Sayla
Two Years Ago
I thanked the taxi driver, though he barely heard me. He was too busy staring at the manor.
I couldn’t blame him.
The Kersey estate looked less like a home and more like the sort of place people whispered about on guided tours. Dark stone. Tall windows. The kind of historic building that had survived wars, recessions, and generations of difficult men.
I’d met Gabriel’s father before, briefly. Long enough to know he hadn’t approved of me. Or perhaps he simply hadn’t cared enough to form an opinion.
The taxi pulled away behind me and unease settled low in my stomach. I touched the diamond on my finger, grounding myself.
This was the man who hadn’t attended his only son’s engagement party.
Not because he couldn’t.
Because he hadn’t wanted to.
A few hours’ drive meant little to a man with both a driver and a pilot on standby.
The front door opened before I reached the stairs.
Asher Kersey stood there.
Gabriel resembled him enough that the future suddenly felt less abstract. Same dark hair. Same height. Same sharp features.
But where Gabriel carried charm easily, his father wore restraint like armour.
Forty-three shouldn’t have looked like that.
Yet somehow he did.
“Come in,” he said, already turning away.
I blinked at his back.
“Hello, Sayla. Lovely to see you. Yes, I’m very well, thank you for asking,” I muttered under my breath as I stepped inside.
The door shut behind me with a heavy final sound.
I reminded myself why I was here.
Sign the prenuptial agreement or Gabriel lost access to the family money.
Father of the Year. Truly.
I inhaled deeply. Money didn’t matter. It never did. I loved Gabriel for who he was and I wouldn’t let his father harm him because he chose to marry me.
I rushed after him, heels clipping on the wooden floor.
In the hallway.
Around the corner.
Stairs.
Another hallway.
Then he stepped into a room and I followed.
An office. Or something between an office and a library—bookshelves that climbed almost to the ceiling, packed with volumes that looked read rather than decorative, though I told myself they were probably just for show.
A power move. The kind of room designed to make people feel small before the conversation had even started.
It was working.
I took the time to study him while he sifted through papers without acknowledging me.
His hair was thick and dark like mine but with a slight wave to it, kept in place with something that caught the light.
He wore a formal suit—even in the photographs Gabriel had shown me it was always a suit, always immaculate, never a hair out of place.
His money was in property or development, I wasn’t entirely sure.
Self made, though Gabriel had mentioned once that there’d been something to start with—family money, a foundation to build on.
The kind of head start that got quietly forgotten once the empire grew large enough.
Gabriel had told me his father was closed off. Cold.
I’d tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.
But standing here, watching him read through papers as though I hadn’t just clipped across three hallways and a staircase to keep up with him, I couldn’t find another word for it.
Apathetic.
He simply didn’t care.
“Mr Kersey, I do love your son,” I said, settling into the chair opposite him. “I don’t have any issues signing a prenuptial agreement if you feel the need to protect Gabriel.”
He didn’t look up.
“You’ve known him for less than six months. I’ve known him for twenty-two years,” he said, gathering the papers in his hands before hitting them against the desk with slightly more force than necessary.
He handed them across to me.
“Read and sign. But if you wish to reconsider this marriage, now would be the least complicated time to do so.” A pause. “Gabriel has a temper.”
“Yes, he does,” I said, taking the papers and lifting my chin. “It’s because he cares. He’s passionate. Marriage isn’t easy—I’m aware of that fact.”
My parents had their moments. Stress, financial strain, three children and two cultures colliding under one roof. It took its toll on everyone at times. That wasn’t dysfunction. That was just life.
“He told you what happened to his last fiancée?” Those blue eyes lifted through dark lashes.
“She cheated on him. I would never do anything like that.”
“When Gabriel is unhappy, he tends to share that.” Those cruel lips curved upward. “Passionately.”
Sheesh. I wonder why, with a father like this one.
“Then we won’t have a problem,” I said, lifting the papers to read them.
Silence ensued.
Uncomfortable. The kind that had weight to it.
When I glanced up, he was watching me. Not the papers. Not his desk. Me. He wasn’t smug, but I got the impression that he knew something—something important—and he wasn’t about to share it.
Just for a second a kernel of doubt entered before I shook it off.
I went back to reading the various clauses I didn’t fully understand.
I’d never need the prenup anyway.
Gabriel adored me and the feeling was mutual. My parents had been married for twenty-five years and had faced every kind of adversity. That was part of maturing. Part of love.
Gabriel was my forever.
Even as the tears fell, I ignored the urge to touch my eye. To fight the itch the tears caused. The memory of his fist connecting with my face should have broken my heart, but it had been broken in so many different ways, so many times, that there was nothing left to shatter.
My younger self had been so keen to prove him wrong that I’d missed the warning entirely.
His subtle warning.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I croaked.
“I tested the ground,” he said, resting his fingertips together. “There was no way you would have believed me.”
I thought I couldn’t feel shame anymore. But it flooded forth regardless. Asher could have told me Gabriel was a serial killer and I wouldn’t have believed him. Gabriel had painted a very specific picture of his father. Cold. Unloving. A man who had never been there.
“Will you help me?” I asked.
“Will you go back to him?”
I gasped.
But the longer I stared at him the more I understood why he’d asked.
My shoulders slumped. My eyes dropped to the floor between us.
I swear I won’t hit you again.
It was the drink.
Never again. I love you.
Why do you make me do this?
You don’t speak to your family unless I’m here.
She means nothing to me. You know that I love you.
I raised my head, weary of the world, and looked him in the eye.
“Never.”
Something shifted in those blue eyes.
Warmth?
It was gone before I could analyse it.
“I’ll help you.”
His arms moved from his legs, fingers parting as he sat upright. His legs remained spread and I quickly diverted my gaze.
Kersey cock was what got me into this mess.