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“At the end of that time, if you decide you don’t want to go through with getting engaged to Osian, I’ll take the financial hit and call it off.”
“How much…will it be a lot?”
“It’s a lot,” he said. “I’m not sugarcoating with you. But I would lose a great deal of money to ensure you have a happy future.”
“If I choose to break it off with him? What happens then?”
His jaw worked and there was a long silence. Then he rose and circled the desk and knelt before me. Taking my hands in his, looking up into my eyes with such naked trust it made my stomach twist.
“Then, we’ll talk,” he said.
“Talk?” I breathed. “That’s it? Talk?”
His jaw tightened. “Clara, I am old enough to be your father.”
I glared at him, my lashes wet.
“So you love me so much you have to let me go? Is that it?”
“No,” he said swiftly. “I love you enough not to set you up for heartbreak. We will never be at the same place in our lives, I’ll always be twenty-one years ahead. That’s clearer to me than it is to you now.”
A sob rose in my throat and I caught my breath, trying to swallow it back down. His throat bobbed and I swore his eyes glittered with tears, but then he blinked and they were gone.
“That’s so fucking morbid,” I sniffed.
“It’s realistic.”
I wiped my face angrily. “Can you give me a ballpark figure that the organization would be losing if I broke it off with Osian?”
His lips thinned.
“Merrick, I’m not a child.”
He sighed, a short, harsh sound. “Not as much as my net worth, but definitely a lot of it.”
“So…what is your net worth?” I said.
He was quiet.
“I’ll just look it up online if you don’t tell me,” I warned. “Clearly you have a lot because you bought me a car like it was nothing.”
“Multimillions.” He cleared his throat. “Maybe more like billions.”
My ears rung. My heart skipped a beat.
“Wait…you’re a billionaire?”
He nodded.
“How did I not know that until now?”
“Net worth is different than what you actually have in your bank account,” he said. “No billionaire actually has billions in an account somewhere. Mine is tied up in businesses, real estate, some less savory operations, and investments.”
My mouth felt dry, my tongue stuck to the roof of it.
“Okay, so the Cardiffs must have billions too?”
He nodded once. “They have one of the most successful hotel chains in the world.”
