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Chapter Four
~ Alejandro ~
After carefully reading over the prenuptial agreement, I signed on the bottom line. It was a standard agreement, giving us each retention of what we came into the marriage with. Anything after that was between us.
The lawyer had his assistant make a copy and then gave it to me, which was good. I refused to sign anything with my name and not have copy of it. That was just asking for trouble.
I was handed another file after that. "This is the dossier on your intended along with the itinerary for the ceremony on the third of next month. If you have any other questions, I am sure your grandfather can answer them for you."
Yeah, no. I didn't want to speak to my grandfather any more than I had to. If I had my way, I would never speak to him again.
And I would not be continuing with this guy once I officially took over. He was obviously handpicked by my grandfather. I didn't want to work with someone like that. He was probably so far up my grandfather's ass he could hear him swallow.
I would be getting a new lawyer.
"Is there anything else?" I asked. "What about the papers giving me Brooklyn?"
"Martinez will be attending the ceremony to confirm that you go through with it. Once that is done, he will give you the papers your grandfather signed designating that you are the head of the family in Brooklyn. Fail to go through with the marriage or adhere to the terms your grandfather gave you, and Brooklyn will be returned to him along with you."
I knew this already. I just wanted the papers giving me Brooklyn, the ones with my grandfather's legal signature on them. I wouldn't put it past him to try and snatch my new position away from me before the ink was dry on the marriage certificate.
"Just as long as my grandfather remembers that even if we do go through with the ceremony, it's not legal until my signature is on the marriage certificate. As soon as I have those papers in hand, I will sign."
The older man's eyes narrowed, and he stared at me for the longest moment before nodding once. "I will inform your grandfather."
"Yeah, you do that."
I kept a tight hold of the folder the lawyer had given me as I turned and walked out of his office. I was desperate to find more information on my future husband, but I wasn't going to do it under his glaring eyes.
Judgmental bastard.
He was just like my grandfather, which made sense. They were both assholes that couldn't move into the current century because they were so stuck in their rigid ideals of what made a man a man.
My grandfather, father, and half-brother all thought that bedding a woman made you a man, and since I preferred bedding men, I wasn't a man.
They didn't seem to understand that my sexual preferences had nothing to do with my ability to put a bullet in someone's head.
The only reason I put up with my grandfather's disrespect was because leaving wasn't an option. I had been born into this family. Only death could take me out of it.
Some days, I wondered if that was such a bad choice.
The only reason I had to put up with Dante's bullying was because he was my grandfather's golden boy, and I didn't want to deal with the fallout if I put him in his place. I was smarter than him, stronger than him, and more even tempered than him, and I always would be.
My father wasn't someone I associated with on a regular basis. I had met the man maybe five times in my entire life, and had spoken to him maybe three times. We weren't close. He was a product of my grandfather's beliefs, just like Dante was.
I hated all of them to the depths of my soul.
Hugo was waiting for me in the reception area. He lifted an eyebrow, no doubt in reference to the scowl on my face, and then followed me as I walked out of the office and headed down the wide hallway to the elevators.
"Well?" he asked as soon as we stepped inside and the doors closed. "How did it go?"
"About as well as expected," I replied. "He'll hand me the papers to Brooklyn as soon as I am married. I did tell him I wouldn't sign the marriage certificate until I had them in hand though."
I flipped open the file the lawyer had given me and started reading through it. There was a lot of information on the Matisse family, but very little on my fiancé. Everything I read in the file I already knew.
Delancy Matisse was a young man, at least ten years younger than me, and it showed in the innocence in his face. After hearing about all of his antics, I hadn't expected that. His reputation said he should be shaded, and yet I didn't see that when I looked at him.
The pale sea foam green eyes stood out for me. As pale as they were, they twinkled as if Delancy had a secret that only he knew and he was amused that the rest of the world didn't.
