want to leave my job with Alyssa and I didn’t want to leave Merveille, but somehow, I would have to end it with Freddie before things became too serious.

The phone on my desk buzzed and I picked up the receiver, distracted.
 
I couldn’t seem to get my head into work today, it was too pre-occupied with Alex.
 
Having her on my arm at the ball had to be one of the best experiences I’d had at one of those formal events and I’d even hazard to say that being with her last night was the best date I’d ever been on.
 
Not only was she stunning, but she was interesting to talk to and surprisingly fun to be with.

“Yes Dayne?”

“There’s a call for you, a Mr Jeremy Hatfield.
 
He wouldn’t tell me what it is about.”

“Fine,” I replied, hoping my voice didn’t give away my eagerness to talk to the man.
 
“Mr Hatfield, you have something for me?”

“Mr Bingham,” he replied in his slow drawl, “Yes, I think I do.
 
Mr Corsair seems to have a problem with his inheritance.”

“His inheritance?”
 
I leaned back in my chair and swung around to face the windows as I listened to what the private detective had to say.

“His grandfather recently died and the entirety of the old man’s estate was to go to Mr Corsair, except there seems to be a problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“There is a clause in the will and if it is not satisfied by the end of this month, the entire estate gets sold off and donated to charity.”

“That’s some clause.
 
So why is Bradley here, in Merveille, instead of there, satisfying the clause?”

“It seems that the old man had a soft spot for Corsair’s ex-fiancée, a Miss Alexandra Fornette.
 
He was upset that the marriage didn’t go ahead and changed his will soon after the failed wedding day.
 
The clause states that in order for Corsair to inherit, he must marry by the end of the month and if he happens to marry his runaway bride, he gets a bonus.”

I swore softly.
 
Bradley was here to try to lure Alex back to the states not because he was in love with her, but because of money.

“He gets a bonus for marrying Alex?
 
Are there any other stipulations?”

“The marriage has to be finalised and consummated by the end of the month.
 
They have to have a child within a year and they need to stay together for at least five years or he loses everything.”

“I thought the guy had his own trust find, his own money, independent of his family’s money.”

“Had, is the operative word.
 
A few of his more recent investments haven’t panned out and Corsair is leaking money.
 
If he doesn’t get an injection of funds soon, then he is likely to lose the lot.”

“And Alex is his paycheck,” I mumbled.

“To the tune of over a billion dollars with another cool ten million as a bonus.”

“You’re sure about all this?” I asked.
 
It sounded all too bizarre to be real.
 
Who did that?
 
What type of person offered up money as an enticement for marriage?

“Positive,” he replied, “I’ve seen the will.”

I finished the rest of the phone call in a daze.
 
Of all the things that I thought Bradley Corsair was hiding, that was not one of them.
 
I just couldn’t understand what his grandfather was thinking nor could I wrap my head around the fact that Bradley was obviously trying to satisfy the terms of the will.
 
He wasn’t here for Alex at all, he didn’t want her because he was still in love with her and couldn’t live without her, he was here because of the payday he would get when he finally got her down the aisle.
 
Had that been the case all along?
 
Had he ever loved her?

I knew that if Alex ever found out about his real reason for being here, it would destroy her.
 
She would hate thinking that she was little more than a pawn in a rich man’s game.
 
It was bad enough that her own family used her and bled her dry, but to have the guy that she used to be in love with, use her this way?
 
I couldn’t imagine what that would do to the beautiful woman who I had gotten to know.
 
And I’d be damned if I let him hurt her that way.

I picked up the phone and buzzed my assistant.
 
“Dayne,” I said brusquely, “I need to see Bradley Corsair.
 
Can you find him and get him here as soon as possible please.”

“Certainly,” Dayne replied with his usual efficiency.

I never wanted Alex to find out about this.
 
I would talk to Bradley, explain that he had to leave Merveille and never set foot back in the country.
 
He had to leave Alex alone and never try to contact her again.
 
I would pay him if necessary.
 
The guy was strapped for cash, surely an injection of funds from me would get him to leave and find some other woman to dupe into marrying him.
 
Surely he could find someone willing to enter into a fake marriage with him for the right price, he didn’t need Alex to inherit the money left to him.
 
And if he couldn’t find someone to marry?
 
Then maybe it served him right.

I picked up my phone and dialled international.

“Brooks Barry.”

“Brooks, it’s Freddie.”

“Are we dating now or something?” he asked with amusement, “I swear I’ve heard from you more times in the last week than in our entire relationship.”

“Ha, ha,” I replied with a shake of my head, “You might actually be interested to hear a little bit of gossip that could benefit you.”

“Go on, I’m listening.”

“I have it on good authority that Bradley Corsair’s company is in a little bit of financial trouble.”

“Really,” he said, drawing out the word.

“Maybe you want to get your hachet men, I mean
advisors
, to look into it.
 
He might need an investor soon.”

“How soon?”

“Within the month.”

“Do I want to know how you came by this information?”

“Probably not, no,” I said, grinning even though he couldn’t see me.