“There is a stipulation, Mister Larsen. You cannot simply be handed the reigns and rights of the estate despite being the only heir. This was something drawn up since your birth. It is a rite passed down during numerous generations of your family.”
William resisted the urge to slam his fist down on the desk. He normally did a great job keeping a level head but this was over the line. He already had far too much to deal with. His life had completely been flipped upside down and now he was being told he needed to jump through hoops to do something he was not entirely sure he wanted anyway. It felt more like an obligation than anything else.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said, more as a thought spoken out loud than a statement directed at the lawyer.
Mister Jenkins grimaced and pulled out a large file, flipping it open and rifling through some paperwork until he took out one packet among many. “I know it is frustrating, but this is the way it has always been done in your family. Quite frankly, I’m rather shocked you had no idea.”
William turned away in his chair and heaved a sigh. He was already here and committed to this situation, he had to see it through no matter how frustrating it might be. Throwing some kind of tantrum in a fit of annoyance now would do him no good. He shifted himself in his chair stared Mister Jenkins directly in the eye. “What is it I need to do?”
“It’s a rather conventional stipulation, I daresay. Please take a look at the file first,” he replied as he handed William the packet.
William took it and looked it over slowly. As he read through, it began with an explanation as to why this stipulation had been set into place many generations ago and why each generation following the first had decided to keep it. He also learned he was the first heir that had made it necessary to invoke this stipulation, given the situation of his parents and sibling passing away in and given the choices he had made in life.
He swallowed hard at that, wondering if his parents had secretly thought he had made poor choices. He suddenly had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, a certainty that his parents had lived with a constant disappointment in their eldest son.
It was not until he reached the bottom of the second page that he learned exactly what those choices had brought him to.
“Am I understanding this correctly?” He set the packet down on the table and looked back up at the lawyer. He was certain he had not misunderstood but he needed to be reassured of it. “Is this stipulation really what I am understanding it to be?”
“It is likely you have fully understood the documents but I will explain. In order to fully gain control of the family’s estate, including home property and the business, you need to be wed and have an heir. It does not matter whether the heir be male or female, only that you should have an heir apparent.”
William gulped. He closed his fist tightly and pushed himself up, beginning to pace the room. Those were the choices. Maybe his parents were not disappointed after all, at least not entirely. It was just that his decision to focus solely on developing his career meant he had never given time or importance to relationships.
He never really thought about marriage and children. He was not against the idea, it was just that he had different visions and plans for his life. But everything had changed without his say as of late and this was just another change to add to the list. Now everything he had read about the reasons behind all this made much more sense to him. It was a way for the family to protect what was rightfully theirs. It was a type of insurance so everything would remain within the family.
There was really no loophole to this. Every one before him in previous generations had been married with kids at the time of their parents’ passing. That was why nobody had needed to go through this trouble. He was the only one who had focused solely on such an intense career outside the family. He was the only one who had neglected relationships entirely for that reason. Now, he had to find a wife and have a kid with her as soon as possible. That was not easy. That was not a simple task. “Is there a statute of limitations when I need to do this by?”
“You have six months,” Mister Jenkins replied seriously. It was almost as if he was thinking the same thing as William: that sounded like far too little time to accomplish this.
---
Two months had passed now, and William felt as stuck as ever. He had not even gone out to meet women or asked about potential spouses from elite families who had been friends with his for years. He had spent a lot of time in the house he had not wanted to stay in. He paced the halls daily trying to think of the best course of action. This was not a decision to take lightly.
“William should have no problem attracting women,” he had often heard his mother say. He had never understood why she would tell her friends that during afternoon tea. It was not until now that he needed to know. One morning, he paced the hall back and forth in front of his parents’ old bedroom. He finally gathered the courage to step inside. He swallowed back the pang he felt at being in there and knowing he would never see or speak to them again, making a beeline for his mother’s walk-in closet.
It was a lavish space, this closet. It was easily the size of a bedroom. It was fully stocked on its numerous shelves, wardrobes, and drawers. There was even an area for her to apply her makeup. Everything was very expensive and beautiful, from the furnishings to the objects lining the walls. It was near her beauty center that he spotted multiple photographs of her on the wall.
He smiled. It was as if she needed a reminder of how pretty she was. He sat on the bench and looked straight into the mirror, willing himself to see whatever it was she saw in him. And, like a miracle, it worked. His memory was flooded with numerous compliments he had brushed off over the years.
William was a very attractive man in more ways than one. He was very tall, muscular, with a golden-tanned skin that would rival even a movie star’s tone and smoothness. He had beautiful hazel eyes and light brown hair. Many women had constantly told him how handsome he was, a few even being bold enough to tell him he had a great body. He had slept with women, of course, and dated a couple. But everything always drifted apart due to his lack of interest. They also found him charming and driven. He was the kind of man who took control and the women who pursued him where the kind of women who liked that.
He would never push anybody into an uncomfortable or dangerous situation but he never backed down. He held his ground if he felt threatened and he always went after what he wanted. He was extremely committed and a natural born leader with the gift of easily conversing with others. People never failed to take him seriously.
It was there, in front of his mother’s mirror surrounded with beautiful photographs of hers, that he realized he might have thrown away many great opportunities. He had been too fixated on one thing and, as a result, had lost out on another. And now his time had run out. Now he needed to find a wife quickly and it was more important to trust her with the family’s estate than to love her. It was more important to make sure he married the right woman for the family rather than the right woman for him.
If what his mother said in the past was true and the numerous women who showed interest in him held as a testament, William thought he should not have a problem finding a woman to marry. What worried him was whether or not he would make the best choice given the situation.
As he sat down to think about everything at stake and what marrying someone and having a child with her truly meant, it finally dawned on him the best way to approach this was as a business deal. And wasn’t the point of a business deal so both parties would benefit? And wasn’t it customary for the larger and more powerful company to benefit more, whether it was obvious or not?
He thought of an idea that seemed fitting although ludicrous. It was something he absolutely had to run by Mister Jenkins before coming to a final decision. So he picked up his phone and quickly dialed the number. As soon as Mister Jenkins answered William said, “I have an important matter to discuss regarding the stipulation. What is the soone
st time you can make a house call?”
Less than two hours later, Mister Jenkins was escorted into the entrance hall. He had just set foot inside when William came bustling out of the office, having been hardly able to contain himself while he waited. “Mister Jenkins, thank you for making time for me despite your busy schedule and sudden notice.”
Mister Jenkins smiled and raised a hand as he replied, “It is not at all a problem to accommodate the heir to the Larsen estate. Your family is very valued by me. What is it you needed to discuss?”
William motioned for Mister Jenkins to follow him into the study, which resembled more of a large office. Given his father was of very high status and the family wealth had been passed on through the generations, it was important to have an ample and inviting workspace even at home. William remembered the doors closed when he was still a kid and his father held emergency meetings in his study. Looking back now, those types of meetings seemed to happen quite often. That made William worry what kind of emergencies occurred so frequently or if his father was actually hiding something.
He snapped out of his thoughts and motioned for Mister Jenkins to sit as he took his seat behind the desk. It felt odd to sit at the place he had so many times seen his father sitting, going through paperwork and consulting with those who worked for him. He recalled often seeing his father work late into the night and thinking he never wanted that kind of life, no matter what kind of fortune it brought him.
“What’s the point of amassing such a fortune if I’ll never be able to enjoy it?” This was the question he had secretly asked his younger sister when they were both adults and he had just received a promotion in the US Marine Corps. Though his parents had given him a tight-lipped “congratulations,” it was really only his sister who had appropriately celebrated the event with him. He knew his parents were proud of him for joining the service but were not all too thrilled to learn he wanted to make a career out of it and focus solely on that as a career. His sister, however, was thrilled every time she learned things were going extremely well for him.
He had never fit in anywhere in his entire life so well, or so quickly, as he fit into the US Marine Corps. It was as if he had not been given the chance to truly show off who he was and how skilled he truly was until he joined them. It was there that he finally shined. He had finally found his perfect fit. He cleared his throat and shook away all his thoughts and memories. No matter what, he was here now at his family’s estate and fighting to keep it under the Larsen name. If nothing else, he did feel he at least owed that to his parents, sister, and the generations before him who had built everything up.
He was never ungrateful for the life he had been so generously given, he only disliked the idea of everything being planned for him without any consideration to what mattered to him. Luckily, his parents had never forced him to follow a path he did not care for even if they were not enthusiastically supportive of what he chose.
It was not until they were older that he and his younger sister grew closer. It was as if the diverging paths of their lives somehow ended up pulling them closer together, especially where their parents were concerned. Marsha had been well on the path his parents would have liked for him. She had gone to a top university and graduated with highest honors, receiving numerous acceptance letters from top universities for her graduate studies. She graduated in the top five per cent of her graduate class as well and immediately began work in the family business. Their father knew she had many innovative ideas but he always told her they could come to fruition in good time. This meant he wanted her to work in the business for a few years first before she began changing anything. William understood the philosophy behind it at the time but now he only felt deep sorrow knowing Marsha would never be able to see her plans come alive.
“Maybe I can help make those plans happen,” he muttered under his breath.
“Excuse me?” The voice of Mister Jenkins asking the question with deep confusion was enough to pull William out of his thoughts.
“My apologies. I’ll get straight to it. I was thinking about the best course of action for the stipulation and I thought of something that will seem quite odd but I think would prove to be quite effective.”
“What would that be?” There was no denying Mister Jenkins sounded at least a little apprehensive. William had started the conversation off with a warning, after all. He had also pulled the lawyer out of his daily schedule for something that sounded urgent. William now knew he had gone about this conversation poorly but it did not matter now. The only thing that mattered was reaching a solution and making a plan with the lawyer. That was the top priority at this moment. William swallowed, knowing it was likely to be his top priority for the rest of his life.
“If we approach this as a business deal, we can find a spouse who gets something out of the marriage but still benefits us the most. We just need to make sure appropriate measures are taken so she cannot mar the family name or seize the estate.”
Mister Jenkins nodded as he processed what William had said. After confirming this was actually a good train of thought, he asked if William actually had any idea who that spouse could be. This was what would be tough to say out loud so seriously despite it sounding rather ridiculous.
“I thought a mail order bride would be a good candidate,” he said quietly.
Mister Jenkins simply gaped at him. It was very obvious he was completely at a loss for words. William could not blame him. The moment he said the words out loud, in such a serious manner and setting, it seemed all the more ridiculous for him to have even thought of it. After a few minutes of silence, Mister Jenkins cleared his throat. “Actually,” he said slowly, “that might function quite well. Much better than one could anticipate without further investigation.”
William opened his eyes wide. He was taken aback by what the lawyer had just said. Had he just made a good case for it? But there was no way he could so easily persuade a lawyer. So he reasoned it was perhaps a plausible idea after all. “If looked at from a business aspect,” Mister Jenkins went on to say, “it does make sense. You make a contract with the mail order bride. The contract states the benefit she gets is transportation and citizenship here. She will be taken care of. In return, she is to remain married to you for a minimum of ten years and bear a child. She cannot claim any portion of the estate, we need to make sure of that.”
William continued to stare at the lawyer, a man who always appeared to be such a feeble man but was far from it. Every time Mister Jenkins said or did something like this, William could not help but be somewhat in awe of him. “Let’s work out the details then,” William replied, much to his own disbelief.
Three weeks later, everything had been taken care of. Mister Jenkins had drawn up an ironclad contract and gone over every last detail with William. He had researched and found the top mail order bride company available and made contact with them. He had set up a meeting for William to go to the headquarters and discuss his needs and wants.
Everything had been done and all that was left was for the woman to arrive so they could go to City Hall and be legally wed. It was a Tuesday evening when she finally arrived at the airport. She was picked up by William’s personal driver and taken to the city’s most luxurious hotel for the night. Mister Jenkins and William had decided it would be best for them to meet on the day of the actual wedding. After pulling some strings, Mister Jenkins fit the two of them in that Wednesday morning. They were the first couple who would be wed at City Hall that day.
It was not until the drive over, with Mister Jenkins by his side, that William finally learned his future wife’s name. “Her name is Natasha,” Mister Jenkins told him as they drove past numerous office buildings. They were nearing the destination and, for the first time, William felt slightly nervous. He knew what she looked like in pictures but that was never the same as seeing someone in person. He also had no idea what she was like as a person given someone could not truly be summed up on a piece of paper. No matter how man
y in-depth questions were given and candid moments recorded, it was nothing like getting to know the actual person.
He swallowed so hard it hurt a bit as they pulled up to City Hall and he saw her car parked out front already. He wondered if she was still waiting in it or if the driver had already escorted her inside. William stepped out of his own car and stretched, running his hands over the jacket to make sure it was not wrinkled.
As he walked down the hall, his breathing grew more and more rapid. He had no idea why he was having such a strong reaction to this. He needed to continue thinking of it as a business deal. That was all there was to it.
But as soon as the door opened and he saw Natasha standing there in a simple white dress he felt something unfamiliar drop down the pit of his stomach. Right at that moment, he had a fleeting feeling it would be much harder to continue thinking of this as a mere business transaction and nothing else.
She turned completely to face him and smiled widely. Mister Jenkins led William over to her and introduced them. “It’s lovely to finally meet you,” Natasha said.
She had a soft accent and raspy voice that sounded incredibly sexy to William. She had deep red hair and eyes the color of honey. Her very fair skin looked unimaginably soft to the touch and he found himself longing to feel it under the palm of his hands. The judge cleared his throat to get everybody’s attention and the very quick ceremony began. Less than an hour later, William and Natasha were married and walking down the steps of City Hall.
It was not until halfway through the car ride back to the Larsen estate that they finally spoke. “You’re beautiful,” he told her as he inched closer to her on the car seat.
Taken By The Forbidden Highlander (Scottish Highlander Romance) Page 11
