CHAPTER NINE: THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

MAVERICK

Iris watched me expectantly, waiting for me to tell her the reason I wanted her to marry me in order to carry out my revenge plan.

It was such an easy thing to do, yet I hesitated to speak. The emotional part of everything was a long-gone phase, and all I felt was just anger. Anger towards my brother, and my father.

I would tell Iris all that she needed to know, but I wasn't about to delve into my past with someone I didn't know.

Where do I start?

“Did Sebastian ever tell you that he was next in line to be the CEO after my father stepped down?”

She chewed on her bottom lip as she considered my question. Iris had no idea how attractive the little things she unconsciously did were.

“Um, yeah. A few weeks before the divorce,” she looked away from me, but not before I saw the pained expression on her face and noticed the way her voice cracked at the word ‘divorce’. “He was excited about taking over from your father. He was always obsessed with being CEO, he just…”

She turned back to face me. “Sorry, you were saying?”

Sebastian being obsessed with becoming CEO made so much sense. He didn't deserve it. He never did.

“Yeah, everyone expected Sebastian to take over from our father,” I paused. “Everyone but our grandfather.”

I watched as Iris took a sip of her water and placed the cup back on the table.

I had not had my drink, and I wasn't even planning to. Staying away from alcohol was a decision that I made a long time ago, and I wasn't about to back out now.

Why did I order the whiskey, then?

It was a front. And a punishment.

“After he died, I moved to the Netherlands, because frankly, there was no point in being here if the only reason I was here had passed away.”

The only person to ever care for me and protect me aside from my mother. “And as you can imagine, I never heard from them or contacted them again. Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat, Iris?” I asked.

Iris quirked an eyebrow at me. “I’m fine, Maverick. And you’re stalling, okay? Don’t do that. Just talk.”

I chuckled. “Says the most closed-off person I’ve ever met in my life.”

Despite herself, she laughed. And if I said that it wasn’t the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard, I would be telling a blatant lie. I cursed silently. If Iris agreed to get married to me, I was going to have to keep my emotions in check. What we would be doing was purely transactional. Purely business.

I hadn't even told her the most important thing yet. She was going to hate me after tonight.

“Anyway, my friend and I founded our company, and that was the best decision we’ve made to date. And then I started keeping tabs on my father and brother. That—”

“What do you do?” Iris suddenly cut me off.

“I own a security company.” I left it at that. I didn't add that it was the most successful security company in all of Europe, or that I had started working on another branch here in Seattle.

“Ok,” she said. I was expecting her to ask more questions, but when she didn't, I continued.

“Two years ago was when I found out that they had been keeping things from me. Before my grandfather died, he wrote me into his will. I was set to become the next CEO after my father, and I was never told.”

Iris’s eyes softened. “But it doesn't look like you care that much about the company. Why care about inheriting it, then?”

She was right. “Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have cared. If I’d been at the will reading, I probably would’ve just said ‘fuck it’ and left, because I wanted nothing to do with them. But these aren’t normal circumstances.”

I held the glass in my hand, swirling the whiskey inside.

“You have no idea what I went through as a child, Iris. No idea. I didn't grow up to be normal. Sebastian and I have never been close. So to have him steal the one thing… the most important thing left to me by my grandfather, it fucked me up. Believe me, I was fucking livid when I found out.”

Our eyes locked, neither of us looking away. “The moment I found out, I was on the next flight to Seattle. The night we met, I was on my way to have a word with my grandfather’s lawyer.”

Her eyes widened then, and her cheeks began to turn red. She was probably feeling guilty about it or thinking about the night that we had.

I hoped it was the latter.

“So, um. You plan to take over the company? Overthrow Sebastian or whatever?”

“Yeah. I got my foot in last year. I’m the COO right now. Sebastian knows that I want to take what’s mine, but he’s quite confident I won’t be able to do it.”

Iris’s brows scrunched up in confusion. “Why?”

“Because I’m almost thirty,” I said simply.

“That doesn’t make any sense, Maverick.”

This was it. The moment of truth. The moment that would determine Iris’s agreement.

I took a deep breath. “My grandfather’s will states that I am only to become the CEO if I get married before I turn thirty,” I paused. “And have a child.”