Three

Chapter Three

Hallie

“HALLIE, OUR NEED TO forge an alliance between our two families is greater than ever.”

A weight depressed the bottom of my bed, and I knew my father had sat down. I remained where I was, curled up on my side, facing the wall. I wished he’d go away. I didn’t want to talk about family politics—not now— not ever.

I’d barely left my room since Harvey’s murder at our wedding. I didn’t know how I was supposed to react. It wasn’t as though I’d loved Harvey, but what I’d pictured as my future had been snatched away from me in a split second. I hadn’t even been able to partake in my favourite pastime of reading, unable to focus long enough to get through even a single page.

I’d attended Harvey’s funeral a few days after the shooting, and had stood at my father’s side, my hand in his, dressed in black instead of white this time. The Cornells had huddled together on the other side of Harvey’s grave, his father, his younger brother, Leo, and his elder brother, Tam. They, too, all wore black, though Tam had also been in the same suit at our wedding, so I doubted it was anything different for him.

Harvey’s mother, Elena Cornell, had her face pressed against her husband’s chest. She clung to him as though she’d collapse if she let go. Her shoulders shook, and her fingers were curled into claws. My heart had ached for her. A part of me wished I could feel some kind of grief like she did, so I could play the grieving almost-wife, but I didn’t know how I felt. I was numb inside and still in shock at everything that had happened. I’d sensed the gaze of the elder brother on me, staring at me as though I was the one who’d murdered his brother. Did he blame me for Harvey’s death? He hadn’t hidden his opinion of our families joining together.

A terrible thought went through my mind. What if Tam Cornell had something to do with his own brother’s murder? Would he stoop so low to prevent the wedding from happening?

I shook the thought from my head. There was no question as to who was responsible for the shooting. It had been the Gilligans. Tam Cornell wasn’t the only one who didn’t like the idea of our families joining to become the most powerful organisation in London.

“That the Gilligans have gone to such lengths to prevent it from happening, proves it’s the right thing,” my father continued. “They fear us becoming one unit, Hallie. They know we’ll be too strong for them.”

I tucked my hand under my cheek and drew my knees closer to my chest. “Please, just leave me alone, Dad.”

The large number of the congregation from two different parts of the city meant people had expected to see strange faces. No one had clicked when what must have been a paid gun from the third family had slipped in as well. I didn’t know what had happened to the man who’d conducted the shooting except that he’d been caught and dealt with by the Cornells in their own way. Neither the Wynters nor the Cornells were the kinds of people who handed those who’d wronged them over to the police. Any reports of gunshots by locals had been dismissed as firecrackers set off to celebrate the wedding. No one reported the information that there hadn’t even been a wedding because the groom had been murdered right after he’d said his vows.

I’d been bundled out of there, wrapped in my dad’s jacket to hide the bloodstains and put straight back in the wedding car to be taken to the hotel. I’d torn off my dress, my eyes dry from shock. Layla had come with me, also pale and disbelieving at what had happened, holding my hand, her arm around my shoulders.

I couldn’t imagine what the Cornell family were feeling right now, to lose a son and a brother. Poor Leo, as the best man, had been standing right next to Harvey when it had happened. They would all be blaming themselves now, wondering why they hadn’t noticed a stranger in the crowd. There was also a little part of me that blamed myself. If he hadn’t been marrying me, Harvey would have never been there in the first place.

“Hallie, I need you to sit up and wipe your face.” My father’s tone had changed. He meant business now, and there wasn’t any messing with him when he sounded like that.

I sniffed and sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. I didn’t meet his eye, though. I was ashamed of feeling so sorry for myself. But I kept thinking of what I should have been doing at that point—my wedding night, our honeymoon afterwards. I should have been basking in the sunshine,

staying in one of the stilt huts over the water in Tahiti, drinking champagne and making love to my new husband all night, not lying in my old bedroom in the same pair of pyjamas I’d had on for the last week.

“You understand that nothing has changed, don’t you, Hallie?”

I turned my head. “What do you mean? Everything has changed. My whole future has changed.”

“No, it hasn’t. Maybe the man you were supposed to spend it with won’t be the same, but that is all.”

I still didn’t understand what he was getting at, my forehead crumpling. “What happened on your wedding day only proves that the Gilligans are

still a massive threat to us. If they were able to infiltrate a place that was filled with the most powerful people in both our families, and still managed to take down Harvey Cornell, it shows we need to pull together more than ever.”

“What are you saying, Dad?”

He drew in a breath. “I’m saying that there still needs to be a wedding.” I froze. “What?”

“You can still marry one of the Cornell brothers.”

My mind reeled. “But...but...isn’t the younger one already engaged to be married?”

“I wasn’t talking about that brother.”

My mouth dropped open. “Tam Cornell? Is that who you’re talking about?”

I remembered the hulk of a man, clothed fully in black, standing at the back of the church, glaring at me as I made my entrance. It hadn’t been the first time I’d come across Tam Cornell. I’d had an encounter with him once before when I’d been eighteen.

My father had taken us to a hotel in central London to meet one of his influential business partners. I hadn’t wanted to be there, but he’d insisted both Jayden and I join him. He wanted to show everyone he was a family man—the kind who could be trusted—as well as a good businessman. Except things hadn’t gone to plan, and the night had ended in bloodshed.

Despite Tam being my enemy, he’d also saved me that night. We’d shared an illicit moment, one that had stayed with me for a long time, and that I’d kept a secret from everyone—even Layla. I’d known how it would look, and I didn’t want to be judged for it. I assumed, due to me never hearing about it again, Tam had also kept his mouth shut. Maybe he’d

realised it wouldn’t have put him in the best light. I’d been eighteen then, and he must have already turned thirty. Considering whose daughter I was, it wouldn’t have gone down well.

“But he’s old!” I protested.

“He’s thirty-four, Hallie. Not that old.”

“Thirteen years older than me.” To me, that felt like a whole other generation. “And besides, he never even liked the idea of me and Harvey getting married. He hated that our families were being joined. He’s never going to want to marry me.”

“Yes, well, that is where we’re having a little difficulty. Tam isn’t exactly pleased about the idea himself.”

This was going from bad to worse.

“You want me to marry someone who doesn’t even want to be married to me?”

“He’s offered a compromise. He wants you to live with him for thirty days before the wedding. He says that if you both still agree to the marriage after that, then he’ll go through with it.”

“And if I say no?”

My father’s eyes hardened. “You won’t say no, Hallie. This is important.

Nothing is more important than family. Family is everything.” “What about me?” I cried. “I’m your family. Isn’t what I want

important?”

His palm cracked across my cheek, sending my head rocking. I fell back on the bed and lay there gasping, my face flaming red from both being struck and the shame and embarrassment of my father feeling the need to hit me.

“I’m sorry you made me do that, Hallie.” He got to his feet, towering over me. “But you won’t let me down on this. If Tam Cornell sends you home, the whole deal is over. Do you understand that? At some point, the Gilligans will become stronger than us, and will edge into our territory and take over. We’ll be left with nothing, lucky to come out of it with our lives.”

Tears brimmed in my eyes. I didn’t have any choice in this, did I? “When do I go?”

“Tomorrow. Pack up your things, and I’ll drive you there tomorrow when I’ve finished work. You need to be strong now. Family is everything, and you’re doing this for your family.”

I nodded, my lips pressed tightly together so I didn’t give him another reason to hit me.

I waited until he’d left the room and then snatched up my phone and called Layla.

“Oh my God,” I said before she’d even had the chance to say hello. “You won’t believe what just happened.”

“Hallie, are you okay?”

“No, I’m not. My dad’s just come into my room and told me I’m going to be marrying Tam Cornell now.”

“What? Isn’t he like, thirty-five, or something?” I sniffed. “Thirty-four.”

“Bloody hell. He’s practically middle-aged.”

“He wants me to go and live with him for a month before we get married, and if I tell him I don’t want to do this at any point, then he’ll call the whole thing off.”

“Good,” she declared. “So, tell him no right away. Tell him you don’t want to marry him either, though frankly I think he’s lucky to have you.”

I sniffed, appreciating her compliment. “I can’t. If I tell him no, this whole deal will fall apart. The future of my family depends on it.”

“Your father’s future, you mean?”

“It’s mine, too, Lay, and Jayden’s. We’ll both inherit everything once he’s gone.”

Marlon Wynter was only fifty. He had plenty of years in him yet.

Layla’s tone grew serious. “Hallie, Tam Cornell is a nutcase. Everyone knows it. He’s part of the reason the Cornells have been so successful— everyone is shit scared of Tam. I heard he once bit a man’s nose off in a bar because he’d nudged his elbow and spilt literally a splash of his drink.”

I shuddered. I was used to violence, but I didn’t want to marry it.

I lowered my head into the hand that wasn’t holding the phone. “What the hell am I going to do?”

“Do whatever it takes to piss Tam Cornell off and get him to send you straight back home again.”

“And then what? We lose all possibility of a union between our two families, we go back to fighting between us, the Gilligans take advantage of the distraction, and wipe us both out.”

She paused on the other end. “Hmm. Now you put it like that...”

“And do you really think it’s a good idea to piss off someone like Tam?” “Another good point.”

I let out a groan. “I have to just go through with this, don’t I? I’m going to have to marry him.”

“At least there’s no possibility of him having a micro dick,” she said cautiously.

I dissolved into a puddle of giggles and tears. “Stop it, you’re awful.” “You love me really. And I’m sure he has a giant cock. Like really, it’s

going to be a python.”

“I don’t want his python anywhere near me.”

“Don’t worry. Tam Cornell is not the marrying kind, or the monogamous kind, for that matter. He’ll probably just ignore you and be out shagging whoever else he can find.”

“Great,” I said, my tone glum. I was going to be trapped in a loveless, sexless marriage. Just what I’d always dreamed of. “I’d better go. I have to pack up all my worldly belongings.”

“Okay, but stay in touch. I want to know everything.” “Will do. Love you.”

“Love you,” she said in return, and the line went dead.

I threw my phone back down and slumped onto my bed. I realised I didn’t need to pack at all. I still had my suitcase in my wardrobe filled with the clothes I’d thought I was going to take on my honeymoon. I’d believed that I’d have been spending the next few weeks on a beach, however, and had packed accordingly, but now I was going to be stuck in South London with Tam Cornell. What was life going to be like with him? How would he treat me? Would he take me out on dates, or lock me up in a room? The thought filled me with horror.

A soft knock came at my door. It opened a crack, and my brother’s dark head poked through the gap. He’d kept his eyes shut.

“Hope you’re decent,” he said. “You can open your eyes, Jay.”

I was pleased to see him. Jayden could be a complete twat at times, but I did love him. He was nineteen and took after my dad, looks-wise, where I had the red hair of our mother. He thought himself a regular bad boy, wearing his dark hair long to go with the leather jackets and motorbikes he had a preference for. He had no idea what responsibility was, and it pissed me off something terrible that our father didn’t even care. If anything, he encouraged it, like he was living vicariously through his teenage son’s antics. If I dared say anything, Dad would just laugh and say that Jayden was still young and

deserved to have a little fun. Any protests I might have about how I was only two years older, but was required to do whatever it took to help our family, fell on deaf ears. I felt as though the moment Mum died, I was expected to step into her shoes. I was the matriarch of the family now, and I needed to behave as such.

He opened his eyes and stepped fully into the room, closing the door behind him. “I just heard the news.” He wrinkled his nose as he looked me up and down. “I can’t believe you’re going to be shagging Tam Cornell.”

I scowled at him. “It’s not something I’m doing by choice, dickhead.” “Even so, I’d have just refused if Dad had told me I was going to marry

one of them.”

“Good thing they don’t have any sisters then, isn’t it?”

He barked laughter. “If they did, I’d probably have already fucked them.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you’d fucked a Cornell girl, her brothers would have killed you by now.”

He puffed out his chest. “I’d like to see them try.”

I shook my head at him. By Cornell standards, Jayden was just a boy. The three of them could crush him in an instant, or at least the remaining two could now.

I didn’t want to fight with him, though. Despite everything, I loved my brother and now I was going to be moving out and living without him for the first time in my life. Jayden would never have admitted it to anyone, but we were close. After losing our mother, I was the only female in his life, and me being older, he had turned to me when he’d needed taking care of. Our father had employed maids to watch over us, but having someone there because they were paid to be was very different to having someone there because they loved you. That didn’t stop me wishing Jayden had been born before me, however. I’d have far preferred an elder brother. I imagined one who was overprotective of me, who would stand up to our father and back me up when it was needed.

“I know you’re only acting like a dick because you’re going to miss me.”

He shrugged. “Nah, I’m always a dick, but I will miss you. It’ll be weird living here, just me and Dad.”

We lived in a hotel with multiple staff. “It’ll never be just you and Dad.” “You know what I mean.”

I reached out and ruffled his dark hair. He ducked his head and batted my hand away but grinned.

“Do you think I’ll be able to visit?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know.” I thought of what might happen if Jay was in the same room as Tam Cornell, especially if Tam hadn’t exactly been treating me nicely, and decided perhaps it was better if he didn’t. “Might be best if you give us some space, though, at least at first. Tam isn’t too happy about being forced into this situation either.”

Jayden snorted. “He’s lucky to marry you,” he said, echoing Layla’s words earlier.

“He doesn’t see it like that.”

I was doing this for my brother as much as my dad, maybe even more so, but that didn’t stop the resentment bubbling away inside me. I wished things could be different, but wishes meant nothing. My life was what it was, and I just had to deal with it.