Chapter 6
Saffron
It will not be so bad. There will be a man you like there, trust me.
That’s what my father said after I protested several times against the marriage auction.
I thought he meant I would find someone I liked there, not that he would force my childhood crush into marrying me.
After Tyler told me about the blackmail, I went to my father to ask him for an explanation.
Dad had been ecstatic. He had already received the funds as soon as I was hitched.
“See, I told you it would work out,” he said when I arrived at his townhouse.
He strolled into the foyer where I was, his shirt unbuttoned, exposing the gray and white hair peppered on his scrawny chest. His gray hair was tousled, and he was barefoot.
I did not want to think about why he was disheveled in the afternoon and made a concerted effort to dart my gaze to my surroundings.
The townhouse was a rental that looked more like a hotel with its inoffensive gray and white styling.
A new place I had never been before. Even the girlfriend who was old enough to be my older sister was new.
She was the one to open the door and had looked at me suspiciously before belatedly realizing I was her boyfriend’s daughter.
“Tyler? Tyler is who you meant when you said I should trust you?”
He scratched his chest, smiling like a Cheshire cat. “I told you everything is going to work out, didn’t I?”
“I don’t want him. Cancel it. I want a divorce or an annulment. Anything. I want nothing to do with him.”
Dad closed the distance, towering over me. Tall and skinny, he has always used his height to dominate people, his only child included. Ninety-nine percent of the time, it worked. At that moment, though, I stood my ground and stared right back at him.
“You know, I was just telling Collina that I have given my daughter the husband of her dreams, and you know what she said to me? She said you’re too spoiled to appreciate a wonderful present. And, my god, was she right!”
“I don’t care. I want an annulment.”
“Too late. Your husband has already sent me the money. It came through this morning.”
“Send it back.”
He chuckled humorlessly. “Do you know what it took to make him agree? I had to use every tool in my arsenal to trap that son of a bitch. I used my ace. The information I had against him that I could have used on a better day, and I used it for you!” He jabbed his finger in my face.
“And you come to my home after I saved us both from ruin, and you spit in my face. You cried when I sent you to Olga. Now you cry as well after I get you what you wanted!”
“Information? What information?”
“The material I had been gathering. He’s not as clean as he claims to be, your husband.
He got his business through unscrupulous methods.
Bribing officials to get building permits.
Working with the mafia. Do you know how much time someone can serve if they are caught in a RICO case?
” He scoffed. “He squirmed when I showed him the documents.”
Bile rose in my throat. “So you did blackmail him. How can you be so cruel?”
“I used my ace card to save you, and all you care about is him!” I took a step back, shocked by his anger. “Get out of my face,” he snarled.
I ran out of there, tears blurring my vision.
My relationship with my father fractured further after that.
He cut me off, and I had to live independently, which was tough to do on a model’s income, while simultaneously putting myself through school.
I never forgave him for what he did, and the only satisfaction I got was watching his business fail even after getting a large cash infusion.
He died broken, sad, and without the young women he surrounded himself with.
Few people came to his funeral. Many were probably elsewhere celebrating his death.
I snapped myself out of the awful memory just as Malaya hobbled into the office.
The short brown skirt she had on exposed her bandaged knee.
She was wearing sneakers, which must have been painful for her to do even though they went well with her outfit.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the ever-immaculate woman wearing flat shoes unless she was running or in her home.
Malaya tried to sit in her chair without bending her knee, and she stumbled, her purse and laptop bag crashing to the floor as she held onto her desk.
I rushed over to her. “You should have taken a week off!” I helped her to the chair and collected her stuff from the floor and opened her laptop for her.
“Not after you sent me that text! He rejected us! But Seb assured me the deal was almost signed?”
“Tyler hates my guts, I told you.”
“But Seb!”
“Tyler practically threw me out of the building after I finished the pitch. But not before interrogating me, though. It was a horrible experience.”
Malaya looked at me inquisitively. “But why would he hate you that much? You were a kid when all of that happened.”
I sighed. I might as well come out with it. “That’s because he’s my husband.”
“You’re married!”
If Malaya could have fallen out of her chair, she would have.
She was so shocked her mouth remained agape for longer than a minute.
She seemed to recover only to say, “You are married to freaking Tyler Hawthorne! Wh-when you say married, do you mean actually married, like said vows to each other and shit?”
I explained everything. Once I started talking, it all came out. My father’s financial woes. Our family’s debts, the marriage auction, my father blackmailing Tyler. When I was done, Malaya was looking at me differently. Her shrewd eyes assessed me.
“Please don’t look at me like that?” I said.
Malaya shrank. “I don’t know. It’s just a lot to take in. Why?”
“Why, what?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She was hurt. Of course, she was. We became friends in college.
She was one of the few people in my class who were as good or better than me, and we bonded over our love for design.
When she invited me to her friend’s party, we found out we shared other interests beyond what we learned in the classroom and became closer.
Malaya trusted me, and my lies broke that trust.
“I’m sorry. I know I should have said something.”
She sighed. “It’s not your fault; your father sold you to him. An auction! You rich people are weird.”
“Well… that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
I never saw it as an actual relationship because after we got married, he practically left me alone.
My father took all the money, of course, and left me with nothing.
Not that I cared. As for Tyler, he’s been living like a single man.
And so have I. But now that my father’s dead, I can finally cut Tyler out of my life. I sent him divorce papers.”
Which he’s refusing to sign because of the blackmail. My father was still haunting me from the grave.
“He left you alone? So, you two never?”
“Once. On our marriage night.” Calling it a wedding night felt wrong considering it was barely a celebratory event.
Malaya shook her head. Amazement lit up her face. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be running away from him, like you’ve been doing. Was he that bad?”
“He wa—”
I never finished what I wanted to say because Kalya interrupted us, bursting the door open. She always knocked unless it was something really important or an emergency. Breathless, she said to me, “Mr. Hawthorne is here to see you.”
Malaya and I shared a glance. “Which one?” Malaya said to Kayla.
Kayla’s gaze darted between us. She glanced over her shoulder, twisted the door handle she was holding. “Uh…” She stepped inside and closed the door. “I don’t know…” she twisted her fingers, “which one’s which. I didn’t ask,” and winced. “Does it matter?”
Malaya threw her hands in the air. “Yeah. It does, Kayla.”
“Put him in the visitor’s room and tell him we will be there,” I said.
“He… wanted to speak only to you, actually.” Kayla gestured at me.
Malaya’s shoulders slumped. Whichever one it was, it was not good news if they only wanted to talk to me.
If Sebastian wasn’t aware of my marriage to his brother, he probably was now and had come to kill the deal.
If it was Tyler, who the fuck knew what he wanted?
He came to rub it in, maybe. Laugh at disappointment, probably.
“I’m coming,” I said, getting out of my chair.
Heavy legs carried me to the tiny box with a round table and three chairs we liked to call the meeting room.
It was one of the six rooms that made up our warehouse-style offices that had a view of the city.
It made our offices appear much more sophisticated than they were.
I opened the door, and the man in a gray suit, who had his back to me, looking at the view from the small rectangular window, was none other than Tyler Hawthorne. Great. Just my luck.
I closed the door behind me, and he turned at the sound to face me. He crossed his arms, his scorching gaze taking in my presence. The smirk on his face made me want to punch him. “If you’ve come to dunk bad news on me, do it in five minutes or less. I do not have time.”
His gaze darted around the room as he shoved his hands in his pockets.
The offices were functional at best, and the only distinct styling was the red brick walls and black metal trusses and columns that made the rooms appear bigger than they were.
“Neat little place you have here.” It didn’t sound like a compliment.
I crossed my arms. “Are you going to get to the point, or are you going to torment me further?”
Tyler flashed his pearly whites. The smile made my stomach wobble. Fuck him and his ability to make me feel like this when he was about to destroy my livelihood.
“I wish that were the case, but I seem to have a never-ending streak of bad luck when it comes to you.”
My heart skipped a beat. “You can divorce me.”
“Wish I could. But you seem to have missed the seven-year clause or whoever holds the blackmail material releases it.”
His lips curled, and he glared at me with disdain. Did he think I was the one holding whatever this blackmail material was? “I told you, I had no idea my father forced you until I confronted him the next day.”
“I don’t care about your excuses, babe.”
I rolled my eyes. “Nothing I say will sway you, it seems.”
He scoffed. “You have forged a reputation as a consummate liar. How can I forget that night at your sixteenth birthday party?” The venom in his voice was unmistakable.
As soon as he said the words, I shut my eyes, not wanting to face him, but thoughts of that night returned.
I was young and foolish, but more than that, I was infatuated with Tyler.
He was in college at that time and had been on spring break when my father invited him to my birthday party.
I was so happy to see him; I didn’t care that he saw me as nothing but a child.
My crush had come for my birthday. That had to mean something, right?
But then he did what at that time felt like a betrayal.
And like the child I was, I reacted in the worst way possible.
I told my friends I was seeing Tyler. I hadn’t considered how it would seem considering that I was a child and he was an adult.
As the rumor spread, my father confronted him, thinking it was true.
That’s when I took back the lie. I had never been so embarrassed and regretted it since.
I regret it even more now that I am much older.
I wiped away the memory. “If you’ve come here to rehash the past, I don’t think I’ll be able to entertain you. I have other things to do.”
He cast his gaze down, grimacing. “You have no idea how much I hate saying this.” Under his breath, he muttered, “Fuck you, Seb.” He flashed a tight smile. “I came to say congratulations on a fucking brand-new partnership with Hawthorne and Hawthorne. I do not look forward to working with you.”