Handsome liked the idea of Maddie getting money, as it might grant her the opportunity to not only rise in wealth, but status, too. At the very least, the restrictions seemed a little unfair to her brothers, who she assumed needed it just as badly as Maddie and her sister did. The details of it all just seemed very fishy — at least by his sense of logic.

"So you can change your name and inherit... but your brother's can't? No Herb Kozlov?" he asked with a raised brow. Perhaps it was just his mediocre legal knowledge, or perhaps their grandfather just had a vendetta against every male in existence after one of little wealth had married his daughter, but still.

Perhaps he just needed to straighten out his priorities and worry about Maddie. Perhaps it was his own wired prejudice against women that made the thought of Maddie being independent from her family or a man — from himself even — leave a sour taste in his mouth. Women with their own money and way of living had no need for marriage or families, right? They were selfish and had the wrong priorities in life... right? That's at least what society had taught him, and he was now facing a battle between what he was taught about women and what he knew about Maddie.