by Ella Brooke
"Don't worry about--"
"No," she said sternly. "I am definitely going to worry about it because I want to do my job. If you don't think I can do it, now is the time to tell me."
"Ma'am, yes ma'am," he quipped, but he nodded. "All right then, I shall leave you to it. You are doing a wonderful job, Benny. I hope you sleep well."
As she rose to walk past him, he took her hand and kissed it gently and chastely on the knuckles. She smiled, but later that night, tucked into a bed that dwarfed the one in her apartment, she realized that she could still feel the heat of his lips there.
This may be an enormous mistake, she thought, but then sleep claimed her, and there was nothing else for her to think about.
Chapter Seven
The next two days passed in a blur. Whenever she looked back on those two days, she had to shake her head at how hectic everything was while at the same time admiring her past self a little for how industrious she was.
She was determined to do it all, and though he kept a close eye on her, Jinan was for the most part willing to step back and let her at it. With a baby cradled on her hip, she made calls all over the country, and when she was trying to feed Jodie, she was also looking over her schedule for the next few hours. Keeping busy gave her a sense of normalcy that she craved after the upset of the last few weeks, and she managed with the kind of bull-headed stubbornness that got her through college while she was working full time.
She knew it couldn't last forever, but it was important for now.
Benny was achingly certain that she couldn't have done it without Jinan. He was a combination benevolent boss and indulgent friend, always ready to postpone something while Benny took care of Jodie. When she’d looked particularly frazzled, he’d suggested hiring a combination nanny and assistant, but she had looked so shocked at the idea that he had quickly withdrawn it.
It wasn't like the extra help wouldn't have been handy, Benny reflected later. It was that she was getting curiously selfish where Jodie and Jinan came into things. A part of her had claimed them both, as well as the townhouse. It was hers, and the idea of having strangers in it made her narrow her eyes.
You're setting yourself up for some kind of heartbreak of one sort or another, she told herself. This isn't permanent. At the very least, Jinan is going back to his country at some point.
That was what her head knew. Her heart was convinced that this was their new world, and it embraced it with open arms.
Two days in, she walked into the nursery to see Jinan scooping up a happy and babbling little girl to bounce her in his arms, and she felt her heart melt. This was a picture she wanted to treasure forever, and without thinking, she moved to wrap her arms around Jinan's waist as he held Jodie.
"Hi there," he said with a smile, shifting the infant to one arm as he wrapped his other arm around Benny.
"Hi. I just wanted to let you know that I could stay here forever," she declared.
His grin widened, and he started to answer her before he was interrupted by her phone vibrating.
"I should check that," she said reluctantly. "It might be Fisher getting back to us about that San Francisco meeting we were trying to set up."
"Tell him he's going to have to come to Chicago, and we'll comp his flight if we have to," Jinan responded promptly. "I'm not in a mood to travel to California at the moment."
He had been pretty interested in it earlier, but Benny said nothing about it. If he had to respect her to take care of her own responsibilities, she would respect him to do the same.
Jinan did something that made Jodie laugh uproariously, and Benny stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind her.
As it turned out, it wasn't Fisher. She didn't recognize the number at all, but with a shrug, she answered it. "Hi, you've reached Bernadette MacLeod, how can I help you?"
"Hello, Bernadette," said a cold female voice. "I bet you think you are very clever, don't you?"
"Excuse me?" she asked, her heart beating faster, and then her fears were confirmed.
"Oh, don't give me that polite little sister crap," sneered the woman on the other end. "We all know what you and that sister of yours were all about."
"Hello, Mrs. Winthrop, so nice of you to call," Benny said, all confusion and nerves dropping from her voice. It was like hearing the old witch's words were a call to battle for her, and she would never back down. "Jodie is doing quite well, thank you for asking."
"I'm sure. And I am also sure that she will be doing much better once my husband and I regain possession of her."
"She is not a damned piece of luggage," Benny hissed. "You can't 'take possession' of her. Paul and Sandra made it very clear what was meant to happen to her if anything happened to them, and that means she is staying with me."
"We'll see about that," said Vera Winthrop. "We will definitely see what the family courts have to say about you living with some foreigner, keeping that poor child alone and neglected as you try to do whatever job he has you doing to preserve your respectability."
"What?"
"And it's never been very much respectability, has it, dear?" Vera asked, her voice dripping poison. "You were always hustling, trying to get by in a man's world, all on your own, and we all know what that means, don't we? I am sure the judge knows it too..."
For a moment, Benny wanted to spit some of that poison right back at Vera, say things that were just as cutting, but she held herself back. It would be just like the old bat to be taping this call and to use it to her advantage, after all. Instead, she took a deep breath then it out again slowly.
"Was there a reason you called, Vera?"
"Only to give you a chance to surrender my grandchild before this gets messy. And believe you me, little girl, it's going to get messy if you don't. Once the courts get involved, that fancy man of yours isn't going to protect you, no matter what he whispers into your ear at night."
"All right, Vera, it sounds like we genuinely have nothing to say to each other right now. I'm hanging up."
Vera was still saying something, but Benny was done. She ended the call with a click, briefly wishing for the phones from the days of landlines, when she could have ended the call with a satisfying slam. Instead, she had to tuck her phone into her pocket and wrap her arms around herself, feeling herself shake.
"What the heck are we going to do?" she wondered, and she was startled when an answer came.
"Fight them," Jinan said from the open doorway. She hadn't even heard him open it, but from the look on his face and the fierce way he was holding Jodie, he had heard all of it.
"You were eavesdropping?"
"Not really at first. Then I heard your voice change from the other side of the door, and I guess I wanted to make sure everything was all right. Apparently, it wasn't."
"No, not at all," Benny said with a helpless laugh, and then she explained it all to Jinan from the beginning. He nodded and paced as she talked, jiggling Jodie on his hip, and when she was done, he nodded decisively at her.
"Then we need to find you a good lawyer," he said. "If they are going to attack you, you must be ready to defend yourself."
"There are a few lawyers I know through work that will take on reduced rate cases in situations of need, and I'm pretty sure that I am in that bracket."
"I am not," he said gently. "Let me take care of this. I want my assistant working at full capacity, and that means that you cannot afford to waste your time or your care on things like finding the cheapest, most competent lawyer that you can. There is no reason to do that when I can step in."
She started to argue, but he shot her a fierce look. It made her think of the old sheikhs of legend, the ones who defended their lands against all comers, who fought to the death for those they cared for. In that moment, she could see how Jinan was descended from a long line of men who valued family and country more than anything else, and she knew it would be useless to argue.
"All right," she said softly, and when he grinned at her, she kne
w that everything was going to be fine.
***
That impression was shaken the next day when they ended up in downtown Chicago, talking to Carolyn Chiu. Chiu was one of the best family attorneys in the tri-state area, a sharp woman in a practical brown suit with a haircut that was at once conservative and fashionable.
She listened as Benny explained the matter to her, made notes, and then to her surprise, started to ask questions of Jinan. Jinan seemed just as startled, and after a question about his dating life, he finally scowled at her.
"And how is this relevant?" he asked, and Carolyn lanced him with a grim look.
"This is relevant because, from Benny's information, it sounds like the Winthrops are going to be going at the custody case from a morality angle. They are going to say that a floozy aunt living with a degenerate playboy has no rights to an innocent child that can't tell right from wrong."
At Jinan and Benny's protests, she shook her head.
"I certainly don't believe it, but the important thing is whether a jury would. And I will be honest, they might. Prince Jinan, you're a foreigner, and just looking through the papers and the magazines, you are something of a playboy. That doesn't necessarily play well to a Midwest jury."
Jinan scowled. "Then what do you propose we do?"
"Well, you could uncouple now and hope that you could present a respectable enough front that the Winthrops would look as if they were making things up..."
Benny shivered. "That's...that is so dishonest, though. It sounds like living a lie."
"Or you could take this the rest of the way."
Benny looked confused, but Jinan leaned in close. There was something avid about his expression that hadn't been there before, a look that was nearly hungry.
"Tell us more about that."
"Well, from what you tell me, right now the problem is that you are, as the previous generation would say, living in sin. For a lot of people, that means living together without the benefit of a legal piece of paper, no matter how well you get along or how long you've been together. Now if you were to get that little piece of paper...things would look a lot different."
Benny was sputtering at how ridiculous this idea seemed, but Jinan was nodding.
"We could say that it was a whirlwind romance, and that we were brought together by Jodie and what happened. We married out of a celebration of love and lives reborn."
"A little corny, but yes, essentially," said Chiu with a smile. "It would knock out most, if not all of the Winthrops' arguments, and as long as you, prince, don't have anything like a wife back home or a girlfriend here that we don't know about, things should go fairly well."
Jinan shook his head impatiently, and he seemed like he was almost ready to give the go ahead when Benny realized that she needed to get a word in. Hugging Jodie to herself so hard that the infant nearly squeaked, she raised her voice a little.
"No, wait, this is insane," she said. "No. This isn't a thing that can happen. We can't...we can't get married over this!"
Chiu shrugged. "It is perhaps the best way. In many ways, it is less of a lie than separating and trying to turn into a virtuous single mother."
"That's so cold..." Benny whispered, and the lawyer pointed at the baby in her arms.
"Jodie is the most important thing right now. From what you tell me, Jodie's life is the one that will be most impacted by all of this. At some point, you need to think about what that is worth for you."
Benny staggered as if she had been slapped, and Jinan took her gently by the shoulder. His touch was warmth and strength, and she leaned into it gratefully before she remembered where she was. She straightened hastily and looked up into Chiu's amused smile.
"Given a choice between playing one part and playing another, I have an idea which one will come more naturally," she said. "But that is certainly something that you can discuss between the two of you. Let me know as soon as you decide, however, and we can work on planning a strategy that will keep Jodie with the people who will best care for her."
She paused.
"If you do decide to get married, make sure that it is legal in the United States. Go to city hall, and get all of your paperwork in order. Prince Jinan, for most foreign nationals there might be an issue, but as long as you do not intend to seek citizenship, it can all be worked out later."
Benny was shocked into silence as Chiu escorted them from her office. She stayed silent as Jinan thanked her for her time, and continued in silence as Jinan led her down to the small garden outside the lawyer's office building.
She could still hear the roar of the Chicago traffic, but here, if she sat on a bench, she could imagine she was somewhere else. It was still cool enough that she wore a thick jacket, and Jodie had a coat as well as a hat on over her clothes, but the air felt fresh, as if spring was well and truly here.
Benny sat on the bench, and Jinan paced close by, waiting until she was ready to start. It didn't matter, though. It didn't matter how long she had to prepare or how carefully she went over her arguments. On all sides, she couldn't see a win.
"You know we can't do this, right?" she asked, not looking at him. Benny felt a surge of something like superstition. If she looked at him right now, he would tell what her real wants were, and then life would be even more difficult. "I mean, it sounds crazy, get married? Right now?"
"Nothing crazy about it," he said logically. "It's a means to an end. There's nothing wrong with doing our best to make sure that Jodie has a happy home."
"Are you sure that you want to help like this? This is so much for..."
"Benny," he said patiently. "What did I tell you when we first met?"
"That you knew what you wanted," she said softly, remembering that conversation with a faint blush.
"And has that been true?"
"Yes, very much so."
"So do not doubt me now. Instead, think about what you want."
"What I want?"
"Yes. If you want to separate and try to do as Chiu says, act the part of a virtuous single mother, I am willing to give you a leave of absence. You can try to convince the Winthrops in that way that they cannot assail you.
"However, Carolyn Chiu is right. Being married, having a wealthy husband who does not mind using his power? Those are impressive things no matter what the country. I could give you that."
There was something so cold about it that she shivered.
"I refuse to use you as...as a weapon of some sort," she protested, but he shrugged.
"This is not dissimilar from things that happen where I am from," he said. "It is only Westerners who believe that only one kind of love can be considered legitimate, legal and binding."
"How do you mean?"
He came to sit beside her, and when he spoke, there was something distant about his voice, as if he were looking through the ages long past.
"Once, sheikhs and princes might marry many times, and each marriage would be as legal as the next. It was for many purposes. Sometimes, the sheikh fell in love. Sometimes, there was a political alliance to secure, and yes, oftentimes there was a child to protect. The marriages were all protected under the law, and everything was safe. A suit like that of the Winthrops would never even be considered."
Something in Benny winced from the idea of so many wives. She wanted to know what they thought, how they felt about sharing one man, even if their every earthly desire was fulfilled. Were they jealous? Were they resigned? Were they heartbroken every night the prince did not come to their bed?
Jodie made an inquisitive sound, reaching up to pat her chubby hand against Benny's face. When she looked down into the wide smile of her niece, Benny knew she didn't have a choice, not really.
It felt as if there was a pendulum swinging over her, the sharp, weighted blade coming closer and closer to her, and worse, to the sleeping infant in her arms. One way or another, she felt like she was going to lose, being forced into something that she couldn't predict or control.
On on
e hand was a blatant lie she wasn't even sure she could keep up. She had the feeling that the Winthrops wouldn't be content to look at a boring little apartment and then leave it alone. They would come after her for something or other, and she shivered at the thought that sooner or later, they would actually succeed.
On the other hand was Jinan. He was watching her with eyes that were kind, but there was a dominance and single-minded will there that was terrifying even as it drew her in. He was offering her something amazing, but there was something unnerving about how coolly he did it.
I wanted to marry for love, to someone who wanted me for me. I wanted...
However, Benny knew that right now it didn't matter. Jodie was the important thing, and her first priority was to make sure that Jodie was safe. That meant making sure she stayed out of the Winthrops' hands.
"Yes," she said softly.
"Yes?"
"Yes, I'll marry you," she said, and she was shocked at the look of victory that crossed his face. Then it was gone, and he was simply smiling at her, giving her a hand up off of the bench.
"Good," he said. "I swear to you, Benny, you are not going to regret it. This will be for the best, you'll see."
As he started the process of figuring out where they were going to get married and who could do it, she felt as if she was falling through a snowstorm. Every bit of her felt so cold that she might as well have been numb, and she couldn't see anything but flurries of feathery white. There was nothing above her or around her, and she had no idea where the ground was, or what kind of landing she would have when she got there.
Chapter Eight
The rest of the day passed in a blur. If she had been worried that the wedding would somehow trick her into thinking that Jinan was secretly in love with her, the wedding ceremony destroyed it. It was utterly businesslike, reminding her more of two countries signing a treaty than of two people who were in love. The justice of the peace and the two clerks they called in to witness the occasion seemed bored by it, and then they had to get all of their paperwork to Carolyn Chiu.
