He was going to get rid of Slicker Image to make room for his monstrosity of a mall!
“You're aware what I'm saying, I think.”
“Hell yeah I am. There's no way you're going to shut my business down,” I growled. “Go set your building up on the west side of town.”
He flipped through the papers like a deck of cards. I knew that look on his face. Shrewd asshole was plotting something, as he always was.
“Keep in mind that it's not really 'your' business yet, now is it?” He smiled grimly. “I gave you this store to run, but not for free. You had five years to prove yourself to me, to prove that you'd grow up and be a man, if you wanted to keep it.”
“I have been a man. I've kept this place running and in the black every year, haven't I? You've seen the financial reports.”
He shook his head. “Being a man's not just about succeeding at business. You're still the same immature boy you were half a decade ago.”
Sarah hid herself behind a shelf of power cables while I silently fumed. She fiddled with a package, trying to pretend that she wasn't listening to us argue.
How dare dad humiliate me in front of her?
“All right, you've made your point. Tell me what you want from me and get out of my store.”
He took another paper out of the stack. I recognized it with a glance. It was the contract he'd drawn up and had me sign in order to give me temporary control of Slicker Image.
There was my signature at the bottom, all sloppy because I'd signed the damn thing while still drunk from the night before.
“Funny how you seem to have completely forgotten the terms that you, yourself, agreed to.”
“What terms would those be?”
Every line of the contract was a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo that I hadn't bothered to read. Back then, I was more interested in nursing my hangover than deciphering what may well have been a foreign language.
Dad pointed to one paragraph in particular. As I read along with him, a kind of cold fear gripped my heart like none I'd felt before.
What was this? No. No, it couldn't be real.
“In order to maintain ownership of Slicker Image, Asher Carrington agrees to marry by the first of January, 2020.”
Sarah's jaw fell. Dad smiled in his oh-so-smug way. Me? I probably looked like I was about to puke, because that's definitely how I felt.
“Given that January is barely one month away, you can see why I might be concerned,” dad said.
“But... But this is horseshit!” I snatched the paper from him and scanned every line again. “I don't remember seeing this when I signed it five years ago.”
“Let this be a lesson to you: always read everything before you sign.”
If Sarah hadn't been watching me, I would have flipped out. She was the only thing that could put a lid on my temper right now.
“I refuse to believe this is legit. You added this statement to the contract after I signed it, didn't you? Because you knew I was never going to get married otherwise.”
“Don't insult me, son. I'd never do anything that devious.” He slapped me on the back. “This stipulation was there all along.”
“If that's true, why didn't you say anything to me about it in all this time? You seriously decided to wait nearly the whole five years before coming to me about it?”
“You know me; I'm not the type to nag. But, since the deadline was fast approaching, I figured I'd drop in and see how you were coming along.” His brow furrowed. “I must say I'm kind of worried for you, Asher. I don't see any potential brides in sight – unless you plan on marrying somebody from your endless array of one-night stands.”
Rage boiled inside me, the kind of anger I hadn't experienced in a long time. Once upon a time, if someone pissed me off enough, I'd not hesitate to take a swing at 'em.
I'd never tried to fight my old man, but I supposed there was a first time for everything.
A paper fell from the stack in his hands. As it drifted to the floor, an image caught my eye. The photo of the Galleria Mall.
And suddenly, I figured it out.
“So that's why you kept quiet for five years.” I snatched up the sheet and thrust it in his face. “The mall. You'd planned to put it on this patch of land all along.”
“Don't be ridiculous, son,” he said, pushing me away. “What I truly wanted was for you to settle down and have a family. To make the Carringtons proud.”
“But you knew I never would. No matter how well I ran the business, none of it mattered to you unless I got married. I was screwed from the very beginning.”
Shoppers were starting to watch our argument. There was a quick flash of light; some jackass had taken a picture of us with his phone.
“Mr. Carrington!” Bobby, one of my workers in customer service, ran to me. “There's a line of folks at the front complaining about all sorts of things. They're demanding to speak with the manager.”
“I'll be right over, Bobby.”
Dad seemed to have lost interest in our discussion. He stared at his phone instead of me.
“I suppose I'll leave you to it, then,” he said. “I look forward to meeting your fiancee, whoever she may turn out to be.”
“I'm not gonna marry some woman in a month, and you know it.”
“A shame. Too bad for you that this contract is legally binding.” He smiled at Sarah as he made for the exit. “It was nice
