Chapter 44 Some Prince With Some Money
The Vane estate was a world away from the small apartment Alex had called home for the last few years. It sat on a quiet hill, surrounded by old trees and stone walls.
Alex stood in the middle of the massive library, looking at a group of men in gray suits. These were his grandfather’s lawyers. They had been waiting for him to finally claim what was his.
"The transition is complete, Mr. Vane-Harrington," the lead lawyer said. He laid a thick stack of papers on a mahogany desk.
"The offshore accounts, the property holdings, and the investment portfolios are all under your name now. Your father has no legal path to touch these assets."
Alex nodded. He didn't feel like a multi billionaire. He felt like a man holding a weapon he didn't know how to use yet. He sat down behind the desk and began to look through the private files. Among the legal papers, he found a small, yellowed envelope. It was a letter from his grandfather, written just months before he died.
The letter was short and direct.
‘Alex, I kept this money away from Richard because he doesn’t understand the value of a foundation. He only understands the value of a wrecking ball. Use this to build something that lasts. Let it be an added advantage to the person I know you're growing into.’
Alex leaned back in the heavy chair. He realized the scale of his power. His father, Richard Harrington, thought he was the most powerful man in the city. But the Vane inheritance was older and deeper.
Alex had enough money to buy out the very board members Richard was trying to manipulate. He could quietly dismantle his father’s influence without Richard ever knowing who was behind the curtain. He could save Sarah’s firm in an afternoon.
But he knew Sarah. He knew the look in her eyes that morning. She didn't want a savior. She wanted to be a partner.
Later that afternoon, Alex drove his truck—now looking out of place in the estate's driveway—to a small cafe downtown to meet Sarah for lunch. He saw her through the window before he walked in.
She was staring at her phone, her brow furrowed in concentration. She looked beautiful, but she also looked like she carried the weight of the whole world on her shoulders.
He sat down across from her, and she looked up, a small smile finally breaking through her stress.
"You look different today," she said, her eyes scanning his face. "Tired, but different."
"I've had a long morning," Alex said. He reached across the table and took her hand. His grip was firm and possessive, a silent reminder that he was there for her.
"I've been thinking about your car, Sarah. That old sedan is giving you trouble with the transmission. I want to get you something reliable. Something safe."
Sarah’s smile faded instantly. She pulled her hand back, though not unkindly.
"Alex, we talked about this. I don't need a new car. And even if I did, I would buy it myself."
"Sarah, listen to me," Alex said, his voice dropping.
"I have the means to help you. I can pay off the firm's debts today. I can make the audit go away by hiring a legal team that would make my father’s head spin. Why are you making this so hard? I love you. I want to take care of you."
"I know you do," Sarah said softly. She looked around the cafe to make sure no one was listening.
"But I told you. If I let you pay my way, I lose who I am. Every time I sit in that car or walk into my office, I would know that I didn't earn it. I would feel like your project, Alex."
"It's not about projects," Alex insisted, his frustration starting to show.
"This is about surviving in a world like ours. My father is trying to drown you. Why won't you let me throw you a rope?"
"Because I need to learn how to swim in this storm," Sarah replied. She leaned forward, her eyes intense.
"You’re twenty-two, Alex. You have your whole life ahead of you. You have this new identity as a Harrington heir to figure out. You shouldn't be spending your energy trying to fix a forty-two-year-old woman’s business mistakes. We can't keep doing this if every conversation is about you trying to buy my problems away."
Alex wanted to tell her that he didn't care about the age gap or the business. He wanted to tell her that she was his, and that anything he owned belonged to her. But he saw the set of her jaw. He knew that if he pushed too hard, he would push her right out of his life.
"I just hate seeing you struggle," he said, his voice tight.
"It eats at me, Sarah. I have the world at my feet, and I can't even buy you lunch without you feeling like I'm overstepping."
"You can buy me lunch," Sarah laughed, though it was a sad sound.
"But that’s where it ends. I need to be Sarah Hayes, the woman who built her own life. Not Sarah Hayes, the woman saved by the Harrington prince."
They finished their meal in a tense silence. The love was there, but the gap between their worlds was growing. Sarah stood up to leave, leaning down to give him a quick, chaste kiss on the cheek.
"I have to get back to Stacy," she said. "We have a meeting with a new supplier. I’ll call you later?"
"I'll be around," Alex said. He watched her walk out, his heart heavy. He felt a new kind of frustration. He was a billionaire in secret, but he felt powerless. He had more money than he would ever need, but it couldn't buy him the one thing he wanted: Sarah’s permission to protect her.
He walked back to his truck and sat in the driver’s seat for a long time. He looked at the Vane lawyer’s card on his dashboard. He wasn't going to listen to her.
Just as he was about to start the engine, his phone rang. It was his mother. He answered it, expecting a casual check-in.
"Alex," she said, her voice shaking. "I'm calling from a secure line. You need to be careful."
"What’s wrong, Mom?"
"Richard knows the Vane money is moving," she said.
"He’s furious. He realized that you’ve activated the inheritance and will never need him. He has hired a private investigator to track every dollar. He’s looking for a connection, Alex. He wants to know where you’re putting that money. If he finds out you're trying to help the woman….Sarah, he won't just go after her business. He'll go after her personally."
Alex gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. The gray, cold reality of his father’s reach was closing in again.
"He won't find anything," Alex said, his voice like ice.