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"Scotlyn, what's stopping you?"

The change in my tone had her glare on me quickly with a stern look before she smiled and rolled her eyes. "We're not in your playroom or your bed. That tone doesn't work out here."

"I'm pretty damn confident it does." I smiled arrogantly and she rolled her eyes again before her gaze shifted around and landed back on me.

"What do you know about my marriage?"

"What should I know?"

"That I thought I married a man who loved me, but in reality, he brokered a deal with my father and apparently suffered through ten years with me in exchange for his name attached to the Whitney Legacy." The look of hurt that shifted into her expression was unmistakable and I fucking hated it. My thoughts traveled to the many ways I could track that muthafucker down and makehimhurt.

I kept my expression impassive. "It was an arranged marriage?"

She scoffed a laugh and downed the rest of her wine. "No. We met, were attracted to each other, dated, he met my family, then proposed. Little did I know that even though things startedas a mutual attraction, they changed to a business deal after my father decided he didn't like the idea of me making decisions about my life."

This sounded eerily familiar…

"So your father propositioned him?"

"Yes. Apparently I wanted more out of the relationship than Carlton did. We were good for the first six months we dated. Then something shifted. I felt it and refused to be unhappy, so I suggested ending things and he agreed. Feelings change, it wasn't a big deal."

"Then I don't understand how you ended up married."

"Carlton's family owns Longview Resorts. They made some bad investments by purchasing properties that weren't worth the money they spent and were about to lose everything. My father knew this. When he found out Carlton and I were ending our relationship, he decided he would take matters into his own hands. When Carlton came back around, wanting to try again, he seemed sincere, so I gave us another try. Little did I know they had a backroom deal, which meant my father got sixty percent ownership of Longview Resorts. He made twenty million dollars in ten years just from the Whitney name being attached to Longview. Carlton got to keep his property. First with forty percent ownership that reaped the benefit of having the Whitney name attached and after ten years of pretending to love me and being a dutiful husband, he's now fully vested and my father is no longer part owner."

"They told you this?"

"No…" She shook her head. "I overheard the conversation the day Carlton came to my father demanding that he honor his side of the deal. The day after our ten year anniversary. He wanted the divorce he was promised. My father pretty much told him job well done and he would have the papers sent over to Carlton to sign by close of business. I got a divorce, Carlton got his resortsback, and my father unloaded the properties he'd drained for all he could squeeze out of it."

"Was the marriage bad?" I was irrationally annoyed that she might have enjoyed part of her marriage. Another man had her smiles, her laughs and access to her body. He was her husband, so it happened but I didn’t fucking like the way knowing this made me feel.

She laughed dryly. "No, that's the worst part. It was really good. He was loving, caring, and attentive to me but that was all a line item on the contract."

"What do you mean?"

"When I received the divorce papers, I just signed them. Carlton never even seemed concerned that I didn't question him or fight for the marriage. I just signed my name and sent them back. I never told either of them that I overheard the conversation they had because I was embarrassed. How could I look that man in his eyes and have him explain to me that the past ten years had been about financial gain and had nothing to do with him loving me? I also couldn't confront my father because he would brush it off as not a big deal or blame me for not accepting the previous arrangements he offered in the past. My father is simple; he's old school. There's always a paper trail. I did some digging and found the contract he signed with Carlton. It was detailed. The timeline for our engagement, the length of our marriage, date nights, anniversaries, holidays, frequency of gifts I was to receive. Even how often we were supposed to be intimate so I wouldn't suspect anything. Carlton agreed to everything other than children. My father negotiated one. Carlton refused to have any at all because the marriage was never long term with him. He even gave up ten percent more of the profits to ensure he wouldn't be obligated. That was how the percentages ended up being sixty-forty. There was an amendment. That was the only one."

This muthafucker…

"You're joking right?"

She shook her head. "No, at least he cared enough to make sure he got his money's worth. Carlton had to present as the perfect husband and he did. I believed him…" She reached for the wine but I grabbed it before she did and filled the glass. Once she had it, she drank some then looked at me. "So that's why I can't trust what I feel. I felt things for a man who was pretending with me. I should have known."

"No you shouldn't have."

"Yes, I should have."

"I know you want that to be true but one thing I've learned is that people see, feel, and believe what they need to in order to be okay. Lies are easy to accept when our heart and mind are in conflict with one another."

Understanding shifted in her expression. "What lies did you believe with your marriage?"

"I was the best of the worst."

"Best of the worst?"

"Aja's father wanted an arranged marriage. She couldn't avoid it. Marrying me offered the illusion of a choice in a situation where she had no choice. She lied to me. I wanted a family, she didn't. She aborted three of our children and let me believe she had miscarriages. I could say I should have known, and maybe a part of me did, but I believed what I needed to in order to be okay. My wife's selfish decisions caused me to lose a piece of myself I can never get back. The decisions your father and husband made caused you to lose a piece of yourself too but your situation is different. You can get it back…" She frowned and I explained.

"Trust. You no longer trust your heart and mind but you will if that's what you truly want. A lot of what we're feeling is the same, Scotlyn, but I refuse to allow where I've been to affectwhere I'm going or what I deserve. I've been doing that since my divorce and I've refused to acknowledge or do anything about it until now. I want more than the contract we have. That's all I can give you right now but I also hope that's enough for you to at least consider more being a possibility."