by Coco Miller
“Oh, good. You hired a waitress for the evening. I’d like a whiskey neat, please.” My father snaps his fingers at Zola, and her body tenses under my hand that is on the middle on her back.
“Yes, me too.” My grandfather puffs on his cigar. “We need to talk to you about your birthday. We have a few respectable, wealthy women lined up for you to meet.”
Zola gasps, not liking what she just heard.
The door is still open and with more force than necessary, I slam it shut, shaking the crystals on the chandelier above us.
“No need to talk about it. The woman you so rudely asked you to get a drink is my wife. Her name is Zola Washington, well it’s Zola Steele now.”
I kiss the side of her temple, and her body relaxes from the simple show of affection.
My father stares at us in disbelief. The silver dusting his dark hair seems to become a bit brighter as if my words have made him age. My grandfather drops his cigar and the loose skin around his neck jiggles as he shakes his head.
My mother, on the other hand, squeals in excitement and throws herself at Zola, embracing her in a tight hug.
“Oh, aren’t you just beautiful! Look at this dress. I love it. Oh my gosh, my baby got married! So, how do you feel about kids, Zola?” My mother laces her arms through hers and steers her toward the dining room where drinks that were poured by the actual people I hired to work tonight are waiting. “Because I’m not getting any younger and I need some grandbabies.”
My nana slaps my arm and shakes her finger at me, her white curly hair close to her head like always. She doesn’t say a word and she doesn’t need to. I know why she is upset. I lean down and kiss her cheek. “I love you, but you know I couldn’t say anything.”
“I know, dear boy.” Her hand pats my cheek. She shuffles her feet to catch up to Zola and my mom, not giving my dad or her husband a parting glance.
My dad steps forward. “You cannot be serious,” he hisses. “Her? Do you know the danger of having a woman of no merit involved in the company? She is of no class. You could have married the Westerfield woman or the Bantom girl and merged two powerful companies into one. No, no, no. We will get this annulled and fixed, and then marry you into the right family with the right woman.”
My anger gets the best of me. I slam my body against my father’s and grab the lapels of his jacket, holding him against the wall. The vase on the table falls and shatters on the floor.
“Easton Steele!” my grandfather shouts. “What is this behavior?”
The click of heels in the distance lets me know the women are rushing to the foyer. I don’t care. I’m taking care of this now. I pull my dad forward and slam him back so hard the drywall cracks and veins up to the ceiling.
“How dare you insult my wife?”
My face is hot, boiling with rage when I think of how he and my grandfather degraded her, not just to me but to Zola when she was standing right next to me.
“She is of more class than you will ever be. She is kind and full of warmth your cold heart could never understand. I own the company now. It’s mine. And that little bit you get for being related to me? It’s gone.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
His voice is low and threatening. He tries to push me off him, but I’m stronger and taller. Keeping him pinned is as simple as breathing.
“It’s the first thing I’m going to do. I know I may have taken you by surprise tonight but that’s no excuse for your bad behavior. Zola is my wife and I love her. She is at my side now and she is the best woman for the job. She’s strong; the kind of strength I don’t have. The kind I need.”
I lift my fist and bring it back and let it fly, smashing against my dad’s jaw.
“That’s for disrespecting her. Now, get the fuck out of my house.”
“Easton, this is insanity. You aren’t in your right mind. Clearly, that woman has poisoned—”
I punch him again and something cracks. I’m not sure if it is my fist or his face, but I don’t care. His lip is busted open and blood pools through his mouth, turning his teeth red. “I said get the fuck out of my house. If I find you here again, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.” I let go of his jacket and it’s crinkled and torn around the neckline where I held it.
“Fine,” he spits. “Victoria?” He calls for my mom. “We are leaving.”
“No,” I hold out my hand to my mother and nana. “You and grandpa are leaving. They are staying, and I’m going to make sure they never have to see you again.”
“We will see about that. Don’t forget, son. I’ve been in the business a lot longer than you have.”
“Don’t forget, dad,” I say his title with the same disgust. “I’ve watched how you do business. You aren’t as clever as you think. It’s not an accident that the company is thriving under my leadership.”
He curls his lip as he looks back at my mom who is still holding onto Zola like she is ready to protect her from her husband’s madness. My grandfather steps on his cigar and rubs tobacco all over the floor.
“I’ll be back for Lucille,” he says about my nana as he starts to walk out the door.
“Don’t bother,” her old voice shakes. “I want nothing to do with your old, rude, saggy ass!”
“Oh,” Zola laughs and then realizes her mistake, covering her smiling lips with her hand.
Opening the door again, they leave, and my father spits blood into my roses bushes. I close the door, lock it, and turn around to face three of my favorite ladies.
“So…who wants dinner?”
“I’m famished,” my mom says. “I can’t wait to learn more about your bride.”
“Me too,” my grandmother chimes in. “I wish I had an ass like that when I was younger. Maybe I’d of married a better man.”
“Grandma!” I’m astounded at how crass she is. She never spoke a lot around grandpa, so I never knew she was so fiesty.
“I bet your ass was shaking better than most women,” Zola says, shooting me a wink.
“Oh, you bet. There is this one time in Mexico, when I had too much tequila and stood on the bar…”
Zola walks with my grandmother to the dining room as she listens to the old woman’s tales. Tales I had no idea existed. Tales I most assuredly will be fine never knowing.
“I’m really proud of you, Easton.”
“Don’t be too proud. It wasn’t supposed to be about love. It was an arrangement at first. A way to hold onto the company.” I admit, knowing she wouldn’t be proud of that.
“I’m not sure. I know my son and I think it was probably always about love, Easton. You give one hundred percent of yourself to anything you do. You were in love with her on your wedding day or I believe you wouldn’t have married her.”
“Why did you marry Dad?”
“It was a family arrangement. A family expectation for us to marry. Only I wasn’t as lucky as you two.” She stares off into the distance. “I’m an old woman now. It’s too late for me. I’m just glad my son found something true.”
“I refuse to believe my mother isn’t capable of finding love. You’re still young, and once I make sure you are divorced from dad, you’ll have the opportunity. I’m sorry it took me so long.”
She frowns and holds my hand. “Come on, let’s go join your wife and your crazy grandmother. Let’s hope she doesn’t scare Zola away.”
I have a feeling nothing in this world can scare Zola away. She’s had so much happen in her life, and she tackled it the best she could and always strived to do better. She conquered so much, lost people she loved, fought pain for so long and never complained.
She’s changed everything for me. Our love is not tainted by a business arrangement or greed any longer. It is a pure love. Void of lies and manipulation. It is real. As real and as beautiful as the ocean waves as they crashed against my feet when she walked toward me as my bride.
Zola is the change in the tide, rising to the occasion, and when she sinks back, I’m there to support
her.
We are each other’s keeper.
Epilogue
Zola
Two years later
A lot has happened in the last few years. Both Easton’s parents and his grandparents got divorced. We found out that his father and grandpa were involved in some illegal activities like money laundering and underground gambling. It took us by surprise, but when the assets had to be divided during the divorce, inconsistencies kept arising.
Easton had been devastated to learn that a part of the company’s wealth was due to illegal activities. After going through every penny the company made, he discovered that a few million had been dirty money.
He said, “Well at least it’s only a few million.”
I nearly choked when he said that, but considering he is a billionaire, a few million isn’t that much to his fortune. He turned the dirty money and the cooked accounting books over to the police, and now life couldn’t be better. We live a pretty stress-free life. Our only complaint is that we have been trying to get pregnant for the last year with no luck.
I try and stay positive, but I can’t help but wonder if it is my fault. Maybe I have scar tissue from the accident or perhaps something inside of me got damaged. I don’t know.
Easton says it will happen when it’s meant to happen, but how can he say that? Women seem to drink water and get pregnant the next day. Why is it so hard for me?
“Hey, you,” he says, sliding into bed next to me causing the mattress to dip. It’s early, around six in the morning and he just came back from Japan after closing another deal. He is going to build Steele’s first skyscraper overseas. It’s one of his passion projects.
“I missed you.” He kisses my shoulder and turns me over only to see that I’m silently crying.
“I go back to Japan if you’re that upset about it.” He wipes my tears away with his thumb with a teasing smirk.
“Very funny,” I huff and pucker lips. He gives me one, two, three pecks before deepening the kiss and adding a little tongue. My favorite. “I missed you so much.”
“What’s wrong, wifey?”
“I just want us to have a baby so bad. All the negative tests are starting to take a toll on me, you know? It has to be me, Easton. It has to be. I’m probably all banged up inside.”
“You don’t know that. Look at me,” he takes my chin in his hand and forces me to look at him. “If you want, we will go to a specialist, but I really don’t think we need to. I hate how it is making you feel. Do you want to stop trying for a while? Maybe just relax for a bit.”
“What? No!” I shout. “I can’t believe you just said that. All I can think about is what our baby will look like. I know that he or she will be the perfect mixture of both of us. The baby will have your eyes—”
His hand lands on my chest, “And he or she will have your heart.”
My chin quivers and I shake my head. “I can’t imagine not giving you that, Easton. I want to so bad it hurts. I want to see what our child looks like. I just know they will be beautiful.” I place my hand over his and do my best not to cry, but the emotions taking control of my body are too strong. “I feel so lost.”
“Come here,” he embraces me in a tight hug, and he holds me like I’m something precious, one hand against the back of my head and the other hugged me. “I love you and if it’s our fate, I’ll love you any baby that we adopt. There are so many children out there that need homes. I’d give you as many as you want. Do you want two? A soccer team? Whatever you want is yours.”
I laugh, smiling through the tears as I pull back and wipe my wet cheeks. He always finds a way to make me happy. “You’d do that?”
“I’d do anything for you, Zola Steele. How can you not know that yet?”
“Maybe I just like hearing it.” I lean into his touch when he cups my face.
“Then I’ll tell you more.” He kisses my nose. “Alright, now how about we go get dessert in Italy? Nothing like gelato to make my woman feel better.”
“You just got back from Japan,” I say with a roll of my eyes and toss my legs over the edge of the mattress.
“So? Come on, who cares. Let’s go.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes, I’m serious. Maybe while we are there, we can find an adorable Italian baby that needs a home.”
“Don’t tempt me,” I shake my finger at him as I stand.
“I’m serious.”
I grab the post of the bed when I start to walk by it. The swirling wood is cold to the touch. “I know. It’s what makes me love you so much. I’ll be back, okay?”
“I’ll be packing our bags!” he shouts as I close the door to the restroom.
One thing I know for sure, Easton is taking me to Italy to cheer me up because that’s just who he is. We could stay in bed all day and I’d still be happy because I’m with him, but he always wants to take me somewhere. I’d be a crazy person if I protested. What person wouldn’t want to go to Italy?
Sighing, I open the cabinet and take out a Clearblue pregnancy test box. There’s only one test left. A part of me wants to take it, just to use it, and the other part of me doesn’t want to see another negative test. It’s morning, which is the best time to take it. Screw it. It’s the last one and it’s just collecting dust in the box.
Sitting on the toilet, my breath hitches from the cold seat. I unwrap the white packaging that has Clearblue written in blue all over it. My heart doesn’t beat fast with excitement. I don’t feel sick from anticipation. I’ve grown thick skin now and what I feel is just…nothing. I’m numb to it all.
I take off the blue cap and put the stick between my legs and count to five as I pee. Placing the cap back on, I sit the test on the packaging I took off and wait. I flush, wash my hands, and glance over at the screen to see it thinking.
It’s the longest three minutes of my life.
“Zola? You okay?” Easton knocks on the door.
“I’m fine. Just brushing my teeth,” I grab my toothbrush off the sink and turn the water on, shove the brush under the stream and shove it in my mouth.
“Alright, I’m packing all your bikinis. We’re going to be staying by a lake. Fuck, I’m getting hard just thinking about you in that little neon green one.”
I bite my bottom lip and stare at the door knowing Easton is behind it. He loves bright colors against my skin. He paws at me constantly, even in public, and I have to bat his hand away. He is always so passionate and horny, wanting to bend me over no matter where we are. He thinks I haven’t noticed, but he is slowly replacing my wardrobe with bright colors. Such a control freak.
I love it, though.
I never thought a man could want me and adore me as much as Easton does.
I stare down at the test again, still debating if I want to let him know what I’m doing.
“Maybe we should get you a thong to wear on the beach,” he continues to talk beyond the door. “That’s what everyone in Europe wears.”
“Everyone will see my ass, Easton.”
“Not where I’m taking us.”
He speaks with a deep rumble in his chest that makes my body react to him, and my hand gravitates toward the door, telling me to let him in so he can have his way with me.
Peeking over my shoulder I see the test is done flashing its hourglass. I glance toward the door and decide Easton should be apart of this whether it’s good or bad. When I turn the handle and swing the heavy wood open, there he is, standing with his shirt off in all his glory.
My mouth waters at the sight of his abs, and the small trail of hair disappearing under his jeans.
“Hey, beautiful,” he greets, quirking a cocky brow at me.
“I took the last pregnancy test,” I blurt.
His smile fades and he steps into the bathroom cupping my face. “I love you. Whatever happens, know that. Why did you take it? I hate seeing you disappointed.”
“It’s the last one and…I don’t know,” I shrug, not wanting to admit that I needed to ta
ke it. It was a feeling I had, of desperation. I had to do it. “I just wanted to use the last one before I take a step back."
“It’s you and me.”
He takes my hand and brings it to his mouth, giving my knuckles an affectionate kiss.
“You and me,” I repeat and close my eyes when I pick up the test. The loud beat of my heart that I thought disappeared when I take these tests starts up again. My stomach rolls with nervous energy, and I think I’m going to be sick from the stress of it.
Brave. Be brave.
Whatever happens, it’s okay.
Taking a deep breath, I open my eyes. My pupils adjust, and the blur tinging my vision disappears.
Pregnant.
I lift my eyes to Easton and shake my head in disbelief. I can’t speak. I can’t think. It actually says pregnant!
“I’m sorry, Zola. It will happen. I promise.” He kisses my forehead.
“Pregnant.”
“What, baby?” he asks, locking his green eyes onto mine.
“Pregnant,” I say louder. “I’m pregnant!”
“You’re what?”
I nod feverishly.
“You’re pregnant!” he shouts, picking me up with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen and sets me back down. He has tears in his eyes as he takes the pregnancy test in his shaky hands. “I love you,” he says at the test and places his hand on my stomach. “Can we stay home?” He falls to his knees and places a kiss against my stomach. “I want us to go to the doctor and confirm. I don’t want to fly.”
“Oh now you don’t want to fly?”
“I don’t want to be around a lot of people, babe. I want it to be just the two of us.”
“You mean just the three of us,” I correct him.
“The three of us.”
My life became richer when I met Easton Steele, and not just because of what’s in his bank account but because of the unconditional love and pure happiness he gives me everyday.
A love that we will now share with another human being.
A love that I’m bound to forever.
