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“Where did you get the money? What happened?” I whisper, dying of curiosity. Max’s too responsible to say something she can’t back up, and she would never assume she could just use my money—although I’d love it if she’d spend it to make herself happy.

“Trevor’s lawyer finally convinced me to take his money. Apparently he’s in the middle of a nasty divorce and doesn’t want anything to go to Lily. But I heard she’s using his infidelity as a defense for her lies about their son being his. It’s amazing what lawyers can twist to justify cheating and backstabbing, isn’t it?”

“But a whole billion? What about you? Is there anything left for you?”

She shrugs. “Well, I kept about five million in a separate trust that Trevor can’t touch, in case of emergency. But I don’t need billions, especially when it’s from Trevor. He earned that money being an asshole, but now it’ll be used to better the world.”

“How dare you, you stupid bitch!”

Speak of the devil.

Trevor’s shout comes from behind. He cuts across the floor toward us. Veins bulge on his forehead, tendons standing up in his neck. He might just keel over if he keeps this up.

“Watch your mouth,” I say curtly.

“Shut up!” he screams, then turns to her. “I didn’t give you the money to squander it on a man.”

She looks at him like he’s intellectually deficient. “What’s wrong with it? It’s my money and my man.”

I smile at the easy way “my man” slips from her.

Trevor’s shriek shatters my joy, though. “I was planning toget it backafter the divorce is final! It’smymoney—I earned it!”

The corners of her mouth turn down. “Well, sadly for you, it becamemymoney after I signed the papers. If you wanted it to remainyourmoney, you should have set up a super-secret trust in Switzerland or something. Besides, I think our veterans deserve the billion more than you.”

“Besides, she thinks I’m worth it,” I add with a small preen. Trevor is luckily—for him—too old for me to break his face, so I’ll take what I can get.

“He has his own damn money!” Spittle flies from his mouth.

Max and I take a step back. “Stop acting like you’re destitute. There’s still another billion.” Max’s eyes crinkle with diabolical pleasure. “Oh, wait…” She snaps her fingers. “That’sright. It’s not inyouraccount, but inmytrust. Maybe I’ll give that away too. Make it do some good, since just sitting in your coffers is a pretty shitty fate for those poor, poor little dollars. They’ll bemuchhappier financing homeless shelters. Or helping single moms who are struggling.”

“It isn’t my problem if they’re stupid and lazy! If those bitches got jobs, they wouldn’t be so poor!”

She closes her eyes briefly. “Your humanity is touching.”

No kidding. How in hell did he end up with a daughter as smart and nice as Max? Must have been her mom. I regret not meeting her before she passed.

“You should at least get him to marry you before spending a penny on him,” he adds, pointing at me.

The demand hits like a hammer blow to the head.

Marriage.

It doesn’t seem so out of reach. I look at the smart-mouth-having, no-nonsense-tolerating woman who never judges me for anything except what I’ve done…and realize I don’t just want a year of dating. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. Wake up with her in my arms, be the first to see the smile on her face every day and kiss those cute freckles before she hides them under makeup. Share a quiet evening, have wild sex that leaves us shaking. Our adorable kids will run around, a girl and a boy, both of them as lovely as her. I’ll treasure them, make sure they know they’re always my priority—

“Holy shit, that’s it.” Trevor’s eyes light up with calculation as he turns to me. “You’ll be my son—my heir through marriage.”

What the hell? “Why would I want to beyour heir? Or worse, your son?” I shudder. “I’ll never choose to have a father like you.” A man worse than Auric Kingswood? I shudder again.

“Then I guess you won’t be with my daughter!” Trevor turns to Max. “Are you hearing this ingrate—?”

“Stop demanding that she take your side,” I cut in. “She doesn’t owe you anything.”

“Max is mine—my daughter. If you want to be with her, you’ll have to be my son-in-law.”

I scoff. “You don’t get to claim her after abandoning her for a nonexistent son. What kind of pathetic piece of shit are you? You threw away the only child you have to chase after an illusion.”

Trevor’s mouth tightens. Frustration tenses his jaw. He knows he has no defense for what he’s done. But then he turns to Max.