An Heir At Any Price: The Billionaire's Obsession - Contemporary Romance (4 page)

“I’m fine, really,” I told him. “I do
this all the time.” He relented on that one but stood at the door
of the car and watched until I got to the bottom of the stairs that
led up to my apartment. I waved at him and he waved back. As I
slipped in my front door, he was still watching.

“Holly? Is that you?” I heard my
mother’s voice as soon as I walked in but I couldn’t see her. The
apartment was completely dark. I reached over and flipped on the
light. She was lying on the couch and when the light came on she
threw her skinny arm across her eyes and said, “That’s too
bright!”

“You shouldn’t be sitting here in the
dark, Mom. What are you doing?”

“I’m just resting, I’m
really tired today for some reason.”
Maybe
because you stayed up all night last night with your friend,
Vodka,
I thought, but I didn’t want to
fight with her tonight, so I didn’t say it aloud. I didn’t even
know it for a fact. I was asleep before she was, but she could have
just been watching TV.

“Well go ahead and rest,” I told her.
“You can go home tomorrow, right?”

“Holly,” she said in that tone she
used when I knew she was going to ask me for something that I
couldn’t afford.

“What, Mom?”

“I know I told you that I needed to
stay here for a couple of days so my neighbor can work on the
plumbing…”

“But?” I asked. I had already figured
her story was baloney, they usually always all are. Plus, she still
lives next door to, “Grandpa,” who was really up in years now. I
had a hard time picturing him taking apart pipes. I just hadn’t had
the energy to discover what the truth was this time.

“But…my electricity’s been off for…a
while and my water too.”

I dropped down in the chair across
from her and asked, “How did that happen, Mom? I paid those
bills.”

“Well, you gave me the checks and I
planned on paying them…but I must have forgotten. You know how bad
my memory has gotten….”

“What did you do with the checks,
Mom?” It was one of those questions I didn’t really want to know
the answer too.

“I must have misplaced them,” she
said. I shook my head. I wasn’t sure if her alcohol soaked brain
really didn’t work anymore, or if she thought I was stupid. I knew
she was lying to me though. She wouldn’t look me in the
eye.

“Oh good then, I’ll just cancel those
checks and I’ll go down and write new checks to the electric and
water company when I get off work tomorrow.”

“Oh, you mean call the bank?” Now she
was nervous. I’d had enough of this game and her pathetic attempt
to hide the fact she was once again stealing my hard-earned money.
My father left her a house, I paid all the rest of her bills except
for a couple hundred dollars in food stamps she got from welfare
every month and I give her a small allowance. Yet, she still steals
from me every chance she gets. I usually go directly in to pay her
utility bills because there was no way I was going to trust her
with cash, but I hadn’t had time to get down there this month. I
thought it would be okay as long as I didn’t give her
cash…obviously I was wrong.

“How did you manage to cash them?” I
asked her. “They were made out specifically for those
bills.”

“Honey…maybe I lost them and someone
else got ahold of them and cashed them.”

“Stop it!” I yelled at her. I didn’t
usually. I wasn’t a yeller, most of the time I was just a big
pushover and that’s why my own mother as well as others sometimes
took advantage of me. But, she just told me that two bills I
thought were already paid this month weren’t. Setting aside the
fact that she just lied to me, changed the payable to on the checks
and spent every penny on alcohol, I would have still been pissed.
“When are you ever going to realize that you’re wasting your life?
You’re wasting my life…you’re killing yourself and you’re killing
me in the process.”

“Holly, I’m sorry, honey. I’m going to
try harder…” If I had a dollar for every time I heard that in my
life, I’d be richer than Aiden Scott. I thought about Aiden and I
wondered if he would still want me to mother his child if he knew
about my mother. Alcoholism has a big genetic component to it, a
big reason why I don’t drink very much, and why I am always careful
not to have too many.

“How did you cash them?” I asked her
again in a calmer voice. It didn’t really matter now, but I wanted
her to have to at least be accountable for admitting what she
did.

“Ronnie at the Liquor King cashed ‘em
for me. I changed who it was made out to. I drew a single line
through it and put your initials. I’m sorry, baby.”

“I’m going to bed,” I told her. On the
note my mother had just admitted to theft and fraud.

“I can borrow the money from Benny, to
pay the bills. You won’t have to pay them. I’ll go see him
tomorrow.” Benny was my Mom’s brother and he’d gotten over her and
all of this drama a long time ago. He rarely even called or came to
see her any longer and he only lived about ten miles away. He
wasn’t going to lend her a dime. He was like me, he’d been taken
enough to know that if he gave her money it would all go into a
bottle.

“I’ll take care of them,” I told her.
“Don’t bother Uncle Benny with it.” I stood up to head in the
direction of my bedroom.

“Good night, Holly. I love you.” I
wish I didn’t feel like there was a knife sticking out of my chest
every time she said that.

“Good night mother,” I said, wearily.
I didn’t say it back, I just couldn’t at that moment.

***

The next morning on my way to work I
went by and paid the electric and water bills for my mother’s
house. I called her when I got to work and told her she could go
home. I wasn’t even mad anymore, I was numb. It was over a week
until payday and I now had ten dollars and forty-two cents in my
account. Thank you, Mother. I hope that was some good vodka and I
hope the tips are good the rest of the week so I can pay my own
bills.

I went about my work, trying to keep
my mind off of my mother. I pretended to talk and laugh with Rose
and Myra but my heart wasn’t in it. At about ten-thirty after we’d
gotten the breakfast rush cleaned up, Rose pulled me to the side
and asked, “What’s wrong, girlie?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” I told her, forcing
a smile.

“You’re a terrible liar,” she
said.

“Thank you,” I said with a real smile.
I had promised myself growing up with my mother that I wasn’t going
to be one of those people who had issues with the truth. “I’m okay
though, really. My mother’s acting up a bit, but nothing I can’t
handle.”

“Aw, I’m sorry, honey. You deserve a
lot better than the hand you’ve been dealt.”

I shrugged. Rose had an autistic son
and a husband who cheated regularly. I knew this because she told
me, but I never heard her complain even though she was in her late
forties and still working more than me. We all have our crosses to
bear and I just thank God that I have a job and good friends like
Rose who genuinely care.

“Thank you,” I told her. “But it
really will be okay. You don’t need to worry about me; you have
enough of your own issues to worry about.” She gave me a motherly
look that said I couldn’t make her not worry about me even if I
wanted to.

“Well, why don’t you go take a little
break anyways before the lunch rush starts up,” she
said.

“I will take you up on that,” I told
her. I went into the back and sat down on the old couch Joe put
back there for us to relax on during our breaks. I leaned back and
closed my eyes; I hadn’t really slept much the night before. A few
seconds, or maybe it was minutes went by and I heard the door open.
I didn’t open my eyes, I just said, “Sorry Joe, I’m
coming.”

“Did I keep you out too late last
night?” I opened my eyes to see Aiden standing there looking at me.
He looked delicious in a pair of designer jeans and a red,
long-sleeved polo shirt.

I sat up quickly and said, “Oh, Aiden.
I thought you were Joe. No, I just didn’t sleep very well last
night.”

“I’m sorry, was it because of me?” he
asked. It was, partially. I looked at him and sighed.

“Maybe a little. I have a lot to think
about. What are you doing back here anyways? Do you own this place
too?”

He laughed, “Not hardly. Joe would
never sell to me. I asked your friend Rose if you were working this
morning and she told me you were back here. I didn’t ask she just
sent me on back.”

“I believe that, Rose likes to fancy
herself a matchmaker,” I told him.

“I have a meeting to run off to, but I
wanted to see what time you’re off today and if you’d like to spend
some more time together? I let you get away without getting your
number last night.”

“Oh,” I said. It was a brilliant
response, I know. “Um, yeah…I get off at three. What are we going
to do?”

“I’d rather it be a surprise,” he
said.

“I’m just a little self-conscious in
my uniform,” I told him.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll have my
driver pick you up at three and take you home to change. Then he
can bring you to me.”

“I can take a cab…”

“Nate will be here with the car at
three,” he said. “Give me your cell number.” I called it out to him
as he put the numbers in his phone. “I have to run now. Have a good
day.”

“Sure, you too…” he was already gone.
The man has a way with authority, that’s for sure.

When I went back out to work, Rose and
Myra were both waiting to pounce.

“You’re meeting in secret with Mr.
Dreamy pants aren’t you?” Rose said.

I laughed and put on my apron, “No, he
came in last night as I was closing and ejected a drunk for me.
Then he invited me out to dinner…”

Their squeals interrupted me, “Where
did he take you?” Myra asked.

“An Italian place called
Giuseppe’s.”

They squealed again, “Oh my God, girl!
Do you know the waiting list for that place is months long? Only
the elite go there!” Rose who kept up on these types of things
delighted in telling me.

“Did he drive? What kind of car does
he have?” Myra asked. “I bet it’s something low, fast and Italian.”
Joe rang the bell behind us.

“Orders up! I hope whatever kind of
car he has can carry all three of you because none of you will be
able to make your own car payment when I fire you for all that
gabbing.”

“Speaking of low, fast and Italian,”
Rose said. All of the girls giggled. Joe was Italian and it was a
very fitting name all the way around. Rose picked up two plates off
the warmer and turned back towards me, “Not a word until I get
back, I want details.” I laughed and shook my head. I went over to
check on my customers and greet one new one. When I came back they
were both still dying to hear.

“He called his driver and had him pick
us up,” I told them, vaguely.

“Pick you up in what?” Myra
asked.

“A limousine,” I said.

“Are you kidding? Damn girl! You hit
the mother lode!”

“It’s not like that,” I told them.
“Now stop it and let’s get back to work.”

They did, but I could tell by their
looks and giggles that they were still talking about me and Aiden.
That was okay; let them have fun with it. It wasn’t going to last
long whether I decided to have his baby or not. He’d already told
me I’d have to basically disappear when the deed was done, and if I
said no, I had a feeling he wouldn’t be coming back to the
café.

I made it through the day and when it
was time to leave, I was really glad that I’d had the early shift.
I love getting out when there’s at least some daylight left. After
saying good-bye to the girls and Joe, I tried to slip out
unnoticed. It wasn’t like limousines were unheard of in this
neighborhood. I worked in a much nicer neighborhood than I lived
in. I wasn’t that lucky however, as Aiden’s driver held open the
door and I turned to slide in, I saw Rose and Myra’s faces in the
window, gawking. My next time on shift was going to be fraught with
questions. I smiled and shook my head while Myra was giving me a
thumbs up. Explaining the surrogacy deal to those two if I decided
to accept was going to be fun. They were both very devoted mothers
and it makes me wonder what they might think of me for bringing a
life into the world and then just walking away.