Chapter Thirty-Eight

Kristen

The next three months are pure bliss. I do move in with Antoine, and Dominic helps carry my heavy stuff. I’m honored. I didn’t think my rich brother would labor that way. Not that we grew up with money. But he certainly doesn’t have to do that anymore.

“Why wouldn’t I?” he says when I mention it. “You’re my baby sister, and you’re happy to move in with my best friend. Of course I’m going to help.”

“You know you’re the best brother, right?”

He laughs. “Better be. I’m the only one you have.”

Antoine is seriously the perfect boyfriend. Every moment with him is like a movie. Well, not like a movie. We have some disagreements from time to time, but on most important things—like our values and dreams—we are perfectly aligned.

The only bad thing is his mother. Chantelle hasn’t given up on Antoine inheriting his grandfather’s trust, even though Nicolas is already married to a woman named Sandra.

“Are you sure you don’t want to elope and have a baby? Nicolas’s wife isn’t pregnant yet,” she says for the twelfth time on another one of her forced visits. “And your papy is still upset with him for what happened at the grove, even though Nicolas swears up and down he had no idea Eddie and Tessa were so crazy. So even if you and Sandra deliver babies around the same time, Papy will make you the sole heir.”

Maybe Antoine and I should move to Cape Town or something.

“I’m sure,” Antoine says firmly.

She turns to me.

I raise my hands. “I’m not in this.”

“Nonsense. You’re his girlfriend.”

“And I’m not marrying him for the money, Chantelle. The only valid reason to marry is for love, and that’s exactly how it’s going to be between me and Antoine. Nothing Jonas can dangle in front of our noses will change that.”

“The trust would give you the seed money you need to start your jewelry company,” Chantelle says.

Guess she heard about that. I decided not to accept Lola’s offer, especially when I learned that the offer came because Lola heard about Liza’s plans to snub her clothing line. Liza is a renowned fashionista, and she has lots of influential friends. No wonder Lola used the words “mutually advantageous” to describe her offer.

“I can raise my own capital, thanks.” I wrap an arm around Antoine. “And if I have to, I can always ask Antoine for money.”

“He has none.”

“Actually, I have over two million.” He smiles.

“You do?” Chantelle says.

“I told you, I have my own money. I’ve been saving and investing.”

“But… A billion is better than a couple of million!”

Palm. Meet face.

“What can I do with a billion I can’t do with two million? And don’t say buy a private jet. I don’t fly enough to need one.”

Chantelle huffs. “What am I going to tell your papy?”

“The truth,” he says.

“He won’t like it!”

He shrugs. “Tough.”

After she’s gone—finally!—I give Antoine a bemused smile, sitting cross-legged on our couch. “She isn’t going to give up, is she?”

“Nope.”

“I don’t get it. Even if you get the trust, it isn’t her money.”

“She just doesn’t want to ‘lose’ to Tante Nicole. It’s ridiculous.” Antoine pulls me closer. “But what about you? It’s a lot of money we’re walking away from.”

“I fell in love with you on that rainy day you saved my life because you are something wonderful, not because of your bank account.”

He kisses me. “I fell in love with you that day too.”

“So when you told me I’d never be hot, sexy and desirable to you because a basset hound with a bad Botox job would be preferable…”

“I was lying through my teeth.”

“You know what that means.” I give him a wicked grin.

He gets a wary look. “What?”

“You gotta make it up to me by proving that I’m hot, sexy and infinitely desirable.”

He returns my smile, his eyes sparkling with love. “Wouldn’t dream of doing anything less.”