Ellis licked his lips and the lines around his eyes deepened. “It’s come to my attention…” He huffed out a breath. “I mean, there was no way to give myself a reminder. This was years ago.”

“Tell them, Ellis,” Grams demanded.

“Yes. Right.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Before she died, Sarah put some money in a trust for each of the kids.” His gaze darted between me and Dad.

Ice crystals crowded my veins. Being reminded of Mama’s death was never easy, as if I didn’t think about it every day. I erected a mental block before I could be sucked into the past, to the day Mama had been killed and the dreary months afterward.

Dad’s brow furrowed, but I didn’t miss the beat of sorrow in his eyes. “A trust?”

Dad didn’t know about this?

“The terms, Ellis,” Grams snapped.

Ellis jumped, but adjusted his weight to another butt cheek to hide it. “A rather sizable sum of one hundred million dollars was set aside for each of the kids.”

For me and my brothers? That was a lot of money. I made an excellent wage as King Oil’s CFO, but not one hundred million dollars.

“From the partial sale of King Oil. Years ago.” A storm raged in her eyes. Grams had loved Mama—her only child. And she loved money. Mama was gone, but this money wasn’t. “I gifted it to her to put into a trust. But I never thought…” She waved her hand at Ellis. “What was she thinking?”

Ellis licked his lips again. He’d need an entire tube of ChapStick before this meeting was done. “It’s payable on each kid’s thirtieth birthday. However.” A shadow rippled over his features, and the already diminutive man shrank in his chair. “The stipulations require that each boy be married for one year before the trust is paid out. If that boy has already been married for the requisite year, or gets a divorce sometime after, the money will be split in half. It is exempt from any prenuptial agreement.”

I snorted. Married. Did my job count? It was the only girlfriend, fiancée, or mistress that I had.

Grams’s glare bore reality into me. I would turn twenty-nine later this year. Was I expected to get married and get this money?

How the hell would that work? I wasn’t seeing anyone. I didn’t really date. I’d go on a date here and there. I worked my ass off, but sometimes I wanted to get laid too. That was the only reason I dated. My work was all-consuming. I’d been groomed for this job since I was…since Mama had died. My grandparents had founded this company. My dad had worked for it since I was born.

I was the oldest. It was my job to continue in the family’s footsteps.