His Tardiness, Her New Marriage Chapter 03

His Tardiness, Her New Marriage Chapter 03

My parents, my younger brother Taylor, and the Langford’s adopted daughter, Lily, were blocking the entrance to the terminal.

Taylor was the first to rush over, grabbing my suitcase.

“Audrey, are you insane? If you leave, that project at the company is dead! It needs the Harrington’s investment to survive! Do you have any idea what the consequences are?”

While I was distracted, my mother snatched my purse.

“I heard what happened. Just wait for them to get the annulment. It’s only a few weeks!”

Lily walked over, her voice soft and gentle. “Audrey, I know you’re upset. But… we’re a family.”

“Can’t you just think about the bigger picture?”

The bigger picture?

Was it just this one time?

When I was eighteen, I gave her the shares my grandfather left me in his trust fund.

When I was twenty-one, I gave up the engagement my grandfather had arranged for me with the prestigious Ashford family from the East Coast, all because she wanted it.

When I was twenty-two, I drank with a client to secure a deal for our family, and ended up in the emergency room with a bleeding stomach.

When I was twenty-five, I took the fall for Taylor embezzling company funds to protect our family heir’s reputation…

Every single time, it was brushed aside as “we’re family,” “it’s what you should do.”

But ever since I was brought back to this so-called “home,”

Who had ever truly considered me?

All of my parents’ love and affection had been poured into Lily—the sweet, obedient child they had raised since she was little.

My brother had been coddled his whole life, a bottomless pit that could never be filled.

If it weren’t for Blake appearing in my life like a ray of light,

I never would have made it this far.

He saw my quiet suffering, he understood my awkwardness.

With him around, Lily’s digs and my parents’ favoritism became less frequent.

I fell in love with him, I depended on him.

I desperately wanted him to marry me soon.

I thought that by starting my own family, I could finally escape the one that was suffocating me.

That’s why I always told myself to just tolerate Sloane’s constant boundary-crossing.

But now, that pathetic hope was gone too.

“Give me back my purse.”

I held out my hand to my mother, my voice calm.

My mother’s eyes flickered, but she didn’t move.

“Let’s go back to Greenwich first. We’ll talk after you’ve calmed down.”

Taylor was practically jumping with anxiety. “Audrey! Please! As long as you marry Blake and we get that investment, you can do whatever you want afterward!”

I looked at this younger brother who had been spoiled by the entire family.

“How much more money does the Langford family need to survive, to stop selling me off like a commodity?”

Taylor was stunned for a moment.

He instinctively blurted out a shockingly large number.

I nodded and pulled my phone out of my coat pocket.

I found a number that wasn’t saved with a name and dialed it.

The phone rang five times before it was answered.

“Three hundred million dollars. If you agree, we get married tomorrow.”