AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Cole points his fork at me. “You’re going to be in so much trouble.”
Rex's eyes are on the kitchen. To keep from talking about Pearl’s family, I ask him, "Do you want me to get the waiter?"
He shakes his head slowly. "I can't eat anything here. It's full of gluten and trans fats and god knows what else. If it takes good, I probably can't have any."
"I feel bad for you," Cole says. "This corn pudding is the best thing I've ever eaten." He pauses. "With the exception of Savannah."
I smile, but my mind is still on the meeting with Coastal Construction.
“Hey, that’s my line!” Rex complains. "I guess I should let you have it in this case, though."
"I know," Cole says dryly. "I could see it in your eyes."
"Can we focus please?" I ask, gritting my teeth.
"On which part?" Cole smiles ruefully. "The fact that you're selling Pearl's land out from under her?"
Rex scratches his chin. "Yeah, River. Is that true? Dad is going to fucking kill you. You know that, don’t you?"
“Dad won’t have the chance because Miss Delta will get to River long before Dad does. Miss Delta and Pearl are going to take this shit out of your hide,” Cole says.
Rex spreads his hands on the table. "Wait, so how much of this does Pearl know?"
My neck is on fire as I answer my brother. "Almost none of it."
Cole slaps the table. Rex gives me a sorry shake of his head. For a long second, neither of them speak.
"And how much of your engagement is just for show? Does your fiancée realize that she's just a pawn?" Rex asks eventually.
I grit my teeth. “None of it is fake!”
My protests sound feeble even to my ears.
"Pearl is perfectly innocent in this whole scheme. And she’s not a pawn, either. Just a bystander. But my relationship with her is very real."
Cole crosses his arms and slides a disbelieving look to Rex. "Are you buying this?"
"Hell no. I thought that it was suspicious when you announced that you'd been dating in secret for two years." He sucks his teeth. "Dad really is going to kill you."
"No, Dad's going to disinherit him." Cole squints at me. "That might mean we get a cut of your money instead of you, River. But you've made contingencies for that, I bet. You expect to get paid a lot of money when we secure investors."
Rex nods, slowly stringing it together. "How much? Fifty million?"
I lick my teeth, looking back and forth between them. "Something like that."
"That's a huge gamble, River. You could end up with nothing," Cole says.
"I think the odds are that my risk pays off." I screw up my face. "If Bishop doesn't rat me out to Delta Jackson."
Our table is quiet for a second. We're all doing the math of the likelihood that Bishop takes his NDA seriously. It's not favorable to me because if he violates it, I would have to get lawyers involved. And lawyers are expensive.
"I don't love it," Cole finally announces.
"You don't love most things," Rex says.
“Look.” I smooth my hands out on the table. “Pearl will probably not be thrilled. But I swear, I’m doing her family a huge service by hooking them in with this deal. As it stands, Delta Jackson has not paid property taxes for years. The IRS is going to take their property and auction it off to the highest bidder. Some out of town player who won’t care about how long the land has been in Pearl’s family. They’ll pay pennies on the dollar for every acre. And they won’t hire locals to do the construction, either! They’ll bring in a cheap crew to do cheap labor. As far as I can see, I’m doing Pearl, Delta, and the entire community a big favor.”
Cole and Rex look at each other for a second. Then Rex sighs.
