Let’s Pretend

by Laurent, River

  I pull out of the parking lot, and I finally let myself smile. I can take on anything as long as I have him by my side.

  It is the only thing that matters.

  Chapter 32

  Zach

  "What are you saying?” I demand, leaning forward and narrowing my eyes at Scarlett’s family lawyer, Ernest.

  He pushes his glasses up his nose and uselessly shuffles the documents in front of him. "Look, I was sure this was going to work too." He raises his eyebrows at me pointedly. "But it turns out you’re not the most popular man in town, Zach. Seems like it’s gone against you in this instance."

  I lean back in the chair and stare at him. After all Scarlett has done, it is possible that she won’t get the one thing I know she wants above all else. I glance over at her, and her face is set with tension. I don’t blame her. She must feel this like is a punch to the gut. That’s certainly how it feels to me.

  I’d felt so sure this would work. In fact, there should have been no reason that it didn’t. This is what I am struggling with. I have spent so long trying to figure out the details of how best to approach this that by the time we put in the request, I was dead certain I had everything on lockdown. As it turns out, though… I am wrong. And it’s all because my fucking reputation got in the way of the one thing Scarlett truly wanted from me.

  "Can you explain what’s going on?” Scarlett asks.

  I almost wince as I can hear her voice trembling.

  "Scarlett, we put in the request to have the property expedited to you and Zach, but it doesn’t look like you’re going to be able to get hold of it," Ernest explains to her gently. "I know it’s what you wanted, but the judge who looked over the case denied it."

  "On what grounds?" I demand. "Everything was in order… there was no good reason—"

  "Seems like you picked off the carcass of the business of one of his brothers," Ernest says, a spiky edge to his voice.

  He blames me for this.

  I shake my head in disbelief. Of course, just as I start to change my tune and focus on something more positive for my business, my previous practices come swinging in to bite me in the ass and remind me of the jerk-off I’ve been.

  "Oh, my God," Scarlett gasps. Her face is a white as a sheet, and she looks as though she is about to pass out.

  "Here, take a drink," Ernest says kindly, and pushes a glass of water over the table towards her.

  She grabs it and takes a sip, but it doesn’t do much to help. She closes her eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath. "So you’re telling me that we’re not going to be able to get the house back from Victoria?” Her voice is high-pitched and panicky.

  This isn’t fair on her. This is all she wanted. She was willing to go to wild lengths, giving up all her shares she owned, marrying me, for fuck’s sake, to get what she wanted. And now, it has blown up in her face. It kills me to think not only am I not going to be able to deliver my part of the bargain for her, it turns out it is my fault that she can’t get the most important thing to her. I feel helpless, useless, and I hate myself for it.

  "It doesn’t look like this marriage is going to be the way to do it," he replies grimly. "You could approach her and offer to buy it outright, but... I doubt she’d hand over the place to you no matter how much money you offered her, anyway. Seems like she’s got it out for you and Lori."

  I reach out to take Scarlett’s hand. She just lets hers sit limply in mine, not seeming to care one little bit about whether I’m there or not. I have never felt so terrible in my life. I have completely failed her, and I don’t see any other way I can get her what she wants.

  "Can you arrange a meeting with her?" I suggest. "Something soon? Let me talk it over with her, get her to see that—"

  "You can’t," Ernest replies. "She’s on vacation."

  "On vacation?” Scarlett spits.

  I can hear the vitriol in her voice. There’s no doubt in my mind that she really, really hates this woman. I don’t blame her. She’s a raging bitch keeping a house she doesn’t even want from Scarlett just because she can. I don’t know what kind of sick freak would get off on something like that.

  "She’s going to be out of the country for at least the next month, and I think she fully expects to have sold the house by then," he explains. "She’s had a few offers already..."

  "A few offers?” Scarlett repeats blankly.

  Ernest nods. "It’s probably not going to be long until someone takes it," he tells her gently. "Perhaps you and Lori should prepare for the eventuality."

  "I’m not preparing for anything," she replies, as she gets to her feet. She seems to sway unsteadily, making me jump to my feet too. "I don’t see why I should have to give up my ancestral home just because Victoria is too much of a bitch to sell it to me. She doesn’t even want it, and she won’t even let us buy it back from her? What kind of—"

  But before she can finish what she is saying, the blood drains from her face, as she tries to grab the back of the chair to try and keep herself upright. But her brain has already shut off and her body crumples beneath her.

  I catch her before she hits the ground. "Open the window," I tell Ernest. "We need to get her some air. This is too stressful for her. I’m not surprised she went down..." I put Scarlett on the chair and hold her head between her knees. Silently, I apologize to her, over and over again, for failing her the way I have. I’m going to make it right. I’m going to find a way to make it right...

  Within a few minutes, Scarlett comes around. As soon as she comes to, I see the distress come back into her eyes.

  “I’m going to lose the house, Zach,” she whispers and her eyes fill with tears.

  Watching her cry has the strangest effect on me. It breaks me in a way I never thought possible. I scoop her into my arms and carry her to the car. I’m going to make it right. I’m going to find a way to make it right...

  As I’m driving, and Scarlett is curled up on her seat and gazing out of the window. She hasn’t said a word to me since she whispered that one heart-breaking statement. She doesn’t need to. I can tell everything that's going through her head. She is so hurt, so hurt at the news that she will not get her family home back.

  And it is all my fault.

  She must blame me for it. I wish I could go to that judge, tell him the truth, that things are different now. That he doesn’t know the half of who I am or what I’ll become. But I know it doesn’t work that way. He has made his mind up and the best I can do is start thinking of other ways I can approach this case and get Scarlett what she wants so badly.

  We arrive at my doctor’s office. I go around quickly to help her out of the car.

  She leans on me heavily, as though she can barely stand or to keep herself upright under her own steam. She is utterly exhausted. Maybe it is the shock, but it seems strange that she could be weak.

  I start to worry that something else might be wrong with Scarlett.

  Dr. Dansen ushers us through to his office at once.

  Scarlett sits on the edge of the hard bed as he checks her over and takes her blood.

  I sit opposite her, urging her silently to look up at me, to give me some sign that she’s not blaming me, but she stares straight ahead and answers all the doctor’s questions robotically.

  "Just give me a few moments to run your vitals and I’ll be back with you," he tells us, and heads out of the office.

  I reach over for Scarlett’s hand and hold it tight.

  She finally looks up at me. It is the first time she has acknowledged my presence in the room, and it seems like something of a relief to see me there.

  "We’ll find another way," I promise her. "We will. I don’t care how long it takes, we’ll find another way..."

  "I don’t know that we can," she replies quietly, like she has already come to that conclusion herself. "Maybe it’s time to just—just…” she swallows hard as if she can’t even say the words. “Let go. Move on." Silent tears well up in her eyes roll down her cheeks.
<
br />   I wipe them away with my thumbs as I make a silent promise to myself. I don’t care if I lose everything I have. I am going to get that house for her. "I don’t want you to do that," I urge. "I want that girl back, the one who will never say die. Do you hear me? We’ll find another way, I promise you. Just wait and you’ll see. My father always said there’s more way than one to skin a cat..."

  Before she could reply, the doctor enters the room once more. He seems comfortable and pretty happy with the results he’s looking at.

  I am glad to see it. My wife has become my life now, and I can’t imagine what I would do if there was something truly wrong with her.

  "Everything seems to be just fine," the doctor tells us with a smile. "Mother and baby are just fine."

  And with that, everything stops.

  She freezes, and my mind actually goes blank. I can’t think at all. I just stare at Dr. Dansen in open-mouthed shock.

  "No, there must be some kind of mistake," Scarlett tells him as she manages a little splutter of laughter, even though there is no mirth at all to the sounds coming out of her mouth. "I’m not – I'm not pregnant. There is no baby. I’m on the pill..."

  "Well, you must be carrying one of those miracle babies that just will not take no for an answer," the doctor says with a laugh. "Yes, I would say you’re about a month along, by my estimation? You can get pregnant if you missed even one day or if you vomit."

  He keeps talking, but everything else after that fades out to static in my brain. There’s no way...she can’t be. She just can’t be. She’s not meant to... we were just faking the marriage. The baby isn’t fake. This is real, this is happening...

  She is talking to him, as I tune back in. She is babbling, just trying to get the words out, "But I—I can’t be that far along. I was only."

  "If this is the first you’re finding out about it, I suggest you and your husband take some time to talk over your options, and if you decide you want to move forward with the pregnancy, then I can refer you to some excellent ob-gyns."

  “Yes, that would be great,” I say.

  He writes down some numbers for us and hands them over to me.

  I take the page silently. I feel as if I am running on autopilot.

  “Right, then. I wish you both the best of luck,” the doctor says into the dense silence.

  I help Scarlett to her feet and the two of us head back out to the car. The world feels like it is muted as we step back in together.

  She closes the door behind her and stares off into space as if she is shell-shocked.

  I know exactly how she feels. We’ve both just had the bombshell of a lifetime dropped on top of us.

  "I didn’t know," she blurts out finally. "You have to believe me, I had no idea. Really. It was—it was as much a shock to me as it was to you..."

  "Yeah, I can tell that," I reply grimly. I don’t know what I’m meant to say to her. I don’t even know if she wants to keep the baby. Our baby. Our baby. And I know at that instant that I want it. More than she wants her house.

  "I wouldn’t have kept this from you," she continues fervently. "I—I would have told you the truth, if I had known. You understand that, right?”

  "Yes, I know.”

  "Let’s go home," she says. "I need to get some rest, don’t you?”

  "Yeah, I do," I agree as I start the car up and head towards home.

  Suddenly out of nowhere, a happy little thought comes into my head. Soon, it won’t just be ours. We have a little invader on the way.

  Chapter 33

  Zach

  “Explain it to me one more time?” Tom Bilson asks me again.

  The job doesn’t require a business genius, but I can be patient with him. I have too much at stake not to get it right first time around. "Okay. Your company will buy the property from Victoria Johnson-Forger. And then you will sell it back to me, but at no time will you let her or any of her other associates know that you are a proxy buyer.”

  “As soon as I have the contracts signed, I call you and let you know, right?” he finishes.

  "Exactly," I agree.

  He eyes me from across the desk. "You sure about this? It seems like an odd way to repay you for the money."

  "This is the only thing I need," I reply, and I mean it. "If you can get this for me, you have my ongoing support for as long as you need it. That’s a promise."

  Tom’s face lights up. I know he is still getting over the fact that I offered him my support in the first place, but throwing this on top of it must be even more of a relief. His family business will be in the clear again, after looking like it was going to crash.

  I just need his help to take care of some other family business, and this whole thing will be over.

  "Alright, well, I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve signed the contracts," he replies, getting to his feet and holding his hand out to me.

  "Alright," I nod, and I shake his hand.

  "I’ll speak to you soon, okay?” he says before he heads to the door.

  I sink back into my seat as soon as he is done and let out a long sigh. It feels like it has been a fury of work this past week even though I still have a few more steps to take before I make the land and house package mine for good.

  I never imagined in a million years that I’d be a father, and I would be anything other than straight horrified at the prospect of it, but I’m not. I love the idea of being a father to our baby.

  I haven’t spoken to Scarlett about it though. I know that she needs time to process all the crazy things that are happening to her. She hasn’t said she wants to keep it and I can’t force her to keep it, but I don’t think I will need to. I trust her. I know she could never kill our baby. What we made together. A miracle baby that survived against all odds.

  I can’t help but feel like this is some kind of fate. We are married, and now she is pregnant. That is how these things are supposed to be.

  Being around her makes everything shine brighter, that’s for sure. Life is just ten times better when she’s with me… it’s just that simple. Even though it might sound cheesy, and it is the kind of thing I would have internally rolled my eyes at if someone else had come at me with this story of me getting married and having a baby. Despite all that, it's the pure truth. It’s not just that I enjoy being around her, but even when she’s not by my side, I find myself thinking about her.

  She doesn’t even know that I’ve been helping out with Tom’s company, but she will soon, and as soon as she does, she’s going to know I did it for her.

  I spend the rest of the day trying to distract myself and keep busy. I jump to answer the phone every time it rings, but it’s never Tom. Not yet. As soon as he has the property under contract, then I know they are as good as mine. And there’s no need for Victoria to hear a word about it.

  I know that if I’m going to convince Scarlett to start a family with me, she’s going to want to do it in the very same house she grew up in. That place is her family home, and every time she talks about it, I know she wants nothing more than to go back there and start her family there.

  Finally, the phone rings. I snatch it up and I hear Tom’s voice.

  "Did you get it?” I ask.

  He pauses for a moment, and I am sure he is going to tell me that he didn’t. That somehow, Victoria saw through my plan, and refused to sell the house to him, even though his offer was higher than anything she had received until now.

  "I got it!" he exclaims.

  I swear, champagne corks pop and fireworks explode in my head. I can’t believe it. It really worked. "You got it?” I repeat, as a flood of relief rushes through me.

  "I got it," he assures me. "And I’ll come down with the deeds to your place as soon as I get the chance, and you can get it all signed over to you officially."

  "Thank you so much," I tell him. "You have no idea how important this is to me—"

  "You have no idea how important our business is to our family," he tells me with equal sincerity. "You�
��re the one who saved our asses, Zachary Black. And we owe you big time."

  "Well, consider the debt repaid," I tell him. "How long before you can get down here?”

  "An hour, at most?”

  "I’ll get my lawyers up and we can get this on paper and finalized," I reply. "I’ll see you soon, alright?"

  I hang up the phone and allow myself a victorious air-punch. I’m still a bit wary that it all actually came through. But I suppose, the way to a gold digger’s heart is always through a huge pile of cash. As long as she doesn’t know I am behind the sale, it should all be smooth sailing. The old version of me would have balked at paying above the odds for anything, but there isn’t any amount I wouldn’t have paid to make sure that Scarlett got what she wanted.

  Soon enough, Tom is at the office, and we run through all the legal proceedings to make sure that everything is as it should be. It all moves so fast and cements the idea in my head. Usually, when I get an idea in my head, it’s impossible to get rid of it. And I have this idea, of Scarlett and I raising our little kid in Wotton House.

  As soon as the contracts are signed, I head down to the car to make my way back home. Scarlett probably thinks I have been avoiding her, given all the time that I’d been staying at the office working out this deal, but when I show her what I’ve really been working on...

  Fuck, I feel nervous. Really nervous. Because I want that dream of us living together and building our family, so badly.

  Chapter 34

  Zach

  I walk into the entrance hall, and head straight to the library, where I know she will be hiding out. Whenever she is stressed or worried, she hangs out in there. She has barely left the last week.

  A few times, I have ducked my head inside and found her passed-out asleep on the chair, a book falling out of her hand. Then I have carried her to bed, carefully, at least three times this week, and she always nestles into my arms when I lift her out of the chair. As though she wants me, but hasn’t been allowing herself that weakness.