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Mr. Williams wants me to treat Yaya well.
I have every intention of doing so.
We have the most important factors in common already. Whatever it takes to get his approval, I’m willing to do.
“Why are you two following us?” Yaya’s dad casts a frustrated look over his shoulder.
Mrs. Williams returns it with a calm look.
Yaya signs to her father, “I mean it, dad. Don’t over-do it.”
“This is a conversation between men,” Mr. Williams says. I notice he voices and signs more eloquently than I do. It’s still something I’m working on. “Please give us some privacy.”
The women circle him like suspicious cats. Yaya’s dad shoves me into the office and pokes his head out, shooing his wife and daughter away.
I hear their retreating footsteps. Mr. Williams locks the door and then stays there. After a few seconds, he wrenches it open again, checking to make sure they’re really gone.
Slowly, the door clicks shut, but he keeps his back to me.
Unsure of what’s going on, I decide to deliver my speech anyway. “Sir,” I say, “respectfully, I’m aware of how bad an impression I must have made, given how my relationship with Yaya started. But I can assure you that there is nothing fake about my feelings for her and—”
Mr. Williams turns to me with the world’s biggest grin on his face.
Is he the Joker? Is this the part where he kills me and hides my body under his clown costumes?
“Relax. Relax!” He flies over and pumps my hand in a hearty shake. “Welcome to the family, son.”
I blink, so shocked I can’t move. “J-just like that?”
“No, not just like that.” His face falls flat and he looks at me like I’m an idiot. “You think I’d let any old bloke come and talk to me about my daughter?”
“Sir?” I speak slowly, as if English isn’t my first language.
“You learn ASL for her.” His voice rises in a sing-song cadence as he says, “Check!You buy an entire company to salvage her reputation.Check!”
I wonder if that had, indeed, been a characteristic Mr. Williams had been looking for. If so, ‘a billionaire to buy her a company’ is strangely specific.
“You don’t tear away her opportunities because you two had a split. Double check.”
I guess that one makes sense.
“And most importantly,” he meets my eyes, “you help Henry’s grandmother receive the surgery she needs.”
I avert my gaze. “How do you know about that?”
“Henry came over here, ranting and raving, demanding to know if it was us or if it was you. We told him the truth. Wasn’t us. And he swore he’d pay back every penny.”
“No need.”
“Ah, leave him. It’ll build character. Hopefully get him to stop destroying all the good things in his life.”
I, for one, am not sorry Henry destroyed any of the things in his life. That goes for my car and for his friendship with Yaya.
“Why’d you help someone who clearly hates you and wants your girl?” Mr. Williams eyes me like a hawk.
I think about it before I speak, but there’s really no profound answer. “Because it’s what Yaya would have wanted.”
“That’s it?”
