Entangled (Vice Games) by Alice Cooper Page B

me.
    ‘Perhaps not.’ He released my hand and I was allowed to escape to the other side of the room.
    ‘Are you mad?’ I hissed at him. He saw my fear and seemed to be amused by my reaction. Many things flashed through my mind – Lauren, the dream, my lunch with him yesterday, my unyielding attraction towards him – it was maddeningly unfair.
    ‘No,’ he said simply.
    ‘You were engaged to someone else two days ago,’ I started. ‘Don’t you love her at all?’
    ‘Love?’ Tristan snorted. ‘Do you really believe that I loved that woman?’
    ‘She was in your bed.’
    ‘Yes. But that was out of necessity.’
    I blinked. ‘Necessity?’
    ‘I’m sure you’ve been listening and observed how close Karen and Lauren seemed to be. I only agreed to marry her for Anna’s sake. It was the only way to get her out of the Main House at the time, since you rejected my initial employment offer. Lauren is Karen’s niece. Due to the prenuptials my father had to sign in order to marry my mother, Karen won’t be able to touch Baxter Enterprise.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
    ‘My grandfather was a smart man and suspected my father’s intentions when he pursued my mother. Baxter Enterprise is a multibillion company and my mother is an only child, which makes her heiress. With that much amount of money, my grandfather felt the need to protect his family assets. He drew up the prenuptials and it excludes my father from everything that my mother gets. Only her children will have authority and the ability to inherit, that being myself and Anna. When my mother passed away, he was quick to remarry and Karen came into the scene. She was not aware of the arrangement and was under the impression that she would get a share in my mother’s fortune. However, when it became clear that could not touch anything, her tactics changed and at first she targeted me.’
    ‘But it didn’t work and so she went for Anna?’
    ‘Yes. She knew Anna is my weakness and used her against me in every way possible. I tried to get her out of the Main House several times but Karen would always arrange to have her back. There was a time, five years ago, when I attempted a legal injunction against them but it failed when I got into an accident.’
    There was a sinister tone in the way he talked. It was clear that Karen must have had a hand in the events that occurred. Although Tristan did not reveal the details of his accident, I understood that it forced him to change his tactics that eventually lead to accept Lauren into his life. As my brain began to process all this information, I began to realize that I had just become entangled in a family battle for control with the fight for Anna being in the center of things.
    ‘And your father lets her do this? Why?’
    Tristan’s lips twisted in a skeptical grin and he lowered his eyes. It was clear that he didn’t like talking about his father and the relationship between them is not as it should be.
    ‘He only loved my mother’ s money,’ Tristan said bitterly.
    ‘Oh,’ I found myself saying and could not think of anything else that would be appropriate for the moment. ‘I’m sorry about that.’
    ‘Don’t pity me, Phoebe,’ he said to me, his tone was low and silky. There was something alluring in the way he spoke to me. It also made me aware that I was alone with him in the room. That made my heart race a little faster and I had to pinch myself to keep my head under control.
    ‘So what’s going to happen next?’ I asked.
    ‘Marry me,’ he said.
    ‘Just like that?’
    ‘Yes. You will be entitled to a divorce when Anna turns eighteen and you will be recompensed in the divorce settlement.’
    ‘And our non-existent child?’
    ‘There will be a miscarriage after the wedding and the only child you will have to take care of is Anna,’ he said. 
    ‘You have it all planed out,’ I found myself saying.
    ‘Yes. It is only two more years until Anna becomes a legal adult. When the