Chapter 33 A reason to hate him more
"Your family. Your mother." Marcus looked uncomfortable. "Richard set up a trust for her. Therapy, medical care, living expenses, it's all funded. But it's tied to Aiden maintaining control of Frost Industries. If he sells the company, if he walks away, the money disappears."
Ariella's stomach dropped. "So I'm still trapped."
"You're still invested in making sure Aiden keeps the company. Yes." Marcus paused. "I'm sorry. Richard thought…he thought it would give you both motivation to stay. To fight Winters together."
"He thought wrong. He just gave me another reason to resent him."
"For what it's worth, I argued against it. Told him it was manipulative. But he was convinced it was the only way to ensure you wouldn't leave Aiden when things got hard."
"Because God forbid I make my own choices."
"Yes. Exactly." Marcus handed her another envelope. "This is for you. He wrote it the day you signed the contract. Asked me to give it to you after he died."
Ariella took the envelope but didn't open it. Couldn't. Not yet.
She went inside to find Aiden sitting on Lily's bed, holding his little sister while she cried into his shoulder. Fourteen years old and now orphaned. No mother. No father. Just Aiden and whatever fragments of family they could build from the wreckage.
"I've got you," Aiden was murmuring. "I've got you, Lily. You're not alone. You'll never be alone."
"But he's gone. They're both gone. And I…" Lily's voice broke. "I never got to say goodbye. He was sleeping and I thought I'd have time and…"
"I know. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Ariella stood in the doorway, watching this private grief, and felt like an intruder. This wasn't her family. She was just the girl they'd paid to be here. The girl trapped by yet another manipulation.
But then Lily looked up and saw her.
"Ariella," she gasped. "Don't leave. Please don't leave us."
And Ariella realized that somehow, without meaning to, she'd become part of this broken family.
She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around both of them. "I'm not leaving. I'm right here."
"Promise?" Lily's voice was so small.
"Promise."
They stayed like that until dawn broke over Portland, three people holding each other in the rubble of Richard Frost's final manipulation.
The funeral was scheduled for Thursday.
Four days to plan a memorial for a man half the city loved and his children had complicated feelings about. Marcus handled most of it, coordinating with the funeral home, managing the press, drafting the obituary that would run in every major paper.
Richard James Frost, 51, passed away peacefully on June 21st after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his children, Aiden and Lily, and his daughter-in-law, Ariella Hayes-Frost...
"Daughter-in-law," Ariella read aloud. "That makes it sound real."
"It is real," Aiden said. They were in his father's study, going through paperwork. "Legally, you're my wife. The contract doesn't change that."
"For two more months."
"If you still want out in two months."
She looked at him. He was exhausted, hollow-eyed, running on coffee and obligation. He'd barely slept since Richard died. Spent every night taking care of Lily, managing the company transition, planning a funeral for a man he wasn't sure he'd forgiven.
"Do you want me to stay?" she asked.
"Yes. God, yes. But not because of the contract. Not because my father manipulated you into it. Because I…" He stopped. "Can we table this? Until after the funeral? Until I can think straight?"
"Yeah. We can table it."
But the question hung between them, unanswered.
On Tuesday, the press started circling.
Billionaire's Son Inherits Empire at 18
Frost Industries Transfers to Teen Amid Company Crisis
Will Young Aiden Frost Be Able to Handle the Pressure?
The articles were brutal. Half of them questioned whether Aiden was capable of running a multi-billion dollar company. The other half implied he was a puppet, controlled by the board or Marcus or…in some conspiracy theories…Ariella herself.
The Gold Digger's Master Plan: How Ariella Hayes Manipulated Her Way to the Top
That headline made Ariella's blood boil.
"Don't read the comments," Lily advised. "They're worse."
But Ariella read them anyway. Hundreds of strangers dissecting her life, her motives, her worth.
She's using him. Obvious gold digger.
That poor boy. Lost his dad and he's stuck with HER.
I give it six months before she files for divorce and takes half his money.
She probably seduced him on purpose. Saw a vulnerable rich kid and pounced.
Aiden found her crying in the bathroom, phone clutched in her shaking hands.
"Hey, hey, no. Don't do this to yourself." He took the phone gently. "They don't know you. They don't know us."
"But what if they're right? What if I am using you?"
"Are you?"
"I don't know anymore. I came here for money. My family needed help and your father paid me. That's using you, isn't it?"
"You came here for survival. There's a difference."
"Is there?"
"Yes." He cupped her face, forcing her to look at him. "You could have walked away a dozen times. After you saw how hard this would be. After my father's lies came out. After I became a liability instead of a meal ticket. But you stayed. Not for money. For…" His voice softened. "For whatever this is between us."
"What if I'm fooling myself? What if I only think I care because I'm grateful? Because you're nice to me?"
"Then we're both fooling ourselves. Because I think I care about you too. And it terrifies me."
They stared at each other. Two teenagers playing at marriage, feeling real things they didn't have names for, surrounded by a world that wanted them to fail.
"After the funeral," Aiden said. "After we get through this week. We'll figure out what this is. What we are."
"Okay."
"But right now, I need you to stop reading what strangers say about us. They don't matter. Only we matter."
"We matter," Ariella repeated, like a prayer.
"We matter."