Alexander

 

 

 

He was thin. Not at all what I thought Aria’s dad would look like. The man was short, reedy, and had a mass of wispy gray hair. He had the appearance of an evildoer—like some villain in a Shakespearean play.

“Aria, it’s wonderful to see you again. Please, both of you, come in.” He smiled with a look that made me ponder if he rarely grinned.

I walked into the suite and placed my hand on Aria’s back to guide her inside. She appeared too stunned to make the decision to move herself.

I gazed around the living area and noticed the sliding doors to the bedroom were closed. The room looked exactly like mine, only opposite. Aria, her dad, and I were the only ones in here.

“Is, uh, Mom here?” Aria asked.

“Yes, she went to get something from our room. This isn’t our room,” her father said as he walked over to the couch and took a seat.

“Whose room is this?” I asked looking around the space.

His lips curved in a similar way as Aria’s. Only when Aria did it, it made her seem sexy. When her dad did it, I wanted to throw up in my mouth.

“It’s the Dortons’. I believe you know them, Alex. Your mother has told me so much about you.” He stayed seated as he watched me react to that bit of information.

“I never told you who I was. How do you know me?” I said to Aria’s father, my jaw tensing.

“Of course I know you, Alex. I’ve been working with your mother for years. Since you were this high.” He outstretched his arm so his hand hovered several feet from the ground.

“Have we met?” I asked and my mind raced with thoughts of when my mother brought home various business men to meet with when I was young.

Aria’s father brought the hand that had been hovering to his chin, tapping his finger to it.

“Actually, we have. Once. This involves Aria. She was a teenager at the time. I think you were in elementary school. I brought my daughters to a home. Not your home, but a home of a client. Your mother came and brought you. It was at night.” He sighed at the memory.

“I was making a complicated deal with some men from Russia. It didn’t go well. I blame the translator as the men thought I was insulting them. Your mother was there because she had a deal with them, too. It was something different, but since they were in town that night, they wanted to meet with us then.”

He turned his head to look out the window. “Anyway, I needed to offer them something valuable. Something that would make up for any implied insult. Aria knows the rest of the story.”

“You monster! You sold us like cattle. Your own daughters. Made to marry criminals!” Aria sobbed as she lunged at him.

I managed to step between her and her father in time, holding her back.

Even though I had my back to her father, I could hear him stand.

“That’s right. My daughters. Do you have any idea how rich you and your sister would have been? You would have lived like princesses. What father doesn’t think their daughter is a princess? And it’s not like you were actually married to anyone. Those idiots had you sign the wrong paperwork.”

“I’m not married?” Aria asked, her eyes wide in confusion.

“No. And your sister’s dead, so the deal was a bust anyway.” Her father rolled his eyes.

Now it was my turn to tell that piece of garbage off.

I turned and stepped up to him. Towering over him, I pushed my finger into his weak chest. “You don’t even care that your child is dead? You treated your daughters like slaves. You think you’re slick because you’ve done business with the scum of the Earth?”

He tried to step back but fell onto the couch. “Your mom is one of the people I do business with.”

“Like I said, you do business with the scum of the Earth. And you’re a fool to have anything to do with her. She will chew you up and spit you out worse than anything you can imagine. Even worse than what you did to your own flesh and blood.”

Just as Aria’s father began to say something the sliding doors opened and out walked my mom, Mr. Dorton, and Alexa.

My eyes widened at the beautiful woman Alexa had become. I had seen a few pictures of her but nothing recent. The only thought I had was she would make a man very happy one day.

The following thought caused my heart to sink. I was going to be that man if my mother had her way. And she always had her way.

Alexa gave me a stiff smile as she fussed with her dark hair. Aria was right, there was no sister. Alexa was the dark-haired woman she saw with my mother.

“Alex, I’m happy you came. But don’t you think we should have left Aria out of this,” my mom said as she pursed her lips.

“Why? Why would I leave the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with out of anything that has to do with me?”

My heart sped up, not from confronting my mother, but that I spoke out loud what I had been thinking about for the past month.

“What?” Aria’s voice cracked beside me.

I didn’t want it to be like that. I wanted to whisk Aria off to that island we talked about. Serve her fresh fish, tropical drinks, and a diamond ring while gazing at the ocean.

I turned to her and took her hand. “I think you know how much I love you, Aria. And this is the last place I wanted to do this, especially in front of these people.” I glared at Aria’s dad as Aria gave my mom the evil eye.

“But, I can’t keep this inside anymore. The more time I spend with you, the more I realize that I need to show you, to tell you, how lucky I am to have found you in that art gallery three years ago,” I said as I stared into her warm brown eyes.

“You didn’t find her, Alex,” Aria’s dad interrupted me pouring my heart out to his daughter.

I turned my head toward him and regretted holding Aria back when she wanted to attack her father earlier.

He smirked. “Oh, you think you just happened to find my daughter in an art gallery? Your mother and I made sure you ‘found’ Aria. Mrs. Hawthorne was desperate. Since you refused to be a man and fuck a woman. Even prostitutes who would fuck anything if they were paid enough.”

“Dad!” Aria yelled at her father.

“Don’t tell me he didn’t tell you he was a virgin when you two finally had sex?” He waved his hands in the air in front of him.

“Dad, none of this is appropriate,” Aria said.

“Anyway,” he said ignoring his daughter’s comments, “when Mrs. Hawthorne mentioned her problem with her son, I knew my daughter was perfect for him. She loved art and would have sex with any man with a penis.”

I heard Aria and Alexa gasp but I only saw red. I don’t even remember moving toward Aria’s dad, but I remember punching him in the face. And in the stomach. And finally, shoving him against the window in the room before Mr. Dorton pulled me away.

Pushing Mr. Dorton off me, I turned to my mother. “That’s what you want?” I pointed to Aria’s dad as he lay curled in a ball on the floor. “You want to surround yourself with those type of people? People who would sell their family, their children for money. Then turn around and call their children whores. But I’m not good enough? I’m a problem to you?”

I could feel the hot tears streaming down my face but I didn’t care. My mother was awful and she wanted to be with awful people.

“It’s a necessary evil, Alexander,” my mother said after a sigh.

She had grown so immune to this sick life that it didn’t faze her.

“There is something evil in this room and she has a Botox face and wears diamond rings,” I said and smirked.

“Alexander August Hawthorne! That is no way to speak to me. I’m your mother.”

It only caused my smile to grow. I never made my mom angry and it felt good. She was always so in control, cool, and rarely fazed. Finally, I found one of her buttons to push and I wanted to take a sledgehammer to it.

“Oh yes, the mother who thinks lying is a form of endearment. Or telling him never to go outside during the day for fear he would be kidnapped and tortured . . . that’s what every good mother does. And that anyone who showed me attention only wanted me for my money.”

“I told you, Alexander, I did that to protect you. I may not have been a typical mother but it doesn’t mean I didn’t love you.” She stepped forward and tried to touch my arm.

I moved back shaking my head. “Don’t. If you loved me, how come you never told me?”

There was silence. My mother frowned and I thought I saw regret in her eyes.

“Mom, just—”

“Alexander, I’m sorry. I do love you, very much,” my mother said.

She gazed down at the floor as her shoulders slumped. “I’m tired, Alexander. Tired of fighting and sneaking around. Maybe you do belong to Aria—” My mom was cut off from Mr. Dorton.

“Emma,” he said.

She waved her hand at him. “Douglas, it’s fine.”

My mother nodded and surprisingly, he accepted that.

“Alex, it’s been a long time. I have lived like this for so long I forgot what it was like to just love people instead of be weary of them. I don’t even know what I am fighting anymore.” She gave a sad smile and walked over to sit on the couch.

There was a knock at the door. Mr. Dorton went to answer it. Moments later he came back.

“The car is here to take us to the chapel. For the wedding.” His eyes darted between me and his daughter.

“Dad, I can’t marry him. I told you that. You told me I was here about a potential job offer. Please, tell me your terrible scheme to marry Alex is over.” Alexa waved her hand at me and Aria.

“Don’t worry, Alexa,” my mom said before standing back up. “We’ll go to the chapel, but we will be going to make my son’s dream come true because I love him.”

My mom took my hand and Aria’s hand and held them. “What do you say Ms. Dixon. Do you want to marry my son tonight?”