Keenan
The offer ran through my head, as did Ronald, the man that made it. I wanted to think that he was joking or had had a little too much to drink, but neither one was the case. He knew exactly what he was doing and I had a feeling that Ronald knew that I was desperate enough to work with him that I might.
Love and marriage were never on my radar. As far as I was concerned, women were a dime a dozen and I got bored easily. That had made it so that through the years, I never stayed with a girl long, most of the time it was for just one night and then I moved on. Very few women would I see again and only Ashlyn had been one that I had stayed friends with. She was the exception.
Then there was the idea that the girl had to have her father bribe another guy to marry her. Sure I was rich, but it wasn’t like they were desperate for money. He was desperate to get her off of his hands and that didn’t sit well with me at all. What was she like?
I did an internet search to see if I could come up with any kind of picture or likeness and although I found thousands of the rest of the family, the girl seemed to be mainly out of the limelight. It was just another mystery and I felt like I should at least get to see what she looks like before I go ahead and say yes.
I was going to say yes though. Marriage wasn’t this sacred thing that everyone made it out to be. It was just a piece of paper and if that is what Ronald wanted to get him to be my mentor, then so be it. I would give it to him and the peace of mind that came with it. It wasn’t going to mean anything and even the old man had to realize that he couldn’t guarantee the heir that he seemed so bent on having.
Still wanting to have some idea of what Gemma looked like, I called in Mike, a guy that found out everything that I wanted him to. I was going to have him do a little investigating and see what he could come up with. If nothing else, I would get Mike to get me a picture of her now. I just wanted some inkling of what I was getting myself into. I wondered if she was hideous. Would that even matter?
I decided that it wouldn’t and when Ronald called me for an answer, I still didn’t have a picture.
“Well, have you thought about it Keenan?”
He didn’t say straight out what he was talking about, but there was no sense in pretending that I didn’t know what it was that he was talking about.
“I have thought about it a little bit, but I have to admit that it feels like I am the one with no guarantees in this arrangement. You will have your daughter taken care of and peace of mind, what are my assurances?”
There was silence on the phone and then Ronald asked me what kind of assurances that I wanted. I wasn’t sure, should have thought about it before I opened my mouth.
“What kind of mentoring will I get from you?”
“You want to know if I will make you richer?”
“I was going to word it a little differently, but that is the gist of it. You get what you want, so how will I know that I will get what I want?”
This was a strange way to talk to my future father in law about his daughter that he wanted me to marry. It was just so strange that it was almost surreal and any minute I was going to wake up from this dream and the chance of a lifetime. Be as rich as God, to marry one girl. Right then I realized nothing about her mattered. All that mattered was the position her father could put me in.
“If I back you Keenan, your net worth will do nothing but go up, just knowing me publically will help you out and I think you know that. If you didn’t already know what you could get out of such an arrangement, we wouldn’t be talking right now. We are both busy men, so bullshit aside, have you came to a decision?”
“I just have one question to ask you Ronald.”
“Okay, go ahead. I will answer if I can.”
“Why me?”
Ronald wasn’t expecting that question and for a moment I had to wonder if he knew why. Maybe it had been something that just popped into his head and he blurted it out, but I didn’t think that was it. It was like he knew I was going to be there at the charity event. Did he know that I was going to be the one that he would propose this all to? It just didn’t make sense to me and I wasn’t comfortable in a situation where I couldn’t see all of the angles. Everyone wanted something and I couldn’t clearly see why I had been chosen to marry his daughter.
“Many reasons. You have been trying to get to me for years. The shenanigans at the charity event told me that you were desperate enough to entertain such an idea. You are accomplished, very accomplished in your own rights and that alleviates anxiety that you are in it to get my money. You want to make more of your own and there is nothing wrong with that. Darryl Jameson took me under his wing a little before I turned forty. That’s when everything started to happen for me. So, you have a good family line, your own money and a brain in your head. What more could I ask for in a son in law?”
It was a lot to process, but it was clear that he had read up on me and at least thought it through to some degree. Though I had to wonder why if so much thought was put into this idea of his, why he hadn’t come up with something better than an arranged marriage.
“But why would you do it this way?”
Ronald scoffed. “Why not? Parents have been picking their children’s partners a lot longer than marriage for love. Love is fleeting, but money, obligations and family ties last a life time.”
I felt a shiver run up my spine with his words. How could I have not known that this was going to be more than a marriage? It wasn’t just a piece of paper. It was going to be more, so much more. Insane as it sounds, I was just now starting to realize that this was going to be a lifetime thing that I needed to really think about. Didn’t I have enough money? Did I really need to do all of this just to make more and pick up some prestige?
“You are right. This is a big commitment.”
Ronald chuckled. “You need to make the decision. Are you jumping in or backing off?”
It was a now or never type of situation. I could tell that right from the bat and I wanted to tell him that I couldn’t, there was no way that I would go with such a crazy scheme, but Ronald had been right on all accounts. I was just a little bit desperate. Desperate enough to reach another height that I couldn’t on my own, just to get off of the plateau I was on.
“Yes Ronald. I will marry your daughter. You have a deal.”
The older man exclaimed and I pulled my ear back. I had a bad feeling in my stomach. Most people listened to theirs and let it guide them through their life. I ignored mine every chance I got. The larger the leap, the more uncertainty there was, the more yelling from my gut to stop. This was one of those times and I was just going to see where it took me. Out of all of the deals I had made though, this one seemed to be the biggest.
“Hot damn son. Well good. I have my wife putting something together for this weekend. That will suit you, won’t it?”
“This weekend?” My voice was hoarse and the last bit came out as a croak. This was happening far faster than I would have liked. How was I going to explain this to my own parents? I sighed when I really thought about it. My father would be happy because it was Ronald’s daughter. He wouldn’t care how we met or anything other than attaching ourselves to his family.
My mother on the other hand would want to know everything else. I didn’t have an answer for her and I was already trying to formulate something in my head. Giving me just a few days to figure it out was pushing it in my mind. Why did it have to be so suddenly?”
“Yes, do you have plans? Because if you do, you might want to cancel them.”
“No, no plans that can’t be rescheduled. That is just rather soon. Isn’t a lengthy engagement period considered the right way?”
Ronald told me that he didn’t care. “It doesn’t matter how it looks. Not in this century anyways. I just want it done and everything moving in the right direction.”
There was an urgency I didn’t understand, but I was just going to chalk it up to a hidden health scare or something like that to make him want to put his affairs in order. I tried to remember if I had seen any signs of sickness when I had seen him last. I didn’t remember thinking of anything more than he was sharp and healthy for his age.
I agreed to his mad scheme and got off of the phone not really sure how to feel about it all. I wanted to think of this as the changing point. I was already rich beyond all means, but I was still hungry for more. Now it was power and respect, the kind that I had seen first-hand when I was around Ronald. That is what I wanted and I was on the way to getting it.
The idea that I was going to be married and it all hinged on that was just a thought way off in the back of my mind. It didn’t matter to me anything about her. I would marry his daughter in a few days and I hadn’t even asked to see her first because it was the power and money that I wanted. I had enough women on the side that none of my needs were unsatisfied. Why would any of that change?
I sat back and closed my eyes, trying to imagine what this change was going to be like. I tried to imagine myself as a husband and I just couldn’t. It had never crossed my mind before, but here it was, about to happen. All I had to do was meet my new bride and convince the world that we were happily married and in love.
That didn’t sound that hard. I made a call to the investigator Mike to keep looking. There was no rush on it now, but I wanted to know all that I could about my wife to be.
**END OF PREVIEW**
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