Adrian's POV
Adrian can't breathe.
He's sitting in his office at Westwood Industries and the walls are closing in. His fingers grip the edge of his desk so hard he thinks they might break. His chest feels like someone put a boulder on it.
His father is dead.
And his father's will just destroyed Adrian's entire world.
He's been CEO of this company for six years. Six years of sixteen hour days. Six years of making the hard calls. Six years of building something that was falling apart when he took over. When his father got sick and had to step down, Adrian was supposed to take over. Eventually his father would die and Adrian would own everything. That was the plan. That was always the plan.
Now his father's will says Adrian gets nothing unless he marries a waitress he's never met.
A waitress.
Adrian's hand shakes as he opens his laptop. He pulls up the file his investigator sent two hours ago. Right after the lawyer called about the will reading. Before Adrian even knew what the will said, he knew something was wrong. His gut told him. And when something felt wrong, Adrian investigated.
The file is thorough. Mia Chen. Twenty-five years old. Foster care from age seven when her parents died in a car accident. Bounced between six different homes. Shoplifting charge at fourteen. Charges dropped but still on record. Multiple behavioral incidents. Running away. Fighting. Trouble everywhere she went.
She's a mess.
At eighteen she aged out of the system. No college. No family connections. No money. She's been working at Rosie's Diner for three years. Makes barely above minimum wage. Lives in a studio apartment that costs too much. Saves maybe two hundred dollars a month for some culinary school dream that will never happen.
And somehow this broken girl managed to befriend Adrian's dying father.
Adrian slams his laptop shut. Of course she did. Of course she manipulated him. A lonely old man who was sick and vulnerable. She probably knew exactly what she was doing. She probably worked the angles perfectly. Sweet smile. Listening ear. Someone who cares. All the things his father never got from his own wife and son.
Adrian feels sick thinking about it.
His office phone buzzes. James Park. His best friend. His CFO. "Where are you? Your mother's having a meltdown in the conference room."
Adrian doesn't move. "I'll be there in five."
"What happened at the lawyer's office? Is your father okay?"
Adrian closes his eyes. "He's dead, James. And he left me a hell of a situation."
James is quiet for two seconds. "I'm coming up."
Adrian hangs up before James can say anything else. He doesn't want sympathy right now. He wants to think. He wants to figure out what his father was thinking. He wants to understand why the man he barely had a relationship with just blew up his entire future.
The company is worth three billion dollars. Adrian built most of that value himself. When his father stepped back five years ago, the company was hemorrhaging money. Bad decisions. Lazy board members. A CEO who cared more about golf than quarterly earnings. Adrian came in and fixed it. He made the hard choices. He fired people. He restructured divisions. He brought in new talent.
He made Westwood Industries matter again.
And now it's dangling in front of him like a carrot. Marry the gold digger or watch it burn.
There's a knock on his door. James walks in without waiting for an answer. He's wearing his "serious CFO" face. "Talk to me."
"My father's will has a condition. I marry within a week and stay married for a year or I lose everything. The company. The money. All of it goes to charity."
James sits down heavily. "That's insane."
"That's what Victoria said."
"Who does he want you to marry?"
Adrian almost laughs. "A waitress he met at a diner. A girl in her twenties with a criminal record and a sob story."
"Jesus." James leans back in his chair. "Did you know about this?"
"No. Nobody knew. That's the point. He wanted to control me from beyond the grave." Adrian stands and walks to the window. His office overlooks Los Angeles. Buildings and cars and millions of people living their lives. Below him, people have normal problems. Normal jobs. Normal families. Not this. "I've spent my entire adult life making sure this company survived. Making sure it thrived. And he's going to take it away because he thinks I need to learn a lesson."
"What kind of lesson?"
Adrian doesn't answer because he doesn't know. The letter is sealed. Patricia said something about explanations waiting for them. But Adrian doesn't want explanations. He wants his life back.
"What are you going to do?" James asks.
"I don't know yet."
But he does know. Adrian always knows what to do. That's his gift and his curse. He can see the angles. He can see what other people miss. And right now the angle is clear. This waitress, Mia Chen, manipulated his father into putting her in his will. She probably didn't know about the marriage clause. She was probably expecting money. Free money for being nice to a lonely old man.
Adrian can work with that.
"I need you to look into her more," Adrian tells James. "Everything. Her finances. Her friends. Her apartment. Who she talks to. What she wants. I need leverage."
"Adrian, that's..."
"I don't care if it's uncomfortable. This girl just tried to ruin my life. I want to know every secret she's hiding."
James nods slowly. "Okay. I'll make some calls."
After James leaves, Adrian sits in the dark of his office and tries to breathe normally. His father was always impossible. Cold when Adrian needed warmth. Distant when Adrian needed guidance. So maybe this is on brand. Maybe this is just the final way Henry Westwood shows his son that he never understood him.
Adrian's phone rings. His mother. He lets it go to voicemail. Then it rings again. And again. And again.
Finally he answers. "Victoria."
"We need to fight this," his mother says without greeting. "Get lawyers. Get the best lawyers in California. That will is illegal. That girl manipulated him. We can prove it."
"Patricia said it's airtight."
"Then find another lawyer who'll say it isn't. You have resources, Adrian. Use them." Victoria's voice is sharp as a knife. "That girl is a nobody. She came from foster care. She's got a criminal record. She's clearly after money. We expose her and the whole thing falls apart."
Adrian almost believes her. Almost. But he's smart enough to know his mother has her own agenda. Victoria never wanted Adrian to be happy. She wanted him to be successful. To be powerful. To be useful. And maybe that's what this will is about. Maybe Henry, in his own broken way, was trying to force Adrian to be something other than a human machine.
Adrian doesn't want to think about that. He wants to think about leverage and contracts and how to make this work in his favor.
"Don't do anything yet," Adrian tells his mother. "Let me handle it."
He hangs up before she can argue.
The sun is setting over Los Angeles. Adrian watches the sky change colors. Red to orange to purple. Beautiful and cold. Just like his life.
His phone buzzes. A text from Patricia. "Miss Chen is still in the building. Conference room B if you need to speak with her privately."
Adrian stares at that message for a long time. Then he stands and walks out of his office.
He needs to see her face when he makes his offer. He needs to see if she's as much of a con artist as he thinks. And if she is, he needs to figure out exactly how much money it'll take to make her walk away.
He finds her sitting alone in the conference room. She's staring at her hands like they hold all the answers. She looks small in the big chair. Lost. Scared.
Adrian doesn't care about any of that.
"Everyone out," he says sharply. The two assistants and the paralegal jump up and leave immediately. Nobody questions Adrian Westwood when he uses that tone.
When they're gone, Adrian leans against the desk. He crosses his arms over his chest. He makes sure his face is cold and empty and dangerous.
Mia looks up at him. Her eyes are red from crying.
"Drop the act," Adrian says quietly. "We both know what you are. So let's talk price. How much to make this problem go away?"