Read Online My Billionaire Stepbrother by Jillian Sterling - Free Book Online

to worry anymore. When your father and I decided to marry,
I insisted that we become true family. Family shares everything. What’s mine is
his, and what’s his is mine. I know we are strangers, Veronique, but I also
consider you my step-daughter.”
    Dad shifts, looking a bit
uncomfortable.
    “Wait,” Remington interjects. “What
do you mean, what’s yours is his? Tell me you made Jacques sign the pre-nuptial
agreement, Mom. Please tell me you haven’t completely lost your mind.”
    Diana’s eyes flash.
    Now I can see where Remington gets
his temper.
    “Of course I didn’t make him sign
the pre-nup!  A pre-nup is an ugly thing, a mockery of marriage. The point of
marriage is to become one.”
    Remington leaps to his feet.
    “Mom! The man is a poker player, he
said so himself: a poker player who lets his daughter support him! Are you
insane? Without the pre-nup you’re a sitting duck with our entire fortune at
stake!”
    My Dad stands too, holding his
hands out plaintively.
    “Remington, please understand,” Dad
says. “I did sign the pre-nup. I agree with you: I wanted your mother to feel
protected. I am not interested in her money; I just wanted to be with her.
Don’t think for a minute that I have any intention of using your family
resources to gamble. I always use my own money. And I usually win.”
    “That is actually true,” I
interject. “I just help with the bills.”
    “It was my decision,” Diana
insists, banging her fist on the table. “Jacques begged me to sign it too, but
I refused. I tore it up in front of our lawyers. And I would do it again today
or tomorrow. It is my choice. So Remington, sit down.”
    Remington glares at my father a
split-second longer, assessing, and then plops angrily into his chair.
    “Back to what I was saying,” Diana
says, collecting herself. “Veronique, I want us to be a family. I have so much
respect for everything your father has told me about you, how hard you work and
how focused you are on pursuing your success as a musician. I want to help you.
This is my idea, by the way Remington – not Jacques’.”
    If possible, Remington pouts even
more.
    “We have set up a trust fund for
Veronique. And, we have made her a minority holder of Wilde Hospitality Corp.
The stocks are already worth several millions, Miss LaRoux, with the trust
yielding upwards of two hundred thousand dollars a month.”
    My cheeks begin to tingle with
something between shock, shame, and hope. Diana smiles at me, completely
oblivious to how much her generosity has the power to change my life.
    My Dad smiles and takes my hand.
    “You do not have to worry about
money any more, Kiki: just focus on your studies, if you want to return to
school. The trust money is yours to do with as you choose, whether to use as a
living stipend in the US or mad money for travel or drugs even.”
    “Dad!”
    “I know you don’t do drugs honey,
I’m just saying, that is the nature of a trust: you use it for what you want
and the money will always be there for you no matter what. We will support
whatever decision you make.”
    Diana nods, her face serious. “You
are welcome to stay here or go anywhere in the world: any Wilde Hospitality
Corp property is your home. When I took on your father I took on you too, and I
want you to know that you are a part of the Wilde family now. That comes with
prestige, wealth, and connections. You are not alone anymore, and you will
never be poor again.”
    I sit stunned, my coffee-cup in my
hand in mid-slurp. My heart is hammering so loudly I am sure that Remington can
hear it from where he sits beside me.
    Can this be true?
    Am I suddenly rich?
    And not just rich but, like, RICH,
rich?
    It seems way too good to be true.
    This never happens in real life, I tell myself. Fairy godmothers don’t just show up and make you an heiress.
Nothing is this perfect, is it? I must be hallucinating. Somebody pinch me.
    “Kiki,” my father whispers, “Just
breathe. It’s real.