The Love Of Money - Episode 302
31-08-25 (06:37)
I’d already contemplated having someone killed before,
but not like this. I wasn’t just entertaining the idea—I
was fucking planning it.
Would Chloe kill him if I told her to? I paid her enough.
How would she do it? With her gun? A piece of glass
off the floor? A random paper clip? What about She-
Hulk over there? Would she be able to stop Chloe
before my bodyguard finished the job? How much time
would I buy her to kill this guy if I threw myself in front
of the giantess? How long would it take her to tear me
in half? That’d be enough time for Tyler to die, right?
On second thought, maybe this wasn’t the best time to
kill Tyler. Psalter- probably knew ten different people
who could get the job done. I’d even pay to have him
killed in a very specific, very graphic way. Tear his head
off, perhaps? However it happened, I’d want him killed
slowly… maybe in a weird way. Someone could nail
him to a wall with a nail gun while he was still alive.
Quentin… Tyler… whoever took another sip of his drink,
still smirking at me. “What’s the matter? Nothing to
say? Goddamn… you really had it bad for her, didn’t
you?”
“Did she know?” I asked.
“Did she know what?” Tyler said, swirling his drink in
the tumbler.
“Did she know we were brothers?”
Tyler simply stared back at me, playing with his drink
like some fucking villain. Finally, he said, “She knew.”
I felt myself swallow like there was a bag of marbles
in my throat.
“She felt guilty at first,” Tyler continued, staring at his
glass. “She told me more than once that she thought
you should know, but I talked her out of it. It’s not like
she owed you an explanation. You waited too long to
make your move… like a coward.”
He cut his eyes up at me, a mocking glint shining from
under his thick eyebrows. “Honestly, I think she’s
relieved she went with me. She never outright said it,
but more than once, she said you were getting clingy
and smothering her.”
I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. I’d given
Natalie so much space—you could argue too much. I
hadn’t put up a fight for Natalie after she’d returned
from the wedding, and more than once, I’d regretted
taking that route. At the time, I thought she just
needed space. A lot of change had hit her. She’d lost
her boss, been promoted, and suddenly became
romantically entangled with someone who had been a
friend for a year. On top of that, it was her employer…
someone who had become one of the wealthiest men
in New York overnight. I didn’t want to pressure or
overwhelm her.
The last word I would have described my behavior was
‘clingy.’
“Oh, and that stunt you pulled yesterday?” He tutted at
me. “So desperate. She called you a loser.’”
“Liar,” I said.
Tyler shrugged his shoulders and took another sip of his
drink. “I didn’t say it. She did.”
“That doesn’t sound like Natalie at all,” I said. “I gave
her an entire planet’s worth of space to make up her
own mind, and she chose you. She told me about the
wedding, and I let her make up her own mind without
putting up a fight because I respect her enough to
make the best decision for her. I also know Natalie well
enough to know she appreciated that. She wouldn’t
have called me a loser, even after yesterday.”
He watched me without confirming or denying what I
said, and despite my second-guessing, I tried to keep
my face as stone-like as possible. Finally, he snorted,
shook his head, and gave me a congratulatory smirk.
“Jesus, man. I thought I nearly had you for a minute.
Fine.” He threw back the rest of the alcohol and began
fidgeting with the tumbler. “Yeah, Natalie could tell she
broke your heart. She didn’t regret choosing me but
may have felt a little guilty.”
Regardless of how small that kernel of good news was,
it felt like a tiny blossom of heat in my chest that I
desperately clung to. ‘She felt guilty.’ At that moment,
those were some of the most beautiful words I could
hear.
Catching Tyler’s lie created cracks in the rest of his story
as the seconds ticked by. The look in Natalie’s eyes…
the confusion… they all started to paint a different
picture.
“She didn’t know we were brothers, either, did she?”
“Nah, man,” Tyler said. I guess he decided keeping up
any part of the lie wasn’t worth it. “She didn’t know we
had anything to do with each other.”
“She’s not dumb. She would have put it together when
you told her your last name,” I said.
“Probably,” he said. “It’s why I used my mom’s last
name. Fuck the Gerrards. Dad’s been dead forever,
Gramps hates me, Nina’s a bitch, and everyone else is
either in jail or not on speaking terms. I’ve never felt
like a Gerrard and don’t want anything to do with
them.”
“Then why are you talking to me? Why’d you go after
Natalie?” I asked.
“Why did I go after Natalie?” Tyler asked, repeating the
question as if it was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard.
“Have you seen her?”
“There’s no way you can expect me to believe you guys
just randomly met at a wedding,” I said.
Tyler sighed and returned to the bar to pour himself
another drink—twice as much this time. “The moment I
found out about you, I hired a man to dig into
everything.” He took a sip, turned, and leaned back
against the bar. “Brother, I know more about you than
your own mom. I know where' you banked before the
inheritance. I know you and Jessica Kemp dated for
several months before she ended things with you to
date some guy named Shawn. I have a pretty good
idea of what you’re doing with that Barbara chick. Shit,
man… I know your fucking porn habits.”
“So when I learned you were into Natalie, but you
weren’t dating yet, I did some digging and found out
about the wedding she was attending. I got the
wedding planner’s name, bought him off, and added
myself to the guest list. I showed up with an expensive
present, gave them all the ol’ Tyler charm, and zeroed in
on Natalie. It was cute how much we had in common
thanks to my PI, and next thing I know, she’s back in
my room with her clothes all over my floor.”
Tyler ended his little villain monologue with a satisfied
smile and another sip of his drink.
“Wait… you’re seriously telling me you investigated my
whole life, found out who I was potentially dating, and
started dating them before I made my move?” I asked,
clarifying the crazy.
“Yeah,” he said, grinning as if giving me the punchline
to an uncommonly good joke.
“What the fuck? Why? Who has that kind of time?”
“I do!” he shouted, pointing at his chest. It was so
abrupt that I jumped in my own skin. “Me! I have that
kind of time! I don’t have a fucking job, I’ve got the
money to spend, and I hate you enough to dedicate the
last few weeks to making your life a living fucking hell!
I’ll spend the next year doing it if I have to. Years, even!
Natalie’s just the beginning.”
“But why?” I asked again.
“Come on, Marcus! The money!”
“It seems to me like you have enough,” I said. His
stupid stunt to make my life hell had probably set him
back tens of thousands or even more. Anyone willing to
spend that kind of money on something so petulant
had to be wealthy.
“For stealing your girl, sure,” Tyler said. “Nothing on your
level, though. I can buy a mansion. You can buy an
island! I can buy a business. You can buy a fucking
country! When Gramps kicked it, I thought this would
be my time! Hell, even a fraction of the money would
have been a game-changer, but no… I didn’t get shit.
None of us did. You got the whole thing, and we’re
stuck with goddamn table scraps! I’m bored, and I’m
fucking done playing in the little leagues!”
“So, when my lawyers couldn’t figure out a way around
the will and told me I was shit out of luck, I decided if I
couldn’t have the money, I’d take whatever else of
yours I could get my hands on.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered. “Did it ever cross your mind
that you could have just talked to me? We’re brothers! I
know you don’t want anything to do with Gerrards, but
I would have—”
“Oh, fuck no! You are not a Gerrard!” Tyler cut in. “That’s
the fucking thing… you’re some stranger who’s never
had anything to do with this family, and I’m not sure
whether that’s worse than you being part of the
family.”
“Either way,” I said, “None of this is necessary.”
“Give me the money,” Tyler said pointedly.
I blinked. “What? No.”
“Give me half the money,” Tyler said. “You can keep
the other half. We’d both still be the wealthiest people
on the planet. Fuck everyone else.” Don't forget to leave a Comment 
