AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her fingers stopped, leaving her hand resting on top of mine. “After the things he said to me with his hands around my neck… I’m not.”
I closed my eyes, trying not to read more than I should into those words. Still, I turned my hand over, clasping her fingers. “Nalani… tell me the truth. Did he…”
“No,” she whispered. “I can’t say that he wouldn’t have, but he um… he hit me, first. I came to the apartment to change my shoes,” she said, letting out a dry chuckle. “And um… he came charging out of my bedroom, and just hit me, before I knew what was happening. I kinda blacked out for a second, and when I opened my eyes again, his hands were around my throat. Demanding that I tell him where ‘it’ was.”
“It?” I asked. “What was he referring to?”
She shrugged. “I still don’t know, honestly. I took her computer, a tablet, a keepsake box, and some letters. He was um… he was choking me too hard for it to be an effective interrogation tactic, but I don’t… I don’t think he knew that.”
Fuck.
I released my hold on her hand so I could move closer, examining the angry purple bruising around her neck.I fought back the heat building in my chest all over again, knowing this wasn’t the time or place for it. Instead, I took my wife’s face in my hands.
“I’m sorry,” I told her again, and she shook me off, pushing my hands away.
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“Because I am,” I explained. “And I wish I’d shown up sooner. That you’d never even had a reason to go there. That I hadn’tgivenyou a reason to go there.”
She shrugged. “Whatever. It is what it is.”
“It’s not,” I countered. “I’m… sorry for my overreaction, about the birth control thing. I…” I pushed out a heavy sigh, shaking my head. “I know you weren’t lying about that. I just… I couldn’t…fuck,” I whispered, not knowing what to say. When a few moments had passed without me finding a good way to articulate my thoughts, I decided to shift direction. “You know um… you know Calli probably doesn’t have much more time… right?”
She frowned at me, but nodded. “I do. But she might surprise us.”
“I hope so,” I agreed. “But I… I realized several months back that I had to be realistic. For the longest time, she seemed… ageless. And then it started hitting her all at once. All of a sudden. And I realized I was running out of time to fulfill this promise I’d made her, when I was still basically a kid myself.”
“What was the promise?”
“To prove her wrong.” I chuckled. “I was such a serious young man, especially after my mother passed. She would always say,you know what attracts more flies than honey? Shit! And boy your lil mean ass is full of it!”
Nalani’s mouth dropped open, then she smiled. “That definitely sounds like Calli.”
“Classic,” I agreed. “But she would say that because we’d go to these functions, and people would try to push their daughters on me, and I was never interested. I just wanted to build, and conquer, and be the best in the business. Better than my father, better than anybody. But they were always trying to… temper me. Get me to see the value in having a family and a legacy. I wasn’t trying to hear it.”
“Okay, but… how do you go from that to a marriage contract requiring your wife to give you an heir within the first two years?”
I chuckled, but… it wasn’t really funny.
Not anymore.
“One day, I got so sick of Calli chastising me, that I told her, ‘I’m gonna have the prettiest wife and babies out of everybody.You’ll see’.” I laughed. “And she said,‘Boy… I’d like to see that before I die’.And then she laughed her ass off, ’cause she knew better than to take me seriously. But she’d remind me of it every now and then, and as I got older… it stopped seeming so ridiculous. And asshegot older, and my father passed, and she and my brothers were all I had left… if felt…serious.”
Nalani blinked.
Then blinked again.
“Orion… are you seriously telling me that all this, this contract, buying theNectarbuilding, everything… was to fulfill a promise to your grandmother?” she asked, eyes narrowed.
“Uh… yes and no,” I admitted. “Buying the building was just dumb luck. I came across the opportunity and took it, knowing my father would appreciate thefuck youto William. But it wasn’t until I realized that I didn’t have much time to see my vow to Calli through that I realized… the potential.”
Nalani nodded. “I… wow. That definitely explains a lot,” she said. “Including why you reacted the way you did about the birth control, and then… got mad all over again, it seemed, when she had the seizure. You got the marriage part out of the way, but… you’re afraid your children won’t meet Calli.”
My eyebrows went up.
Damn.
She’d pinpointed the exact problem before I could even articulate it to myself fully.
