Chapter 159: If You Still Want Me

Giovanni set his coffee down.

"What did they find?"

Alexander considered how best to explain it.

Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be a particularly graceful way.

"Apparently, I don’t have to marry you."

Giovanni stared at him.

Alexander immediately closed his eyes.

"That came out wrong."

"Considerably."

"I heard it after I said it."

"Unfortunately, so did I."

Alexander rubbed his forehead.

"Can we start again?"

"I’ll consider it."

"Thank you for your generosity."

At least Giovanni still had enough patience to let him try.

"What I mean is that I finally asked the trustees to explain Grandfather’s provisions to me in detail. Not what everyone assumed they meant when Dominic and I were still together. I wanted to know exactly what my options were now that the marriage never happened."

"And?"

"The accelerated distribution of the trust wasn’t tied specifically to Dominic."

Giovanni nodded slowly.

"He simply qualified."

"Exactly."

Alexander leaned back.

"If Dominic and I had married, the trust would’ve been released according to Grandfather’s accelerated-distribution provision. But because we didn’t, I have two alternatives."

"What are they?"

"I can marry someone else who satisfies the same conditions."

Giovanni waited.

"Or?"

"I wait until I’m forty."

"And then?"

"The remaining restrictions expire. I receive control of the trust regardless of whether I’m married."

Giovanni absorbed that quietly.

"The marriage provision isn’t gender-specific?"

"No."

"So the qualifying spouse could be another man."

"Yes."

"Or a woman."

"Yes."

"Or you could simply remain unmarried and wait."

"Until forty."

Giovanni picked up his coffee again.

Alexander watched him take a sip.

That was it?

No visible surprise.

No immediate questions.

Nothing.

"Say something."

"You’ve already explained it."

"Gio."

"What exactly do you want me to say?"

"I don’t know."

"That makes two of us."

Alexander leaned back.

This was going wonderfully.

"I didn’t bring this up because I’m planning to find somebody else."

"I didn’t say you were."

"I know. But you’re doing that thing."

"What thing?"

"That expressionless CEO thing where I can’t tell whether you’re considering a hostile takeover or wondering what you want for breakfast."

"I don’t look the same while doing those things."

"You absolutely do."

Giovanni’s mouth twitched.

Alexander took the tiny victory before continuing.

"The trust isn’t the only reason I’m telling you."

"All right."

"When I proposed to you, things were different."

That was an understatement.

Alexander had just been publicly abandoned by the man he’d expected to marry. The collaboration with Sebastian Group had fallen apart, the Board had questions, and his personal humiliation had become entertainment for strangers.

In the middle of all that chaos, Alexander had gone to Giovanni’s penthouse and proposed marriage as though he were presenting the solution to a particularly complicated business problem.

Looking back, he wasn’t sure whether to admire his own nerve or question his sanity.

"I needed stability," Alexander continued. "Vance Holdings needed stability. Mercer Group was stable, and marrying you solved several problems at once."

"You made that very clear."

"I was trying to be practical."

"You proposed marriage with a business case."

Alexander grimaced.

"Please don’t remind me."

"I’ve considered having the proposal professionally printed and framed."

"You wouldn’t."

"I might."

"Asshole."

Giovanni smiled.

Alexander did too, but the humor didn’t last.

"That’s my point, Gio. Most of those circumstances don’t exist anymore."

Giovanni waited for him to continue.

"I don’t know if I’m going back to Vance Holdings."

That got a reaction.

"Permanently?"

"I haven’t decided."

Alexander looked toward the grounds.

Second Life Workshop was small compared to Vance Holdings. It didn’t employ thousands of people or move enough money to affect entire industries.

But it was his.

Even after the fire, the insurance problems, the temporary relocation, and everything else that had gone wrong, Alexander still wanted to rebuild it.

Perhaps that should’ve told him something.

"If I decide not to return, I don’t need Mercer Group to reinforce my position with the Board."

"You never needed Mercer Group to keep your position."

"That wasn’t how it felt at the time."

Giovanni didn’t argue.

"And the collaborations between Vance and Mercer don’t require us to be married," Alexander continued. "If they’re profitable for both companies, they can continue. If they stop being profitable, they shouldn’t."

"Agreed."

"I don’t need Grandfather’s trust right now either."

That might’ve been the strangest realization of all.

There had been a time when gaining early access to Augustus’s trust had seemed enormously important.

Now Alexander had wealth of his own, investments, shares, and more career options than he’d allowed himself to consider before.

Waiting until forty wouldn’t ruin him.

Not even close.

Alexander looked directly at Giovanni.

"So most of the practical reasons I originally gave you for marrying me are disappearing."

Giovanni slowly placed his cup on the table.

"When I asked you to marry me, I needed something from you," Alexander continued. "Now I don’t."

"And what exactly are you saying?"

Alexander hesitated.

"I don’t think it’s fair to hold you to an agreement we made under completely different circumstances."

"Are you trying to end our engagement?"

"No."

The answer came so quickly that Alexander surprised himself.

Giovanni’s expression changed slightly.

Alexander noticed.

"No," he repeated. "I’m not trying to end it."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Giving you the option."

"I had an option when you proposed."

"That’s different."

"How?"

"You agreed knowing I needed the marriage."

"And?"

"And now I don’t."

Giovanni leaned back.

"Alexander."

"What?"

"If you don’t want to marry me anymore, tell me."

Alexander frowned.

"I just said that’s not what I’m saying."

"Then stop trying to decide whether I should still want to marry you."

That shut him up.

Giovanni’s voice remained calm.

"You’re talking as though my decision automatically expires because your circumstances changed."

"Don’t they matter?"

"Of course they matter."

"Then you understand what I’m saying."

"I understand perfectly. You no longer need immediate access to the trust. You may not return to Vance Holdings. Our companies don’t require a marriage to continue doing business together."

"Yes."

"And you’ve somehow concluded that I should reconsider marrying you."

"When you put it like that..."

"That’s exactly how you put it."

Alexander glared at him.

Giovanni remained unimpressed.

"I’m trying to be fair to you."

"I know."

That took some of the fight out of Alexander.

Giovanni looked away briefly before continuing.

"You’re giving me an exit because you think the original arrangement changed enough that I should have one."

"Yes."

"I understand."

Alexander waited.

Giovanni looked back at him.

"I don’t want it."

Alexander went still.

"You don’t?"

"No."

There was no hesitation.

No qualification.

Just no.

Alexander stared at him.

Giovanni raised an eyebrow.

"Why do you look surprised?"

"I don’t know."

"Excellent answer."

"Gio."

"I accepted your proposal, Alexander. I haven’t changed my mind."

"But the reasons have changed."

"Yours have."

That distinction landed somewhere Alexander hadn’t expected.

He looked down at his hands.

"What are yours now?"

For the first time, Giovanni didn’t immediately answer.

Alexander noticed.

Unfortunately, Giovanni noticed him noticing.

"That was a suspiciously long pause."

"It wasn’t."

"It absolutely was."

"My reasons are my own."

"That seems unfair considering I gave you an entire list."

"I didn’t ask for the list."

"You still listened to it."

"I was trying to understand how you’d managed to turn a marriage proposal into a corporate proposal."

Alexander laughed.

"Again, asshole."

Giovanni smiled.

The tension eased, but the question remained.

Maybe Alexander didn’t need the answer tonight.

Not yet.

What mattered was that Giovanni had been given a genuine opportunity to walk away.

He hadn’t taken it.

Alexander exhaled.

"So you’re sure?"

"Yes."

"You don’t want to reconsider?"

"No."

"Even if I don’t go back to Vance Holdings?"

"Yes."

"Even if I wait until forty for Grandfather’s trust?"

"Yes."

"Even if Mercer Group doesn’t gain anything from marrying me?"

Giovanni gave him a look.

"Do you intend to keep going until you find a condition that makes me leave?"

Alexander’s mouth closed.

Fair.

Giovanni leaned forward slightly.

"If you don’t want this anymore, tell me."

Alexander met his eyes.

"But don’t tell me I should leave because you no longer need something from me."

The words settled between them.

Alexander swallowed.

"I don’t want you to leave."

There.

Another answer that had come far too easily.

Giovanni’s expression softened.

"Then we don’t have a problem."

Alexander almost laughed.

"You make everything sound annoyingly simple."

"Some things are."

"This isn’t."

"No. But this part is."

Alexander watched him reach for his coffee again.

Something unexpectedly comforting about the certainty Giovanni seemed to have about a marriage Alexander himself had originally proposed for almost entirely practical reasons.

Except those practical reasons were disappearing.

Alexander could wait until forty.

He could leave Vance Holdings.

For the first time since he’d walked into Giovanni’s penthouse and asked him to become his husband, Alexander didn’t actually need Giovanni to say yes anymore.

And Giovanni had just said yes again anyway.

Alexander smiled faintly.

"There is something else we’ve never discussed."

Giovanni paused with his cup halfway to his mouth.

"Should I be concerned?"

"Probably."

"What now?"

Alexander looked at him.

"We’ve discussed inheritance, companies, the Board, and marriage."

"Yes."

"We’ve somehow never discussed what happens after the marriage."

Giovanni slowly lowered his cup.

Alexander almost smiled at the sudden wariness in his expression.

More specifically, they’d never discussed the one question that seemed considerably more important tonight after burying a seventy-eight-year-old man who had died without a wife, children, or surviving relatives.

Alexander leaned back.

"Do you want children?"