CHAPTER ONE
Brock
I straighten my tie, taking a little longer than necessary to avoid the rush of people down the hallway.
“Get that sour look off your face,” my brother Chase says, offering me a drink from his flask.
“Tell me why it’s so important I be here again?”
“Because skipping Ralph’s wedding would cut your inheritance by half,” Chase reminds me.
“How could I forget?”
It’s not that I need the money. Straight out of high school, I built myself a cabin in the mountains and started tooling with wood, turning what was once a hobby into a high-end luxury business that keeps me busy and well-fed.
But every dollar cut from my inheritance pads the bank accounts of my reprehensible cousins.
My granddad is big on family, which means we can’t sue, disparage, or miss important life events for our kin, even if they’re assholes.
“Come on. It won’t be so bad. The ceremony will take all of an hour, and we can get shit-faced afterward,” Chase offers.
What he doesn’t understand is that it’s not the loss of time I’m mourning.
It’s the loss of her.
Lily Sinclair, my cousin’s bride, was supposed to be mine, but somehow my uncle managed to convince granddad she was better for Ralph.
Chase sighs, annoyed. “You can’t stay here all day.”
Without a word, I turn and storm from the room.
I make my way through the cathedral, determined to bury whatever feelings I have left for the bride. Chase keeps pace with me, completely unaware of my inner struggle.
Unfortunately, more than one wrong turn has me lost. I look down corridor after corridor, wondering how the hell I got so turned around.
“Why are you so stubborn?” Chase says.
“I’m not.”
“Then ask me for directions.”
“If you know where to go, why are you waiting for me to ask?”
“See, you’re stubborn. You need help, but you refuse to ask for it. Just like always.”
A giggle catches my attention. It’s coming from a closet.
Chase snorts out a laugh. “Looks like someone’s got the right idea.”
“Shut your damn mouth,” I growl, but as I turn to go back whence I came, a familiar voice catches my attention.
“It’s just to secure my inheritance, baby, while getting a slice of the Sinclair pie,” Ralph says, his voice muffled.
Sinclair pie? I take out my phone and hit RECORD.
“It’s five years of torture,” a woman pleads. “I’m going to hate every minute of it.”
“It might take five years to get everything in place, but I assure you, things will be over long before then. By the end of the first year, she’ll be serving us our meals.”
“As if her daddy would ever allow that.”
“Her daddy mismanaged the family fortune. The only reason the wedding is still on is because of the Sinclair name and their client list. In five years, not only will I have access to a big chunk of my inheritance, but I’ll steal the Sinclair’s business right out from under them.”
BINGO.
I throw open the door and find my cousin embracing Rachel Weeks, a prominent Instagram influencer.
“Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” Rachel snaps as she pulls away. The buttons of her dress are popped open where my cousin, the groom, was feeling her up.
Ralph straightens. “Oh, don’t worry about him. That’s just my cousin.”
“Oh, I’d be at least a little worried,” I deadpan.
He pouts his lower lip out. “What’s wrong? Still have a thing for Lily? Sorry, man, but she’s mine. Grandpa says.”
I hold up my phone and hit PLAY. His face goes white when he hears what I caught on audio.
“You know how Granddad feels about a man’s word,” I tell him.
“What the fuck do you want?” Ralph snarls. “A cut of the Sinclair pie?”
“More than a cut.”
“You’re not getting half. Not when I’m the one that’s in it for five long years.”
“Oh, I don’t want half.” I take a menacing step forward, filling the doorframe. “I want it all.”
He chuckles for all of a moment.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Leave now. I don’t care what you tell them. Maybe you got wedding jitters. Maybe an allergic reaction. Doesn’t matter. Leave and don’t come back.”
“You intend to marry her…”
“Damn right I do, and if you play your hand right, you’ll come out of this unscathed, possibly with a better match than the Sinclairs. I hear Zevran’s sister Sari is on the market. Make a play there and who knows how Granddad might reward you.”
I see the wheels turning in his pea brain and know my haggling worked when a smile spreads across his face.
“Come on, Rach,” Ralph says, grabbing the girl’s wrist and storming past me.
Once he’s gone, Chase turns to me and says, “Don’t tell me you’re actually going to go through with this.”
“Damn right I am, and you’re going to be my best man.”
Now that I’ve found purpose, I find the room the party’s in with ease.
My mother’s eyes light with relief when she sees me. “Oh, good! I was worried you wouldn’t show.”
In the corner of the room, I see Lily standing, looking out a window.
She’s a picture of sadness, with her face tilted forward and her raven black hair cascading down her back in decadent waves. Her pretty pink lips are a thin line of worry, making me regret not wringing Ralph’s neck.
I still remember the first time I saw her. She’d just turned eighteen and her parents were eager to parade her around. I was in my mid-twenties and had no interest in settling down.
That changed the moment I saw her shy smile. I knew right then and there that I had to have her, but fate decided she was meant for someone else.
Screw fate.
Wrapped in luxurious ivory lace that clings tightly to her petite curves, she looks ethereal. There’s not an angel in heaven that could compete with her. I’d bet my life on it.
It’s a crime that she should be so beautiful, yet look so sad. Maybe she knew Ralph was seeing other women, and it broke her heart.
Damn him for that.
I allow my gaze to linger a little longer than what’s appropriate before tearing it away.
“What do you mean, you have food poisoning?” Granddad’s voice rises in fury. “We all ate the same thing at the rehearsal dinner, and no one else is sick.”
Lily turns to look at Granddad with a hopeful glint in her eye. Could it be that she doesn’t want to marry Ralph, after all?
Doesn’t matter. By the end of the day, her last name will be Davenport, whether she likes it or not.
“You look handsome,” comes the soft voice of Mabel Tinsley, the girl I’m supposed to marry. Not that either of us wants that. At only twenty, she does little to hold my attention, and even though I’m only nine years her senior, she thinks I’m ancient.
I smile politely, but before I can return the compliment, she slips away, barely able to hold back her tears.
Granddad pockets his phone and looks around the room in hot fury. Now’s the perfect moment to execute my plan.
“It’s always something with him,” Granddad grumbles under his breath. “And now this.”
“I’m here if you need anything,” I offer.
He snorts. “Unless you’re ready to tie the knot, I don’t think you’ll be of much help.”
“If that’s what’s necessary, all you simply need do is ask. Mabel’s still young, and can marry one of my brothers if you’re so set on having her become a part of the family.”
His eyes dart to mine, his expression nothing short of shocked, which is surprising for a man of his stature because he’s always so stoic.
“You ran away from the tower,” he says in disbelief.
“I ran from a building, not my family, and not the duties that go along with the Davenport name.”
He nods, an appreciative glint in his eye. “That settles it, then.”
He walks to the center of the room and clears his throat. The crowd goes silent because no one dares to disrespect Clint Davenport.
“Today, the Davenports are blessed to be welcoming Lily Sinclair to the fold,” he gestures for her to join him and she slowly walks to his side.
I position myself next to Granddad, opposite her.
“But as you know, life has all kinds of surprises in store for us, and as it turns out, it’s not Ralph that she’s fallen so deeply in love with over the years. It’s Brock.”
The room erupts in startled gasps. I wish I could see the look on Lily’s face, but her face is bent forward, shielding it from my gaze.
“Ralph, being the good man that he is, recognized their affection before even they did, and graciously stepped aside so that their love might bloom.”
I guarantee that everyone in the room knows that’s a load of bullshit, but they give a collective “Awwww,” knowing better than to upset the Davenport patriarch.
A photographer centers himself in front of my granddad, who has one arm around me and the other around Lily. “Smile for the camera.”