Chapter 3 – James
JAMES
“Well, let’s get this done,” Victor says, sliding into a chair in my personal conference room. “Where do I sign?”
It’s a familiar sight, the impatient executive ready to finish with the formalities. It adds an air of normalcy to what would otherwise feel like a surreal meeting.
On my side of the conference table, I’m flanked by two men.
Rudy, the head of Sequel’s legal team, sits at my left side, ready to consult on any last minute changes about the collaboration between Pages and Sequel.
On my right is Jack Archer, my personal lawyer.
If you didn’t know better, this would look like any other merger.
Jack clears his throat. “Before we get started, I’d like to walk through the most pertinent details a final time.”
Victor grunts, crossing his arms and looking bored. His obvious displeasure doesn’t phase Jack, who puts on a pair of reading glasses and opens his copy of the contract.
“If you go to page three, you’ll find the timeline for the heir clause,” he says.
We all turn to the page, reading along, even though I’ve got it practically memorized by now.
“After Miss Matthews and Mr. Keller are wed, they will begin attempts to conceive an heir. If after six months they are not successful, they will seek medical intervention. If an heir is not conceived by a year, then both contracts—the marriage contract and the business contract—will be null and void. Is that still agreed to by both parties?”
Victor and I both nod, and Jack gives us a cool glance.
“I’ll need your verbal consent.”
My “yes” is quickly followed by Victor’s. It doesn’t escape me how eerily similar this feels to wedding vows.
Jack flips forward several pages. “If we move to page eleven, I’d like to point to the new addition to the Nondisclosure Agreement. If the nature of this marriage contract becomes public, whichever party responsible for the leak will be liable to a fine of $100 million.”
For the first time, Victor looks engaged, his eyes narrowing. “$100 million? That’s extortion!”
“After consultation with both of your public relations teams, they agreed that the payment would need to be high enough to cause significant damage, and considering both of your net worths, this is the number they arrived at.”
Victor turns on his lawyer. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“I did!” his lawyer squeaks. The man is thin and tall, even taller than me, but he still cowers under Victor’s red-faced fury. “I mentioned it, sir.”
“Surely, you understand the risk if news of this contract leaks,” Jack says coolly.
“It would cause irreparable damage to the reputations of both your companies. Even though your daughter is fully onboard with the agreement, even the hint of a forced pregnancy could cost you even more than the fine. This is just a precaution.”
Victor turns back to his slumping lawyer. “And you think this is smart?”
“Yes, sir,” he squeaks. “We all did. The entire legal team.”
Victor settles back into his chair and sighs. “Well, I guess that’s what I pay you for. Fine. Keep the damn clause. We won’t be breaking it on my side.”
“Good,” Jack says. “Miss Matthews has already signed the paperwork for the marriage contract. Mr. Matthews, you’re next.”
He slides the contract over the table, along with a Montblanc pen. Victor grabs it and starts turning through the pages, initialing at his flags. While he’s busy, Jack turns to me.
“Can I speak to you for a moment, in your office?” he murmurs.
My brow furrows. Whatever he wants to say, it can’t be good. “Sure.”
We excuse ourselves and make our way next door to my office. The white and steel gray painting behind my desk echoes the cloudy spring sky visible in the wall-to-wall windows.
Jack turns to me, a frown on his handsome face. It’s eerie seeing that frown on a face that looks so much like his son’s. Ryan doesn’t have a serious bone in his body, except when it comes to his girlfriend, Pippa.
I thought about firing Jack when he and Ryan severed ties.
They’ve never exactly gotten along, but when Jack wouldn’t accept Ryan dating his stepdaughter, they completely stopped talking.
When I asked Ryan, though, he just grunted.
“As long as you never mention his name to me, I don’t give a shit if you fire him or not. ”
Now, I’m glad I didn’t. It’s a relief to have Jack be the one managing this contract, a man I’ve known since I was a child, the man who was my parents’ lawyer, too. I don’t have to second-guess if he’s looking out for my best interests.
“I have to ask,” Jack says. “Are you sure you want this?”
“Of course. It’s more than worth it. The partnership with Pages will make Sequel bigger than I ever imagined—bigger than my parents even imagined.”
I get a lot of credit for founding Sequel, but really, it was my parents’ idea.
They dreamed up the idea of a massive entertainment library that anyone could access at a reasonable price.
Mom wanted small independent films to be available everywhere, not just in big city theaters, and Dad envisioned a company where he could greenlight big, ambitious projects without being under advertisers’ thumbs.
They discussed the idea and how to make it happen over countless dinners.
All I did was take their ideas and build it on the Internet.
My parents might be gone, but their dreams live on in Sequel. And it’s about to break through one last ceiling, reaching an even bigger audience.
Jack puts a hand on his shoulder. “I know your parents would be proud of what you built, James. If Sequel never got any bigger, they’d still be proud.”
“I know.” Mom and Dad would be thrilled with the Pages collaboration, though. That’s the kind of expansion they dreamed about. I can picture them, Mom giggling while Dad opens a bottle of champagne and pours too much in the glasses, like he always did.
Jack’s expression softens. “Don’t you think they’d care how you expanded Sequel?”
I swallow. The truth is that they’d be shocked and appalled by the contract, and worse, disappointed. Mom and Dad loved each other so deeply, they wouldn’t be able to imagine a marriage without love.
Then again, I’m not the type to fall in love at first sight.
There’s a coldness to me my parents never had, a sense of ruthless pragmatism.
I don’t believe there’s some soulmate out there for me, a perfect woman I’ll find if I just keep looking.
Maura’s a good woman, and our marriage will make Sequel better. That’s all that matters.
“I’m sure, Jack.” I pull away from him, and the hand on my shoulder falls back to his side. Without another word, I stroll back to the conference room.
“What was that about?” Victor thunders when I push open the door. “Second thoughts?”
“No,” I say firmly, reaching for the pen. “I’m ready.”
Leaning over the contract, I sign the first field, marked with a white sticky-note.
I move through slowly, signing each field on the marriage contract, my signature coming below Victor’s and Maura’s.
Hers is signed in green ink, a rounded looping script that reminds me of calligraphy.
It suddenly occurs to me how strange it is that she isn’t here.
That she would send her signature instead of coming herself.
I sign the final field on the marriage contract, then shift my attention to the contract addressing the business merger. Victor crosses his arms, pleased.
“When I realized I was stuck with a daughter, I thought my legacy was dead,” he says, preening. “Fortunately, she turned out to be valuable, after all. She’ll be a good wife, and she’ll make a handsome son for you.”
I grit my teeth, instinctively wanting to snap at him for his casual chauvinism.
I might not know Maura well, but it was obvious even from our first meeting that she’s intelligent and determined.
I’m sure that if Victor actually spent time training her, she would be a more than worthy successor to his empire.
Then again, it’s probably better that she wasn’t forced to take on the role. If my parents had tried to shove me into their business from my toddler years, I probably would have resented them for it. No, Maura’s lucky that Victor overlooked her.
I sign the final field and hand the contract to Jack. “Done.”
“Well, I better be off,” Victor says. “Pages is launching a new YA series next week, and we’re in full PR mode. I think we’ve got the next Hunger Games on our hands—which means Sequel has first rights to adapt it.”
“Excellent,” Rudy, the Sequel lawyer, says. “We’ll schedule a meeting about rights after the wedding.”
The other men shake hands before they file out, leaving me to go about my day. Like I haven’t just signed a paper that will change my entire life.