That One Time by Aja Foxx

Chapter Two

~ Frank ~

 

This was a big step and I knew it. To say I was nervous was a huge understatement. If Henry refused to sign the papers my lawyer had prepared, there would be no future for us, and that might actually kill me.

It would certainly destroy me.

I'd only known the man for a little over six months, but I couldn't imagine Henry not being a part of my life. I'd learned so much about what I wanted in life from him. He was a simple man who was happy simply being with me.

That was new. I was used to people being at my side because of what I could get them or what they wanted from me. I wasn't used to someone being happy from a simple kiss or cuddle.

Cuddle. That brought on a whole new meaning for me. It wasn't something I had been comfortable with before I met Henry. Now, I couldn't imagine life without it. The simple act of cuddling up on the couch with Henry and watching movies brought me more joy than a trip to Monte Carlo.

"Where are we going?" Henry asked as I led him out of the apartment to the taxi waiting for us.

"No questions, remember?"

Henry frowned, but climbed into the backseat of the cab. I climbed in beside him and gave the driver an address to a building downtown. Henry began to look around as we got underway, but the tight press of his lips told me that he was not happy. I just hoped he trusted me a little longer.

The trip downtown from Henry's one bedroom apartment took a good twenty minutes. Henry didn't say a word and neither did I. He'd have questions and I wasn't ready to answer them. Not yet.

I wish I didn't have to answer them at all, but I would. I owed Henry that much, even if he left me. I just hoped it didn't come to that. If I was lucky, he'd forgive me from withholding this part of my life from him and understand why I had kept things from him.

I had no doubt that he'd be pissed that I had basically lied to him. True, they were lies of omission, but they were still lies, and Henry hated liars.

When we pulled up in front of a tall skyscraper, I swallowed tightly and then turned to look at Henry. "Just a little longer, Henry."

Henry grimaced, but nodded.

I climbed out of the vehicle after giving the driver some money and then held my hand out. Henry got out and took my hand. I saw that as a win so far. I led him into the building and right over to the elevators. I knew exactly where we were going so I didn't need to check in with security.

We rode up to the twentieth floor. When the elevator doors slid open, I led Henry to the reception desk.

Now, for the hard part.

"Francesco Galeazzi to see Mr. Blakely."

I heard Henry gasp even as the receptionist smiled at me.

"Mr. Blakely is waiting for you in the conference room, sir." She got up and walked over to a glass door, pulling it open. "If you'd like to follow me?"

I kept a tight hold of Henry's hand as I followed the woman. She led us down the corridor to a conference room that had a wall of windows on two sides, a large TV screen on another one, and a small side table with a coffee carafe and several cups on the other. A large table and several chairs sat in the middle of the room.

Mr. Blakely stood when we walked in and held out his hand. "Mr. Galeazzi."

"Mr. Blakely, thank you for squeezing us in. I know you have a tight schedule."

"I always have time for you, Mr. Galeazzi."

I smiled before gesturing to the man standing beside me with the confused frown on his face. "This is my fiancé, Henry Warner."

"It's very good to meet you, Mr. Warner," Mr. Blakely said as he shook Henry's hand. "And congratulations on your engagement."

"I'd say thank you," Henry said, "but I'm not exactly sure who I'm engaged to."

Mr. Blakely shot me a frown.

I grimaced, knowing that the time had come to explain to Henry who I really was. "Henry, why don't you sit down so I can explain everything to you?"

"That would be good."

Once Henry sat down, I took the chair beside him. Mr. Blakely took a seat across from the both of us.

"Do you have those papers?" I asked Blakely.

He handed over a stack and a pen. I quickly read through the papers, looking for the one I needed first. When I found it, I slid it over in front of Henry and then held up the pen. "Before I can discuss any of this with you, I need you to sign this. It's a non-disclosure agreement. It means that—"

"I know what a non-disclosure agreement is," Henry said as he took the paper and read it from top to bottom. Once he was done, he held out his hand. I handed him the pen and he signed before pushing them both away. "Now talk."

"My name isn't Frank Gala. It's Francesco Galeazzi."

Henry stared at me.

"Do you understand what I said?" I asked.

"Yes, you just admitted you lied to me and have been lying to me since the day we met."

I winced.

"Yes, that's true." It wasn't like I could disagree with him. I had lied. "But I have a good reason."

"There is never a good reason for lying, Frank." He glared at me. "Sorry, Francesco."

"You can call me Frank." In fact, I preferred it.

"But your name isn't Frank, is it?"

I sighed. This was going to be harder than I thought. "My family is worth quite a bit of money," I started. "When I turned thirty, they started pressuring me to get married and settle down. I was able to put them off for a few years because I needed to help in the family business."

"I take it you're not a construction worker?"

Yeah, there was another mark against me.

"No, not exactly."

Henry crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. His entire demeanor said back off. "Go on."

"So, about a year ago, the pressure got pretty intense. They kept setting me up with blind dates, and their idea and my idea of who I should spend the rest of my life with were totally different."

Henry lifted an eyebrow. "Don't like blondes?"

"Don't like women."

Henry's breath caught. "Do they know you're gay?"

"They know," I said. I'd explained it to them in great detail when I came out at the age of eighteen. "They just believe that it's a phase that I'll grow out of once I meet someone special, so they keep bringing these girls around, hoping one of them will be special."

I was a little reassured when Henry grunted.

"I made a deal with my father. I was going to leave home, and the family business, for one year while I looked for that special someone on my own. If, after a year, I couldn't find someone, I agreed to go home and consider someone they chose."

"Bloody hell, Frank. Why would you do something like that? You'd be miserable."

The outrage in Henry's voice was gratifying and made me smile.

"I was lucky," I said. "Three months into my one-year hiatus, I walked into this little cafe not too far from my work and spotted this gorgeous guy behind the counter. I wasn't stupid. I asked him out on the spot."

Henry stared at me for a moment before glancing away. "Tell me the rest of it."

I sighed again. "So, I meant it when I asked you to marry me, and not because of that stupid deal I made with my father. I honestly do want to spend the rest of my life with you...if you'll have me."

"How do I know you're telling me the truth?" Henry asked. "You've already proved to me that you can lie."

Damn.

I turned my chair to face Henry's and then leaned over to rest my elbows on my knees. My shoulders slumped as I rubbed my hands over my face. Henry was absolutely right. I had no legitimate way of proving I was telling him the truth, not after the way I had lied to him.

"I don't know how to prove to you that I'm not lying, Henry, but I'm not. If..." I swallowed past the lump forming in my throat. "If you want to give my ring back, I'd understand."

"I don't want to give the ring back, Frank, but you lied to me, and not just about who you are." Henry tossed his hands up into the air before standing and starting to pace beside the table. "I don't even know who you are."

"I'm Frank, your Frank. I'm the same man who made love to you last night. I'm the same man who held you in my arms all night long. I'm still me, Henry. I simply have a bit more to my name and my life."

I reached for the other papers Blakely had handed me. "If you sign these, I can show you that life, a life I very much want you to be a part of."

Henry stopped pacing and glanced down at the papers. "What are they?"

"You already signed the NDA. This is the standard pre-nuptial agreement that anyone marrying into my family is required to sign."

"A pre-nup? Jesus, Frank, how much money does your family have?"

"A lot." Millions easily.

Henry held out his hand so I handed him the pre-nup. I was thrilled that he was willing to read it and wasn't tossing my ring in my face and storming out of the room.

"This says the marriage can be ended and I get nothing if I'm unfaithful."

"Yes." I wasn't about to budge on that one. Other parts of the pre-nup were negotiable.

"What about you?" Henry asked. "What happens to you if you're unfaithful?"

"It would never happen, but for the sake of argument, if it did and you couldn't forgive me, then I imagine the marriage would end and we'd go our separate ways."

"I want some changes made before I agree to sign this."

My eyes narrowed. "What sort of changes?"

"I don't want your money, Frank. I never did. If something happens and the marriage doesn't work out, I want nothing from you except what I brought into the marriage." Henry pointed to the paper in his hand. "This five million dollar pay off, take it out. I won't sign if it's in there."

"Henry—"

Henry held up his hand and then set the paper on the table and grabbed the pen. For a moment, I thought he was going to sign, but he crossed out the monetary amount and wrote zero in its place instead.

I was stunned. "That's a lot of money, Henry."

"I don't care. I'm not marrying you for your money."

"No, I understand that." I would be forever grateful for that. "I wouldn't have brought you here and told you all of this if I thought you were, but this money is to take care of you if we ever get divorced."

"We're not going to get divorced so I don't need it."

"Henry—"

Henry held up his hand again. "There is one time where I will take the money. If you are ever unfaithful to me, I want the money when I divorce your ass, and I want ten million dollars. Not a penny less."

Henry wrote that at the bottom of the page and then dropped the pen on the table and handed the paper back to the lawyer. "Have someone type that up and I'll sign it."

"Mr. Warner, as an attorney, I feel I must ask you if you understand what you are agreeing to sign. If you get divorced, except if Mr. Galeazzi is unfaithful to you, you receive nothing, no matter how many years you are married. If you've bought property together, decorated a house, whatever. You will get none of that."

"What about personal items like pictures and such?"

Mr. Blakely glanced at me.

I nodded. "We can write something in there about personal items, clothing, and gifts, stuff like that."

"I just don't want to be standing on the street with nothing but the clothes on my back."

"I can arrange to have a bank account set up for you and put an agreed amount in there every month. No one would have access to it except you. That way, you'd know you'd never be out on the street."

Henry quickly shook his head. "I already told you that I don't want your money. I can earn my own. I want to make sure I can take my personal items if something ever happens."

I hated the idea that Henry was now considering what would happen if we ever got divorced. Now, I suspect, he was always going to be wondering if he was going to have to leave something behind if he ever left.

"You can keep all of your personal items, Henry. You just can't take the company or the family money."

"Unless you are unfaithful to me."

"Yes, unless I am unfaithful to you." I wouldn't be, but he seemed to need that reassurance.

"Fine, then have someone type it up and I'll sign it."

I nodded to Mr. Blakely when he glanced at me. "Write it up as he wrote it."

"One more thing," Henry said. "What about children?"

"You want children I assume?"

We'd never actually gotten around to discussing that.

"I wouldn't mind a couple," Henry replied, his cheeks flushing just a bit.

"Any children that we adopt—"

Henry's eyebrows lifted. "You want to adopt?"

"We could use a surrogate, I suppose. I'm sure my mother would like that." If I provided her with a child, she'd be thrilled, but if I provided her with a blood child, she'd be over the moon.

"So, any children that we adopt or acquire using a surrogate what?"

"They would be raised as Galeazzis."

Henry's eyes narrowed to tiny little slits. "Meaning what?"

"I would retain custody of them if we got divorced."

"No." Henry crossed his arms. "I won't agree to that."

Yeah, I didn't think he would.

"I'm sure we can work out some sort of custody agreement."

"Fifty-fifty."

"Henry—"

There was a thread of steel in Henry's voice when he replied. "What if you decide you want one of those little blondes and divorce me? I'd lose my kids over something I didn't do. No, not going to happen."

"I'm sure we can add something into the custody agreement in case Mr. Galeazzi was unfaithful," Mr. Blakely said.

"There is only one thing in the custody agreement I'll agree to," Henry said. "Any children that we adopt or acquire through use of a surrogate, we share custody fifty-fifty, no matter how the marriage ends. Well, unless one of us starts beating the other or the children or commits a crime."

My parents were going to have a fit, but... "I agree. Type it up, Mr. Blakely."

"Are you sure, sir?" Mr. Blakely asked me. "If you divorce, you'd end up paying a lot in child support."

"No," Henry said, "you can add that in, too. No child support or alimony for either of us."

"You wouldn't want the money to take care of the children?" Mr. Blakely asked.

"I can make enough money to support my kids," Henry said. "They need love and care and support. They do not need trips to the Bahamas."

And that was why I wanted to marry Henry.