Chapter Sixteen
Zeller
Asher stomped around Zeller’s bedroom, humming at canvases and rolling paint brushes between his fingers. He picked up a book from the nightstand and tapped it against his palm. The hollow sound echoed.
“For goodness’ sake, stop fidgeting,” Zeller said, swiping the book from his brother’s hands.
“Can you blame me? It’s hard not to be on edge when you’re acting this way.” He folded his arms over his chest.
“What way?”
“Don’t play dumb,” Asher huffed. “Stubborn! Pigheaded! Your own worst enemy.”
Zeller sat calmly on the bed. “I’m not being stubborn. I’m standing up for myself. Finally. If I had done it sooner, maybe I’d have this baby’s father with me right now.” He rubbed a hand over his slightly rounded belly.
“Are you still defending that loser?! He took our parents’ money and ran for the hills. That’s the kind of father you want for your baby?”
Zeller looked down at the carpet. He refused to believe Valentin had deserted him. Something must have happened. They loved each other. He was sure of it.
When his fathers came to him two months ago and said that they paid Valentin to leave town after confirming the pregnancy, Zeller was horrified.
He railed against them, declaring that they had broken their agreement.
Father maintained that they’d done it for his own good, and that if Valentin were truly serious about Zeller and the baby, he would not have taken the money.
Zeller realized he had misplayed his hand, overestimating the amount of goodwill he’d earned with his parents through a lifetime of obedience.
Rather than reward him for his compliance, they had used it against him and plotted behind his back.
When he demanded his phone, Father handed it over with a smug expression.
Zeller was unsurprised to find that Valentin’s number no longer worked.
“He’s gone,” Daddy said gently, drumming his fingers on a shelf. “You need to accept that so you can move on.”
But Zeller had not accepted it. He continued to yell and accused his fathers of doing something nefarious to make Valentin go away. He vowed never to forgive their betrayal.
His belligerence shocked them.
Father snatched back the phone, saying he was too overwrought to be trusted with it. Daddy fretted on the couch, balling up a handkerchief as he urged Zeller to accept it.
His parents announced that he was confined to the house until he agreed to marry an alpha of their choosing. Father asserted that he would find an appropriate candidate who didn’t mind that Zeller carried another man’s baby.
But as the weeks went on, Zeller did not relent, saying he’d wait forever and raise his son on his own rather than marry someone else.
Even if he was wrong about Valentin’s steadfastness, even if the alpha had accepted the money and disappeared, that didn’t mean Zeller would do his parents’ bidding. They’d cost him his love. He owed them nothing.
He would never give them the satisfaction of ceding to their demands.
His brother, however, had fully bought in to the idea of Valentin as the cad who took the payoff and bolted.
Asher flopped into the reading chair. “It’s been two months, baby brother. Your alpha lover is not coming back. Why are you going to war with our parents over this guy? He doesn’t deserve this level of loyalty—you sacrificing yourself.”
Zeller scraped his palm over his jaw. He wished he could have spoken to Valentin one last time, wished he could have looked into his eyes and told him he carried their child. “You don’t understand,” he sighed.
“Don’t I?” Asher gave him a pitying glance.
“He’s nineteen and got in over his head with you.
I’ll allow it’s a sticky situation, but even if I give you the benefit of the doubt that he’s a decent guy, Father can be very persuasive.
He’s a pro at manipulating people. Everyone in the government.
Jem with his husband. Even me going to business school.
I wouldn’t put it past him to convince a young, working-class alpha that you should be with someone from a more powerful family for your own good. And the baby’s.”
Zeller didn’t want to believe it, but his brother made sound arguments. Valentin had been so reluctant in the first place. Maybe his resolve wasn’t as strong as Zeller thought. Perhaps he had been convinced that leaving was for the best. Asher was correct that Father could be very persuasive.
But to leave without speaking to Zeller? Without knowing what would happen to his son? That made no sense.
“I might never know exactly what Valentin was thinking,” Zeller drew out each word.
“But I do know I don’t want to marry one of the alphaholes our parents introduced me to.
Before Valentin came here, I wanted to make art and travel the world, find myself and chart my own course.
Once I met him, I saw us doing those things together.
Now, I see myself doing them with my son. ”
“Our fathers will never let you keep the baby. Not as a single omega… You know that, right? … And they’re the ones who decide.
” Asher twisted his hands. “When you told me about being pregnant, I asked my history professor about the law. Just to make sure there wasn’t some kind of loophole in the decrees. There isn’t.”
“I know.” Zeller nodded. Father had already threatened that they’d be looking for adoptive parents if he didn’t agree to marry soon.
It was one reason they were keeping him sequestered in the house.
They hadn’t said so explicitly, but Zeller could read between the lines.
His fathers planned to hide the birth. They would rather send their grandson away than allow the public to see their son as an unmarried father or partnered with someone of Valentin’s background.
Zeller would never forgive them for offering only impossible options.
It had not seemed to cross their minds that he already loved this baby the way a father should.
“What do you think you’re gaining by antagonizing them?” Asher asked. “Play the game. If you get married, you can keep the baby. And you couldn’t possibly be more miserable than Jem.”
“We'll see,” Zeller said, not because he meant it, but because he was done arguing. When he asked Asher to come for a visit today, he had hoped to convince him to argue Zeller’s case with their parents, but his wishy-washy brother was a conflict avoider above all else.
Knowing he would give birth in five months filled Zeller with anxiety. He needed to figure out a plan to get away, but he had no money, no connections, and no friends. Heck, he didn’t even know how to drive.
Still, he kept his head. For his son’s sake.
He would do anything for his son.
For Valentin’s son.