"I believe the Michel family legacy has a lot to do with the history of California and should be shared. It might not impress the ghost of my workaholic father, but I think my grandfather and great-grandfather would be pleased." I folded my hands together to hide the nervous flexing of my fingers.
It was hard to hear myself say the words out loud, especially knowing that Lyla would tear into my dream as soon as she drew her next breath. Every time I thought about it, the idea of opening Golden Bluff as a museum delighted me. It would be my life’s work to focus on the rich history surrounding the coastal cities. It was exactly what I wanted to do with my family legacy, and it was about time that I got started.
"Their names should be remembered as the springboard for bigger and better things," Lyla argued.
I struggled to keep my voice even. "My father focused on new ventures while my mother concentrated on charity work. They supported each other and worked side by side. I don't understand why that couldn't work now."
Lyla's pale blue eyes widened. "You can't seriously be thinking of Riley Cullen. She's studying to be a farmer, for god's sake. You have absolutely no taste in women, Landon, and it's time someone pointed out that you and she are absolutely wrong for each other."
I was on my feet before I knew it. "This conversation is over. I won’t tolerate any more of your poisonous opinions about Riley. Not only does she know the value of hard work better than you, she throws herself into it body and soul. She wants to give back to the place she works for, support it with her own two hands. She's amazing."
I turned toward the door without seeing where I was going. My words echoed in my own ears and I prayed that Lyla hadn’t caught the underlying tone that had my knees turning to rubber. I made it as far as Lyla's small conference table and gripped the back of a chair.
I thought Riley was amazing. The word “amazing” was hardly big enough for her. The thought of Riley arched over my days, as all-encompassing as the blue sky. It was her face all soft with sleep that I wanted to see in the morning, her smile before me all day, and her sparkling eyes beside me in the dark.
Lyla joined me at the conference table and gestured with a slashing hand for me to sit down. I sat with a thud because thoughts of Riley were like an earthquake inside me.
"What's amazing to me is that in all your reading of my reports, there are a few key details you’ve overlooked." She spread out a mountain of paperwork in front of me.
"My trust fund and inheritance? What are you into now?"
She crossed her arms and looked down at me. "Take a look for yourself."
I picked up the first sheet and scanned the details. I knew my inheritance would be doled out to me when I hit a certain age. Because I knew it was there, I hadn’t thought much about it. I already had enough money for a lifetime with my salary from the Michel Fund. There shouldn’t have been anything to review.
Then my skin went cold and an icy realization crept over my flesh. "What does this say about the age of thirty-five?"
Lyla shrugged and tapped her foot, waiting for me to find the answer myself. I shuffled some papers around and found the piece I had skipped over.
"There are contingencies on my inheritance and my trust fund." I shrugged off the sinking ship feeling. "Some latent parental show of control. There's no reason the Board of Trustees can't vote to ignore it."
"Did you even read what it says, Landon?" She marched around the conference table to face me.
I tossed the paper back on the table. "It says that I have to be married before thirty-five years of age or I lose everything. Do you really think that's going to happen?"
Lyla raised her gaze to the ceiling and then back down to me. "The Board of Trustees have been discussing it in length, and you're right, they could waive the contingencies if that’s what they decide is best."
I sat up. "And what does the all-knowing board think is best?"
She stepped back from the table, a small furrow between her perfect eyebrows. "I've advised them to uphold the original contingencies."
"You what? You want me to lose everything." But why should I be surprised? She’d been undermining me and making my life hell for years. I sifted through the paperwork and studied the fine print. "If I fail to get married before thirty-five, before this year is out, then I forfeit my trust fund, only get ten percent of my inheritance, while the board gets forty percent and you get exactly half."
Lyla nodded. There was no smug smile, no twiddling of her thumbs. Nothing about her looked villainous…and yet she’d become just that —a villain.
I stood up and turned my back on her. I was part way to the door when I spun around and pointed to the photograph of us as children. "I carried half of your stuff for you because your father said you couldn't go if you couldn't carry what you needed. I looked out for you and made sure you had what you needed even as your father sunk every penny into get-rich schemes."
There were tears, pale, cold tears that I saw in Lyla's eyes, but she was the one who had betrayed me. She’d advised the board to cut me off, cut me out completely, and leave her in charge. I would have nothing and she would have everything she'd always wanted.
"Landon, I—"
I marched around the table and leaned into snarl in her face. "It was you, wasn't it? Now I know where all my bad luck came from. It wasn't me the women ran from, it was you. How many did you bribe just like you tried to bribe Riley? It was the easiest way to sabotage my relationships and make sure I didn't find a suitable match before turning thirty-five. Spend a little money to make millions, huh, cousin?"
"No, Landon, I swear, that was never my thought. I was trying to help you. Everything just got away from me." Lyla stumbled back into a conference table chair and shrank into it. "I had good intentions, but I knew you'd see it like this, and it wasn't what I intended."
"Good intentions? Didn't your father always go on and on about his good intentions while he ruined your family trying to outdo mine?" I shook my head as I looked down at her. "You've let your family's greed and jealousy drive you. What happened to us? We promised each other we wouldn’t be like that; we were never going to be like our parents."
Lyla burst into tears and I felt a wobbling weight in my chest, but it wasn't for her. How was I going to explain this to Riley? Our relationship had a looming deadline that could level everything we had built up.
"I'm sorry it turned out this way, Lyla, but you've gone too far. Way, way too far. You're fired." I turned for the door.
Lyla grabbed my wrist, her shoulders quaking with silent sobs. "I wish you could, Landon, but you can't. The board alone has the power to fire me and they've…they've chosen me."
"Is that what you want? Is that what you really want? Because I don't think it is."
I dropped her hand and walked away. It was impossible to say which was worse —the fact that Lyla was actively trying to steal my inheritance, or that she had done it accidentally and was now ensnared in something she didn't really want.
I burst through the doors louder than a thunderclap and almost ran over a startled employee in the hallway. A red haze was closing around my sight, but I blinked it away and apologized.
"I'm sorry to get in your way, Landon. Ms. Townsend asked me to drop in after lunch, but I'm early." Owen stood back to let me pass.
I looked at the open door, heard Lyla's soft sniffles, and wondered how much Owen had overheard.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Riley
"It would all feel like a fairy tale if I wasn't in school and working a part-time job and trying to make a whole new life for myself." I lifted my head off my open textbooks to see if Anna was still listening.
She was drying the same dish she had been two minutes ago with a far-off look on her face. "I guess it really is all about the timing."
"Exactly," I said. Exhaustion still weighed down my shoulders, but it felt good to know my friend understood. "Why couldn't Landon have swept me off my feet when Grandpa was still alive?"
>
Anna frowned. "Because you were still dating Owen then."
"Ugh," I groaned. "Owen and I had been over for almost a year at that point. You know that."
"I know," Anna said. "I'm just saying it wasn't that long ago."
"You're right. You were right then, and you're right now. I moved too slowly in breaking up with Owen. He was a good guy for a while, like he's been lately, but we weren't right for each other."
"Your timing wasn't off with Owen?" Anna asked.
"No. Except for the part where I took forever to break up with him. It's different with Landon. I just keep wishing our timing was better."
"Look, Riley," Anna put down the very dry dish, "speaking of timing, I have no idea when a good time to bring this up would be but—"
A sharp knock made us both jump, and then I leaped from the dining room table. "Landon!"
He opened his arms and I fell against him with a happy sigh. "How funny, we were just talking about timing."
Landon buried his face in my neck and hugged me tight. "I'm so glad you were home."
I felt a storm of emotions rolling off him, so I arched back to study his face. "Is everything okay?"
"It might be. I don't know. Do you want to go for a drive?" He ran a hand through his brown hair.
I took in the agitated look of him. It wasn't hard to guess it had something to do with work or Lyla, and I didn't think either of those anger-inducing conversations were good for a drive. "How about we just stay here? You look like you need to relax."
Landon looked around our tiny apartment and gave it a fond smile. "Yeah, here's good. I've always loved it here."
Anna trotted out of the kitchen and headed for the front door. "I see Owen in the parking lot. I'll go out and, um, distract him while you two relax."
"What's gotten into her?" I wondered. "They've been hanging out a lot lately. Does that seem weird to you?"
"Who? Anna and Owen? No, they seem like they fit together pretty good." Landon rubbed a hand over his stubbled cheek. "Have you talked to Owen today?"
"No, but I think he called Anna." I watched as my friends walked down the path to the beach. Landon and I were alone, and it was time I told him what had been bothering me for weeks now.
"Come sit with me?" Landon asked. He moved to the couch, sat on the edge, and patted the cushion next to him.
"Sure," I said, perching next to him. "There's something I have to tell you."
A tsunami of worry and curiosity washed through his stormy blue eyes. "Fine. You go first, then it's my turn."
I took a deep breath and forced myself to start. "I'm sure you've been wondering how I can afford to go to school, pay rent, and survive with only a small paycheck from a part-time job."
"Money's not an issue," Landon started.
I held up a hand to stop him. "The truth is I'm not a penniless student. My grandfather saved a surprisingly large amount of money over his lifetime, and he put it into a trust fund for me."
Landon's lips curved. "Nothing to be ashamed of."
"I know, but you understand how I want to earn my own way and be able to stand on my own." I laced my fingers together and squeezed tight. "Grandpa was a firm believer in earning your own way."
"He would have been proud to pay for your schooling because you're going to use it to do just that." Landon tried to pry one of my hands loose to hold.
I resisted. "You're right, he would have approved of the way I spent that money, but there's more."
"More money?"
I nodded and swallowed hard. "He wanted my life to be easier than his and much easier than my mom’s. She got pregnant young and was forced to move back home when my father ran out on her. So, to ensure an easier life for me, Grandpa created this trust fund."
Landon's mouth was grim as I opened the folder and pulled out the paperwork. He scanned it quickly then stood up and paced the small apartment like a caged tiger.
"I know it's not a lot, and it has conditions, but I wanted you to know about it. I don't want you to feel like we're such an uneven match. I'm not a charity case, Landon. I want to be your equal." I bit my lip as he froze in mid-stride and rushed back to sit with me.
"There are conditions?" Landon's voice rasped like sandpaper. He shuffled through the thin folder and held up each paper.
I stilled his frantic shuffling and smiled. "Nothing unfair or outlandish," I assured him. "Grandpa wanted to encourage me not to make the same mistakes as Mom. I'm sure she gave him the idea herself before she died. So, the trust fund states that I must finish school, enter a profession of my choosing, and not get married until I’m twenty-eight years old."
"You're twenty-six. I'm thirty-four." Landon leaned back on the sofa with a glassy stare.
"Well, there's nothing in the conditions about age differences," I said with a nervous laugh. "I've been thinking about the timeline all morning, and I've decided I like it. It takes all the pressure off for another two years."
"Pressure," Landon repeated with a bleak expression. "Are you sure you really want to be beholden to some arbitrary conditions on your trust fund? Your grandfather couldn't trust you to make your own decisions?"
"I don't see it that way." I took his cool hand and laced my fingers through his stiff ones. "This is the last thing I can do to honor Mom and Grandpa. They only wanted what’s best for me, and I agree. Once I fulfill the conditions of the trust fund and receive my money, I can give it all to charity. Otherwise, it will be divided up between endless cousins that I haven’t seen in forever."
"Wait, what?" Landon blinked and looked me in the eye. "You want to put your life on hold for two years just so you can give all that money away?"
I nodded, a tightness winding around my chest. "By then I won't need the money because I'll be working on a real vineyard. I'll pay off my student loans and give the rest to charity. That way I continue to honor my family by earning my own way, just like they did."
Landon wriggled free of my hand and stood up.
"Did I say something wrong?" I asked.
"No, no. It's just…I have to use the bathroom. I'm not feeling well." He slipped into the bathroom and shut the door hard behind him.
I knew I had said something to upset him. Maybe he thought I was implying that everyone should earn their own way and he wasn't. No, he knew I respected what he was trying to do, especially with the unwieldy position he had inherited.
Maybe I had scared him with my talk about wanting to be his equal. At least I had been clear that I intended to stick to the conditions of my trust fund and not get married for another two years. That should have made him relax, not tense up.
It was a lot of personal information to unload on Landon. Maybe he wasn't ready. I covered my mouth with both hands and held my breath. Did Landon think I was planning our future two years from now? Did he think I was assuming I could give all my money away because I'd live off his family fortune?
The possible misunderstanding made me dizzy. Lyla would feel completely justified if she had heard me. I sounded no better than the gold-diggers who’d infested Landon's life before.
"I think you misunderstood me, Landon,” I said through the door. “I'm sorry. Can we please keep talking about this?"
Water ran in the bathroom and his voice was muffled. "Just a minute."
"Maybe a little fresh air would make you feel better?" I said. "We could go for a walk on the beach while we talk."
There was a small stretch of silence and then Landon's voice was strained as he said, "Maybe we should head down to the boardwalk and grab a hotdog."
I stared at the bathroom door. "I thought you weren't feeling too good?" I said, but not loud enough for him to hear me. He stayed in the bathroom and his suggestion hit me full force.
Landon didn't like all the noise and distractions of the boardwalk in Santa Cruz. He normally snuggled me close when I suggested it and told me he'd rather have me all to himself.
Something was wrong.
I jumped from
the couch and paced around the small apartment. The water was running again in the bathroom, but I knew he was just stalling. I had ruined everything with a few careless words, and now I wouldn't get a chance to set things right.
In a nervous cloud, I gathered up and stacked all of my textbooks. I sorted my notes and tucked them away. I shuffled away the trust fund paperwork and wished I had never brought it up.
Why did I think he would be relieved when I told him about it? Two years without even the smallest hint of pressure on our relationship had sounded like such a good thing. And I wanted him to know I didn't need his family fortune because I had an inheritance of my own. Sure, it was a tiny drop compared to the ocean he had, but I’d thought it would make him more comfortable.
If only I hadn't blabbed about wanting to give the money to charity. That was a secret wish of mine and I wouldn't have said anything if Landon wasn't, well, Landon. Now he was hiding from me because I had sounded so nonchalant about being together in the future and not needing my own money.
I’d ruined everything. I knocked on the bathroom door. "Please, Landon, I need a chance to explain what I meant."
"Be right there," he said. "Then how about that walk on the beach?"
I couldn't sit still. I wrapped a hooded sweatshirt around my waist in case the ocean breeze was chilly and picked up Landon's coat for him. A box fell out of the pocket and I bent to retrieve it.
The apartment spun up over me in a crazy circle. I dropped to the edge of the couch and waited for my vision to clear. Then I raised a shaking hand and looked at the box again.
It was midnight blue velvet, a small ring box of the highest quality. Every rational thought in my head screamed not to open it and it took all my strength to shove the box back in his pocket.
Landon had come over to propose to me, and I had destroyed all of his hopes. I had thrown the terms of my trust fund between us like immovable obstacles and then assured Landon that I was happy waiting to marry until after I turned twenty-eight.
"Sorry," Landon appeared in the bathroom doorway. "I'm fine. There was just a, um, work emergency and I didn't want to text Lyla in front of you. Bad timing."
Torn_An Alpha Billionaire Romance Page 47
