Chapter 12 - The Second Proposal
I laughed.
Nobody else did.
Vanessa folded her arms.
“The debt agreement contains a family-control exemption.”
Daniel read the document twice.
“She’s right.”
“I’m not marrying him.”
Adrian looked relieved.
That annoyed me.
“You don’t want to marry me either?” I asked.
He blinked.
“That feels like a dangerous question.”
“It was.”
Daniel tapped the page.
“If the original marital unit is restored before the debt review, the trust and Adrian’s shares are treated as one controlling family block.”
“So Richard’s kill switch fails,” Vanessa said.
I looked at her.
“You seem excited.”
“I’d like him not to win.”
“You wanted this company.”
“I wanted an office. I didn’t want a body count.”
“You accepted one.”
Her face went tight.
She looked away.
Daniel continued.
“The remarriage would only need to exist until the restructuring closes.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You’ll let the company die?”
“I won’t trap Emma in another marriage.”
“You didn’t care about trapping her the first time.”
He absorbed that without answering.
The choice seemed impossible.
Thousands of employees depended on Carter Holdings.
Retirement accounts.
Medical coverage.
Factories across three states.
But marrying Adrian again would give Richard exactly the public spectacle he wanted.
It would also make me legally vulnerable.
“What happens if we don’t?” I asked.
Daniel closed the folder.
“Payroll fails in nine days.”
I went home with Lily.
For hours, I watched the city lights through the nursery window.
Adrian called once.
I didn’t answer.
Then he sent a voice message.
“I’m not going to ask you to do it.”
A pause.
“I spent years treating you like a resource. Your contacts. Your judgment. Your loyalty.”
Another pause.
“I won’t do that again.”
He sounded tired.
Not noble.
Just tired.
“I’ll sell everything I have first.”
I listened twice.
Then I deleted it.
At 6:00 a.m., I called Daniel.
“Prepare a contract.”
He didn’t ask what kind.
He knew.
The agreement contained forty-three conditions.
Separate residences.
No shared finances.
No automatic custody rights.
No access to Lily without supervision.
No authority over my medical care.
No claim to my personal assets.
A public expiration date.
And one final clause Adrian read silently.
If he lied to me about any material fact, his entire remaining interest in Carter Holdings transferred to Lily’s trust.
He signed.
No negotiation.
The courthouse ceremony lasted four minutes.
No flowers.
No guests.
No kiss.
The clerk stumbled over Lily’s last name and apologized twice.
It felt almost normal.
Outside, Adrian held the door for me.
“You look angry,” he said.
“I married my ex-husband before breakfast.”
“That seems fair.”
For half a second, I nearly smiled.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
The restructuring request had been submitted.
The debt freeze activated.
Payroll was protected.
We had won.
For exactly eleven minutes.
Then a second document appeared in the system.
A marriage certificate filed three hours earlier in Connecticut.
It listed Adrian Carter as the groom.
May you like
And Vanessa Blake as his legal wife.
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