Chapter 12
James
“Dad!”
James met his father’s eyes the moment he burst into the office. He should’ve known. His father. Sarah Welsh.
Gwen.
Together, that was a toxic combination. Meeting in a closed room like this, and James wasn’t invited? Toxicity leveled up to ground-zero termination.
Naturally, all three responded to his sudden presence with a myriad of reactions. Lady Welsh nearly leaped out of her seat in shock, hand smacked over her heart and a gasp echoing in the large home office her lover had called his hideaway from the Mrs. for thirty years. Albert? His countenance burned with an unappreciation for his son the world had yet to see.
Gwen… her face flashed between relief that she didn’t have to face this alone… and frustration that her partner dared to sweep in with her behind him.
Because James had apparently not come by himself.
Although he did not ask Cassandra to join him on this misadventure, she was soon in the doorway with him, a chastising look bestowed upon her own mother. It was the most active James had seen her in years. Gone was the sweet dormouse that grew on his nerves when he simply wanted a straight answer about their son. Now, he was in the presence of the vibrant woman he had once called his closest friend.
Cassandra slammed her foot down and barked at her own mother. “This really has to be the biggest slap in the face you could give our family, Mother.” Cassandra brushed off the maid attempting to draw her away from the office threshold. “Conspiring with a man you’re not even related to so you can break up his son with his girlfriend? That’s low, even for you.”
Sarah jumped out of her seat. A vintage Louis Vuitton bag fell from her lap and plopped onto the plush carpet of the office. Gwen glanced at it, but did not move to pick it up. It’s a miracle she’s not taking the opportunity to step all over it. James wouldn’t blame her. That bag had probably been bought as an “anniversary” present from Albert.
That man opened his mouth, but like James had interrupted Gwen from saying something, Sarah now came to her own defense when she saw such shame in her child’s face.
“Everything I have ever done has been for you!”
Gasping, Cassandra turned on her heels and stumbled into the foyer of James’s childhood home. It wouldn’t be the first time she’s tripped and fallen in this room. Cassandra still had a scar on her knee from that time she scraped it when she and James were children, playing tag and getting into all sorts of rambunctious trouble. How many injuries have you sustained because your mother forced us together? James caught Cassandra before she twisted her ankles. Still, he could not stop the pained sound escaping her lips.
She wasn’t in pain because of almost falling to the floor. Cassandra cried out because her mother was the worst.
“How could you?” Once she had regained her footing, Cassandra shoved James off her and rounded on the woman in the doorway. Sarah did her damnedest to stand her ground, but one of her crow’s feet threatened to fly away at the tone of her daughter’s words. Even the distinguished Lady Welsh couldn’t handle a woman like Cassandra when she finally put her emotions to use.
Outside of seducing men, anyway.
“Don’t claim to do things for me!” Cassandra pulled her bangs out of her face, teeth bared and cheeks puffing in righteous indignation. “Not when you’re really doing them for yourself!”
Sarah squared her shoulders, yet that lump traveling down her throat did not inspire confidence. “Watch your mouth, you ungrateful…”
“Ungrateful what? Child? Mother, I stopped being a child years ago! I have a child of my own now!” Cassandra balled one of her fists. James wondered if he would have to intervene on the least likely physical confrontation to ever hit New England. The thought of Cassandra hitting anyone was absurd. Watching her lash out at her own mother would have sent them into an alternate dimension. “The only reason you still see me as a child is because I let you for so long. But don’t delude yourself into thinking that any of your plans are truly for my well-being. They’re all because of what you want.”
Cassandra turned to James.
“Do you know what’s going on here?” she asked him. “Our parents won’t ever stop trying to get us married because of their spineless fuckups.”
“How dare you!” Sarah stormed toward her daughter. It took James crossing his arms in consternation and Albert leaping around his desk to make Lady Welsh halt her approach.
“I’m not sure what you’ve heard on the grapevine, Cassandra,” Albert said, both feet now in the foyer. “But I can assure you that your mother and I are far from spineless.”
Gwen was the last to raise from her seat and join the rest of them in the foyer. James beheld the clarity in his partner’s eyes and instantly felt that mixture of excitement and dread that so often came from being in Gwen’s presence during heated confrontations. Why wouldn’t I feel this way? Look at her. Gwen was brains and beauty rolled into one deadly combination. With a snap of her fingers, she could convince James to prostrate himself on the tiled floors of his childhood home. Why not? If any woman was qualified to take his mother’s place as lady of this household, it was the only woman who could fell him with one cold look.
“It’s true,” she said with an even voice. “These two have balls so big that they were offering me whatever sum I wanted to get the hell out of town.”
She said that while maintaining eye contact with her partner, who now dropped his jaw and shot his father an exasperated look. “You what?” James had heard of a hundred terrifying stories in the world of patriarchs who did not approve of their sons’ girlfriends, but the thought of Albert Merange offering Gwen millions of dollars to dump her beloved and get the hell out of town was… preposterous. My own father? Daring to do something so stupid? Oh, who was James kidding? His father had always proven to be an ass. I thought he was a harmless one!
Albert had never approved of Gwen, and he made that known from the day James first brought her home. But he had kept his disproval to himself. A knowing look here and there. A pertinent question that raised suspicions. Then, only three years ago, he had dropped the purpose of Gwen’s existence entirely. James had foolishly assumed that his father had finally accepted that Gwen was forever. That he had, oh, perhaps accepted his son’s love for a commoner? Like it mattered anymore! Who were they trying to impress? Friends at the country club? Half the men who made up James’s peers married commoners. The others scooped up the few heiresses who weren’t utter train wrecks. Like Cassandra. James hated to think that, but that was her reputation in the circles he frequented.
“Well,” Albert said with a snort of disdain, “you’ll be pleased to know that your woman could not be swayed.”
“No shit!” James turned away before he spat at his father’s feet. Gwen remained on the other side of the foyer, her serene visage the exact thing James needed right now. But why was she so unfazed by the situation? Had she used the last of her give-a-fuck reserves? Was she so over this charade that she would rather let the waves of bullshit wash over her than fight them head-on? “This might shock you, Dad, but Gwen is more than my girlfriend. She’s my…” His words faltered, and it had nothing to do with the unchanging countenance on his partner’s face. You’re killing me, Dad. This man wouldn’t understand. He had given up the woman he loved to placate his own parents and to “do the right thing.” Maybe Albert thought it had been worth it. The increasing fortunes, the social connections Ophelia brought, the peaceful, harmonious households it maintained… until the rumors spread that he continued his affair with the newly-married Sarah. An unspoken rumor that nobody dared to mention in the open, but everyone knew. They were the cautionary tale men muttered into bourbons when debating whether to chase after the woman they weren’t supposed to love. “She’s my everything.”
Albert scoffed. Sarah rolled her eyes.
Gwen smiled.
“She’s damn right she’s not going anywhere.” James stuck his foot into the circle the five of them created. A shaking hand also emerged from the cuff of his jacket. Not that he would let it shake in front of his father. A man standing up to his own father couldn’t show a hint of weakness. It meant he wasn’t ready, and James had been ready since the moment he realized Gwen was the only woman who could ever possess his heart. “You know what? This has to stop.” He didn’t have to explain. They damn well knew what he meant. “You two cannot force us to do something we have no desire to do.”
He looked to Cassandra, who did not glance away when confronted with the truth.
“We’re never getting married.” James shook his head. “It’s bad enough you two…”
Cassandra finished that thought. “…It’s bad enough you got me at my lowest, Mother.”
Sarah looked as if that were the most damning thing her daughter could have said. “I was so low you convinced me to steal a man’s seed.” James wanted to believe that such foolishness was a result of a lack of clear thinking. The Cassandra he wanted to remember was a woman who could at least stand by what was morally right. Even if she thought he had signed off on it – and legally, he had – it wasn’t the same as her asking him for permission to create his child.
But they could discuss that again later.
“I don’t think you understand, son,” Albert said. “If you think this is only about you and Cassandra, then you are more foolish than I ever thought.”
“Then what’s it about, Dad?”
The old man narrowed his eyes. “You are my only child. If you think I’m letting you marry a woman who…”
“James,” Gwen interrupted, “it’s time. I was about to tell them, anyway.”
The foyer was silent. A creak on the main staircase announced the ill-timed arrival of Ophelia Merange, bedecked in a navy-blue sleeping gown. James looked to his mother with a grim understanding that she may be shocked to hear the news… that wasn’t much news after all.
“Mom,” James said in greeting, before turning to his father. “Dad. I insist you understand that I could never marry Cassandra, even if you personally hauled me to the altar and shoved a pen into my hand.” He was impressed that Cassandra did not bristle when he said that. Perhaps she had truly come to understand the situation they were in as well. Maybe he could finally have a friendly relationship with his biggest childhood companion after all. Maybe… There was a reason she was one of the only people he ever told.
“Don’t you dare.” Sarah slapped her purse against her leg when she raced to Albert’s side. “Albert, what if they’re…”
“I’m already married to Gwen.”
James’s voice uncharacteristically carried through the wide halls of his childhood home. He had never been a loud speaker. Not the kind of guy who bolstered his ego and presence with a voice nobody asked to hear. Nor had he yelled his announcement. But James would be damned if his father didn’t hear the truth.
Albert was the only one shocked. And Sarah, although her audible gasp and leering at Gwen was more cartoonish than anything.
“Don’t make jokes like that at a time like this,” Albert snapped.
“I’m not joking.” James marched over and grabbed Gwen’s hand. Her eyes widened when she was brought against his side. “Gwen and I married two years ago. We didn’t tell anyone, because quite frankly, it wasn’t anyone’s business.”
This wasn’t how James wanted his family to find out he was a married man, let alone that it happened beneath their noses. It was so easy to elope. A quick trip to another city. A weekend honeymoon and a ceremony wrapped in one. The ink on the marriage license was barely dry before they returned to their everyday lives, with only their secret to bring a little bit of renewed happiness to their days.
It was an act made in passion. When Gwen discovered she would never have children without intervention, James proposed to her. Not because he found her infertility romantic, but because he wanted to assuage her fears that he would want to break up now that their lack of children was assured. “You’re the only son in your family,” she had said through her fearful tears. “Why would you want someone like me? What if you change your mind about kids? The world won’t end if I don’t reproduce, but your family might collapse!”
James and Gwen had never been the type of couple to make a big deal about their relationship. They let their friends go on thinking they were merely cohabitating with, “Eh, we might get married one day,” hanging in the air. It helped prevent the rumor from spreading and getting back to the Meranges. It also let them keep living their lives without fanfare, because Gwen had barely survived the adjustment period when she became James’s girlfriend, let alone his wife.
They would tell everyone one day. Maybe they would have a proper wedding and act as if that were the day they legally became man and wife, while always keeping the truth to themselves. Or perhaps they would announce it at their thirtieth anniversary party. I never wanted it to be like this. Put on the spot and hoping that the truth might deter his own family from ruining his life.
“You didn’t have a problem with Gwen for years,” James said to his father. “Is it because I’m in my thirties now? Does the thought of me being with the woman I love and not the one you’ve chosen for me threaten you so much?”
Albert continued his scowl. Sarah reached for him. He pulled away, the eternal coward he was. While Sarah had no shame showing him affection in front of his wife, Albert would never reciprocate in front of other people. Honestly, James felt nothing but pity for Lady Welsh.
And his own mother, the woman he thought he would shock the most – yet Ophelia merely looked upon her husband with a knowing glare.
“He’s a grown man, Albert,” she said. “We should be celebrating the fact he has loved a more than decent woman for so long. We don’t need more money.” Ophelia opened her mouth again before her husband could interrupt her. “What we need is some sanity in this family! Do you know what’s insane? You two carrying on like two awestruck teenagers who don’t know their lips from their asses!”
Sarah held her hand to her chest. Gwen stifled a chuckle. The fact she could laugh at a time like this only solidified what James loved about her.
“Did you know, Mom?”
“Gwen told me,” Ophelia said. “A few weeks ago.”
James squeezed his wife’s hand. “I told Cassandra a little while ago. So,” he said, louder, “she already knew.”
“Are you implying that we were the only ones here who didn’t know about this?” Albert gestured to the hands held before him. Gwen’s faltered within James’s, but he did not relent his grip on his wife’s fingers. “How could you? How dare you do that without informing us?”
“Because it was between us.” James wrapped his arm around Gwen’s shoulders and held her close to his side. “We decided we didn’t want a large affair you would surely demand, assuming you even gave us your blessing. So why have a wedding? Why bring that drama into our lives? I realized that Gwen is the only woman I could ever want to marry. She’s perfect for me, and I like to think I’m pretty perfect for her.” He didn’t wait for Gwen to back him up. “You got what you really wanted, Dad. You got a grandson with the only woman you approved for me. I’ve forgiven you for that. Now, forgive me for what I have done. Let me have this.” James squeezed his wife. She shuddered against him, and he decided that was her way of saying she loved him. “Let me have Gwen.”
Albert spat something about foolish children and their insistence on ruining everything their parents ever built for them. Didn’t James know that this went beyond children? This was their reputation! This followed them into the business world! Not everyone was a soft-hearted, lovey-dovey sod who overlooked poor choices in partners. Wasn’t it bad enough that everyone and their grandmothers knew where Gwen and James hung out every weekend? That they were sexual deviants who indulged in too much debauchery? Of course Gwen shouldn’t have children! Not when half the city had seen her pussy at that club! How could Albert condone a woman like her as even the stepmother of his grandchildren?
“Half the city has seen her pussy,” Cassandra snapped back at him. “The other half has been in mine, so I fail to see the real difference.”
That was what made Sarah faint into Albert’s arms. It was also the final word Cassandra imparted upon them before showing herself out the door, with hardly a word to James or anyone’s mother.
Gwen soon followed her. At first, James assumed his wife had burst from his hold to go after Cassandra and say something to her. But when she blew past Cassandra’s car and made a break for the front gate, James knew that something was terribly wrong.
If he didn’t move quickly, that might be the last he ever saw of the woman he married.