I cannot believe the mess Zander has caused. First he threatens this family with war stopping me from collecting the damn casino, then he gets her pregnant. To top it all off, he brings Cherry back into my life.

I have been patient; I have been kind. But now I am done. I offered Murphy a way out of this situation by offering her to marry my son. Only because I saw something special in her. Now, for the second time, she is dismissing my offer. I am losing all patience for this girl. If she were not pregnant with my grandchild, this offer would never have come again. I need her to understand the consequences.

When she enters my office, I ask her to close the door. I sit down behind my desk.

“Sit, Murphy, please.”

“I think I’ll stand.”

“You are a defiant one, aren’t you?”

“I figure there is no use to get comfortable since I won’t be here long.”

“Where do you plan on going, Murphy? Where do you possibly think you can go that is out of my reach?”

I pause, waiting for her to catch on.

“I was very impressed with you when we first met. I was not expecting that. I don’t get impressed by people often, so it was a pleasant surprise. I saw what my son saw in you, and like I said, to catch Zander’s attention like you have is a rarity. I went out of my way to offer you a way out of this situation. You dared to piss on my offer. I let that slide for my son. Now that you are pregnant with my grandchild, I offer you the same proposition. Ms. Larussa, ask your mother, ask anyone, that never happens. I have never offered something so compromising to anyone, and never twice.”

I watch as Murphy starts to squirm; good, she might actually be starting to get the message.

“I want you to listen to me closely, Ms. Larussa. I am not going to repeat myself. Now that you are carrying my son’s child, there is nowhere you can go that I will not find you. Nowhere! I will give you two options, and that is all. First option, you will marry my son and have my future grandchildren. I will allow you to keep forty percent of the casino because you will be part of this family forever.”

She looks at me like she wants to kill me. “What’s my second option?”

I laugh because I have never met someone so stubborn in my whole life. But then I decide to tell her. I get serious to show her I mean every word, I say in a calm but forceful voice.

“The second option, I will wait for you to have that baby, you will be protected by my family. No one will touch a hair on your red head. But when that baby is born, I will take the casino from you and the baby by force.  Ms. Larussa, just so we understand ourselves, do not for a second think I will not follow through on my threats because of my son. The baby is of my blood, and he or she is now my priority. Zander is a grown man. My son thinks he can keep you protected from me. But he is wrong! You will be left with nothing by the time I am finished with you. Do I make myself clear?”

The minute I finish telling her the options I’m willing to give her, she starts yelling.

“Let me tell you something, lady, I will never allow you to take my child, and I will not let you tell me what I have to do. Do you understand me? I am not some little girl you picked up and trained to be what you want for your son. I am a woman who knows what she wants. I am very capable of raising this child on my own. I do not need you or your son in my life or my child’s. If you think for a second I will not fight you, you are fucking wrong. I….”

Her rant is broken by Cherry. “Enough, Murphy, get out!”

“Mom…”

“No, Chéri, I want you to leave. Catherine and I need to talk. Go!”

Murphy looks back at me viciously and then starts to walk out of the room. But then she stops and turns around to say, “By the way, nice desk.”

Did she just imply that…shit, I don’t want to even think about it. On my desk, I am going to kill Zander.

My eyes fly back up when I hear Cherry close the door.

“Would you like a drink, Cherry?”

“Yes, Catherine, I think that’s a good idea.”

I make us a drink, and Cherry starts, “Why were you threatening my daughter, Catherine?”

“Because your daughter is defiant, stubborn, insolent, and…”

“So, you say. I say she is strong-willed, independent, hardworking, protective, and she doesn’t do well with people threatening her.”

“Protective? How so?”

“She will fight for anything or anyone she loves. Even if that means her destruction. Catherine, do not push my daughter into a corner on this. She might fight for the casino, but she will die for her child.”

I hand Cherry her drink and sit behind my desk. “We’ll see.”

“What do you want, Catherine? How do you see all of this playing out?”

“Don’t play dumb, Cherry. You know what I want, and you know how this is going to go.”

“Maybe. Let me tell you a story.”

“Cherry, I don’t think this is…”

She puts her hand up stopping me. “Let me tell you, Catherine. Let me tell you how the casino is in financial trouble. Wouldn’t you be interested in knowing that?”

She has my attention now.

Cherry finishes her drink. “Murphy called me when he found out he was sick. He knew the cancer treatments weren’t going to work. He knew when he died, Judith would leave his daughter with nothing. He wanted to leave her the casino, and he did. But he knew Judith would fight her on it. So, my love came up with a plan to extort money from the casino over time. All the money came to me, Catherine.”

“What are you telling me, Cherry?”

“I am telling you that I have all the money, Catherine. Murphy can’t find any trace of where the money went or what it was for, and she doesn’t know that I have it.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell her?”

“Because, Catherine, I wanted her far away from here. Away from Judith. I thought Murphy would give up. I should have known, though, that girl never gives up on anything.”

“So why are you telling me this?”

“I have the money to pay the debt off in full, interest and all. I invested the money as I received it. I have enough to even do the improvements and for us to live on for the rest of our lives.”

She gets up and fixes another drink and comes over with the bottle to refresh mine.

“But I don’t want to do that. I don’t want you to force me to do that.”

“Why? I don’t understand. If you have the means to put an end to me trying to get the casino, why wouldn’t you do it?”

“Oh, trust me, Catherine, that’s why I came back here. I was going to pay off the debt and get Murphy started off right. I was also going to ask you to continue protecting my daughter until we could find out who else was after her.”

“All right, then, don’t keep me in suspense. What changed your mind?”

“Your son, Zander. He loves her, Catherine. He loves her like Murphy loved me and how Theo has always loved you.”

“You want to talk about Theo to me?!”

“Catherine, that was so many years ago.”

“You should have never have done that, Cherry. Not to me!”

“What if I told you I didn’t?”

“What?”

“Catherine, Theo never betrayed you, not once. Not with me. I needed your help, you were the only one I could turn to. But you wouldn’t help me.  Theo wanted to get back at you for not leaving William, I took advantage. I knew I could make you jealous, I knew you would want me gone. So, I helped him and myself out. But he never betrayed you, it was all for show.”

“I cannot believe that you risked my rage towards you.”

“It worked, didn’t it? Besides, I couldn’t believe you wouldn’t help me.”

That shuts me up. I know I owe her an explanation. Shit! “I…I if I’m honest, Cherry, I didn’t want you leaving me. I needed someone, I don’t know how else to explain it.”

“You needed a friend, Catherine. I was and still am your friend.”

I clear my throat, trying to hide my emotions.

“What are you proposing, Cherry? Your daughter doesn’t want to take my offer.”

“She loves Zander, she does. She is just scared of love, it terrifies her, so she is pushing him away. I’m not going to tell her I have the money to get her out of all this. She’s pregnant now, and I, well, neither of us will be here forever, Catherine. Murphy has no one. She thinks she doesn’t need anyone, but she does. I am not leaving it up to her to destroy the future she should have because she’s too dumb to get out of her own way. I trust your son to protect her and her child from everyone. I will give her to him.”

“So, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I will help you. I will keep the secret about the money. I will tell her she has to marry Zander. But you have to give up control of the casino. She will keep the majority shares. Her father wanted her to have it, and it’s hers. But with her as family, it strengthens you and yours. She will fight us both on this, and she will think I turned my back on her, but it needs to be done. She will think it’s a marriage of convenience. He will have to be strong because she will buck him every step of the way. But once he knocks her walls down, I think they will live happily ever after.”

“You know I don’t have to accept this, right? I could just let you pay off the debt and take the baby.”

“You won’t. You’re a mother, Catherine, and I know what that means to you. Besides, I still know some extremely powerful men. It would be a dragged-out war. Murphy has other suitors that I would push her to go to for protection. They would gladly help her. Do not underestimate her or me.”

I think about her offer. I’m thinking about all the ways this could play out when she says, “Besides, you like her, you see potential in her, or I know you wouldn’t have played this long with her. There is some level of respect you have for my baby.”

She’s right, damn. She’s perfect for Zander, and she would be a great asset to our family. God help Zander!

“I agree, how do you want to play this?”

“Just follow my lead. I know it will be hard for you, but I know how to handle my daughter.”

Follow? Follow my ass!