Choosing Forever

by Mary B. Moore

  “Well, welcome to the weinus club, my man!” He slapped me on the back and grinned. “Did you double check you had the actual wiener instead of the bun?”

  Ren stood glaring at him the whole time. He’d get his own back at any moment, he always did.

  “Shut the fuck up, you big shit,” Ebru said as she rolled her eyes and then went to take Jack from me. I’d like to say that I let her hold him, but instead I twisted my body away from her, not quite ready to relinquish my little bundle. With the car accident, Sabine being kidnapped and the unexpected birth, I was feeling a bit over protective.

  Giving Cole a smirk, Ren gently stroked his finger down Jack’s face. “He’s perfect! Congratu-fucking-lations, man.”

  “What’s his name?” Mom asked, still holding the Orangutan. Diana had come out to take her from her, but Mom had refused. Dad had looked slightly worried after it, but the sight of his new grandkid distracted him.

  “Jack.” I looked over at Dad as it registered.

  “That’s my name!”

  “No shit,” Gramps muttered as he took in the baby in my arms. “Welp, at least this one looks normal, but that one there,” he nodded his head at Mom, “looks uncannily like your dad when he was born.”

  “You know what today is?” Cole asked Ren.

  “What?”

  “Not taco Tuesday!” He burst out laughing as he rubbed in the fact, yet again, that it was a boy.

  Just as he yelped and went to run past me as Ren lunged for him, I stuck my foot out making him fall onto the floor. Ren landed on top of him and the fight started with both of them yelling about wieners and tacos.

  Turning around, I went back to my wife, leaving the freak show behind me. Nothing could ruin this day for me.

  Twenty

  BRETT

  “It’s done,” I whispered to Jeff and Coleman as we stood in the hallway of the hospital that Sabine was now resting in. We’d been brought here by the paramedics and they were just keeping Sabine in until her blood pressure stabilized. It had been a bit high after the birth and they wanted to make sure that there were no complications. So far, all of the tests had come back fine, so they’d mentioned that I’d probably be able to take her home tonight. Baby Jack was obviously one hundred percent perfect, so there were no issues there even though he was twelve days early.

  Focusing back on the men in front of me, I relayed to them the information that I’d just been given over the phone. “I rang a friend of mine whose family own a big investment company in France. He agreed to help me out once I explained what was happening with Sabine and looked into her dad. The asshole has been skimming off the top of his company for years now and has three mistresses who live comfortable lives in different parts of the country.” Their expressions didn’t change once as this was information that we’d expected to hear about him. He just screamed crooked fucker. “So, he’s broke, but hiding behind the face of his company. This is where it gets good,” I informed them just as Ren and Cole joined us. “He has made a series of bad investments for a prominent member of the social circle that he runs in, and this guy is not the kind of guy that you want to fuck around with. His status in society is everything to Mr. d’Arvor, so he has told this investor that he is getting a successful and impressive return on his investment. If it came to light that he had fucked up and that he was using his company’s money to fund mistresses…”

  Grinning at me, Coleman asked the question that we were all thinking. “When do we go and inform Mr. d’Arvor that it’s in his best interests to fuck off?”

  “Two days,” I replied. “This gives me two days to be with Sabine and Jack, but it also gives my friend two days to call in some debts of Mr. d’Arvor’s. Big ones.”

  A snort from Cole got our attention. “Sorry,” he snickered. “He said big ones.”

  Shaking my head, I said my goodbye’s and went back to join my family in the hospital room behind me. Just as I was opening the door, Cole called my name. “Just so you know, you call him Baby Jack.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “His initials are still BJ,” he got out through the laughter that was now coming out of him.

  I could feel my eye twitching as the poor kid’s fate hit me. Of all of the initials in the world, we had the bad luck to get fucking BJ.

  “Yeah, that’s true,” I shrugged. “But, I’m both of their favorites now.”

  Closing the door on his whining, I walked in and saw Sabine holding Jack while he slept.

  This was all mine and I was going to do everything and anything to keep them safe.

  Two days later…

  Walking past the secretary and winking at her, I opened the door and went straight into the office, not bothering to knock or wait for permission. The man behind the desk went pale as he looked up from the paperwork spread out over his desk. I’d decided to get a few more debts called in yesterday so I had no doubt the piece of shit was feeling like his world was about to come crashing down. Good, now he knew how I felt when he took Sabine and almost killed her and our son in the car accident.

  “Ah, Mr. d’Arvor. I would shake your hand, but I don’t want to. I only do that to people I respect,” I informed him as I sat down on the chair in front of his desk, making myself comfortable.

  “What do you want?” He whispered, more than likely hoping that the four businessmen that I’d seen waiting to be shown in wouldn’t hear the predicashit that he was now in.

  I wasn’t going to help him out on that, so I spoke louder. “Who told you to take Sabine?” His eyes darted around the office as he tried to think of a lie, but I was five steps ahead of him. “I already know it was an American who offered you a large sum of money. I also know what you intended to do with her and my son,” I leaned forward holding his eyes with my own. “And this pisses me off. Thankfully, Henri told us all of it before he was handed over to the authorities.”

  Standing up, I started to walk around, taking in the no doubt priceless artefacts placed ostentatiously around his office. Walking over to one, I put my hand behind it and pushed, grinning as it shattered on the floor and he jumped up behind his desk.

  “You can’t do that,” he started to protest, but he was shit out of luck.

  “I can and I have,” I said as I walked over to the next one. “Now, as you’ll be aware,” I raised my voice even louder, “debts amounting to twenty-million Euros have already been called in. Failure to meet the payments will result in all of your assets being frozen.” Turning to face him, I watched as he wiped his sweaty face with his hanky.

  “Okay, Mr. Townsend. We can discuss this,” he waved his arms and gestured to the seat that I’d been sitting in. “Please sit down. After all,” he gave a weak smile, “we’re family.”

  Walking slowly over to him, I stood over him and corrected his misguided thoughts that he was in any way shape or form a member of my family. “No, you piece of shit. We’re not family. I come from a good family and quite frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that Sabine wasn’t even yours.” The look on his face as I said that made the pieces all fall into place. “Holy shit, she’s not yours!”

  His audible gulp as he sat down heavily in the chair made me grin. “Her mother had a lover,” he started to explain.

  “Oh, no, no!” I held up my hand as I sat down. “You mistake my delight for wanting to know details. I’m not interested in your story, during which you’ll probably make yourself out to be the injured party. I’m just relieved that my wife and son don’t share DNA with you.” This information changed everything. “Now, who contacted you?”

  The sweat was literally pouring off him now. “I don’t know his name, but I have his number.” Nodding, I pointed at a piece of paper beside his hand. Once he’d written it down, I snatched it from him and started back toward the door. “Wait,” he called out to my back. “What about the other…stuff?” He said the last word as a whisper; one last valiant attempt to retain some dignity from the men outside.

  A
s I opened the door, I turned back to face him and laid it all out, making sure that the men in question heard every single word.

  “In five-minutes every last one of your debts will be called in. All of the financial records from your business will be published online as well as your personal ones. As you know,” I grinned, “that will show the public how much money you have skimmed off of your clients since the very beginning. It will also show the large amount of debt that you’re in after this man’s investment, “I pointed over to the businessman who was rumored to have mob ties and whom had invested forty-five million Euros via the vat of monkey shit that now looked an odd shade of green as he stared at me in horror, “tanked. What’s left now? Nine-million isn’t it?” His eyes darted to the man as he stood up and started talking rapidly into his phone. “Uh oh, that doesn’t sound good.” I gave him a false look of sympathy as I prepared for the final nail in his coffin. “And that money doesn’t exist now either after you used it to finance yet another bad decision of yours, as well as the payments for your mistresses.” I’d been informed on my way to the offices that the man in the waiting room who’d been screwed by the fuck face was actually the second cousin of Sabine’s mother as well as having ties to the Mob, so he was now toast. “Anyway, must go. I have a wife and son to get back to.”

  Turning around, I passed my card to the man and offered up my help. “I have all of the records, so if you need them, don’t hesitate to contact me.”

  Walking out, I started making plans for mine, Sabine’s and Jack’s futures. The door was shut on this bullshit now, and I could take my snake program addicted beauty home. Tomorrow, we were going to the registry office to register Jack’s birth and then we could fly back.

  Sabine

  Brett filled me in on everything that had gone down with my dad, well the man that I’d thought was my father. It was strange because I’d never actually felt a link to him, and now I knew why. We’d also told my brothers and sister and they were going to carry out DNA tests to see if they were in the same glorious situation as I was. Unbeknown to me, not one of them liked him, so his downfall had been received with relief and glee.

  We’d registered Jack and he now held a British birth certificate and passport. I felt that it was important to make him dual nationality and for him to embrace his American roots, so once we’d settled back into life we’d be filing for that too. My son was a special boy.

  Sitting back as he slept in a bassinet beside me, I looked over the Townsend’s ranch and listened to the birds chirping around me. It really was hedonistic here.

  “Whatcha thinking about, baby?” Brett’s deep voice asked from behind me, making me jump slightly.

  “Don’t you think it’s almost unbelievable that the car accident was as bad as it was, yet I walked away without any major injuries and Jack wasn’t affected at all?” It sounded strange to ask that and to even be thinking it, but the car had been shown on the news the following day and really no one should have walked away from it, let alone a pregnant woman.

  “I’m not gonna question it, honey,” he muttered as he sat down beside me. “I’m just going to thank Jesus every day that you did.”

  “I know why it happened,” Tom walked up onto the porch, appearing from nowhere.

  “You nosy bastard,” Brett snapped as I looked behind Tom for the woman that he dragged with him everywhere, Layla’s friend Sonya. The poor girl had been forced to come back to the ranch when Layla had been ordered to, and he rarely left her side.

  Shrugging, he showed not one ounce of remorse as he leaned back against the railing of the porch. “It’s because Jesus is English.”

  If there had been any wind and tumbleweeds, they would have rolled past us as the silence dragged on as we sat watching him.

  “Where the fuck did you hear that?” Brett asked hesitantly. I could understand that because I’d never heard this, yet he looked so serious as he said it that I wondered if maybe I’d missed something.

  “He watched a Knights Tale,” Cole explained as he also appeared out of nowhere.

  Looking around me, I checked for portals or something because they were like freaking ninjas. You never saw them approach and they never made a noise as they did it. Given the two men in question were Cole and Tom, this had to be down to something supernatural. This line of thought I blamed on a science fiction series that I’d watched this morning because Snakes in the City hadn’t been on. Never again, it had scared the shit out of me.

  Deciding that it would be safest for the conversation on that subject to end there, Brett turned his focus onto a subject that he knew would make Tom leave.

  “Where’s your shadow?” He asked him.

  Shrugging, he scuffed the floor with the tip of his boot. “She’s not talking to me.”

  “Because you asked her what the fuck was wrong with her cat, jackass!” Cole burst out laughing.

  Standing up straight, he argued his case. “The thing has no legs! What the fuck was I meant to think?”

  “It’s the type of breed, you dick head,” Cole shot back. “And it has legs, they’re just short because it’s a Munchkin.” I recognized the name as a breed of cat that definitely had very short legs and made a mental note to go to Layla’s. This I had to see.

  “You didn’t know that until Ebru told you the story, you mean bitch. And they’re not just short, it looks like he goes straight from body to fuckin feet!”

  Walking down the steps, Cole waited until he got to the bottom before he replied. “I’m not the one hoping to get into her kitty, though. I hear Truman’s has a special on lotion and tissues. You might wanna stock up,” he advised, before turning and running across the grass toward his own home.

  Watching Tom take off after him, I thought of how lucky I was to get the normal one in the family as my husband and the father of my children. Yeah, children. I’d decided that I wanted another one, regardless of how adamant I’d been that Jack would be an only child as I was giving birth. It’s funny how quickly the memories of the pain fade. Now, I wanted at least four.

  Little did I know that my husband had already decided that we’d have six, and that he was going to do everything that he could to make sure that that happened.

  Brett

  “What’s the update on that phone number?” I asked Coleman. He’d called on his way over here saying that he had information, so we were meeting in the barn while the ladies discussed babies, legless cats and whatever other shit that they decided on.

  “We have an address,” he looked nervously at me as he told me.

  “What’s the fucking issue?”

  “It’s…” he shoved his hands into his hair and made a growling noise. “The property the number was registered to is the one right next door to you in Houston.”

  Looking at him in shock, I let that sink in.

  “But,” I swallowed thickly, “That property’s been empty for over a year. The owner died and her family is disputing the will because they can’t accept that she left it to the cat and dog sanctuary.”

  Nodding throughout my rambled explanation, Coleman looked at me grimly. “That’s just it, there’s no active line into the house.”

  What. The. Fuck?

  Epilogue

  SABINE

  Three years later…

  Mon Dieu, I must have been crazy marrying this idiot.

  I’d been to go and pick up nappies, or diapers, I had no idea what to call things anymore. I’d lived in America for so long that I couldn’t remember if I was saying the British, French or American version of things. So, I’d gone to get diapers and had come back to not only my kids running around naked, but my husband almost naked too.

  “We have a shituation,” he yelled as he ran past me. It was his back that distracted me from my naked hellions.

  “Is that…” I started to ask as he ran outside and started rubbing his back on the grass. Slowly following after him, I kept an eye on the two spawns of Satan who were splashing in their k
iddies pool as their dad continued to whine and rub himself across the yard.

  “It’s all Slumdog Millionaire,” he whined as he ground down into the grass, referencing the scene in the movie where the poor kid gets covered in crap.

  I waited for him to finish and would have asked him for an explanation if, underneath all of the grass and mud and God knows what else on his back, there weren’t paler swirls and circles showing through his tanned skin.

  Picking up the hose, he turned it on full blast, pressed the special button on the nozzle that made it come out like a tsunami and reached over his shoulder to aim the water at his back.

  As all of the crap was washed off his body, the patterns became clearer and I saw tiny smeared hand prints too.