Chapter Two
Juliette?
I groaned at the knock on the door. It’s becoming more familiar than I’d like it to be—it felt like the whole town was dropping by with pies and condolences as if Ardley and Celeste were dead. They were all sorry, and, besides their baked goods, they had absolutely nothing else to offer than their empty apologies.
I didn’t know if it was the byproduct of their fear of being perceived so they wanted to be included in everything even if it meant saying sorry for things they didn’t understand. Even I didn’t understand what was happening anymore. Every knock at the door aggravated me. I was busy enough with all the properties I was working with, hospital papers, and I was behind with my emails. Trying to keep up with my parents and their questions. Instead of coming down sooner, they chose to bombard me with every question that popped in their head or every concern that came to mind.
I was their Google, and I wasn’t going to get used to that anytime soon.
I was starting to get used to the knocks at the door now, as much as it annoyed me, and I barely have a reaction talking to everyone in this town now. It was always the same thing, a pie or some different sort of pastries, and a dull, shallow apology that could’ve been avoided if they just avoided me like a normal person would.
“I’m so sorry about Ardley and Celeste, Cal.”
I always politely reminded them that Ardley and Celeste were both still alive and they always stared back at me like I was the one making stuff up.
Then I offered them my gratitude for making time in their schedule to see me today as if it benefited either of us, and then—my favorite part—I would stare at them until they finally walk away.
It was so easy to make people feel uncomfortable.
Strong eye contact is a big factor.
The rest is down to the voices in their heads—if you stood still and just stared at someone, eventually no matter how comfortable that person was with strong eye contact, they’d start crumbling.
Those voices in their head would only get louder as they overthought the situation. It worked every time. Everyone was obsessed with themselves.
I was surprised to see Daniel when I opened the door today.
I released a small breath of relief.
At least one person without flowers and baked pies hoping I’d just fall apart and cry in their arms.
“Daniel,”
I greeted. “What brings you here?”
He smiled coyly. “Cal.”
I shook my head and closed the door behind him. “No, you shouldn’t have anything to say to me. Ardley is doing…”
I took a deep breath, “fine,” I said through clenched teeth.
Daniel was our family lawyer—he handled our assets, the will, and any other unexpected issues we might run into. I hadn’t seen Daniel, not even a call from him, since the accident, though I knew he would know about it. It’s a small town, plus he’s in touch with my paranoid parents. I was expecting him, I was, but that didn’t mean I wanted to see him.
He nodded. “Yes, but you know the protocols, we still have to go through some stuff and prepare.”
“Prepare for what?”
I looked at him as we walked deeper into the house. “If it’s Ardley’s business, you know I can’t take over, he’s still alive.”
He shoved his hand in his pocket. “Listen, I wouldn’t be here if this wasn’t important. I have someone very important who’s whole life could change if you’d just listen. She’s scared and stressed. And the last thing I want to do is stress her out.”
“What are you talking about?”
Daniel ignored my question, walking further into the house, and started making himself comfortable on the couch. He pushed away a few building sketches that I was looking into and decided on. He had this serious look on his face that had me on edge.
I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for him to start explaining but he only opened his suitcase and started messing with a few files until he found the paper he was looking for. He looked up at me, I didn’t understand but if I could try to decipher the look on his face, I’d say it was a brace yourself look.
“Ardley didn’t tell you this, but after months of trying for a baby, they couldn’t so they looked into surrogates, of course that wasn’t going too well either, Celeste didn’t have—she wasn’t healthy—”
I frowned. I was completely annoyed at the fact that he couldn’t just spit it out. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Daniel sighed. “When they met her she had nowhere to go, and if you ask me, she was running from something. But she agreed to use her own eggs with Ardley’s…,”
he paused as he awkwardly gestured with his eyebrows and a look in his eyes, and I immediately knew what he meant. And it sounded very unorthodox.
Ardley sounded like a sperm donor.
I slowly shook my head. “Still not following.”
“The girl agreed to give up the baby with no strings attached as soon as the baby’s delivered in exchange for the exact price you’d pay a professional surrogate to carry a baby,”
Daniel said as he handed me a piece of paper.
Reluctantly I reached over and grabbed the paper and hesitated to take a look at it, but I looked anyway. It was almost like a will, but instead of his assets, my little brother was leaving me his kid.
He was leaving me his child.
I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I was the immediate family he entrusted his future kids with. Not our parents, me. In case anything happened to him or his wife, I would be the next guardian.
I wished I could’ve been excited about this because he entrusted me, he believed I had what it took to raise a kid. If he was here right now and told me about this, I’d hug him as we laughed about it, but without him here it felt grim to feel happy. I was freaking out. What was I supposed to do with his kid? A kid? What kid?
“The Oakes had everything arranged already, the girl is three months shy from her due date, and she was supposed to get her first installment of the payment a week ago, in fact,”
Daniel said as he looked through more papers and read something. “She had a prepayment after signing the papers already. She needed housing and such, and she needed to be healthy before they started the process. She is easy to keep in touch with, in fact you might’ve missed her a week ago or something.”
“It might’ve been that pregnant girl,”
I mumbled under my breath, but with Daniel, who paid attention to every single detail, it didn’t go unnoticed.
“What pregnant girl?”
“Over a week ago or so, a girl visited, she claimed to be a friend of my brother and his wife, and she had a scheduled visit with them.”
“What did she look like?”
Daniel asked.
I closed my eyes as I tried to envision that day. I can admit I wasn’t paying much attention, lately I haven’t been paying much attention to anything besides work and constantly staying updated on my brother’s state. Anything else that didn’t relate to work or the hospital I didn’t pay it any mind.
Except for now, um, this was pretty hard to shake off.
“She looked young, mid-twenties maybe, African-American, sort of short, round face?”
Daniel looked at me with his mouth open, like I paid too much attention to things or something, and if that was the case, I wasn’t paying any attention to anything. I just happened to have an amazing memory.
“Well, was she very pregnant?”
He tilted his head to the side as his brows furrowed.
“Yes, um, when I told her about the accident, I thought she was about to go into labor,”
I said as I shifted. I still stood in the living room, while Daniel seemed to be comfortable flipping through papers after papers.
“Did she give you a name?”
I looked down as I paused. For some reason when I thought of her, I couldn’t get her eyes out of my head. They were familiar—since I met her that day, I’ve been pushing that thought at the back of mind because it was a reach, surely, it had to be. Now? Of all time? It couldn’t be real, my brain was just trying to find a way to process all the stress it’s been under, so it’s normal that it’d try to bring up old memories as a form of morphine to help me feel better.
I took a deep breath as I reminded myself that I buried those memories years ago. I couldn’t go back there again—not like this at least.
“Juliette,”
I mumbled. “I don’t remember her last name.”
“Juliette Rhodes,”
Daniel finished.
My lips parted, another reminder of how I couldn’t be more wrong.
“I already talked to her and told her that everything would still carry on as planned, and she’s still receiving her payment later this week, but I would suggest that the two of you meet again and talk about the tedious stuff, like the due date, and, um, I believe she had a birthing plan with Ardley and Celeste. That kind of information, thankfully I don’t know, but as for today, you just have to sign this paper and we’ll be all set with the original plan.”
I slowly nodded, not following where I came in.
He handed me a different paper and that’s when realization slowly started to settle in. This didn’t feel right at all, he unloaded all of that on me and expected me to sign the papers right away, just like that, when Ardley or Celeste could just wake up tomorrow.
“I have her number, if you’d like, or I can just give her yours and we can all move on.”
My eyes widened. “And what after that? That I’d be the new guardian…a father?”
He nodded. “More like an uncle…who’s like the father figure, but yeah.”
He smiled. “If that would help you sign the papers.”
“Daniel, what the fuck?”
My stomach dropped.
How are they allowed to legally make me responsible for a life without my permission? Why me? Mom and Dad would love to have another child, in fact they’ve been begging for grandkids.
I shook my head and started walking away. “I’m a busy man, Daniel, I have hospital things to take care of and a house to finish today before the open house.”
Daniel stood up and followed right behind me like nothing I could say to him would matter. “I understand, but this is just as important. Ardley chose you.”
I stopped in my tracks.
Chose me?
I’m sure when he did, he wasn’t expecting a car accident would send Celeste into a coma and almost nearly crippled him. No, if he did think one day he’d drive his car into a ditch and flip the car three times until smoke and gas started to leak out, he would’ve chosen Mom and Dad. So, it’s all a mistake. They were supposed to be the ones taking care of a baby, not me.
“And like you said, nothing’s changing, this is only temporary until Ardley wakes up,”
Daniel continued, “Ardley’s doing fine. You’d just be taking care of his kid until he gets back,” he said, “this won’t be effective until he’s dead, until both of them are dead.”
And I guess that was supposed to reassure me?
My blood ran cold as a shiver ran up my spine. I clenched my jaw because I knew Daniel didn’t know any better. Right now, he was just a lawyer, nothing he had to say was going to be warm and comforting. It was always whatever got his day going faster. He was a shark in a man’s suit.
I rubbed my stubble and nodded as I finally turned around. “Alright.”
Daniel sighed in relief. “You just have to sign a couple papers and then the girl can finally get her first half of her paycheck. She’s not exactly living the most comfortable life right now.”
“Do Mom and Dad know about this?”
I asked as I grabbed the papers and the pen from him.
Daniel shook his head. “No, it was supposed to be a surprise for everyone once the baby was delivered safely.”
I gestured for him to turn so I could use his back to sign the papers.
“Good, let’s keep it that way,”
I said as I walked Daniel to the door with his signed papers.
“I’ll be emailing you a few things. And some information regarding Juliette, try to meet her soon, yeah?”
He said the last part on his way out.
I nodded.
After closing the door behind him, I rushed back to the guest room and pulled my plaid shirt over the wife pleaser I was wearing.
I hadn’t stepped foot at my place since the accident. Somehow it was easier to stay at their place—my place felt haunted. Like they were really gone. Staying here was much better, with all the photos of them around and the way they lived through everything they owned. The house had their spirit. And it fueled my hope that soon I’d be bringing them back home.
I looked at myself in the mirror and the dark circles under my eyes were still there. It didn’t seem like they would go away soon because my sleep wasn’t getting any better. And I was starting to look paler—I worked in construction, so I’d naturally get tanned from working outside for so long but I’d been mostly inside for two weeks. Even when I do show up to work, I just stay in the office and get updates on all the sites we’re working on. I’d care of all the emails and double-checking building plans and signing new contracts.
My tan slowly faded with time, and I looked even more lifeless.
I splashed water over my face and dried off. I put on my boots and I was ready to get back outside. As I got inside my black truck, I turned on the radio.
The original plan today was to visit Ardley and Celeste but Amber has been on my ass all week to get down to that house we just finished. I wasn’t present when we built it and she wanted me to double check everything. I’ve explained to her that I have been making sure everything is done properly since they were building and I was the one who approved the floor plans but she kept getting more and more paranoid. Calls from her every morning were getting irritating.
I didn’t like starting my day with a phone call from Amber—it made my life more depressing than it already was.
I agreed to pop up at her open house and double, triple, check everything for her before she sold the place. I just wished I could drop by at a later time because there’d be too many people around me, and I already knew exactly how they’d be looking at me and how they’d be treating me.
Before anyone got a word of the accident every single woman in town looked at me with hungry eyes, and they were ready to hunt, which scared me at times. But now they just give me the sad fuck me eyes. Which was undoubtedly worse.
I parked my car and sighed as people went in and out of the fancy colonial house my company just built. It had a mix of both modern and country styles. And I knew it would sell quickly.
I ran a hand through my hair. Checking the house was pointless. I already knew my crew did a damn good job at building it—this was a trap. Half of the town hadn’t seen my face in a week or so. If they hadn’t visited me, then there was no way they would’ve caught sight of me and they were starting to get bored, so dragging me here was the only way they would entertain themselves.
I got out of the car with a heavy sigh just in time to hear a loud familiar voice echo. “I’m telling you, Val, even if I held a knife to my throat begging for a job, everyone in this stupid town would just watch me bleed out.”
My brows shot up with the imagery.
“Well, thank god Marshall didn’t,”
the guy next to her said.
“It was so funny because his son just didn’t want to pay for gas, like that old man went on and on with that story, it was ironic because I don’t think they’ve ever held real interviews before since they just hired in the family, like everyone already knows each other, so I think it was more comfortable for him to just talk to me about the situation,”
she said and I caught a glimpse of her side profile, and immediately I realized, that’s her.
That’s the girl. Juliette Rhodes.
I bit my lips and flexed my fingers as I fought the urge to talk to her, I knew better than to approach her at a time and place like this. So I just followed closely and kept eavesdropping on their conversion.
Would it count as eavesdropping if we were going to the same place?
Juliette walked past the truck as she continued walking down to the house hand-in-hand with a man I recognized. He laughed with her.
“Val,”
Juliette said, “if you see Cal, point him out to me, okay? He’s all everyone talks about, that man better be Chris Evans.”
I pulled my lips into a thin line as I suppressed my amusement.
“But remember,”
Juliette whispered, “eyes on the food, we’re here for the food,” she said. “I’ve been so tired with this delivery job, and my car still has no A/C. I need some rich people food to cheer me up.”
I shook my head as I walked in and immediately Amber burst out into laughter like she’d been waiting by the door to see my face.
“Cal!”
she shouted, announcing my presence to the whole house.
I quickly turned around to hide my face because Juliette whipped around as well to catch a look at my face. This was not how I wanted us to meet again, not when I wanted to talk to her again. I walked towards Amber and offered her a long hug until I felt safe again and Juliette walked away.
For some reason I didn’t want her to know me as Cal yet, it felt like it would be a huge disappointment. And if we talked, I’d have to tell her who I truly was. This wasn’t the right place.
“Amber,”
I said as I pulled away, but I still held her shoulders to make things less awkward. I was not the kind of guy who gave out hugs, so this might’ve been shockingly alarming for her. She tucked a blonde curl behind her ear. Amber was only twenty-five, three years younger than me. Light brown eyes, very pretty, and totally not my type.
But that didn’t stop her.
She’s someone I’ve avoided dating since grade school. Our families were close on a business level, so she always thought we would eventually happen, but we never did and we never will. Part of me felt guilty for hugging her out of the blue because I knew that would only fuel her hope.
“Cal, how have you been?”
Her voice softened. And I knew the exact answer she wanted to hear.
“I’ve been doing fine,”
I said as my hands fell from her shoulders.
Fine meant that I was okay enough to avoid talking about it.
No one ever wanted to talk about it, they just wanted to hear you say you’re fine in order to give themselves a pat on the back for even asking.
“Thank you for coming,” she said.
I nodded.
“Do you want me to give you a tour while you look around the place?”
she offered with a smile.
“My company built the place, I looked at the blueprints for hours, I know every room in this place. Just like I know if there was something wrong, I would’ve caught it by now.”
“I know, I know, I’ll just let you walk around then, um, I could accompany you.”
I pressed my lips into a thin line, “I’ll be fine.”
Amber nodded, “right.”
She chuckled nervously, “don’t look around for too long, there’s food and drinks if you need anything.”
“Thank you.”
I mumbled and shoved my hands into my pocket as I started to look around the place.
I looked at the place room after room and just as suspected, there weren’t any issues…and just as expected everywhere I went whispers followed. And at this point, I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t want to.
I grabbed a cocktail and walked inside a bedroom. The room was empty and it felt great because I was finally granted a moment of mind.
I walked into the finished bathroom and closed my eyes as I sighed.
Sometimes I’d get these moments where I felt exhausted, it was nothing like working after hours tired—it always felt like my mind was tired and it was something even a good night’s rest couldn’t fix. My body felt it too, my back ached, and I had a slight headache rolling in and nothing could fix it.
It always felt like slowly falling into a pit of darkness backwards, facing the light, still trying to hold on, yet I still fell
I just hope I never reach the bottom.
“The house is finished, everything is ready,”
a voice in the bedroom said.
I made a move to open the bathroom door, but I didn’t want to go through the awkward moment of interruption. But at the same time, I didn’t want to eavesdrop on this conversation, it felt very serious.
“Juliette?”
Amber asked. “Yes, she’s still in town.”
My brows furrowed.
“She’s pregnant. Yeah, I think she’s two or three months away from birth, so she says. I don’t really hang around her,”
she said in a tone I didn’t appreciate.
I rolled my eyes. People found no shame in gossiping about her.
“Okay,”
Amber chuckled, “come down whenever you’re ready.”
I waited until her heels echoed out of the room before I stepped out of the bathroom.
I finished my cocktail and before I could grab another glass my phone rang. I immediately answered.
“This is Cal.”
“Boss, we’re at Molly’s. She’s having some roof issue, it’s urgent.”
I nodded. “Yeah, yeah, take care of it, take notes, create a case, and I’ll send her the invoice when I can.”
“Got it.”
I hummed, hanging up.
I yawned, then rolled my shoulders and made my way back to the living room to grab another cocktail.
All the tiredness left my mind and body when I spotted Juliette stuffing her bag with crackers and cheese while she shoved a few into her mouth.
I bit my lips and suppressed a smile, shaking my head. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, she was stealing cheese and crackers, and I didn’t want her to stop or get caught. As I watched her from afar, I was trying to figure out why Celeste and Ardley chose her. I wondered if it was a rushed decision, or if she won over their hearts and they saw potential investing in her.
I knew I wouldn’t get my answer unless I spoke to her and I was holding myself back almost all afternoon trying not to talk to her, and I didn’t want her to find out who I was just yet. This wasn’t the right time or place.
I had to let the idea settle, I had to allow myself to prepare for the fact three months from now, I could possibly be at a hospital waiting for her to give birth, three months from now I could possibly be going home alone with a baby because her contract said no strings attached.
All my previous thoughts vanished when she was finally alone. The guy that’s been attached to her hip all night stepped away.
I approached her and leaned in. “Amber would have the town talk about this for weeks,”
I whispered over her shoulder.
She let out a quiet gasp because she was startled but when she looked over her shoulder and saw my familiar face she relaxed. “I’m already pregnant,”
she shrugged, “they’ll talk about me regardless.”
My eyes dropped to her swollen belly.
It wasn’t big, but it was big, I don’t know—it seemed like pregnancy suited her. She was wearing another sundress that really lit her up.
She ate two more crackers as she pointed at the box of doughnuts next to me. “Pass me the donuts.”
Without a second thought I passed her the box of doughnuts just to watch her stuff it in her bag, and at that point all eyes were on us already—all eyes were on us the second I approached her, so even if they did start talking about her it would’ve been my fault.
“Have you seen, Cal?”
she asked as she finally looked around. “Well, do you know him?” She turned around to look at me.
I shrugged. “I know of him.”
Juliette had a round pretty face, brown eyes, an upturned nose and beautiful lips. She was tall and very pregnant.
Pregnant with my brother’s child.
I’m the new guardian of that child.
She scratched her cheek. “He’s starting to sound like Casper, everyone talks about him but he’s never around.”
I cleared my throat and picked up a new glass, the Manhattan cocktail was starting to grow on me. “Right, do you have some business with him?”
I asked. I was starting to really feel like a bastard for fucking around with her like this.
“Something like that.”
She nodded. “How are they doing?”
Now I understand her reaction when I told her about Ardley and Celeste’s accident. When I didn’t answer, she didn’t push like everyone else usually did.
She fixed her bag over her shoulders. “When were you gonna call—”
Before she could finish her sentence Lila started to approach us, and I knew I’d only have a five second warning before she shouted my name like everyone else has been doing all afternoon, so I beat her to it. “Lila!”
I chuckled nervously. “How are the kids?”
She smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear, which was a pattern I notice with every woman in this town, their hair seems to always be in the way.
“They’re doing well, how about you? Nobody hasn’t seen you in a while.”
My brows shot up. “What? But half of you bring me food every day,”
I replied with zero enthusiasm in my tone.
Lila nodded with a shy smile. “Well I’m happy to see you outside. How’re Ardley and Celeste doing?”
It’s been only a week since the whole town found out about the accident, and since it happened out of town, I was able to keep it very discreet. I didn’t plan to tell them every detail of the accident or my brother’s condition, so I always said they’re fine, because they were.
And soon they’d come back home. Where they belong and everything would go back to normal. But the moment a couple of people found out word spread across town like wildfire and almost everyone was at my doorstep every day with a new dish.
“They’re hanging in there,”
I finally replied.
“Good.”
She nodded.
Juliette yawned. “I’m tired, has anyone seen Val?”
she asked before she stepped out, leaving only Lila and I left behind.
I awkwardly sipped my cocktail as more women approached the both of us. I silently called Juliette for help as she walked away without a care in the world, her purse full of doughnuts and crackers.