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“He came to me last summer with a request.”
I scan the puzzled faces of my brother and Lana.
“Request?” Lana repeats.
“He asked me to marry him.”
“We know that.”
Shaking my head, I say, “You don’t understand. He asked me to marry him as an arrangement. Our marriage was fake.”
My brother’s hand clenches into a tight fist, his knuckles turning white. Zane raises his voice another octave, asking, “What the fuck do you mean a fake marriage?”
“It was a contract.”
Lana gasps and slaps her hand over her mouth. My chest constricts, making it hard to breathe.
“I still don’t understand,” Zane responds lowly.
“Foster paid me to marry him.”
Zane jumps to his feet. “I’ll fucking kill him! I’ll tear him apart!” He stalks to the door, but Lana jumps in front of him before he gets there.
“Are you crazy?! You can’t just go over there and start a fight with him.”
“I don’t want to start a fight with him, I want to kill him,” Zane spits through clenched teeth.
“I took it because I needed the money,” I try to reason.
Lana pushes Zane’s chest to force him to turn back to the living room. “Why did you need the money? You could’ve asked either one of us for help!” Zane nearly shouts as he drops back down onto the couch.
“You’ve already bailed me out a few times, so I couldn’t ask again.”
My brother runs his hands through his hair. “I don’t believe this. You prostituted yourself out to that piece of shit?”
“ZANE!” Lana yells, “Don’t say that!”
I avert my eyes to my lap, waiting for him to scold me for my poor choice. Instead, he places his hand on my shoulder, and even though I don’t want to be touched, I let it sit.
“What made you think we wouldn’t help? How deep were you in debt? How much and what did you do for that money?” Zane asks, barely restraining his anger.
“Foster paid off all my outstanding bills, credit cards, and school bills. He gave me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars besides. The deal was for eighteen months of marriage in return, but I couldn’t do it. I fell in love with him.”
Zane’s hand drops from my shoulder, and he scoffs while Lana gasps.
“You fell in love with that asshole?” Zane asks. “How did he feel about you?”
“We loved each other, but it all fell apart.” I glance at Lana, and she nods. She knows what I am talking about. “The deal was I would get half a million dollars and my choice of an apartment which Foster would buy at the end of the contract.”
“I understand, to a degree, why you would enter into such a deal, but why him?”
“His father lent him money, and the deal was that he needed to be married by his thirty-fourth birthday or the loan with interest would be due. Foster didn’t want to sell off businesses to pay what he owed.”
My brother snorts. “Of course, he didn’t, greedy fuck.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I argue. “He was worried about the people who worked for him. He didn’t want them to be let go. Foster might be an asshole on the outside, but he cares about people.”
“Then why did your marriage fail?”
