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Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Jonas,Harrison Dean is here. Do you have time to see him and his client?” Jill, his personal assistant, said into the phone. She wasn’t twenty feet from him but still called for things like this.
“I am his client, and yes, I have a few minutes,” he said to her, wondering what his lawyer is doing there. It had been weeks since he had needed to see him for anything.
Perhaps it had to do with his dad leaving the country. He set his pen down. Their conversation had been three days ago, and so far, he was sure his dad was still planning on leaving the country with his wife. Or already had; Jonas wasn’t communicating with him anymore.
After George had walked out of his office three days ago, Jonas had spent time on the phone with another lawyer: his dad’s. Jonas wanted to make sure that Frankie’s and Louisa’s trust funds were intact and still had funds in them. Neither could withdraw anything from them until they were twenty-five, except to pay for college, so Jonas had set up an additional trust with his own money to get them by until then. Unlimited funds for each to do what they wanted with. There was no way either of his sisters would be left destitute by their parents’ abandonment.
Harrison walked in with his arms folded, and a frown was set on his face. Close behind him was Buzz, dressed from head to toe in black, from her pumps up to her tight-fitting slacks and black blouse. All the black did was extenuated her red hair that was in a chignon, which hid the curls he knew were there. His fingers were already itching to touch her again.
“Morning, Jonas. My client is here, and she just needs a signature.” Harrison didn’t sit, just leaned against the wall at the edge of his desk. “My client, Beatrix P. Lovely.”
“Uhm, thank you for seeing me, Jonas,” Buzz said. All the confidence she’d had in that closet months ago seemed to have vanished.
“Beatrix, Jonas Raiden is also my client. Therefore, I will represent both of you during this.” Harrison shook his head and nearly growled.
“I can represent myself today, Harrison. She is your stepdaughter, and I don’t want to put you in the middle of this,” Jonas stated, wondering what exactly this was about. Buzz was sweating, and Harrison was pissed.
“No, you’re both my clients today. You can think about another lawyer tomorrow—you’ll need one. I’ve drawn up all the appropriate documents that you have requested. Against your lawyer’s advice, I might add. All you need to do is sign,” Harrison said, pulling a paper from his red folder and setting it on the desk in front of Jonas.
In confusion, Jonas picked up the papers, the ones he hadn’t even known about, much less requested to be drawn up. Looking at it, he couldn’t make any of it make sense.
“It’s just a standard affidavit of Voluntary Relinquishment of Parental Rights, a document stating that you will relinquish your paternal rights as of today. It’s just a formality, really, but I don’t want to have you thinking that you need to be a part of the baby’s life or that I want anything from you. We’ll be fine,” Buzz stated, more calmly than she felt.
Dropping the paper as if it had burned him, his eyes went to Buzz’s face. “Baby? You’re pregnant?”
“My client is seven weeks pregnant. If you insist on a paternity test before signing, you will have to wait until the birth, per request from my client, Beatrix P. Lovely,” Harrison stated for her, as if she couldn’t talk.
“It’s mine? Of course, it’s mine, or you wouldn’t be here,” Jonas choked out.
“Once again, paternity tests will not be conducted until the baby is born,” Harrison repeated.
“How long have you known? Weren’t you going to tell me?” Jonas demanded in anger, pushing the paper away. He didn’t want to see it anymore.
“Buzz, you said you told him and that he wanted to sign the paper.” Harrison glared at Buzz.
“I knew he wouldn’t want a baby with me. And I don’t want my baby to grow up like me, with a dad who can’t love her. Once he signs the paper, she will know that it was her dad who didn’t want her, not that her mom fucked up so badly that she never got to know who he was. She deserves better than that,” Buzz told Harrison, but Jonas saw a tear fall from her eyes before she angrily wiped it away.
“Buzz, you told me he had already agreed to this! You lied to me, your lawyer! You asked me to be your lawyer, and I agreed, and you lied to me.” Harrison was madder than Jonas was at that point.
Buzz’s jaw set with sudden determination. “Harrison, I am not going to trap him in something he doesn’t want. I am going to end things now before there’s a chance that her little heart gets broken because her father doesn’t want her. I never want her to feel that pain—not for one moment. This will get done before she even knows it happened.”
“Is it a girl? A daughter?” Jonas asked, his eyes on Buzz, seeing if there were any changes in her body. He couldn’t see any. She was as perfect as she had been before.
Visions suddenly rushed through his mind: Buzz pregnant, very pregnant as she held up an impossibly small outfit that their baby would one day wear. That morphed into her holding on to a toddler with chubby arms and legs and red curly hair; her head rested on Buzz’s shoulder, content. Then to that same red-haired girl running to him as he walked in the door, laughing as she came, her mom behind her walking slower but smiling still. Then they came in quick succession: the girl in braces, in her first car, graduating, getting married, all with Buzz beside him for every event. Together.
“I don’t know. I just feel like it is.” Buzz turned to him, and he saw how scared she was in her eyes. “Just sign it, and I will leave. You will never hear from me again. I swear.”
“Or her?” Jonas asked, his eyes dipping to her stomach, the one that carried his baby. The visions suddenly changing, and he was suddenly not there for any of it. He was missing his life.
She visibly swallowed and nodded, and another tear ran down her cheek. “Her too.”
“Why are you telling me? I would have never known if you hadn’t walked in here,” he asked, wondering why she was going through this.
“I don’t want my baby to grow up like me, wondering what she did so wrong that nobody loved her or how her parents could walk away and never look back. Why was she so unlovable that they could just leave and not care? One day she will ask, and I will be able to show her you weren’t interested. I just hope that I can love her enough so that she won’t care,” Buzz said through constant tears, then looked up at Harrison and smiled. “Like Sera did for my sisters.”
“Harrison, you can tell your client that I will not be signing this paper, not now and not ever. I will never not be a part of our daughter’s life, not for one moment.”
