Rex I LIKED TO avoid my father’s study unless I didn’t have a choice. When he asked me to follow him there, I did not have a choice — not if I wanted to ke ep the peace, not if I didn’t want to start something with him just outside of the doors to the dining room . So I went with him. My mother, who was apparently joining this discussion as well, followed. I didn’t get invited to his study often these days. This was the same room where I’d been told my r eport cards weren’t good enough, that I needed to try harder. It was the room where he had lectured me about fights in high school, how I should be better th an that. It was, in all ways, the room that reminded me I was not perfect, which used to be a bitter pill to swallow. Now, I’d come to terms with it. It was my father who still struggled with the fact that his oldest son might not be perfect in all ways. His desk was located there, as he often met with business contacts in his study, so there were four highbacked leather chairs facing each other. My parents sat down in these, and I joined them.
“Okay, you’ve got me alone. What’s this about?” “Sweetheart, we wanted to ask you how things are going at Quinn Financial, that’s all.” My mother was always one for pretense. “Things are going well,” I answered carefully, hoping to pick the right answer. “I’m still learning the lay of the land, but I’ve identified some areas that need improvement and have gotten balls rolling toward those improvements.” “And your job has led you to Evie.” There it was. They weren’t that interested in work. My father’s arms were crossed. How bad was this going to be? “Evie is a valuable assistant.” “You obviously see more in her than that,” my father said. “Yes, obviously I do.” Silence stretched between us as they figured out how to pivot to the topic we all knew we were here for. I waited. “You know we have the Park City Gala coming up,” my mother said. “I had thought you might take Anya.” I had taken Anya to many galas before, usually under duress, usually because of various unspoken pressures around us. Both sets of parents loved it when we went together, so if neither of us was seeing anyone, sometimes we’d paired up by default simply to take the pressure off. “I can’t take Anya. I’ll be taking Evie.” My mother sat up straighter. “Are you sure, sweetheart? Evie might not quite fit in.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m dating Evie. It would be rude of me to tell her I was taking someone else.” “You’ve only known her for a week, haven’t you? You can’t possibly be that serious yet.” “I’ve known her longer than a week,” I lied, but Evie’s story made all of this more palatable. “I’m taking Evie to the gala.” My father’s face was a confession — a confession that he doubted my relationship with Evie and her ability to handle the gala. More than that, his face was a reminder of the conditions he’d set upon me. “You know the stakes, Rex,” he said. I nodded. “I do.”
“Fixing Quinn isn’t the only part of the deal. Marriage is the other. I’m not sure what you’re playing at with this woman, but you can’t be serious about marrying her.” His words filled me with rage, reminding me how much he wanted me to be his puppet, but I didn’t show it. I’d never give him the satisfaction. “Well, I haven’t been with her long enough to know if I want to marry her.” “And yet you’re willing to waste time with her.” “I’d hardly call it a waste. I have a feeling she might be the one.” My father scowled. “I doubt that.” “I guess we’ll all find out, won’t we?” “As long as you’re willing to risk the consequences. As long as this girl is worth it.” I pressed my lips together at his use of the word girl. He was trying to get a rise out of me. He would not. “Darling,” my mother interjected. “Think about taking Anya. You know how fond of you she is, and how fond we are of her. You two are so beautiful together.” “I know you two want me with Anya, but we’re hardly right for each other.” Up until now, I had let them believe whatever they wanted about Anya, mostly by avoiding the subject. That had been my mistake. For far too long, I’d tried to avoid conflict, which had only backed me into this corner I was in. “You know all of this comes from a position of love,” my mom said. “We love you dearly and want what’s best for you. We can tell you’ve had some trouble finding the right match, but we know you and we know Anya. You would understand each other.” “I don’t want to be with someone because we would understand each other,” I said. “When I fell in love with your father, it changed both of our lives,” my mother said, exchanging a sappy look with him that had no place in this tense conversation. I had a difficult time imagining my parents young and in love, especially my father. “Neither of us was looking for love, but its power is transformative. Especially with the way our lives are — you need someone by your side. Running a business is difficult. Traveli ng around the world is lonely. You need someone, Rex.” I sighed. I’d asked Evie to be my fake girlfriend to avoid this, but apparently it didn’t matter. Casually dating was not enough. A few appearances were not enough. They wouldn’t be
satisfied until they thought I was truly happy with someone. “How could attempting to control my future possibly bring me the right person for any of that?” My father stood up, propped his hands on the edge of his desk, and leaned toward me. “Because you are a difficult person. A difficult man — too quiet, too serious, too irritable, too inward. I know because you’re a lot like me. You won’t let anyone in, which means you will not find anyone on your own. That’s why this condition will stand, Rex. Fight it all you want. Waste your time with your assistant all you want, but as the clock ticks down, I think you’ll find that we are quite serious about this. We’re se rious because you need the nudge.” “Find someone who you can love, Rex,” my mother said. “You need that in your life, the same way your father did all those years ago.” I’d hoped this evening would one - up my parents. I’d hoped that quirky, awkward Evie would make them change their minds about the marriage requirement. Instead, they were doubling down on this nonsense. I spent some time thinking about how to approach this. I could dump my fake girlfriend and take Anya to the gala, which would give me time to distract them and regroup while I figured out a way out of this. I barely finished that thought. Anya would solve nothing for me. I did not need love and marriage in the way my parents insisted I did. This was my life, not theirs. With each passing day, I was becoming less sure that I’d ever see my inheritance. Maybe I was fine with that if the alternative was forfeiting any say I had in my own life. But I couldn’t just walk away from my inheritance. More than a pile of money, the inheritance symbolized my place in my family and my relationship with all of them. I couldn’t turn my back on any of that. So I had to play this inheritance game. And if they were doubling down, so would I. I would not dump my fake girlfriend. I would fall even harder into fake love with her until they believed it. And she was going to that gala with me.