Allie Chapter 3

(Chapter 3) Adjusting

Chapter 3

 

            Three days of being home and confined to the bed had Wildflower going stir crazy. The doctor’s suggestion about “taking it easy” extended to a few weeks of bed rest. This was her honeymoon, first week and a half in the hospital and now the next four to six weeks she wasn’t allowed to do anything. All she had was her dream and how she wished it were real. She was watching a movie while Nicolas slept; he was so exhausted from staying up all those days she was in the hospital. He mostly slept the last three days away. That was why yesterday she mostly spent in the TV room so that he could rest and everybody could hover over her. Today the kids were at school and Carmen and her kids and Camden went back home yesterday. It was a quiet boring day and she was plotting her escape.

            Just because she was forbidden to be on her feet for too long did not mean she had to stay in the house. She could be on bed rest anywhere. That was why she was on her laptop trying to figure out where she wanted to go. Wherever they went had to be fairly local since she wasn’t allowed to fly either. Being so restricted was driving her crazy and she still had a lot of time on her sentence. The other thing she was doing since she had a minute to herself was researching articles about her wedding. There were a lot of them; it was funny because she was a nobody. However, the day she got out of the hospital there were camera crews and reporters wanting to talk to her. Nothing else was going on if she was that important but people liked to talk about the Caprianis and now she was one of them.

            “What time is it?” Nicolas groaned opening one eye.

            “Almost 1,” she replied.

            “You want to do something today?” He asked staring up at her.

            “What did you have in mind?” She asked hopefully, she really wanted to get out the house.

            “Not to Rio if that’s what you’re going to say,” he said. He rolled on his side to look at her, he still looked exhausted.

            “You owe me a real honeymoon, you know?”

            “Yeah, after the baby is born we can go anywhere in the world you want to.”

            “I want to get out the house, maybe we can have a late lunch?”

            “Sounds good, I’ll shower and then we can go,” he said.

            “Would you like company?” She asked suggestively, he stared at her a moment.

            “You aren’t allowed to be on your feet very long.”

            “I don’t have to be on my feet,” she replied. Before he would have jumped up and been excited, now he just stared at her. What a wonderful marriage this was starting off to be, her husband didn’t want to touch her.

            “Are you sure you are up for that?” He asked after awhile, she just rolled her eyes.

            “Forget I said anything,” she sighed. Maybe she needed to give up on finding somewhere to go to get away, he was just like everybody else. The Nicolas in her dream was a much better husband; she probably shouldn’t keep comparing her dream to her actual husband.

            “I’m just concerned about you,” he said. He sat up and pulled her into his arms, part of her wanted to resist him but she wasn’t sure why. “Baby, you are my everything and I can’t and won’t lose you.” While he spoke he absently rubbed her belly, which was his new hobby it appeared.

            “Nick, I love you and I get you are worried but I’m fine,” she told him.

            “Maybe later tonight?”

            “Yeah, I’ll wait for you down stairs, don’t worry I’m not going fall,” she said. She closed her laptop and got up and left the room.

            Downstairs she found Tammy and Brooke had just come back from grocery shopping. Wildflower sat down at the table and sighed. Why couldn’t he be the man from her stupid dream? That dream was seriously ruining the way she looked at her husband and she knew that wasn’t fair. Though the reason she had those dreams was because that was how he was before they got married. Maybe the problem was that she was pregnant, but the doctor said sex was fine. Brooke and Carmen asked the doctor saying it was just because it was supposed to be her honeymoon. Before Nicolas knew she was pregnant he wanted to have sex every second of the day trying to get her pregnant. Now that she was he just barely kissed her.

            “What’s wrong?” Brooke asked.

            “Do I look any different than before the wedding?” She asked feeling a slight bit insecure. At the moment she was wearing sweat pants and a tank top, maybe she needed to put effort in. Her hair was a mess, just pulled into a ponytail maybe that was it.

            “Maybe a little pale from being inside so much but otherwise no, why?”

            “My husband doesn’t want to have sex with me,” she admitted.

            “That I find hard to believe,” Tammy said. “Ever since you moved in he’s made any excuse to get you naked. I’m so glad I don’t clean the house, the maids find panties everywhere.”

            “Yeah well not anymore, he just turned me down,” she sighed again.

            “He’s just worried because of your fall,” Brooke offered. For some reason she didn’t look too sure about that.

            “You are pregnant and you were just in a coma for nearly two weeks, he’s just scared. And I never thought I would say that man is afraid of anything. We watched him sit by your bedside all that time and he wouldn’t leave you at all. Besides it wouldn’t kill you to stop having sex every five minutes,” Tammy said. She poured a glass of milk and handed it to Wildflower; since she came home everybody was suddenly a nutritionist.

            “I don’t know I just might be letting this dream get to me, in the dream I had the perfect honeymoon. We were so happy and we had mind blowing sex, reality sucks,” Wildflower pouted a little. She needed to get over this dream.

            “I still find it amazing that you really dreamed a whole honeymoon complete with steamy sex scenes,” Brooke laughed.

            “Maybe I’m just overreacting because I am bored and stuck in the house when I should be in Rio having steamy sex,” she sighed again.

            “So let’s talk about Tammy’s hot date tonight,” Brooke suggested. Tammy’s cheeks flushed but she smiled, this was a better topic of conversation.

            “I almost forgot with my pouting and whining, do you know what you want to wear? Mi closet es su closet,” Wildflower said.

            Tammy was in her mid-thirties and she took care of things in the house. Since before Wildflower came a long Nicolas didn’t live in the house Tammy was there to take care of everything. After everybody moved in nothing changed much, Tammy still cooked occasionally and ordered around staff. There were maids, gardener, pool guy, the whole team of people that worked in the stables and security, Tammy told them what to do. She was like a part of the family so there was no need for her to go, so it was business as usual. Though after Wildflower moved in Tammy really became part of the family and she wasn’t much like an employee at all.

            While talking about the guy she was dating Tammy twirled her cherry-cola colored hair around her finger. Apparently she liked this guy a lot and she hadn’t dated in a long time. Tammy was pretty with her light brown skin, high cheek bones and a body that she always was hiding but some women would kill for. She was a bit of a tomboy and never really dressed up for anything. Focusing on somebody else’s life was a good distraction and she really wanted Tammy to be happy. Even if that would mean that one day Tammy would move out and quit her job. Which would mean that she had to order around staff herself, but Tammy’s happiness was way more important.

 

            Nicolas was a curious person, he knew his wife was upset with him and he knew upset women gossiped to their friends. So he might have spied on the women in the kitchen with their chattering. But it was all in the interest of pleasing his wife. She kept talking about the dream she had about their honeymoon. It seemed to genuinely depress her that this dream wasn’t real. Then again she wanted to go to Brazil and get away from everything so they could be together as a couple and that couldn’t happen. Under any of other circumstances he would have said to hell with what the doctor said and would have taken her. If it wasn’t for the baby, he wasn’t willing to put the life on their child on the line. After using the security camera in the kitchen to spy, he opened her laptop. Of course she was looking for an alternative vacation.

            He felt guilty that he couldn’t give her what she wanted. Even guiltier that he just turned down having sex with her. And really very guilty that she got hurt because of something he did. Everybody assumed that Sadie did what she did because she was upset about Hannah, but that wasn’t true. She had a personal grudge against him because he was stupid enough to have sex with her. It was years ago she needed to get over it; he never once told her he loved her. The fact that their relationship was strictly physical was made very clear. Then she went and got herself pregnant. And he really meant she got herself pregnant, she did it on purpose to trap him. He was willing to take the child and care for him or her, but he didn’t want Sadie. So she had an abortion to get back at him. Ironic that his ex and Wildflower’s ex both got together to try to ruin their lives. But he wasn’t going to let them win.

            Wildflower was his wife and he loved her more than anything and he was going to get revenge for what happened. Sadie intentionally pushed her and he wasn’t going to forgive that or forget it, he was going to kill her. Now that he wasn’t sitting in the hospital all day and night, he could work on that. He also had to work on keeping his wife happy, so if she wanted to do something he was going to make it happen. An idea came to him and he just had to put the plan into action. Before that could happen he got a text.

            Stupid Caroline Mandrake was living at his brother’s house. The house was still wired up with cameras and whatnot all over it. Caroline had visitors; she didn’t know it though since she wasn’t home. How appropriate that her sisters would dare go there when they knew he was out for blood. They were pretty stupid and collectively they came up with less creative things than a 5 year old. Ariela who was 2 could think of better revenge plots. If you haven’t succeeded in getting revenge in 14 years you needed to quit the games and just go for the kill or give it up. They should have done that but now instead of him just writing them off as an annoyance, he had to kill them. That was the only justice he could see, other than torture. Not that he was apposed to torture; it would just take up too much of his time. Owen was lucky that he was in jail and Nicolas had been busy, otherwise he would be having a very unpleasant jail sentence. There weren’t enough charges to keep him in there forever but it wasn’t like a convenient accident couldn’t be arranged. When Nicolas got revenge on somebody he really got revenge.

            So he was going to pay Sadie a visit, which meant he had to cancel on lunch. Wildflower was already annoyed with him and feeling a little neglected, he would fix that later. He showered, got dressed and called his assistant Gloria to make some plans for him. Multitasking was his specialty, only he could pull off revenge and planning a make-up honeymoon at the same time. A stop into his office to take a few things out of his gun safe and he was ready to go. As predicted his wife looked at him disappointed, but he was going to make this up to her. He was back in control of his life so the world made sense again and soon the world would know for sure that you don’t mess with Nicolas Capriani.

 

 

            Caroline was emotionally tapped out by the time she got back from her daily visit with Delanoz. He was going to be getting out on bail tomorrow. So she wanted to make the house nice for him. She was surprised to find that her sisters where there when she stepped into the kitchen toting groceries. Heather was with them and that surprised her, Sadie and Tina were fugitives now. Why the hell would they come here? The last time she saw them they told her she wasn’t their sister anymore. And for the first time in her life their approval meant nothing to her. What happened to Hannah all those years ago was a horrible accident and nothing was going to bring her back. Delanoz wasn’t the same person he was back then and she had the engagement ring to prove it.

            “Get out,” she said refusing to really acknowledge them. She focused on putting her groceries away instead.

            “We need a place to stay and nobody would think to find us here,” Tina said. Caroline turned to stare at her; there were scars on Tina’s face now. When Nicolas found her in his house he was not happy and her face collided with a glass table, or so Caroline heard later.

            “Hell and no, especially not her,” she said. Of course the her in question was Sadie and she roiled her eyes.

            “She survived didn’t she? And her precious little Capriani baby? The dumb b***h is still going to have the devil’s spawn like she wanted. Maybe I shouldn’t call her dumb, she did screw her way to a fortune,” Sadie said bitterly.

            “Everyone of us know that you are just jealous that Nicolas never wanted you,” Caroline replied. “Now I want you out of this house before I have to call the police on my own sisters. And don’t you dare say I’m a traitor, Wildflower didn’t know any Capriani when Hannah died, it had nothing to do with her. I can’t believe that you would attack a pregnant woman who did nothing but fall for the guy that never loved you.”

            Once a upon a time they had been a happy family and Caroline adored her older sisters. After Hannah died everything changed, they slowly became the vengeful shrews they were now. There was no fun with them anymore, they were too obsessed. Because they were her sisters who she loved and respected she followed their stupid plans. The plans always backfired; it was like little girls in middle school playing games. If they wanted Delanoz dead then they could have killed him already, what was the point to all of this? Give up most of your life when it got you nowhere. They didn’t stop any of the brothers from living their lives. And nothing they did was going to avenge Hannah or bring her back. All they accomplished was for Caroline to lose all respect for them.

            Delanoz was honest with her and she believed it when he said it was an accident. Maybe once he was a womanizing pig chasing tail all over the world, but he was different now. She was the one to tame him and soon they would be married. Her parents didn’t understand her nor did her sisters, but she loved him and that was what mattered. This petty feud was not going to ruin her like her sisters. They had nothing except their anger and their empty lives and soon they would be in jail. Calling the police would be doing them a favor, because if Nicolas found them they were dead.

            “Sadie,” Heather said. She was the quiet one who was a follower in the past but was against going after Wildflower so she stayed away.

            “Don’t start,” Sadie replied.

            “What you did was wrong, both of you. And I think you really need to get far away from here before-” Heather stopped speaking and stared wide eyed at the hallway, they all turned to see Nicolas.

            “Gotta love family reunions,” he said when he entered the kitchen. Fear spread through the room and he definitely knew it and enjoyed it. “Caroline, how is my brother doing?”

            “Um he’s well, he’s coming home tomorrow,” she said.

            “Good for him,” he nodded.

            “The murderer is getting out of jail?” Tina asked in shock.

            “He didn’t murder her,” Caroline said and Tina glared at her.

            “Go ahead and what are you going to do? Shoot me?” Sadie said standing up and staring at Nicolas, who just looked amused.

            “Why on earth would I do that?” He asked feigning shock, he was scarier when he was calm like this.

            “Because I pushed your w***e wife down the stairs, and ruined you little wedding. Are you even sure the baby is yours, I heard she likes to strip and have sex with guys for money. My only regret is that one of them didn’t  ended up dead,” Sadie said. It was obvious she wanted to provoke him but why? Nicolas moved fast, so fast that he had his arm wrapped around Sadie’s neck before anyone could react.

            “I thought to myself what should I do about you,” Nicolas said to Sadie. He squeezed his arm around her tighter and you could see that she was struggling to breathe. “Now if I just kill you right now, you will be out of my hair. But hell I’ll live a little dangerously and let you go for now. Just know that I’m watching you and I will get you when you least expect it and that is a promise. Nothing is going to save you from me.”

            “H-help,” Sadie gasped while trying to pry his around from around her neck squeezing her like a boa constrictor.

            “Get off her,” Tina demanded. Surprisingly he let go and Sadie fell to the floor gasping for air.

            “Consider yourselves warned that its game on,” Nicolas said casually strolling back to the doorway. “Heather I would suggest you stop hang out with those two, they might get you killed. See you soon Caroline.” With a wave he left.

            “That’s for the help,” Sadie managed to say while struggling to breathe.

            “This is bad,” Heather said. “He isn’t playing; you attacked his wife and almost cost him his child, an innocent child. Yeah she wasn’t that far along but there is a life growing inside of her and that isn’t ok. When did we become worse than the people that hurt us? And what id Hannah’s death was an accident? Then what? I’m sick of these stupid games, now Nicolas isn’t going to just let this go. Who are you that you think this is ok? What have you become Sadie? That woman didn’t steal him away from you because he was never yours to begin with. To put the lives of innocent people in danger is worse than what Delanoz did. That’s another point; Delanoz was out with Hannah that night not his brothers. We have wasted so much time and now it’s all run out.”

            “Heather is right; this is it there is nothing else to do. Hannah’s body was found, wasn’t that the original purpose? This was to get her back and you don’t even care about her just revenge on guys that broke your hearts,” Caroline said.

            “Does any of it matter anymore? Nicolas is crazy, he will hunt us just fir sport and he wants us to run. Everything has gotten way too far out of hand,” Tina admitted.

            “Let him hunt us then, because we know what his weakness is and e can do hunting of our own,” Sadie said. Apparently it was going to take a lot to get her to see the light. And it was probably going to be the loss of her own life.

 

 

            Wildflower was in her bedroom alone, she laid in bed trying to get back to that dream she was supposed to get over. Nicolas bailed on their lunch plans when he was the one that asked if she wanted to go somewhere. It was a bit depressing that he didn’t want to spend time with her other than sleeping. Married couples eventually stopped having sex anyway; maybe it was just a phase. At least she had the memory of her dream and a drawer full of sex toys to keep her company. She knew she was being stupid but it felt like everything was changing around her. But she was still the same and eventually she was going to be alone and ignored. And she knew very well that she was being paranoid and crazy. Usually when men didn’t want sex from their wives they were getting some on the side.

            “Hey,” Nicolas greeted when he came into their room.

            “Hi,” she said without looking up at him. She was on her laptop; since she wasn’t going to get to go anywhere she was online shopping.

            “Sorry I was out so long, apparently D is getting out of jail tomorrow,” he said.

            “That’s nice,” she replied.

            “Did you ever unpack your suitcase for Brazil?”

            “Nope, it’s still in the closet collecting dust.”

            “Good, we’re leaving in the morning,” he said and that made her look up.

            “What’s that supposed to mean?”

            “I can’t fly you to Brazil, but I asked the doctor and a little road trip would be fine,” he said.

            “Road trip? Where?” She asked while staring at him, this wasn’t what she expected from him at all. Part of her expected to find some sign that he had been with another woman. She wasn’t normally so paranoid but there was a reason for her to be.

            “LA,” he said matter of factly. He then disappeared into the closet and came out with their suitcases. “You’ve never been to California, right?”

            “Until I met you I never went anywhere,” she replied.

            “I got us a beach house in Malibu for the next couple weeks, it’s a long drive but I figured you might want to get out of here.”

            “Are you serious?” She asked and he nodded, she had no clue how to react. Maybe she should have trusted that he would do anything to make her happy.

            “I know it’s not really the same but it’s the best I could do,” he said.

            “Thank you,” she said getting up to kiss him.

            “The last few days I know I’ve been a crappy husband but I’m going to make it up to you,” he told her.

            “You aren’t a crappy husband, you are wonderful, I’ve just be grumpy,” she said.

            That actually was true, she was grumpy because she couldn’t go to Brazil and because she wasn’t allowed to do anything. And she was wishing for a dream, it had been a good dream but this was her life. In her real life she had a man that sat by her bedside worried out of his mind about her for almost two weeks. That was definitely love and devotion, she knew that. Maybe she the realization that she was somebody’s wife was too much to handle and she was going to be somebody’s mother. It made sense that she was a little hormonal and crazy; she just needed new real memories to replace the dream. The one thing that was the same in her dream and in real like was how much she loved Nicolas. Being paranoid was a waste of energy.

            “There is something we need to talk about,” he said. Was that a look of guilt or did she imagine it?

            “Oh God, what now?” She asked, he sat on the bed and pulled her down on his lap.

            “The thing with Sadie, there is a reason she wanted to hurt you and it has nothing to do my murderous brother.”

            “Oh that, yeah I know she said you knocked her up,” she said and he stared at her. Until then she hadn’t really thought much about what Sadie had said before the whole chase scene happened.

            “She told you that? Well so you know she got pregnant on purpose because she knew I didn’t want her. Abuelita told her that we would pay her and keep the baby; she was crazy to think I would marry her. So she had an abortion just out of spite. We just had sex it wasn’t a real relationship,” he explained.

            “Sounds familiar, and like Owen thought I loved him, she swears you love her and blah blah. At least I didn’t get pregnant by him,” she said. She was purposely trying to sound superior to lighten the mood. “Mr. I-don’t-like-condoms, did you use any protection with her?”

            “It’s different with you; I knew I was going to marry you from the moment I laid eyes on you. Before you I assure you I was very careful and she would always try to get me to have sex with her without condoms and well she poked holes in some of them. That was how she did it, she would talk about having kids and s**t like that but I told her I didn’t have time for that,” he paused and shook his head. “I’m sorry for what she did.”

            “It’s whatever now, as long as our baby is ok nothing else matters. But if the b***h comes near me again I’m going to shoot her in the face,” she said. They both laughed, dwelling on the situation wasn’t going to make it any better. And she didn’t blame him.

            “I promise I’m going to do something about her,” he told her.

            “I know but don’t tell me, I can live better without knowing.”

            “Not a problem, I’m not sure anyway.”

            “So how long is it going to take for us to drive to California?” She asked changing the subject to something more pleasant.

            “Oh about 23 hours or so,” he shrugged.

            “You plan to just drive 23 hours straight?”

            “I could, I stayed awake while you were in the hospital.”

            “We will stop along the way, don’t argue,” she told him.

            “Whatever my wife wants she gets,” he said and kissed her.

            “Then why won’t you have sex with your wife?” She asked, obviously he didn’t expect that question.

            “Because my wife just got out of the hospital and my wife is pregnant with our child. And because my wife is a little freaky and likes it a little on the rough side,” he said. Just saying that got him in the mood, she could tell by his expression and she was sitting on his lap.

            “Stop worrying so much; if I need somebody to worry about me I have nine brothers, a mother, two aunts, both your sisters, Chris and Brooke, and the girls. We have been married two weeks and have not had sex and if you bring up my hospital stay I will hurt you.”

            “I knew there was a reason I married you,” he said kissing her. “Are you sure that you are ready?”

            “Yes, clearly I want you if I was having sex dreams about you,” she replied.

            “Good point,” he said and gently laid her back on the bed. Finally she was getting everything she wanted.

 

 

            Jose was driving away from the airport in his rented SVU, he was not happy. It should have been a good day; he found out that his son was his. They were driving to Jasmine’s parents’ house, the last place on earth he wanted to go. Especially when him and Jasmine were not on good terms, but this had to be done. He loved her so much but when she told him that Joseph might be somebody else’s child, he wanted to strangle her. In the past they were always honest about hook ups and brief relationships. She always teased him about how all his relationships usually ended in violence. His exes often threw bricks through his car windows or at his head. Though he did have a habit of cheating on them with friends, sisters, cousins and once a mother, that didn’t go over well. But all the many women had been with were just there to fill the void Jasmine left.

            For the four years he had known her he was in love with her. They were together a year, on and off for the 2^nd year and during the 3^rd year he asked her to marry him and she declined. Even though they both saw other people they always ended up together again. It was her that didn’t want marriage or cohabitate or anything. She told him recently it was because of his lifestyle and all the women he went through. And he could understand her reluctance, so they just kept their relationship open. When he called to ask her to be his date for his brother’s wedding she said yes. Before that the last time he saw her was when they went on a three month vacation to Greece. Most of that time was spent in bed like they were on a honeymoon.

            They were apart for almost a year and he was happy to see her and wanted to try to convince her to stay with him. Then she told him the reason she wouldn’t see him for so long and basically ignored him was because she was pregnant. That was when she told him that he had a son and that she named their son after him. So her best friend flew down and brought Joseph and as soon as he laid eyes on him Jose was in love. And they started planning a life together, as a family. She finally put on her expensive diamond ring he bought her two years ago, she wore it on a necklace and as far as he knew she wore it every day. Now here they were a few days after she told him that his son might not be his and that she was with someone else. They both had flings, so the fact that she was with another guy didn’t bother him. All the lying she did and all the secrets she kept, that was bothering him.

            “We don’t have to stay there if you don’t want to,” she said after awhile.

            “Doesn’t really matter to me either way,” he replied.

            “Are you ever going to forgive me?” She asked and he considered her a moment.

            “I don’t know, we use to tell each other the truth about everything and now everything has changed.”

            “J, I am sorry,” she said. The tone of her voice told him that she was going to cry.

            “It just would have been nice if when you informed me that I have a son that you might have mentioned he might not be mine. What if the test came out different? What then? I bought us a damn house and my whole family has seen him,” he said. He had been holding back on saying that for days.

            “Yes, I know,” she said and she was crying.

            “I find it funny that you couldn’t trust me enough to tell me you were pregnant but you sure as hell could tell me he might not be mine.” Jose was angry and he was sick of her acting like this was his fault, all he ever did was love her from the start.

            “Jose, I was sure I got pregnant in Greece and I didn’t think about what I did before that. And he was gone and I didn’t think I was going to see him again. Then he found out I had a baby and assumed Joseph was his. He called me some time after your brother’s wedding. I’m not lying to you and you have no reason to trust me, I really messed up,” she cried. “If you don’t want to marry me then I understand.”

            “Yeah and if I don’t marry you then I’ll probably never see my son again. You might just decide to disappear,” he said bitterly. This was not how it was supposed to be once they finally got together for real.

            “I wouldn’t do that and if you don’t want to be with me anymore then we can’t get married. Why would you marry me when you hate me?”

            “Who said I hate you? And you know plenty of people that are married hate each other anyway. I told you what I wanted two years ago, it’s always been you that didn’t want to settle down.”

            “Yes, I know and I’m sorry for that and I wish I had just said yes the first time you asked. Then we could be happy instead of your passive aggressive attitude towards me. Fighting isn’t good for Joseph.”

            “Lying isn’t good for a relationship,” he replied.

            Neither of them spoke a word the rest of the drive. He hated himself for making her cry. But if he kept any of that in any longer it would have been a much worse fight. The truth was that he loved her more than he ever loved anyone before or at least before Joseph. And he had to think about what was best for his son. That meant he had to get over this mess and let the past stay in the past. This was his son and Joseph deserved to grow up in a house with both his parents and for those parents to love each other. For the sake of his son and the small piece of sanity he had left, he was going to forgive her. But if anything else happened he was done with her. If he had to he would get custody of his son but he didn’t want that. He wanted Jasmine and Joseph, not one or the other. This was all way too much. Pulling up into her parents’ driveway he told himself that whatever they said or did wouldn’t count against Jasmine.

            “Jas, I love you and I’m sorry I kind of blew up at you. We can just put the past in the past and as long as he is my son nothing else matters. Both of us agreed to seeing other people so I can’t be mad that you were with somebody else,” he said.

            “J, I only want to be with you and I really always have despite what it seems like,” she said. He leaned over to kiss her and wipe her tears away.

            “Let’s get through this and we can go back and move into our own house.”

            “Um J, how bout we get married when we get back home? Why wait? We’ve been togetherish for a long time and I don’t need anything big or fancy,” she said.

            “Anything for you,” he replied. He looked up to see the front door open and her mother coming out onto the porch.

            “They do not hate you,” she said then got out.

            “That’s what you think,” he shook his head.

            While Jasmine ran up on the porch to hug her mother, he got Joseph out of the back in his car seat. And he grabbed the diaper bag too; the suitcase they shared could wait until he was sure they were staying here. Sleeping in the car might be better. Slowly he walked up the path to the house. Beth Black the mother, smiled at him, it was a fake smile. She had once told him he wasn’t good enough for her daughter and said she was concerned that he would give her an STD. Then she later asked why if he insisted on hanging around Jasmine, then why didn’t he marry her? When he told her that he actually proposed and Jasmine said no, she said that it was a good thing. She apparently followed his volatile very public relationships and liked to bring them up and accused him of hitting women. He had been hit before by a lot of things but he would never hit a woman.

            “Hi Beth,” he greeted.

            “Hello Jose,” she replied giving him a death stare. “Oh Joseph, I’ve missed you so much it’s so terrible that you are so far away.” There, she threw at dirty look at him.

            Inside he went to say hi to her disapproving father, her slacker lazy younger brother, the way too perky younger sister, the older sister who thought she was superior because she was a doctor with her three kids and the older brother that really hated him. The Black family was just full of joy and welcomed him just the way he expected. They hated him, well except maybe John jr. who did absolutely nothing and bouncy happy Holly. None of them hid their dislike of Jasmine and Joseph moving.

            “Why does she have to move?” John sr. asked him.

            “Dad,” Jasmine said giving him a look.

            “What? There is no reason you should have to take Joseph away from his real family that has been there since he was born.”

            “Despite what you may think I do work and I need to be there in the office,” Jose said as calmly as he could. “My son will be with his family.”

            “Oh he’s your son now?” Samuel asked. “Where were you when my sister was pregnant? Where were you the first three months of his life? Oh wait we know it’s in magazines and on the internet.”

            “Stop it,” Jasmine said glaring at her brother.

            “Now you defend him? You were the one crying yourself to sleep at night when you found out what he was up to,” Samuel said. The look on her face meant it was true and Jose hated that.

            “If I knew then I would have been here but what goes on with me and Jasmine isn’t your business,” Jose said calmly. He couldn’t allow himself to get angry and he decided then that they were not staying in this house.

            “No more arguing,” Beth said. “How about you tell us Jasmine, when you are getting married?”

            “Are you getting married here or do you expect everybody to make an inconvenient trip?” Desire asked.

            “You don’t even have to come we’re just doing something small,” Jasmine said.

            “Why wouldn’t you want your family there?” Holly asked.

            “Is this because of him?” Beth asked.

            “No, look stop blaming everything on Jose, I can make decisions on my own and you all think it’s inconvenient to come to where we live so don’t bother,” Jasmine said.

            “Now that’s your home? You’ve been gone a few weeks, you’ve run off with him longer than that,” Desire shook her head.

            “Why are you even marrying him? What are you going to do once he gets bored? Cause we all know he goes through women, the whole damn world knows that,” Samuel said. “Jasmine, is it really smart to move down there where you have no family to be there when he cheats on you?”

            “I’m surprised it took what ten minutes for you to talk about my past,” Jose sighed.

This was going to be an exhausting night; they always said the same things like a broken record. Maybe he did some things in the past that were pretty bad but he never once hurt Jasmine or cheated on her. Did the fact that he proposed to her years ago and she turned him down, mean nothing? She didn’t want to get married because she liked her freedom. Jasmine was 34 and old enough to make her own decisions, not that her parents believed that. At least he could take care of himself; Jasmine never lived on her own unless you count her dorm days in college. She lived with her friend most of her adult life or she previously lived with her sugar daddies. There were a lot of things her parents didn’t know about her.

Four years ago he met her in New York in a night club. Originally it was supposed to be a one night stand but it ended up being a month long thing and then a year passed and they were still together. The first month they stayed in his temporary home for work and they had some fun but it wasn’t all sex. It surprised him to find that he actually liked her and so for a year they were a couple even though he was often traveling. Every time he was in New York she came to stay with him. And they took vacations together, she admitted to him about everything she did and how she had men pay for all types of things for her. The funny thing was she never slept with any of them and he admired a woman who could get what she wanted.

But when they became a couple she broke it off with the other men and they were exclusive. She never once asked him for anything, so it wasn’t a game to her. It was easy to fall in love with her but eventually it became hard to see each other. At the time she couldn’t exactly move, she co-owned a café with her best friend. That was her excuse for turning him down when he proposed and when he asked her to move in with him. Not that he really had a place to live at the time, when he was home he usually stayed at the hotel with his brother or in some woman’s bed. Things just got complicated with their relationship and they seemed to work better as friends. Which turned into a friends-with-benefits thing and now here they were with a baby.

“And you have no shame for all these things you’ve done to these women?” John sr. asked looking at him disgusted.

“No not really nothing to be ashamed of, Jas knows what I’ve done,” he shrugged.

“This is the type of man you want raising your son?” Desire asked she too looked disgusted. He sort of wanted to try to see if he could get all of them to look at him like that, it would be amusing.

“Jose and I are honest with each other and he isn’t a bad person,” Jasmine said. “I love him and I am going to marry him and he is Joseph’s father. If you all can’t handle that and the decisions I make for my own life then don’t be in my life or my son’s life.”

“You pick him over you’re family?” Beth asked with a horrified look on her face and tears in her eyes.

“I’m not picking a side there are no sides and I love you all but I’m going to be with Jose no matter what,” she said. He slipped his arm around her waist and she leaned into him. If her parents only knew they had sex right here on the couch they were sitting on. House sitting was an interesting thing.

“Are you sure you want to marry him? Just because you had his baby doesn’t mean you have to marry him,” Samuel said a little softer. Of course he was going to try to appeal to his younger sister and try to sound concerned.

“Jose asked me to marry him a long time before Joseph was born,” she said.

“When was this?” Her father asked, was that a surprised look?

“Two years ago,” she said.

“It’s true,” Holly said a bit timidly. “She told me about it and she had the ring.”

“Why doesn’t anybody else know about this?” John sr. asked.

“Because I told him I didn’t want to get married then or the other ten times he asked me,” she admitted.

“Maybe the question isn’t why she would marry him, its why the hell he still wants to marry her,” John jr. said breaking his silence.

“As much fun as this is having all of you pry into our personal business, I worked today and I’m kind of tired. We need to leave but feel free to make a list of things wrong with me so you can complain tomorrow,” Jose said.

 Maybe he should have been striving for the family of the woman he loved’s family to like him. But the truth was that he didn’t care what they thought and didn’t need their acceptance. If he didn’t want acceptance from his own family why the hell would he care what these people thought? They were very judgmental, probably more so than his family. All that really mattered to him was that he loved Jasmine, no matter what. Beth looked sad for some reason while holding Joseph, like maybe she thought she was never going to see him again. There was nothing he could do about their living arrangements, he wasn’t traveling anymore he had to be there. Especially since Delanoz wasn’t working anymore, work was a battlefield. Everybody was always after each other’s positions and him and Nicolas had to stay on top. Though at the moment both him and his brother were out of town and Delanoz was out on bail.

Truthfully if he had a daughter and she wanted to be with someone like him he would be against it. If he was a nicer better person he would make more of an effort with the Black family. But the truth was that he wasn’t, he was after all the guy that slept with his girlfriend’s mother. He loved Jasmine though with all of his heart and he was surprised by that himself. The last few weeks were difficult and they did need to get use to being together again. He was pretty sure that he would never cheat on her but he wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t cheat. They were both people use to doing whatever they wanted. Married life would at least be interesting.

“Stay here,” Beth said. “There is no reason you should stay in a hotel.”

“Are you sure Mom?” Jasmine asked and her mother nodded. “J?”

“Whatever you want to do is fine,” he replied. For her he would do this but really he wanted to be far away from this house.

Reviews

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This is such a wonderful chapter here, I like thi sfull of wonderful detail and wonderful imagery. Drama was amazing in this. Very well written.