Chapter 5
WILL
When I got back to W&S, I went straight from my car to Alex’s office without stopping. In hindsight, that was probably a mistake. It gave me absolutely zero time to calm down.
Still riding the tail end of what had been a nightmarish morning, I barely acknowledged the receptionist on my way through, not stopping at my desk or even taking off my jacket before I was pushing open his door. Without knocking.
At the sudden intrusion, he looked up from behind his desk but smiled when he saw it was me, and he pushed his laptop away. “Good morning. Have you got an update for me yet?”
“What the hell are you and Dad thinking?” I asked instead, storming to the chair across from his desk and gripping the back of it so hard, my knuckles went white. “I’m serious, Alex. What the actual fuck are you thinking?”
He didn’t even skip a beat. “I’m thinking you should probably calm down and tell me what’s going on.”
I shoved my hands into my hair and scoffed. “Winnie disappeared last night. That’s what’s going on.”
Clearly alarmed, he sat up a little straighter, his eyes widening. “What do you mean, she disappeared?”
“Eliza woke up alone in the hotel room, halfway across the fucking world from her home, and had no idea where her sister was. That’s what I mean.
Winnie didn’t leave a message, a note. Nothing.
She wasn’t answering her phone either. She was just gone.
We had to track her down through social media videos, for God’s sake. ”
Alex’s brow twitched slightly, but I wasn’t done yet. “Thank God, it turned out that she was okay. We finally found her, maybe still drunk, in a different hotel with some shirtless dude, who she barely even bothered to say goodbye to.”
My brother steepled his fingers, but at least he wasn’t smiling anymore.
I pushed away from the chair and shook my head, pacing over to his windows overlooking the city and the lake.
“Do you have any idea what position you’re putting Jesse in?
He already doesn’t even live here anymore.
He barely shows up to family dinners even when he’s in town.
Do you honestly think forcing him into a marriage with a woman like that is going to fix things? ”
Alex let out a low, slow sigh, his own gaze drifting over to the windows. “Shit.”
“Yeah, shit,” I snapped. “That girl isn’t going to settle down, Alex. She’s not going to become some kind of model wife overnight.”
“You never know,” he said, but it didn’t sound like he was as confident as he had been just a minute ago. “She might adjust.”
I snorted, trying to hold back a humorless laugh. “No, she won’t. She’ll implode and Jesse will implode right along with her. You should’ve seen the way Eliza handled her this morning, Alex. It was expert. Like this is something that happens often.”
His head tilted slightly. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” While I wasn’t about to mention how panicked she’d been when I’d arrived, I also needed Alex to know just how childish Winnie was.
“She asked me for help immediately, videos already up on her phone to show me where Winnie was the last time she posted. She didn’t stop calling her and then, when she finally got a hold of her, she got her out of there and back to the hotel without ever speaking to their father. ”
“There was no drama from her side?” he asked, thoughtful now.
I shook my head. “Not a drop. She kept it together all the way. Didn’t have a meltdown. Didn’t pause to think. She just handled her crazy sister like a pro.”
Alex’s head tilted further to the side and he was silent for another beat. “Okay, Eliza then.”
I frowned. “Eliza what?”
“Jesse marries her instead.”
I laughed, That was ridiculous, but it only took me a second to realize Alex wasn’t laughing with me. He was even smiling. He was still looking contemplative but also just a little smug.
“No,” I said immediately, my stomach dropping to my ass. “Absolutely not. We’re not going with Eliza.”
“Why not? She’s perfect,” Alex said, apparently already in decision mode. “It sounds like she’s grounded, calm, and responsible. That’s exactly the type of woman who could wrangle Jesse back into the family fold.”
“This isn’t a ranch,” I snapped, not really wanting to examine why I was feeling so defensive of her. “You can’t just wrangle people into marriage.”
He sighed. “Clearly, Winnie is clearly unsuitable.”
“That doesn’t mean you just substitute her sister like she’s the backup option,” I argued. “She’s a human being, Alex.”
A human being I might want for myself. Even as I had the thought, I was mentally backtracking. No. No. No. No. You need to talk yourself out of that, bro, but later.
Because unfortunately, Alex had that look in his eyes now. The one that said he’d already made up his mind and the rest of the world just had to catch up.
“Winnie is out,” he said firmly, like it was a done deal. “Eliza is in.”
“You’re asking for a PR firestorm.” I scowled, my head shaking repeatedly. “You realize that, right? When the details of this get out, and they will get out, we will face the worst kind of backlash.”
“We’ll manage it. We got through the whole thing with Nate and Kate just fine. If Callum could smooth that over, I’m sure he’d do just fine with this.”
“We’re not magicians. Neither is Callum.”
He shrugged. “We’re close enough.”
“No. We’re not and we’re not fucking doing this.
” I finally looked at him again, wondering how he could even be suggesting this, but especially not as calmly and as casually as he was.
“Do you even remember what happened with Charlotte, or have you decided to just give up on being you completely and to fully become Dad instead?”
His jaw tightened. “This is nothing like that.”
“It’s exactly like that.” I held his gaze steadily, needing him to remember how hard he’d fought against that situation.
“Do you remember how she felt when she nearly got pawned off on Gregory for the very same reason you want to pawn Eliza off on Jesse now? Do you remember how you felt? Please tell me this is ringing some bells for you, because it’s absolutely impossible that you’re suddenly okay with doing that to somebody else. ”
He leaned back slowly, some of the iron certainty easing out of his posture as he thought it over. Finally, he inhaled deeply enough that I saw his chest rise and then he blew out again, just as slowly, before turning back to me. “Okay. What do you think?”
That was probably the first reasonable thing he’d said all morning. I lifted my hands and scrubbed both palms over my face. I tried to find words that wouldn’t make it sound like I was interested in her.
Because I’m not. Obviously.
“Jesse won’t settle down,” I said finally. “Period. It’s a lost cause. That’s what I think.”
Alex frowned. “He will. Because he has to. Just like I had to, and Nate, and Charlotte. Just like you will have to eventually, but this one in particular is for Dad, and he won’t let up until it’s done. He’ll be a problem if we even try to get out of it, Will.”
“Jesse is Jesse, and that’s who he’s been since the day he was born. That’s kind of his whole thing. He won’t fall in line just because you did or I will, and as for Dad, just put him in an old folks’ home.”
“He’s already living in a retirement estate in Florida,” he said. “That’s about as close to an old folks’ home as we’re going to get him at this point. As tempting as it might be to try.”
I snorted. “At least you’re getting it now.”
He looked up at me and ruined it. “Just try, Will. Please.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Keep pretending to be Jesse,” he said. “Get him into Eliza’s good graces so that by the time the wedding comes around, she’s prepared.”
“That’s the worst thing I’ve heard all day, and that’s really saying something considering my morning has included a hungover influencer and a half-dressed stranger.”
“Just do it for now.”
“No.” I lifted my chin. “Absolutely not.”
“Jesse will come around,” he said, his voice gentler now, but it was also once again edged with that steely determination. “I’m confident of it.”
I shook my head. “You’re putting a lot of faith in a man who once tried to pay a bartender with arcade tokens and a movie ticket.”
“He was twenty.”
“Twenty-three.”
Alex waved a dismissive hand. “Either way, it was a long time ago. Just leave it to me. I promise you, he will come around.”
I wasn’t so sure. Actually, I was extremely sure he wouldn’t, and even if he did, even if by some miracle Alex convinced him to agree to this, there was still Eliza.
Feeling weirdly territorial over her, I shifted slightly, trying to find a way to explain that she was too sweet and too nice for this mess without sounding like I had any kind of personal stake. Obviously, I didn’t.
“Eliza isn’t like Jane and Kate,” I said after a long beat. “She’s not loud or assertive.”
Alex raised an eyebrow, which was fair. “Loud and assertive? Jane’s going to love that one.”
I rolled my eyes. “What I mean is that she keeps her head down. She’s quiet. She’s responsible. She’s the one holding everything together while Winnie runs around lighting fires.”
He watched me carefully and I had the sudden, horrible realization that I might be talking too much. So I shrugged and started back toward his door. “All I’m asking is that you think about her in all this too, Alex. Don’t only think about Dad. That’s it.”
“Okay.” He nodded as I opened his door. “You’ll try?”
I jerked my chin in a nod I hated. Then I left with a sickening feeling in my gut that he wasn’t wrong. The truth—and the problem—was that Dad wouldn’t let this go, and after what I’d been told about James Roderick, I doubted he would back down either.
After my decidedly less than successful meeting with Alex, the rest of the day dragged. By the time I finally got back to my house, it felt like the day had lasted approximately six years. I loosened my tie, tossed my keys on the counter, and pulled out my phone.
I needed to talk to my brother. The one I’d shared a womb with. This shit with him marrying a Roderick was getting out of hand and I couldn’t cover for him forever. As it happened, I also didn’t think Eliza would be a good match for him at all, but without him here, there wasn’t much I could do.
The train was leaving the station and this genuinely wasn’t a joke anymore. Naturally, Jesse didn’t pick up.
The line rang and rang, but eventually, I got his voicemail. I wasn’t normally in the habit of leaving messages, but desperate times called for desperate measures, so I waited impatiently for the beep, and when it came, I didn’t waste any time.
“You need to call me back, Jess. Immediately. Not a week from now or a month. Today. Now.” I paused for a beat. “I’m serious. Call me back or I will come to Florida and drag you back home myself.”
After hanging up, I cursed out loud and dropped my head back to glare at the ceiling. He’s not going to call back, no matter what I said.
The fact of the matter was that Jesse had already given Alex his answer—no.
To his mind, that probably meant it was over.
It should’ve meant that, but at this rate, I was going to have to pretend to be him for the rest of my goddamn life and Alex would keep telling me to try because Jesse would eventually come around.
I shook my head and stalked into my kitchen, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and pouring myself a stiff drink. Technically, it was still afternoon, but I felt like I’d earned this.
With my tumbler in my hand, I finally drifted back to the living room and sat down on my couch. Pulling out my phone again, I considered making another call to Jesse. Maybe if I just kept at it, he’d eventually take pity on me and answer, but instead, I clicked into my internet browser.
I wanted to know more about my—his—fake, future fiancée. Thankfully, these days, there was an app for that. Many apps, in fact, so I typed her name into my browser, expecting to find at least a few social media profiles.
Maybe I would find a post she’d made years ago about how crazy she was about Jesse. Seeing something like that would admittedly suck for me, but it might make me feel better about being involved in Alex’s scheme.
To my surprise, instead of finding the kind of post I was looking for, I ended up not finding any posts at all. Not anywhere. Eliza Roderick didn’t seem to exist online.
I frowned. Eugenie and Winnie were all over, and a cursory scroll through their profiles revealed a few pictures and videos of Eliza in the background, but that was it.
It was almost impressive, considering the Rodericks had one of the most polished public family images I’d ever seen.
The estate’s pages had thousands of followers, their posts drawing engagement from tourists and locals alike.
There were beautifully staged pictures of the grounds, random facts about their family history as funny anecdotes. Their crest was everywhere and the content managed to be informative, but not boring. Honestly, it was professional as hell.
That was when it clicked. The estate. The tours. The events. The immaculate social media presence for the Roderick family estate.
It had to be her. It had Eliza written all over it. Organized, thoughtful, and quietly competent, it was the kind of work that looked effortless because someone had put an enormous amount of effort into it behind the scenes.
So she is online. Just invisible.
I took a sip of my drink and stared at nothing in the middle distance for a long minute as I mulled that over. Clearly, this woman didn’t want to be in the public eye as anything more than her family’s representative.
She worked hard and it seemed she did whatever her family needed. If her father asked this of her, she might even say yes. Knowing all that, can I actually do this?
Morally, probably not.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t like I had much of a choice. Maybe there was even an upside to this. If I put my back into it, I could be a better Jesse for her. A version of him that was at least close to something she actually deserved.
Alex and our fathers were racing full-steam ahead with this arrangement, which meant that all three of us were in a corner—and none of us were being given the option to get out.