Chapter 29
Christian
Lana runs—sprints away from me.
My mother scoffs. “Do her well to listen to me.”
“What the hell is wrong with you—”
“And you? When did you become so weak? You have a company to run and you go back to Willow Springs.” She spits the name of my favorite place with disdain.
I exhale through flared nostrils, my hands curling into fists.
Lana. I need to go to her, but this woman needs to be put in her place once and for all.
“How dare you talk to her like that?” I snap.
“Please, Christian,” Caroline huffs. “She doesn’t belong here, much less with you. You are the CEO of this company. Act like it, damn it. You have an image to uphold and you need to be respected.”
“Leave,” I say with a calmness I learned from my girl.
She scoffs. “Excuse me.”
“You wanted me to act like a fucking CEO, so I am. I’m protecting my company and getting rid of the rats. Lana isn’t going anywhere. I love her with my entire life and just because you do not like her or don’t approve—I don’t give a fuck. It isn’t an excuse to be a racist bitch—”
“Watch how you talk to me, Christian Calloway, I am still your mother!”
“You aren’t anything to me, Caroline,” I grit through my teeth.
“We share a last name and it means nothing. If you wanted to be my mother you should have stopped him from hitting me. You should have helped him—helped me. You let him hit me. You let him beat me and drink himself to death. You enabled him. You are lucky that all I am asking you to do is leave.”
“I am not going anywhere,” she huffs. “This is mine too.”
“None of it is yours, Caroline,” I say calmly. “You can leave gracefully or I will happily call security to walk you out themselves.”
“Need I remind you that I own part of this company.”
“Need I remind you, that I’m your boss.” I jerk my chin over at security, signaling for them. “Leave, Caroline, or they will escort you out.”
She huffs a dry laugh and downs her champagne. When she’s done, the glass is on a table and she’s only glaring. A stand off, then. Good with me.
“You will meet me in the office tomorrow morning where you and I will discuss your termination,” I say, not taking my eyes off hers. “You can take her.”
“Let’s go, ma’am.”
Caroline struggles at first, but then they’re in the elevator with her and she’s gone. I button my jacket and grin at the guests. “Carry on, everyone.”
I leave them all to gossip or whatever other things they’ll do about what just happened, and go find Lana.
I scan the party, searching for the beautiful girl in a ruby red gown. After a minute, a guest taps my shoulder and points. “She went to the restroom,” the older woman tells me.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
She dips her chin with a wink. “Go get her.”
I mutter my gratitude again, hoping good karma goes her way, and storm into the mens bathroom. “Lana! Lana, baby, it’s me!”
I check every stall, smacking each door open just to find all of them empty.
I exit and go to the women’s restroom next door.
I try to push the door open to no avail.
I bang my fists hard. “Lana! Baby, it’s me, open up.
” I knock again. “Baby? Baby, come on, it’s me,” I say softly. “Let me in, baby, please.”
I press my ear to the door and hear her muffled sobbing before the lock clicks. Taking a breath, I push it open as Lana drags her feet toward the chaise. I lock the door behind me and join her.
Lana hiccups, her body trembling. I pull her across my lap and hold her. I cradle her face and use my thumbs to wipe away the black smudges gathered under her eyes—try to. “Baby—”
“Christian,” she hiccups, her hands fisting my suit, “I have—I have something to tell you.”
“What? Baby, what is it?”
“Your parents…” She inhales shakily. “Your mom came to see me in our old apartment. After you left.”
“Lana, it’s okay,” I whisper. “It’s okay.”
“She gave me—” Another violent hiccup as she sobs. “She gave me two million dollars.”
“What?” Everything goes still.
“She said,” Lana gasps for air and I rub her back between her shoulder blades, “She said that you… You didn’t want me… She gave me two million dollars so I wouldn’t… So I wouldn’t go after you or talk to you. Christian,” Lana weeps.
“What.”
Of course my mother would do something like that. She hates when I have anything good. She didn’t want me to go to rehab because of our company’s image. She didn’t want me to go home and take the sabbatical. She doesn’t want me to be happy.
“But then,” she cries. “Then I thought you’d come back. I thought… I thought you’d come back and…”
“I did,” I say.
And she nods.
“I’m going to have a conversation with my mother about this.”
“No! No, she’ll kill me! I— That’s how… She’s right. It’s the only reason I have the store and the house. She told me to use it so I wouldn’t be… So I wouldn’t be the trash I grew up as.”
My eyes go wide enough for them to pop out of my head.
“What?”
“Christian—”
“I’m going to go talk to her, right now.”
Her hand pulls on mine. “No, please. Stay with me. I just need you to stay with me right now, okay?”
“Anything.”
“You can’t…” Lana heaves. “You can’t talk to her about it. She’ll find a way to take the shop from me and the house, and I can’t lose you again—I won’t—”
“Shh, no,” I try to calm her. “You’re not going to lose me and she is not taking your shop or our house, okay?”
Lana nods, breathing in through her nose and out through her puckered lips. “Okay.”
“I’m going to talk to her about it tomorrow,” I say softly and she shakes her head.
“I will because what she did wasn’t right.
She had no business going to you or treating you like that.
None of what she said was true. None of it.
You are not trash, Lana. And I did want you, I’ve always wanted you. ”
She keeps nodding and she fists the lapels of my suit. “Take me home.” She inhales deeply and shakily. “Please. Please.”
“Yeah, baby.” I let her cry herself into calmness. Her makeup smudges on my suit as she releases her grief, and I call on the limo to meet us out front. “Come on.”
My heart breaks into tiny shreds the louder and harder she cries, my own emotions bubbling up my chest and gathering in my eyes.
I could burn this world for her with no remorse.
In the penthouse, Lana sits on the couch and bends to undo her heels. But I kneel and grab her ankle. “I’ve got it.”
Lana has been moving like a zombie since we left, like the tears have completely exhausted her for the rest of the weekend before we go back to Willow Springs Monday afternoon.
I remove her left shoe first and set it aside. Then go on to her right.
“I hate her,” Lana murmurs, her voice hoarse and thick.
I sigh, a pain stinging my chest, and I get onto the couch beside her. “Baby, come here.”
Lana sniffles, looking at me with a heavy pout. Black is smudged beneath her eyes, her lipstick faded and smeared at the bottom of her lip, salty tears staining her cheeks, and her hair in disarray—still gorgeous as ever. “I look horrible.”
“You are beautiful.”
Lana shakes her head.
“Come here.”
“I want to get out of this dress first,” she rasps and stands, and I don’t miss the way she wobbles a bit. “Help me.”
Lana turns, giving me her back for me to lower the zipper.
I stand and, instead of taking off her dress, I bend to lift her with my arm under her knees and the other around her back.
In the bathroom, I set her down and her body shudders.
I start at her arms, brushing my fingertips up and cross the tops of her shoulders until I unclasp the necklace.
I gingerly set it down on the counter and kiss her shoulder.
“You look beautiful,” I rasp.
Lana shakes her head.
The zipper comes next, the quiet sound of the metal filling the silent air until Lana sniffles. The dress falls from her frame and I wait as she steps out of it. Quickly, I take the gown and set it down across the length of the sofa—we’ll worry about that tomorrow.
Back in the bathroom, Lana is scrubbing her face at the sink, standing utterly naked. From the hook, I grab her robe and come up behind her to drape it over her shoulders. “Baby.”
Her head hangs between her shoulders as she rinses her hands under the water, and my hands on her hips urge her to turn. When she does, I cup her face in my hands and tilt her head back to look up at me. “Let me help you.”
I wipe away a tear as she nods. “I love you so much,” she rasps.
“I know.”
“You’re so good to me,” Lana croaks.
I roll my shoulders. A stiff shake of my head. “I’m—”
“Don’t.”
I take her hips and lift her onto the counter. “Makeup remover?”
She gives me a little nod. “The cream.”
I take the jar of makeup remover and use the pads of my fingers to gather the product. I stand between her legs and my heart breaks looking into her red eyes and tear streaked cheeks before I massage the cream into her skin. “Are you okay?”
“I think so,” she says as I spread the cream across her cheeks.
The issue with my mother will be resolved tomorrow.
Tonight, I need Lana and she needs me. There is nowhere else I’d rather be.
No one else I’d rather be with. And once we go back home, the only loose end I have here will be gone.
I’ll work from the house I’m buying Lana, in our office, while she’s at the shop.
And it’ll work out just fine.
I’m trusting that.
Tonight, I’m just going to hold her close and let myself feel okay. I don’t have to dream about this anymore. I don’t have to get high to see a blurry version of her in my head. I have her and I’m protecting her—us—at all costs. I’m not losing any of this again.
Not to alcohol, not to drugs, not to this company, and not to my mother.
“Tomorrow,” I rasp, spreading the product over her forehead.
“I’m going to go into the office and I want you to stay here and wait for me, okay?
It won’t take long—it shouldn’t. Wait for me.
Sleep in, do some self-care, whatever you need to do.
And when I get back, you’ll tell me what you want to do, okay? ”
“Okay.”
“If you want to stay in, we’ll watch TV all day or something. And if you want to go out, I’ll take you sightseeing.”
“Okay,” she croaks. “Christian?”
“Yes, baby.”
“I hate her,” she repeats.
I sigh and wash my hands in the sink. “I do too.”
“Are you…” She sniffles. “Do you need to call…”
I shake my head and stand between her legs again, my arms around her. “I’m okay. I’m with you.”
“If you need to, call him,” Lana tells me firmly through her tears. “Promise me you will.”
“I promise, baby.” I kiss her. “But I’m fine right here with you.”
Lana kisses me back. “Okay. Me too.”
“I’ve got you,” I breathe. I lower Lana from the counter and her tender hands begin to undo my tie. I take the liberty of undoing the buttons on my shirt and her hands move to my belt and pants.
“Shower with me,” she whispers and undoes her robe, letting it fall from her arms and pool at her feet.
With her eyes locked on mine, I remove the rest of my clothes, letting them fall to the floor. Her gentle caramel eyes soften as they rake over my naked body, sending a shiver up my spine.
My eyes roam over her body, her face of smeared with melted makeup she’ll wash off in the shower, and I am so fucking in love with her.
“I’m so in love with you,” I breathe out.
“Christian…” she breathes. “I love you so much.”
I close the space between us and hold her to me as I step into the shower. I turn on the shower, the water raining over us from the ceiling. Under the hot spray, Lana scrubs gently at her face and I rake my fingers through my hair to wash away the gel.
Lana opens her breathtaking eyes again as she pushes her soaked hair back. “Did you… Did you have fun before…”
I chuckle and reach for my shampoo just as she reaches for hers. “You turning into a territorial cavewoman was quite fun.”
That makes Lana laugh, and its mission accomplished. She squirts the shampoo in her palm with her dimples all for me. “You called me your wife,” she says, her cheeks turning rosy. “I liked it.”
I massage my scalp. “You are going to be my wife, Lana.”
“I know.” She massages her scalp too, sniffling. “I just like the way it sounds.”
I drop my hands from my head, letting the water rinse my hair, and say, “Turn.”
When she drops her hands, mine go immediately into her hair to wash it for her. “I think I just want to stay in tomorrow.”
“That’s okay,” I say. “I’ll handle my mother and come back to you.”
“Okay,” Lana mutters.
We shower and dry off, donning our robes before we get into bed—hers a silk pale yellow I bought just for her. I turn on the TV, find one of our favorite sitcoms, and pull her into me. This is where I find peace.
Lana yawns, and the sound brings me relief that she is calm enough to sleep—soundly, I hope. “I love you,” she breathes.
I pull back her damp hair and kiss her neck. “I love you,” I whisper. “Go to sleep, baby.”
Sleepily moaning, she turns in my arms and kisses my lips softly before she settles against my chest. “Goodnight, baby.”
I kiss her head. “Goodnight, baby.”