Chapter 22
TRENT
Chaos. The second Charlotte walked into the room looking like someone had scooped her insides out, that was what the three Westwoods descended into. Absolute, complete chaos.
Alex and Nate immediately fell into one of their patented flame-out arguments, sharp, fast, and overlapping, like they’d been rehearsing it since childhood. Jameson and Sterling were the same way. Callum too.
Coming from a family where we’d been only two children, the way the four San Francisco Westwoods and the seven in Chicago could argue had always blown my mind. Usually, I lost track as soon as they started, but today, I didn’t even try to keep up.
Alex and Nate didn’t matter to me right now. Instead, my eyes stayed on her. Charlotte stood just inside the door, frozen in place, her face pale under the fluorescent lights.
Whatever Douglas had said to her must’ve been catastrophic. Strangely, as I looked into her eyes, I knew our fake relationship was officially over, but I hadn’t expected a fake breakup to actually hurt. And yet…
As she told us, her voice shaking, that he hadn’t given her many options but to proceed into a marriage with Gregory immediately, I felt something in my stomach drop. Though I didn’t really know why it was such a shock.
Deep down, I’d known this was coming.
I’d been preparing myself for the fallout ever since we’d been called back to Chicago. Alex hadn’t given me full details on the phone, just saying we needed to get here immediately. Now, however, I knew why.
While Charlotte and I had been gone, Douglas Westwood had been busy. Real busy.
Alex dragged both hands down his face, pacing behind his desk.
“I know you were only in Texas for a week, but Dad has been moving full speed ahead with the Gregory match. All the paperwork is drawn up. Gregory has already signed. I found out about thirty seconds before I called you. It’s all done.
The only thing they still need is your signature, Char. ”
Charlotte blinked, her expression crumpling at the edges. “He what?”
“He’s been planning this for months,” Alex said, looking miserable about it. “It wasn’t just talk to scare you. He’s serious. The estate lawyers have everything ready to go. Shit, I’m sure Gregory is choosing your wedding dress as we speak.”
She turned to me. Again. Not to Alex or Nate, but to me, her eyes wide, stunned, and hurting, and my chest tightened until I could barely breathe.
The fake dating scheme had always been on borrowed time. We’d all known that it was a stall, at best, but I’d been so focused on how to turn our “breakup” into something I could use back in Texas, a clean reputation reset, that I hadn’t thought about what Chicago would demand of us. Of her.
This city was their kingdom and Douglas was very much the king. I had no sway here. My hands were tied.
Nate shook his head. “Does it matter? You’re already the CEO. Lottie can just say no and the contracts Gregory signed won’t mean anything.”
Alex slammed a fist down on the table. “Dad is still the patriarch of this family. It doesn’t matter that he’s retired. He has a board seat. He could yank the company out from under me if he wants. My position isn’t safe if I push him too far, so yeah, it does matter, Nathaniel.”
“So what?” Charlotte’s voice rose, sharp and shaking. “You’re saying I should marry Gregory just so you can stay on Dad’s good side?”
Alex froze. So did Nate. Hell, even I felt my spine lock up at the crack in her voice.
She stepped further into the room, her chin trembling with fury and heartbreak swirling together. “You hate Gregory. You’ve always hated him even when I didn’t. Now you want me to marry him so you don’t lose your corporate crown?”
“Charlotte—” Alex tried.
“No.” She cut him off with a curt shake of her head. “Answer me. Because I’m the one staring down the barrel of this gun, Alexander. And what I’m hearing is that you’d rather have me marry a man none of us like or trust than risk getting into another argument about it with Dad.”
Alex opened his mouth, shut it, then dragged a hand down his face. “Charlotte, that’s not what I said.”
But he was stalling and we all knew it, because she wasn’t wrong.
Alex Westwood, usually so polished and steady, completely in control of the entire world, suddenly looked like a man cornered.
I watched him scramble for an angle, a thread, or something that would make this seem less like what it clearly was, but he couldn’t deny it.
Douglas was using Charlotte as leverage for something he wanted and it was highly unlikely that anyone would be able to talk him out of it.
Nate stepped in when Alex came up empty, glancing between us with an earnest, open expression on his face. “Look, maybe Gregory isn’t that bad. He’s annoying, but he’s loyal in his own weird, greasy way. He’s not dangerous and he is pretty charming.”
Oh, buddy. You really don’t know a damn thing about Gregory, do you?
Nate wasn’t stupid, far from it in fact, but he was operating on partial data. On Gregory’s curated persona, not the real man behind the curtain. Charlotte swallowed hard, looking at Nate, then at Alex, and then, finally, at me.
As our eyes met, I felt it. The shift. The quiet, defeated acceptance sliding into her gaze. She was bracing herself for it, preparing to fold.
Charlotte Westwood, who didn’t fold for anyone, was getting ready to do it for her father. Simply because he was insisting and she didn’t want to disappoint him or her brothers. It punched the air out of my lungs.
“Okay,” she said softly, nodding like she was agreeing to her own sentence. “Maybe Nate’s right. Maybe Gregory isn’t—”
“No.” The word shot out of me like a bullet, cutting enough that all three Westwoods looked at me. I stepped forward, my head shaking back and forth like a dang pendulum. “You’re not marrying Gregory.”
Charlotte blinked, her frown deepening in confusion. Nate’s eyes widened like he wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly. Alex muttered, “Jesus, Trent. The game is up. We—”
“No.” The dam had burst. “We’re not doing this. Do you hear me? You’re not being handed off to that man just because your father wants to pull strings he shouldn’t even be touching.”
Charlotte looked like she might cry. Or yell. Or both. I didn’t let myself soften. If I softened, I’d cave, and if I caved, she’d be trapped. Not forever, but long enough to lose everything and I knew what that felt like. I wasn’t about to let it happen to her.
“You’re coming back to Dallas with me,” I said. “Today. Give me twenty minutes and I’ll have our bags in the car. We’ll put distance between you and Douglas until Alex figures out how to fix this. We’ll stick with the plan we agreed to before. We should never have come back here.”
Everyone looked at Alex, who suddenly looked like I’d kicked his feet out from under him. He cleared his throat. “I, uh, I don’t know how to move forward from here. Not yet.”
I swore under my breath.
“Gregory has signed already. Do you guys realize what that means?” Alex said quietly.
“Dad has got all the paperwork. He’s serious about forcing this and he’ll threaten whatever and whoever he has to.
Going back to Texas doesn’t change any of that.
Fuck, it won’t even delay the inevitable any longer than it’ll take Dad to fly Gregory out there. ”
Charlotte closed her eyes and heat climbed up my spine. So I’d been right, then. Our fake relationship was over. Technically, that meant I could walk away right now. I’d done what my friend had asked me to do, and since Chicago wasn’t even my home turf, I didn’t know what else I could really do.
“Then we’ll find another way,” I said, quieter but twice as dangerous.
I sure as fuck wasn’t walking away. “She’s not marrying Gregory and she’s not staying in Chicago while your father is calling the shots.
” I turned to her, trying to make her see it.
Believe it. “You’re leaving with me. No folding. No signing your life away.”
Charlotte let out a shaky breath, but then she spoke again, her voice so quiet I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly. “You don’t know all of it yet, Trent.”
“What don’t I know?”
“Dad said that, uh, that we don’t date in this family and that if I’m serious about you, I need to marry you.”
Her gaze met mine and I saw the questions in it. Would you? Could you?
They hit me like a damn freight train because I didn’t know the answer and that terrified me more than anything her father could threaten.
The room went silent, the pause stretching long enough for me to hear my own heartbeat. I knew without having to look that Alex and Nate had gone dead still too.
“Elaborate,” Alex finally said, his voice careful but firm. “What else did he say, Char?”
Charlotte swallowed, her shoulders tense and her eyes suddenly fixed firmly on the floor. “Trent has to come to him to make his offer. Today. Or I’m marrying Gregory.”
She didn’t look at me once.
Nate shoved his hands into his hair, raking his fingers through it slowly. “Are you…”
He trailed off, but she seemed to understand the question even if he hadn’t voiced it.
“As far as Dad is concerned, my time has run out. He came right out and said it. Once the wheels start turning on these things, the only way it ends is when you’re married.
He’s expecting Trent in his office before close of business today, or I’m going to England. ”
I nodded. That was all I could do, and then I turned on my heels and left without another word or a backward glance. I had shit to do and none of it was going to be achieved in here.