Chapter 29
29
ELLA
A s a kid, I always wanted a big family. For most of like, it was just me and even though it was nice at times, especially when I wanted to be alone, I still wanted to be a part of all the chaos that came with a big family.
Every time I went to a new foster home that had a lot of kids, I always go excited. Every time I walked through a door and saw a bunch of kids running around, I thought that that would be it. That would be the home that I was meant to be in and finally have a lot of brothers and sisters.
But that never happened.
Either the parents of the home were super nice and caring but the kids they had were mean or it was the other away around.
As I got older, I made a promise to myself that when I was ready I would give myself the family that I always wanted. A handful of kids, a big house with enough space for Charlie, and a husband that loved me beyond measure. The promise was going to take some time, especially since before this arrangement with Bennett, I had been single for a long time, and I didn’t have the income support that type of life, but it was going to happen. I was going to make sure of it.
When I first agreed to marry Bennett, I didn’t think that I would gain much from the transaction besides the million dollars to pay off Josiah and a place to live for two years without having to worry about rent. I didn’t think nothing else would come from it.
But something has, the family and life I always wanted.
Who knew that all I needed to do was marry my billionaire boss and all my dreams would come true.
It took me a while to get to this point, but now that I’ve been a Lane, in the legal sense, for a few months now, I feel like both Charlie and I belong with this family.
All four of Bennett’s kids have opened up to me, have made me feel as if I was an asset in their life instead of a burden. Even while they are at school or traveling the world. They have made me a part of their every day life, going as far as including me in text thread with their uncle, and it has made me feel as if I’m actually their aunt instead of a stranger that they were forced to like. And the fact that all four of them have done the same to Charlie means the absolute world to me.
Bennett doesn’t know this, but I look forward to the days that all of us are under the same roof. Every time, it brings a smile to my face.
Which is what I have on my face now, as most of us sit at the dinning room table, ready to feast on this amazing breakfast that Henry has prepared with the chefs that come on the weekends.
I went from having no food in my fridge to having chefs and a house caretaker. That is absolutely insane.
“When is uncle Bennett coming home?” Drake ask as he dive mouth first into a stack of pancakes that Henry placed in front of him.
The kid may be small but he can eat.
I look over at Henry to see if he’s going to answer Drake, but all that he does and gives me a smile before taking a seat next to Grayson at the end of the table.
“He should be back later this afternoon.” I answer.
Which is all the information that I have. Bennett woke up early this morning, leaving me in his bed with a simple whisper that he will be back before dinner. He didn’t say where he was going and given the fact that his schedule had nothing on it for today, since its a Saturday, I had my questions, but he just said not to worry about it.
And that’s what I’ve been trying to do.
“Cool. When he gets back I need to ask him a question.” Drake says, around a whole mouthful of food.
I grab my own fork and take a quick bite before turning my attention back to him. “Oh yeah? What are you going to ask him?”
“If it would be okay if you go with me to the mother and son dance at my school next month.”
His answer takes me by surprise, that I drop my fork and a piece of pancake wedges itself in my my throat. I try my hardest to cough it up.
Tears start to run my face as I feel a hand land on my back and give me a hard pat. Thankfully it helps dislodge the food.
“Thank you,” I say to Grayson, who is on my left, for the extra hard pat.
After wiping the tears away from my eyes and the saliva that came out when I spit out the food, I give everyone a smile telling them I’m okay before turning to look at Drake who is sitting across from me.
“Are you okay?” He asks, his little eyes full of worry.
I give him the best smile that I can, while trying to hide my panic about the whole situation.
“Yeah, sweetie. I’m fine.” I’m still slightly out f breath, but I don’t know if that is from the chocking or from what Drake just said. “You want me to go to your mother and son dance?”
Drake and I have gotten really close these last few weeks. He’s been my partner in crime in almost everything. From watching movies together, to baking, to him even showing me his made computer game skills. From the second I get home from work until he goes to sleep, he is always in the same room as me. I knew we were getting close, but I never really thought that he saw me as a mother figure.
That’s big.
No, that is fucking huge, and just thinking about the fact that he wants me to go to this dance with him has a lump of motion forming in my throat.
His little face lights up as he speaks. “Yeah, I want you to go.”
My smile grows a bit more but then when intrusive thought pops into my head the smile starts to disappear.
I’m only in his life for a year and a half more. What’s going to happen to other mother and son dances that I can’t attend because I’m no longer a part of this family.
That thought hurts, but I try to come up with an alternative. “Are you sure? Maybe Samantha would be the better choice to go with you?”
I look over at Sam, hoping to find her with a smile or something, excited that I suggested that she go with her brother, but when I take in her face, I just see disappointment.
Is she disappointed that Drake asked me instead of her? Or is she disappointed that I’m turning down her brother?
When I turn back to the little boy in front of me, I think I have my answer.
“You don’t want to go with me?” Drake lets out, his voice not as loud as it was before.
Tears form in my eyes when I see his bottom lip wobble.
Dammit.
I get up from my chair and walk over to the other side of the table, crunching down next to him, taking his hand in mine.
“I do want to go. I just thought since we haven’t known each other all that long, that it would be better for your sister to go with you. But if you want me to go, then I will be honored to go. We can even get matching outfits and everything.”
The way his face transforms melts my heart.
Little arms wrap around my neck and drake slams his body to mine so tightly that he falls off his chair and pushes the both of us to the ground.
Both his laugh and mine fill the room and just hearing it has my heart soaring. Who knew that I’d love hearing two Lane men laugh so much. Every time is like music to my ears and my heart.
After a few minutes of giving Drake the biggest bear hug, I let him go and we both stand back up.
“Finish your food. Maybe after we can go shopping of rout outfits.” I say to him, ruffling his hair, before pushing him toward his chair.
“Oh can we go too?” Charlie throws out, point and her and at Samantha with her piece of bacon. “My one good pair of jeans ripped and I need new ones.”
Before I even took the job at Lane Enterprises, I would have told her that we would have to wait. To give me her jeans so that I could fix them to make them last just a tad bit longer. We couldn’t afford it.
But now we can. Not only is Bennett handling all of out expenses, something that he wouldn’t budge on and didn’t even want to hear about me paying for anything, but now that I’m the assistant to the CEO of the company, I got a hefty raise that haven’t touched. We have money. And Bennett’s credit card that he tells me to use every single day, so I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I used it to buy Charlie some jeans and myself an outfit for the mother and son dance.
I give my sister a bright smile, and the words that I’m sure she never thought were going to come out of my mouth. “Yes, you two can come. We can’t have you walking around with ripped jeans.”
She gives me a bright smile back.
A ball of emotions rolls through me as I realize that I haven’t seen my sister this the happiest that I have seen my sister in a long time. She needed this change as much as I did and she is thriving in it.
Before I get over sentimental about it, I turn to Grayson.
“Do you want to go shopping too?”
He makes a face at my question. “I rather not. I’ll state behind with the old man and make sure that he doesn’t break a hip or anything,” he responds and nods toward Henry, who is sitting to his left.
“Excuse you. Who was able to get five pucks past you yesterday?” Henry throws out, narrowing his eyes at the fifteen year old.
Grayson scoffs. “You were only able to do that because I let you.”
“ Let me .” Henry lets out a snort. “We’ll see about that.”
The two of them argue as the rest of us go back to finishing our breakfast.
As the two girls and Drake are upstairs getting ready to leave, and Grayson heads to the game room, Henry and I stay behind in the dinning room to help the kitchen staff clean up.
It’s when I hand him a stack of plates that I notice that he is giving me a funny look.
“Is something on your mind?” I ask with a smile on my face, trying to hide the weird nervousness I feel at the moment.
“Just a memory that popped in my head.” He states, giving me a strained smile.
“And what memory would that be?”
Henry continues to clean up as he speaks. “One from a few months ago. Mr. Drake had parents day at school and he begged Mr. Lane to take him to work him instead of sending him off to class. He didn’t want the kids to ask questions as to why his father was there but his mother wasn’t. That day was such a contrast to what I witness earlier.”
“Did he go to school that day?” I ask, gripping the tray of food I have in my hands a little too hard.
“No. Mr. Lane let him have a day off and took him to a museum. The two of them had a whole afternoon learning about penguins.”
A smile forms on my face as I think about Bennett and Drake nerding out over arctic birds, but it quickly disappears when I think of the reason why they were at the museum anyway.
“Henry do you think that me going to the mother and son dance with him is wrong?”
His head snaps in my direction. “On the contrary. I think that it’s a really good idea for you to go. Mr. Drake could have done what he did all those months ago and ask not to go, but instead he asked for you to go with him. That right there is saying that even though you have only been in his life for a short period of time, he sees you as someone important.”
I ran through his words in my head. “In the long run, isn’t that a bad thing, though? Given that I’m only here for a year and a half more?”
I watch him as he runs through my questions. For a few seconds he just stands there as if he is trying to figure out the right thing to say.
“Mrs. Lane, I have a feeling that even though your arrangement with Mr. Lane is only for a specific set of time, you are going to be a very important figure in this household for years to come.
“What makes you say that?”
He gives me a shrug. “Decades of taking care of the people of this family. I know when someone important walks in through the door.”
His words have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
Important.
Henry, one of the most important people in this family is calling me important. Does that mean that there will be a chance that when the two years are up, I won’t walk out with a broken heart?
Because, all the Lanes have wedge themselves in there deep and I don’t think they will every be able to get out. Bennett most of all. Because I’ve fallen for my husband and there is no turning back.
“May I ask you a question, Mrs. Lane?” Henry lets out when the dinning room is close to being spotless.
A small smile spreads on my lips when I hear him call me Mrs. Lane. I’ve spent weeks asking him to call me Ella, but the man won’t budge.
“Sure.”
“How are Mr. Lane’s nightmares? He hasn’t mentioned anything in the last few weeks about having one and I wanted to ask.”
My eyebrows bunch up.
Nightmares? Bennett has nightmares?
We’ve been sharing a bed for four months now, and not once has the topic of nightmare come up.
“I wasn’t aware that he had nightmares.” Has he had them and I just haven’t noticed? “Do they happen often?”
Henry throws a small smile my way. “Only on occasion, but from the looks of things, he must have done something to help with them.”
I nod even though I’m still very much lost in my head. “Yeah, he must have.”
Am I that something?
I want to hope that I am.
“Since you will be going to the dance with Mr. Drake, I have something for you to inspire your shopping adventure.” Henry lets out as he guides me out of the dinning room.
For a second, all thoughts of Bennett’s nightmares go away and I concentrate on Henry.
“Oh?”
The older gentleman gives me a smile and nods me in the direction of the his section of the house. “Follow me.”
He guides me through the lower level of the house until we reach his quarters, which are bigger than a decent sized apartment.
I stay by the entrance as he goes to a room and come back a few minutes later with a small box in his hands.
A small velvet jewelry box.
“I think a mother and son dance would be the perfect occasion for you to wear this.”
He opens the box and nestled inside is a beautiful gold bracelet with a line of five diamonds in the middle.
I take the box from him and take in every single detail of the piece of jewelry.
“Henry this is gorgeous, but I can’t possibly wear it. I could lose it.”
“That’s a risk that could happen with any piece. Besides, if I didn’t have the out most confidence in you Mrs. Lane, I wouldn’t have offered it. Please take it.”
I give a smile of appreciation. The fact that he is letting me borrow this is big. This is his way of making me understand how important I really am.
“Thank you Henry. I will bring it back to you in one piece.”
“No need. That is yours to keep. Think of it as a thank you, from me to you for agreeing to go to this dance with Mr. Drake.”
Tears form in my eyes.
This family knows how to make someone feel special, don’t they?
I raise up on my tiptoes and place a kiss against Henry’s cheek.
“I will cherish it forever.”
Right next to my wedding ring.
…
A few hours after Breakfast, Samantha, Charlie, Drake and I are walking through the mall with a few security guards trailing behind.
Surprisingly, we were able to find everything that we were looking for just by going to a few stores. Charlie was able to get more than just a pair of jeans, and Drake and I were able to find our matching outfits for the dance.
Now of us are just walking around, going store to store seeing if anything else catches our eyes. Which doesn’t happen until we find a toy store and Drake drags Charlie inside as Sam and I stand by the entrance.
Since it’s just the two of us, I decide to broach the subject of what happened at breakfast.
“Hey, I hope that you’re not mad at me for suggesting that you go to the dance with you brother. I didn’t want to step on any toes, so I just thought that it would be better for you to take him.”
Sam gives me a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “I’m not mad. Him asking you just took me by surprise, is all. I’m glad that he asked you.”
“Are you sure? Because if you want to go, I’m completely fine with that.”
She is shaking her head before I can even finish. “Go. It would mean a lot to him. None of us got to go those things when we were his age, it would be nice for him to experience it.”
Her comment wakes up an ever present thought. I’ve always wanted to ask Bennett, but the the time never presented itself. I know he hasn’t anything from his brother since he left his kids with him, but what happened to their mom?
As much as I want to ask Sam about it now, it’s not the place and time.
For all I know their mother is a sore subject and should never be spoken about.
I take her hand in mine and give it a good squeeze. “I promise to make it the best mother and son dance ever.”
If I wasn’t looking right at her, I would have missed it, but tears start to form in eyes before she looks away. “Thank you Ella.”
I get the sense that she wants to say more, like there is something on the tip of her tongue that she is dying to say, but she is keeping it in and just smiles as she walks into the toy store.
As I stand there, I start to thinking back to what Henry said. That I’m going to be an important figure for years to come.
I keep thinking that the two year deadline with Bennett as he end, but it doesn’t have to be. I can still be a part of the kids lives in some why once all of this is over. As their ex-aunt, their friend, even a mother figure if they need it.
They may not be biologically related to me, but my life has taught me that family doesn’t have to be blood. Your parents don’t have to be related to you through biology to be your parents. The Lanes may not be my blood, but that isn’t going to stop me from treating them as if they were. Now, or even two years from now.
No matter what happens between me and Bennett.
And that’s the head space that I’m in for the remainder of our shopping trip and as we drive back to the Lane Manor.
When we get back to the house, and the kids run upstairs, Henry stops me and directs me to the study at the edge of the first floor.
“Mr. Lane would like to see you in his study,” he states his face is empty of any emotion, that worries me.
“Okay?” I say, the word coming out as a question.
Henry just gives me a nod, and leaves me to talk into the home office alone.
As I open the large wooden door, I feel like I’m walking into the principal’s office and I’m in trouble.
Did Henry tell Bennett that Drake asked me to go to he mother and son dance with him and he’s mad?
There isn’t a whole lot of possibilities as to why he would want to meet me in the study.
“Bennett?” I say as walk into the room.
My eye travel around the room as I find him standing in front of his desk, with his back to me.
“Close the door.” He orders, not turning to even look up at me.
Goose bumps form on my arms as I do what he says and stay rooted in place, not wanting to over step and close the distance between us.
“What’s going on?” I ask, after about a minute of standing in silence.
Whatever is happening here is messing with my nervous system and making my palms sweat.
Bennett turns to face me and two things grab my attention.
The red scratch mark just below his left eye and the folder that he has in his hand. Without thinking, I close the distance us and start surveying him.
“What happened to your face?” I place finger slightly on the scratch and it causes him to flinch.
“It’s nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing.”
He places his hand over mine and pulls my touch away from his face but doesn’t let go of me.
“Ella, I’m fine. The scratch doesn’t matter. What I have I my hand does.”
He holds up the folder that’s in his other hand and my eyes travel over to it. When he hands it over to me, I’m hesitant to open it, but I do anyway.
The second that I read the words at the top of the first page, a wave of confusing travels over me.
“A custody declaration?” I ask, look up at Bennett for answers.
“Keep reading.”
With uncertainty, I do with he says and read through the file that he just handed me.
It’s paperwork citing that Josiah Sinclair has not only giving me full custody of Charlie but he has also giving up his parental rights and made me her legal guardian.
Tears escape from my eyes as I put together what this means.
Josiah isn’t going to come after us anymore and there is no more threats of him taking Charlie away from me.
I never thought that this would happen, yet I’m holding the evidence in my hands.
But how?
I look up at the only man that can give me the answer.
“How did you do this?”
“Don’t worry about it. Just accept that it’s done and that you will never have to deal with Josiah every again. Charlie is yours and it will stay that way.”
Tears run down my face and he reaches over and wipes them away.
This man has really made all my dreams come true.
There are three words that I want to say to him, but I keep them inside. I’m not ready for those words to come out, even if my heart is screaming for them.
Instead, I say two other words that I truly mean and will mean until the end of time.
“Thank you.”