It was long past the usual time when Deacon would have been in bed, but instead of being fast asleep, he was in his study, his laptop open with papers thrown all over the desk.
For all intents and purposes, he looked as though he were hard at work. But that was not actually the case. Though his laptop was open, Deacon was not actually seeing anything on the screen, nor on the papers that were all over his desk. His mind was focused on something else entirely, that something being the revelation of the evening.
His father wanted him to marry Ashely Greene of the Greene family.
In that very moment doing such a thing would be impossible for Deacon since it would be illegal, he already had a wife.
But soon enough he and Slater were going to sign their divorce papers and be done with it, that would mean that he would once again be a free man.
Being single was a status that Deacon found quite agreed with him, he was in no hurry to change it, but unfortunately for him his father did not feel the same.
And if there was one thing that Deacon knew, it was his father. The old man just would not back off on this, he would keep pushing and pushing.
No doubt at some point in the future serious threats would be made against Deacon. Threats that would force him to take the whole situation seriously unless he wanted to lose everything that he had been working so hard for.
But even so, Deacon just could not see himself as a married man, the whole Slater thing was completely different, she was a Slater and he was a Roth.
The fact that they were married just happened to be something that was there.
But if at some point in the future he did agree to marry Ashely Greene, things would be different. For one it would not just be a temporary marriage that they could get out of at any point in time. It would actually be the real deal, he would be stuck with Ashely Greene for life.
Could he stomach that? Deacon barely remembered much about her from high school, and even now that they were adults very little about her stood out. He knew only the surface level stuff. That she was good at her job, that she was also in charge of several charities.
She had never had any scandals, her record was clean, she came from a good family, Her looks were not repulsive, she was a hard worker. Also, she was in charge of the finances in her family company and it was doing well.
Those things alone should have served to make her more attractive to Deacon, even if not in the romantic sense. He should have at least been interested enough to give the whole marrying her thing a second thought. But try as he might Deacon found that he had no interest. Whenever he tried to picture Ashely Greene as his bride. Her face would begin to morph and in her place there would be Slater.
When he tried to imagine himself going to events with Ashely by his side, cool and impeccable. She was instantly replaced by Slater with her wild dress sense and even wilder hair.
Every single instance where Deacon tried to think of himself with Ashely Greene ended up being Deacon and Haley Slater.
It was as though despite doing his best to forget that they were husband and wife. His mind would just not give up on reminding him of that fact.
Pushing his laptop away, Deacon stood, there was nothing for it. He was simply wasting time now, what he needed to do was get some rest.
He had never wanted to be married. But now he was, in addition to that he was married to a woman who came from a family that had been enemies with his for so long that no one knew when the feud would end. Or if it would ever end at all.
Then on top of that, his father who did not know that Deacon was married, was in the business of arranging a marriage for Deacon. A marriage that just did not sit right with him no matter how much he tried to convince himself that it would be what was best. What on earth was he going to do.
For a few more days, marrying Ashely would be something completely impossible since he already had a wife. But as soon as he and Slater signed the divorce papers, there would be nothing shielding Deacon from an arranged marriage that he did not want.
He already gave so much to the family. Working his fingers to the bone to make sure that Roth Group remained successful. Why was it that he was always the one expected to make all of the sacrifices.
Not for the first time Deacon found himself being angry at his younger brother. Brian got everything handed to him. He just skated by, being seen as the baby of the family and was doted upon, whereas Deacon constantly had to fight for everything.
If the Greenes wanted an alliance with the Roth so bad, why couldn't it have been his younger brother, why was it always Deacon who had to step up? Unable to find the answers to either question, Deacon headed up to his room and got into the shower.
But even the warm water cascading down his body, was not enough to switch off his thoughts. If anything it amplified them, and Deacon still had no idea what he was going to do.
Standing in the shower, he took in the complexity of his situation.
He had gotten drunk married, the marriage was a secret, the divorce would also be a secret. Once he got secretly divorced from his secret wife, he was going into an arranged marriage where he was going to be the husband of somebody that he barely knew, and that did not sit well with him.
"What am I going to do?" Deacon asked the water but it just continued to flow down and into the drain. Running away from him in a way that he could not run from his problems, he was well and truly stuck. Was there really no way out?