I lean back in the seat of the limo and watch as the sunlight makes ripples over the Hudson as we coast over the George Washington Bridge. I take a deep breath, thinking of my brother, Dan. The way he’d constantly parade his meager accomplishments in front of my father, getting praise, while nothing I ever did was enough.

Today, it will be enough. I’m sure of it.

It’s been three weeks since I’ve met Lily, and today is the day. Lily’s perfect. Our relationship, on the surface, looks perfect. We look like a couple to reckon with, as fake as the part she’s playing is.

Funny, though. She’s playing the part of my perfect woman. And yet, I can’t deny there is something about the real Lily. It’s not just her virginity. It’s not even her virginity. Lily, as opposite as she is from me, is . . . interesting. I’ve been with her for longer than any other woman I’ve dated, and I still want more.

“Hello, Lily White,” I say to her when she answers the door.

“Don’t call me that, Max with the triple x,” she sing-songs. She looks phenomenal, in one of the Valentinos, a body-hugging pink sweater dress with short sleeves, and pumps. She twirls as she sees me appraising. “How did I do? Do I look like a future Winchester?”

I tilt my hand back and forth in front of me to say she’s pretty close, but she most definitely does. Though if I was being honest, I like her jean shorts and tank tops more. I like the way they bare the outline of her nipples and her creamy pink legs. But I wouldn’t want my father having a heart attack.

I take her hand and lead her to the limo, I notice it trembling. “Nervous?” I ask her.

She nods. “A little. I hope you don’t hate me if he deems me unworthy to be the great Max Winchester’s wife.”

I shake my head. “He won’t do that. More likely is that he’ll deem me unworthy to marry you.”

“Oh?”

“You know, you don’t quite look the part,” I say, studying her phenomenal long legs. I reach into my pocket and pull out a small box. I open it to reveal a giant diamond ring. I purchased it for two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars from Harry Winston, making sure that the return policy was suitable. I just asked for what I thought my finance would wear. “Like it?”

She stares at it. “Wow.”

“I asked for the most expensive ring they had. And this was it.”

She smiles without teeth. “Um. It’s . . . huge.”

Leave it to her to be unimpressed. Of course, she’d be unimpressed. I take it out and reach for her hand.

“But I haven’t said yes, yet,” she teases, seeming strangely aloof. Maybe it’s our last text conversation. I’m sure it offended her virgin sensibilities. I don’t know why I let it go that far. Well, I do. I was drunk, and horny. But more than that, I could imagine her little virgin body trembling as she read those texts. And I’d made her come. God, I would’ve given anything to see that. It was deliciously fun, more fun than listening to my asshole brother drone on about fiscal responsibility at Winchester Associates.

I grab her hand anyway and slide it on. I admire it. She’s right; it is huge on her delicate hand. The more I stare at it, the more I realize that with some things, maybe expensive isn’t better. Her hand is completely lost in it. “Now do I look like a Winchester?” she asks, modeling it against her cheek.

I press my lips together. No. She’s worth more than that. “Uh. Yeah. You look good.”

An awkward silence prevails as we both gaze at it. I suppose because I never expected to be in this predicament, and the first time she had a ring presented to her, she probably expected it would be romantic. This isn’t. It’s a business deal. I feel bad for that.

Her hand falls down at her side like lead, heavy with the weight of the ring, and she clears the air by changing the subject. “So, tell me more about him. About growing up with Dan and him.”

I shrug. We’ve spoken a lot to get her up to speed on my family dynamic, so there isn’t much more to say. “Like I said, he wasn’t around us kids a lot. Both of them weren’t. He was always taking my mother away on trips. They were really intent on us kids not getting in the way of their love affair.”

“Well, that’s nice. He must have really loved her.”

Yes, he had. But it took a little while before he learned to appreciate her. And she didn’t fully appreciate him until after I came along, either. I nod. “Anyway, the brownstone we’re going to, I grew up in. It belonged to my grandfather, before my dad. So it’s been in the family a while.”

“Oh! Can I see your childhood bedroom?”

I snort. “That was gone the second I went to college. And believe me, it wasn’t the typical kid’s bedroom. The place is . . . kind of like a museum. So you might not want to touch anything. You’ll see.”

“I don’t think of you as very typical at all,” she says with a smile, looking at me through her mascara-coated eyelashes. She’d put on all the make-up I’d had sent to her, and while it looked nice on her, once again, I liked the other Lily better.

What the hell is wrong with me?

The limo pulls up to the brownstone on East 62^nd Street, across the street from Central Park. She studies the magnificent architecture without remark. Here is one of the most expensive properties in the city, if not the world, and she’s wholly unimpressed. It’s exasperating, but as usual, it gives me a healthy dose of perspective. Lily is clearly a person who isn’t enamored by money in the least.

We walk inside, an as a servant takes our coats, Dan comes down the stairs, hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Ah. Good. You’re here. He was just asking about you.”

He shakes my hand, then gives Lily a fake peck on the cheek. “How is he?” I ask.

“He’s definitely weakening. But he wants to see you.”

I nod and take Lily’s hand. We climb several rows of steps to the third floor. She doesn’t seem impressed by the Renoirs she passes, despite them being worth millions, or priceless sculptures on pedestals everywhere. The rug under her feet, even, is worth more than her little brother’s treatments. But there’s no need to explain this. It won’t wow her at all.

At the heavy mahogany door, I pause, look at her, and she gives me an assured smile. I take a deep breath, knock, and push the door open.

Is it possible my father could have lost more weight in the few days since I’ve seen him last? He was always round in the face, but now he’s positively skeletal, his face a pale green. There’s an IV with his morphine drip and a whirring machine next to him, noting his heart rate. That’s the only sound in the room. He studies me with watery blue eyes as I step inside. He has the covers pulled up tight to his chest, and his eyes follow me, but no other part of his body moves.

“Where have you been?” he croaks. Not angrily, but with no energy left. It pains me to hear my father sound so weak.

I stare at him. “What do you mean? Last time you told me that if you wanted to see me, you’d invite me over.”

“That’s not a reason not to visit your father!” he shouts at me.

“Well, I’m still working, father,” I tell him. “Trying to keep the business afloat.”

He doesn’t answer. Instead, his pupils trail over to Lily, who is still standing beside me, holding my hand.

“Father, this is Lily. My fiancé.”

“Right. The fiancé.” He strains to look at her. Then he says, without looking at me, “Give me my glasses, boy.”

I find them on the night table and hand them to him. He’s struggling to sit up, so I rush to help him arrange his pillow. Before I can get it fully up, he swats me away. I take a step back.

He has his glasses on now, and is raking his eyes over Lily, now. “It’s nice to finally meet you,” she says, smiling. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“It couldn’t have been good. Knowing this one,” he says in a gravelly voice as he points a thumb at me. “What does a pretty young girl like you see in him?”

She raises his eyebrow. She must think he’s joking, but I know the truth of it. “He has his charms,” she says with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Does he, now?” he mutters thoughtfully. “What is your family like?”

Of course he’s fishing to find out if she has any money of her own. He thinks my only charm, and the only reason any woman would be interested in me, is because of my family money. Lily recites the prepared answer, without once looking at me for confirmation. She spent the earliest part of her life living in New York, where she too attended the Trinity school. But when she was a teenager, she lived out in the Hamptons, only returning to the city once she received her law degree. Both of her parents still practice law out in Long Island.

For some reason, my father loves bloodsucking lawyers, so his eyes light up. “How long have you been together?”

“Two years,” we answer in unison. I look at her. Did that sound too prepared? Too staged?

“We met while running in Central Park,” she says, coming over to the side of the bed and taking my hand. The enormous ring scrapes my fingers. She’s right, it is too big. It can’t be comfortable to wear. “He was a gentleman. Took care of me after I twisted my ankle.”

He lets out a snort. “This boy? Please. You’ve got the wrong man. The only reason he wanted to help was because he wanted to get in your tight running shorts.”

I scowl at him. It’s not like I’m a total ogre who pushes old ladies into traffic, but my father has known my less-than-gentlemanly ways. He used to mail me newspaper clippings from the society pages with my latest conquests. He used to tell me it would get me in trouble. I thought he meant that I’d have to deal with catty women, fighting over me. I had no idea that he meant I’d lose my chance at the helm of my business.

Not that my father was much better. Maybe he’d made amends later, but when he was my age, he had quite the roving eye. He chuckles slowly, and so long, that it dissolves into a hacking, wet cough.

I look at Lily; whose eyes are wide in concern.

My father motions me forward.

I lean toward him, feeling like this is it. He has something important to say. He keeps motioning forward until I can feel his stale breath on my face. When I’m close, he says, “I know what you’re doing. And this time, boy, it’s not going to work.”

I blink. “Excuse me?”

“You remind me of a fucking snake, boy. Always trying to see which way you can spin things, so that it’ll be best for you, never mind who you have hurt.”

I shake my head. “Dad—“

“All this time, you’ve been trying to buy your way into favor with me. And I let you, because it helped the company succeed. But here’s the thing.”

He pauses, and a sick smile spreads over his face. I want to leave. I know this isn’t good.

“You will never be the Winchester that your brother is. No matter what you say or do. It will never – do you hear me?” His spittle hits my face as his voice rises. “Never be good enough.”

I stare at him, feeling myself shrinking into the floorboards.

“That is what I wanted to tell you.” Then he looks at Lily and says, “Don’t bring this innocent woman down with you. I don’t care how you found each other, but you’ll want to unfind him as quickly as possible. He’s a snake who will only hurt you.”

I open my mouth to say something else, but is there anything?

He doesn’t allow me the privilege. “Get out!” he says, new strength in his voice. “And I don’t care if I never see you again!”

I nod. Lily takes my hand and we somehow find out way outside.

Lily keeps her head down as we quickly descend the staircases to the first floor. When we’re out in the foyer, Dan is there, leaning against a paneled wall, hands in his pockets. He’s smiling a sly kind of smile, like he knows exactly what went on in there. “Dad wasn’t fooled by your latest attempt to be a family man, was he?” he asks.

I stop only to collect Lily’s things from the servants. “Fuck you,” I say, as I storm out the door, with Lily close behind.