The way he stood there, staring at the floor told me more than any words could. He was weak, shallow, and not the type of man I thought of when I thought of a husband and father.
And the longer that he stood there, saying nothing, the easier it got to make a decision. “For the life of me, I can’t understand why I love you, but I do. And it’s because of that love that I have for you that I’m doing this. I will not marry you. I will never marry a man who lets another rule his entire life. The fact that you’ve taken my virginity and asked me to marry you again, but never told me that you love me, makes me feel sick inside.”
As much as I wanted to put all the blame on Ransom, I had to own my part. I’d agreed to what he wanted. I’d put my life on hold to have his babies. And I’d done that for money too.
Dropping my face into my hands, I cried. And when I looked up again, he was gone.
My bedroom door was closed, and I hadn’t even heard him leave. What’s more, he’d never said a word to me.
I knew of only one thing to do. Get my butt out of that house.
An hour later, I pulled up in front of my old apartment, glad that I’d kept paying my part of the bills to keep my bed open. Shuffling into the small apartment, I looked around as everyone else was at work.
There’s not even room to have my babies in this place.
I had so much to think about. So many actions to take. And so much heartache to try to get over.
With all of Ransom’s faults, the underlying emotion I felt was love. Love for him. Love for our babies. Love for his misguided, sometimes too controlling grandfather.
But I had to love myself too. I couldn’t let these crazy men rule me.
What would life be if Ransom and I jumped each time his grandfather snapped his old fingers?
That man needed to learn his place. And he needed to stop holding his vast fortune over people’s heads. He’d even held it over our unborn babies’ heads for Pete’s sake.
Since Ransom had never discussed his finances with me, I had no idea if that man had any money of his own. But I knew that once I had the babies and six weeks had gone by, I would start sending out my resume and gain employment somewhere using my degree.
I still had around forty-seven thousand in the bank. I could get anywhere I needed to with that along with the car that Ransom cleverly put under my name. His grandfather couldn’t touch my bank account or my car. Ransom and I could do this thing on our own. We didn’t have to have his grandfather’s money.
And then I recalled a small conversation Ransom and I had about him having the same degree as me. So, he could get a job too. We would do what normal people did. Put the kids in daycare while we worked to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table.
He acted like you had to have billions of dollars to live. I knew you didn’t have to have that much money to make it in life.
But would Ransom ever stand up to his grandfather?
That was the real question.
Would he ever tell the man, in no uncertain terms, that he would marry who he wanted to when he wanted to and not a minute sooner?
Margo came in just as I sat on the sofa. “What has you visiting us unannounced, Aspen?”
My mouth opened and out came nothing but sob after sob, and Margo rushed to hug me. “I left Ransom!”
“Why in the hell would you do such a stupid thing, Aspen?” She let me go to look at my face. Seeing that I wasn’t anywhere near finished crying, she got up and came back with a box of tissues. “Here, clean yourself up, and let’s get to the bottom of this.”
It took me a few minutes to get it all out before I could take a second to blow my nose then wipe away the tears. “His grandfather is making Ransom marry me before the babies are born.”
“Good.” She went to get us a couple of bottles of water from the fridge. “He should marry you. You guys have this lifelong plan to raise these kids together. You also have this insane chemistry that you both seem to be trying to ignore. Trust me, one day, one of you will have a weak moment and BAM! It’ll be sexy time!”
“That happened early this morning,” I enlightened her. “And at the end, he asked me to marry him. Can you believe the nerve of that man?”
Her head fell to one side as her jaw dropped. She nearly dropped the bottles of water she held. “You’re shitting me, right?”
“No, I’m not.” I took one of the bottles of water out of her limp hand before it fell to the floor. “Ransom had the audacity to come into my bedroom this morning, slip into my bed while I was still asleep. He began kissing me and fondling me, and it made me so wet and horny for him that I immediately gave in. And it was so much better than I’d ever even dreamt it would be.”
Margo fell into the chair as she seemed awe-struck for some weird reason. “Yeah, I bet you were really surprised with how great it was.”
“I was.” I took a drink of the water before adding, “I felt so connected to him, Margo. Like I never knew I could feel. Even more connected to him than the babies I’m carrying. Like he and I were one person. But I’d been wrong. He’d taken my virginity only to get me to do what his grandfather demanded—to get married.”
“What a bastard,” she said, but it was said in a sarcastic tone. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “Do you think that maybe your hormones are just all riled up, and that you’re not in your right mind at this time?”
“No, I do not think that, Margo.” Now it was me who threw hands in the air. “How can I be the only person to see this? Look, let me spell it all out for you. Ransom doesn’t want to marry me. His grandfather’s threat of cutting him and his children out of the will is what has him asking me to marry him. I think I deserve better than that. Don’t you?”
“Here’s what I think.” She put the unopened water on the table in between us. “Ransom has his issues. You told me a little about him seeing his mom with other women.”
“Please remember never to let Ransom know I did that, Margo. It would really bother him if he knew I’d told a soul about a thing he’s kept to himself forever.” I leaned back, praying that little secret would never escape her lips again.
“Of course, Aspen.” She sighed then went on, “So, Ransom has this intuitive grandfather. He’s raised Ransom since he was fifteen. He knows that man inside and out, I would bet. He knows that Ransom has this hang up. He knows if he doesn’t force things, then Ransom will be one lonely man for the rest of his life. And he loves his grandson so much that he’ll make these demands, basically blackmailing him to do what’s pretty normal for men his age to do.”
“Precisely.” I was glad to see that she was on the same page I was.
“And you don’t see how Ransom needs these little pushes?” she asked.
I laughed. “These are not little pushes, Margo. These are shoves. Big, hard shoves that his grandfather gives him. And what’s to stop him from doing it time and time again? Say in a few years Lucius wants us to have more grandkids for him and changes the will again to get what he wants?”
“I thought you said you loved his grandfather,” she said as her brows raised. “Do you not trust this man?”
I didn’t know what to say. I loved Lucius, not necessarily the way he used that money of his to get his way, but the man himself was pretty lovable.
“He’s misguided, I guess,” is all I could come up with. “Basically, I’m upset with Ransom for not standing his ground. His grandfather told him if we weren’t married before the babies come, then we’re all out of the will. And Ransom hurried to ask me to marry him.”
Margo chewed her lower lip while she thought. “He hurried, huh?”
“Yes, he told me all about it the very next morning and said we should get wedding rings and get to doing it already. Of course, I asked him if he loved me. And he couldn’t tell me that he did. So, I told him that I wasn’t going to marry a man who doesn’t love me.” I slammed my fist on the sofa beside me. “Why do those men have to complicate everything?�
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“I don’t know,” she answered my rhetorical question. “Maybe because they’re rich and have been used to getting their way their whole life.”
Looking at my stomach as one of the triplets kicked, I began to realize something. They would be just like the rest of the Whitakers if I didn’t start changing things right now.
When my cell rang, and I saw it was Ransom, I sent it straight to voicemail. “I’ve gotta play hardball with these men. I know they probably never expected someone as young and as inexperienced as me to come into their world and turn it upside down. Being a mom has changed me. Making love to Ransom had as well. I feel powerful, like I can make the rules which we all have to live by.”
“You’re crazy, Aspen.” Margo shook her head. “You can’t make that old man do anything. I’ve got two sets of grandparents. You better believe there are no people on this planet who are more stubborn than old folks.”
“What about a mother who only wants what’s best for her kids?” I asked.
Margo nodded. “They can be pretty stubborn too. Sometimes they can be so stubborn that they don’t see what’s really right for their kids. Like marrying their father because you love him, and he loves you, and ignoring the fact that anyone else is involved in any way.”
Easy for her to say; she isn’t living my life.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ransom
Lubbock, Texas – December 28th
I let Aspen have one night to think about things. I’d driven by her old apartment and seen that she was safe. Then I went back home to confront my grandfather.
If he hadn’t made this stipulation, then she would be home right now in my arms. Well, maybe not in my arms because I had to be real and admit that it was his forcing the marriage issue that had me making love to her. But who really knew for sure?
Slamming into his sitting area, I gave him no options. “I want you to fix this, Grandad. She left.”
“She did what?” he asked with confusion riddling his face.
“She left,” I repeated. “She’s beyond pissed, and said some pretty mean things to me, but I have to agree with them. I’ve been weak. And I’ve been pushed around by you. It’s time for me to stand up and be a man. The woman who is carrying my babies is mad at me and has left our home. I’ve lost it all, and it’s no one’s fault but my own.”
He dropped his head. “And mine.”
“No. It’s not yours. I’ve got to accept all the blame here.” I took a seat as I saw the sorrow in my grandad’s eyes. “I am a man. I shouldn’t have let you bulldoze me with your money. I’ve got a degree in petroleum engineering. I could’ve been working at our oil company for years now, making my own money. I didn’t do that. I played around and didn’t worry about a damn thing. And that’s my bad, not yours. You thought you had to do something drastic to get me to grow the hell up. And I’m not saying you were wrong; I’m saying I was.” It felt good to take control of my own actions. To own up to things I should’ve long ago.
“I should’ve done the right thing from the very beginning. And when you told me that I had to marry Aspen before the babies were born, I should’ve told you that you could take that money and put it where the sun don’t shine. Mainly, because I should’ve asked that woman to marry me all on my own some time ago.”
“So, you do want to marry her now?” he asked with a smile on his face. “Even if I change my will to include you, her, and the children, you would still ask her to marry you, Ransom?”
“I am going to ask her to marry me either way. Leave us out if you want or keep us in. Either way, I want to marry her.” It felt amazing to finally know without a shadow of a doubt what I really wanted.
I wanted Aspen to be my wife. I wanted her to be with me for as long as God would allow. And I didn’t care if we had to work our asses off to take care of our family or not.
Getting up, he went to the small desk in the room and pulled out a piece of paper. “This is the revamped will. I hadn’t filed it with my lawyer yet. The old one still stands—the one I made a couple of months ago that includes the babies and their mother as well as you. I was bluffing.” He ripped the paper into three pieces before tossing it into the trash can. “I am sorry. Can you tell her that I’ve said that? I’m a stubborn old man who hasn’t had a wife in years to put me in my place. I’ve made a mistake.”
Clapping my grandad on the shoulder, I had to smile. “Apology accepted. And I will give her yours as well. And I’m sorry, too, Grandad. You did everything right. You tried your best to get me to do the right things. It’s not your fault. And I suppose it’s time to be honest with you.”
Am I really going to do this?
“About what, Ransom?” he asked as he went back to take a seat.
“About why I was the way I was.” I took a seat beside him. “When I was a kid, I saw Mom with other men. It made me think that women couldn’t be trusted. And that’s why I held back so much with Aspen. I knew she would steal my heart. What I didn’t know was that it was possible for her to do that to me without even kissing her. She stole it long ago. The unconditional love that she gives us both, and I know she’ll give our kids, makes her seem like an angel in my eyes.”
He nodded. “I agree. And I’m sorry you saw that side of your mother. We had no idea you knew about that. Your father wanted that kept secret. He and your mother had their problems, but it would’ve made them both feel terrible to know that you’ve always been aware of it.”
He’d surprised me. “I should’ve spoken up at some time about what I’d seen. But that’s the past, and this is the present. I’m letting Aspen have one night to calm down. She has every right to be mad at us both. Then tomorrow I’m changing everything.” I got up and headed to my room to work on the plan for the next day. I wanted everything to be perfect for her.
Especially since I’d messed everything up so badly.
Without letting Aspen know a thing, I showed up at the apartment bright and early, a bag of pastries in one hand and a small black box in the other, I knocked on the door.
Margo answered it, and she broke into a smile as soon as she saw me. “Please tell me you’re here to perk her up.”
“I am going to do my very best.” I held out the bag. “Care to plate these up for me to make them look delicious?”
“Will do,” she said as she took the bag from me. “Come in. She’s in the bathroom getting dressed.”
I made sure to talk quietly so I would surprise her. “I’ll wait here for her to come out.”
Margo found a pretty little pink plate to put the food on and set it on the coffee table. “I’ll make some caffeine-free coffee too. She’ll like that.” She hurried to get that going, and I had to try not to fidget too much; I was getting nervous about what her answer would be.
I’d worked on a speech that I thought would do the trick. With Aspen, I never knew for sure how she would respond. And now that I knew she was angry with Grandad and me, I really couldn’t count on her reaction.
“Do I smell coffee, Margo?” Aspen called out before coming into the living room. “You’re such a meanie. You know I crave that stuff but can’t drink it.”
She came around the corner, smoothing out her pink dress, not looking up. Her head jerked up as I said, “It’s caffeine-free, Aspen.”
“Ransom?” Her eyes narrowed at me. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
“That’s okay because I want to do the talking.” I got up to take her hand and pull her to a seat. “Sit down, please. You know I hate for you to stand up too long and get all swollen.”
“This really isn’t going to work, Ransom,” she said.
I put one finger to her lips as I went down on one knee in front of her. “Hush now. Just listen to me, baby. First and foremost, I want you to know that my grandfather was just bluffing. He hasn’t changed his will. You, me, and the babies are all equal heirs in it. And that’s whether or not you marry me. You’re his blood too. And you don’t have to marry m
e to get a dime.”
She gulped. “I’m an heiress?”
“You are. And you don’t have to marry me to get your just due.” I took her left hand in mine. “And now I would like to tell you another thing. You see, I searched my soul all day yesterday and last night. And I dug deep. I didn’t want to say this to you until I knew it was the truth.”
Tears began to well up in her eyes. “Ransom.”
Shaking my head, I looked earnestly at her. “Hush now. Let me talk. As I dug around inside my head and heart, I found you at every turn. You are everywhere in me, Aspen Dell. You are in my head, my heart, my soul. I felt like we were one person when we made love. I’ve never felt that way in my life. You are my beginning and my end. I will never love anyone the way that I love you.”
“You love me?” she whimpered as tears began to fall down her cheeks.
“I do.” I pulled out the black box and opened the lid. “And I would like to show the world how much I love you.” I had to take a sec to get myself under control as she looked too beautiful for me to breathe. “Aspen, you don’t have to do this. No one is or will ever make you do anything again. Everything you do will only be because you want to. So, I am asking you if you will make me the luckiest, happiest, and the most grateful man on this planet and become my wife? Whenever you want that to happen, let me add.”
She kind of floored me as she asked, “Even if I want to wait like five years?”
It took me a minute to say, “Even if you want to wait five years.”
She smiled as she wiped away the tears. “Even if I want to marry you as soon as possible?”
My heart leapt, and I sighed. “Even if you want to fly off to Vegas in our private jet and get married as soon as possible. I want you with me. Forever and always. But I want you to want that too.”
“Forever and always.” She looked up at the ceiling. “I found him, Daddy. I found the one man for me. You always said I would. I waited and waited and then one day I found this piece of paper with his phone number on it and called him. And he asked me to have his baby. And I said yes. What should I say now, Dad?”
The Virgin's Baby_A Forced Marriage Romance Page 17
