Married before christmas, p.1
Married before Christmas, page 1
MARRIED BEFORE CHRISTMAS
JUST MARRIED
BOOK ONE
Megan Linden
Website | Newsletter
ABOUT THE BOOK
WHAT'S THE BEST FRIEND FOR IF NOT FOR…MARRIAGE?
Daniel Collins could always count on his biological father to make his life miserable, but the man's pursuit of ruining Ruth's Children Hospital was the worst part of it all. Now, with his father dying, there was a chance for Daniel to take over the family trust that controlled the hospital. The main condition of the trust? He needed to be married.
The problem was, he didn't even have a boyfriend, let alone a husband.
He did, however, have a best friend who saved him more than once over the years.
Noa Alana had a comfortable job in the company he helped create, but he had been feeling restless lately. Daniel coming to him with the most bizarre idea Noa had heard in a while wasn't exactly the change he was waiting for, but he would never say no to helping his best friend.
A fake marriage could bring out something new between them, but the question was—were they ready to risk their friendship for the unknown?
CHAPTER ONE
Daniel Collins rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses, trying to stave off a headache. A part of him knew that staring at the budget in front of him wasn't going to make it any better, but he couldn't help himself. He had to do something.
Tapping on the doorframe to his office was a welcomed distraction, but the relief only lasted a mere second, because judging from his uncle's face, he didn't drop in to make Daniel's day any better.
"What is it?" Daniel asked, his stomach tightening to the point of pain. "What happened?"
His uncle closed the door and sat down on the chair on the other side of the desk. He was pushing sixty, but his energy made him seem ten years younger most of the time.
Not now, though.
Now, he looked every bit his age, and then some.
"Phillip had a heart attack," he said quietly. "He was unresponsive when the paramedics got there. They brought him back, but... It's not looking good."
Daniel slumped back in his chair.
His father had a heart attack.
A series of images swam through Daniel's head, as he tried to imagine it—maybe his father collapsed in his home office, maybe someone heard him and got help...
"Which hospital?" he heard himself ask.
"Collins Memorial."
Of course. His father's pride and joy.
His father's only pride and joy.
"Theresa called me," his uncle continued, tugging at his jacket sleeves. "She was the one who found him, and she rode to the hospital with him. They'd taken him into surgery right away, but from what the doctors say, we should prepare for the worst."
A heart attack at his father's age, coupled with the preexisting condition of being a narcissistic workaholic who also happened to drink too much—yeah, the odds were definitely against him.
"You don't have to go, if you don't want to," his uncle offered gently, glancing up and meeting Daniel's gaze. "I will go and keep you updated."
And for a second, Daniel was tempted. He could stay here and pretend to work on this damn budget that his father—
Fuck.
He got up.
"I do have to," he said. They both knew it was true. No matter how bad Daniel's relationship with his father was, he couldn't not show up at that hospital. "Come on, let's go."
His uncle stood up as well.
"Saul will drive us."
Daniel nodded and gathered the files on his desk in one pile, wishing he could rewind time to the point where his main problem was his father trying to ruin Ruth's Children Hospital with all those budget cuts.
He rubbed his eyes again, but there was no hope of stopping the headache anymore.
"Let's go, then."
* * *
Collins Memorial looked as sleek and luxurious as ever. Daniel had to come here for every board meeting and it never ceased to frustrate him how stark the difference was between this posh hospital for rich people, and Ruth's, a toss-away project that his father had cast aside and left to slowly die because it wasn't important enough. A project Daniel and his uncle had been putting everything into, but they were slowly losing the battle.
As they walked towards the side corridor to the elevators, Daniel felt people were staring, but he avoided everyone's gazes and nobody tried to talk to them. Next to him, his uncle was typing at his phone, seemingly oblivious to everything around him.
It wasn't until the elevator door closed—the cabin empty aside from the two of them, thankfully—that Daniel spoke up.
"Any news?" he asked, then chastised himself in his head. What kind of question was that? If something changed, his uncle would tell him.
Still, it didn't matter that they were almost there and they were going to find out in about a minute or two. Daniel wished he knew right this second. Before they would have to face everyone out there—Theresa, her children who were never far behind, the hospital staff...
His uncle squeezed his shoulder briefly.
"No, nothing. But the surgery will probably take hours, so no news means good news."
Which Daniel knew, of course. Of course.
Before he could open his mouth and say anything more, the elevator paused at the fifth floor instead of their usual tenth, the management floor.
Cardiology Department, the sign on the opposite wall proclaimed right after the door opened. Daniel followed his uncle to the nurses station and the young woman sitting there straightened at their approach.
"Mr. Collins, Mr. Collins," she greeted them with accompanying nods before neither of them could say anything. "Mrs. Collins is with the family in the private waiting room at the end of this corridor." She gestured towards the right. "The surgery is still ongoing and we're all waiting for the news."
Daniel and his uncle both nodded and thanked the nurse before they followed her directions.
"Here we go," Daniel muttered and squared his shoulders before opening the door to the last room he wanted to walk into, only to immediately catch sight of the last people he wanted to see.
Both of Theresa's children, Vivien and Bruno, were flanking her on the couch, turned towards her like the eager little lap dogs they were. All three were impeccably dressed, poised, and somber.
Already dressed for the funeral.
The children, at least, had been waiting for this to happen for a long time, Daniel would bet. With Theresa, it was harder to tell which benefited her more.
His greetings were ignored and his uncle's were met with nods and nothing more.
Thankfully, his uncle had gone past caring about such things years ago—or maybe he never cared—and powered through.
"Are there any updates since we've spoken?" he asked, focusing on Theresa.
She tangled her hands in her lap and met his gaze.
"No, Phillip has been in surgery this whole time and nobody has told us anything yet."
"It's too early, of course," Bruno pointed out, sounding bored.
Then again, he always sounded bored unless he was waxing poetic about his work or about his step-father wherever the man could hear him. Surgery and sucking up seemed to be Bruno's two great passions. Everything else, including his wife and daughter, seemed to bore him terribly.
Pain pulsed behind Daniel's eyelids but he resisted rubbing his eyes again. He'd swallowed some ibuprofen on the way here and hoped it would kick in soon. While there was no cure for interacting with these people, some relief would be nice.
Necessary, even, since they were going to sit in the same room for hours without the usual buffer of others.
Daniel sat with his uncle on the couch furthest away from Theresa and her children—this room had multiple couches and a tray with coffee, tea, and soft drinks, for fuck's sake, he was going to burst a vein here—and took out his phone.
He stared at it. Should he be calling somebody?
"Let's wait for some news before we start notifying people," his uncle whispered next to him, although he, too, had his phone in hand.
"Even Mateo?" Daniel asked just as quietly.
His uncle grimaced. "Mateo doesn't have to be notified at all. We're not seeing each other anymore."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know." Daniel glanced towards the trio on the other side of the room, but they were talking amongst themselves and ignoring them. "What happened?"
"Officially, I'm boring. Unofficially, he found a younger guy who is more impressed with his...everything, I suppose."
It was Daniel's turn to grimace. "That sucks."
"It is what it is." His uncle shrugged, putting away his phone. "He was no Liam, anyway."
Liam had been the love of his uncle's life, the ideal no other man had ever reached. Unfortunately, Daniel had never met him, since he was five when Liam died and back then, Daniel had no contact with anyone from his father's side of the family. His uncle had dated some, in the following years, but it never lasted long.
"I guess I can welcome you back into the singles club, then," Daniel offered. "You've been missed."
His uncle huffed. "Thank you, that's kind of you, but we could switch places, you know? It would be good for you to get out of that club."
"Ugh," was Daniel's only answer. His dating life was no better than his uncle's, minus the tragic past.
His uncle might have been dating more than him, actually.
Before either of them cou ld say anything more, they were interrupted by a cursory knock on the door and a nurse entered the room without waiting for a response.
Everyone got up.
"The surgery is still ongoing," she said, glancing between them. "Director Collins's condition is serious and while I cannot say definitely how long the surgery will last, it will be at least two more hours, possibly more."
Bruno asked a few more questions related to the procedures, then they all thanked the nurse before she slipped out of the room.
The surgery taking only two more hours was highly unlikely. Daniel might not be a doctor but he worked in the hospital and heard more than his share of medical stories throughout his life. Cardiac surgery was only so short if there wasn't anything too bad or, on the opposite end, if the situation was bad enough not to risk endangering someone further.
And no surgeon in this hospital would want to lose Director Collins on the operating table.
"You heard her," Theresa said and Daniel looked up to meet her gaze. "It will be hours before we know anything. You don't have to be here."
When his uncle had offered that Daniel could stay back, it had been done out of care. This, coming from her, was a blatant dismissal.
It wasn't anything new, of course, but it still pissed him off.
How dare you, he wanted to tell her. He'd imagined telling her that a hundred times before, but never actually done it.
His uncle was much better at handling her, though.
"I disagree," he told her with a shake of his head. "We're good here."
Vivien and Bruno both sneered, but Theresa lifted her hand, silencing them immediately.
Well trained. Daniel restrained himself from rolling his eyes, but just barely.
"I don't think you understood me," Theresa said, in a voice even colder than before. "I notified you out of courtesy, Richard. You do not have a vote here. This is a family room, and you're family on paper alone and," she glared at Daniel, "only where Phillip couldn't change that."
His uncle tensed next to him.
"Don't provoke me, Theresa," he said calmly, but Daniel recognized the tone. His uncle was barely holding himself back. "You do not want to get into the 'who is more family' dispute when you're sitting there with two people who are only here—not just in this room, but in this hospital—because of their connection to you."
"Watch yourself or we will have you removed," Bruno barked, causing Daniel's uncle to chuckle and sit back.
"Oh, by all means, try. Go out there and tell them you want two board members removed from the premises. Be sure to mention our last name, too."
Bruno's nostrils flared. "If you had any damn self-respect—"
That was enough for Daniel.
"You're the last person to talk to anyone about self-respect. Don't embarrass yourself."
"If anyone is embarrassing himself, it's you." Theresa stood up and her children followed suit. "An estranged son, so desperate that he comes running to his father's deathbed as if that could change anything. You two have only his name and the scraps he allows you to have. But when he dies, I'll make sure you don't even have that anymore."
She walked out of the room, flanked by Bruno and Vivien, who both glared at them as they left.
Daniel slumped against the couch cushions. "Delightful as ever."
His uncle didn't say anything, frowning instead at the closed doors.
"Hey, don't let her, let them get to you," Daniel said. "It's nothing we haven't heard before. Maybe aside from that last part, but, well, it's not like it's any surprise, right?"
Daniel had learned a long time ago not to count on Phillip Collins giving him anything beyond what the law forced him to share. That Theresa wanted to take away even those scraps, as she so eloquently put it, was a foregone conclusion.
"She has no right to decide that," his uncle growled as he stood up and started walking back and forth.
Daniel had never seen him rattled like this. Then again, when one's brother was fighting for his life, one had the right to be rattled, no matter how difficult the brotherly relationship had always been.
"She doesn't have it now," Daniel pointed out gently. "But if he dies—"
His uncle paused and met his gaze, pinning him in place with an intense look.
"If he dies, she gets his personal assets, but she doesn't get control of the Collins family trust. She could never be a beneficiary."
Daniel frowned. "What?"
"Both hospitals, along with other assets of the Collins Foundation, are in the family trust." His uncle paused. "Wait, how much do you know about the trust?"
"I know the hospitals are in the trust started by my great-grandfather but I didn't..." Daniel shrugged. "I know my father would never leave me anything. I accepted that years ago. I never wanted to know how much of it there is and how he made sure it's given to someone else. I would be happy if you got it, though."
"Yeah, that's out of the question," his uncle told him. "But you can inherit the trust. You should."
"Uncle, I don't—"
"If one of them gets it, they're going to destroy Ruth's and you know it."
Daniel sighed. "I know. But listen, it feels wrong to talk about this now, when he's out there," he waved his hand towards the door, "fighting for his life. If he... If he dies, we can get a lawyer, we can try fighting this. Let's leave it for now, okay?"
"We can't leave it, though." His uncle ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, I really am. And of course I hope he pulls through. But regardless, we have to move quickly, because even if he pulls through, this can happen again and—"
Daniel stood up and walked up to his uncle, putting his hands on the man's shoulders.
"Okay, okay," he said quietly, trying to calm him down. "Tell me what you have in mind."
His uncle met his gaze and for a long moment he just stared at Daniel without a word. Then, he finally spoke up.
"You have to get married."
CHAPTER TWO
Noa Alana signed off on the last purchase requisition form and handed it back to Lily, his assistant.
"I will send it off right away," she said, putting the file in the folder she was holding. "Is there anything more you need from me today?"
"No, I'm good. You can go now, we don't want you to get stuck in traffic and miss the flight."
"No, we most definitely do not. My father-in-law would not let me live that down. If I hear one more thing about how New York is better than DC, I swear to God..."
"I'd bet New York's traffic is worse than ours."
She huffed. "Tell him that."
"He's still not letting it up about the move?"
"He won't let up until he gets his way." Lily grimaced. "To be honest, if he stopped pushing it so hard, he would have better chances of convincing us, but that's 'just not him', according to Marlene."
"You tell your wife that if you ever do decide to move, her father would have to wait for you to find me a proper replacement."
She shrugged. "There's no replacing me and you know it."
He did know. He would be lost without her in two days, max.
"Adequate, then," he corrected. "And you don't need my compliments, you need to go. Shoo."
"Don't ever shoo at me again or you'll be looking for the obviously inferior assistant on your own," Lily told him, even as she headed to the door.
"Have a great weekend!" Noa shouted after her and chuckled when she flipped him off.
Alone again, he turned towards the windows and stared at the DC skyline before him.
When Kalei, his brother-in law and boss, insisted that they needed to move once KRK Security had grown from a boutique agency to a bigger operation, Noa had had his doubts and tried to rein Kalei in. This building was out of their initial price range and too big for their needs, even with all the expansion plans. Noa had argued that they could always move again if they outgrew the smaller office.
These days, he was glad he'd lost that fight. The company continued to grow and they were fully booked more often than not, sometimes months in advance. The finances were better than good and his worries had been put to bed a long time ago.
