Love Me One More Time by Laura Burton
Chapter 14
Can life get any better?
I feel like we can just spend the rest of our days figuring things out on this luxury island; far away from the prying eyes of the media in a place where the days pass by in slow motion.
We burst into my room; lips still joined, hands roaming. We explore each other from waist to the shoulder and then drag our hands down each other’s backs.
We’re just starting to crank it up a gear when we stop short at the sound of a cough. I would recognize that cough anywhere. We jump apart and adjust our clothing.
Carter’s mom is standing in the doorway. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought somebody was playing a practical joke on us and left a waxwork statue of my future mother-in-law there; she’s so still. Then she opens her mouth to speak.
“Carter, baby, you can’t be in here. You know it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding…”
Carter snorts. “Mom. This is hardly a traditional wedding––”
“Nevertheless,” his mom cuts in with a wave of the hand. “Your uncle Redford and your cousins George, Eddie… and heavens knows who else, have something special planned. I believe I heard the words bachelor and party.”
I shoot Carter an amused look. “Be careful. You know what your cousins are like. Who knows what they’ve got planned.” He kisses me on the cheek and heads to the door.
“See you later, ZoBo. I’ll be waiting for you at the proverbial altar,” he says over his shoulder.
“I’ll be the one in white!” I call back, grinning. Carter’s mom has her eyes fixed on me. Her expression is blank and her eyes are bulging slightly. It looks like she’s putting some effort into not allowing them to roll. “Right. Zoe. Your bridal shower awaits. If you’ll follow me…”
I glance at the closet wistfully, wishing I snuck a glimpse of my wedding gown. I don’t want to take a look while Carter’s mom is in the room. She’ll probably make some backhanded compliment about how gorgeous the dress is and what a pity it is that I don’t have the ample bosom to fill it out properly.
“Where’s the shower?” I ask, trying to act casual as I walk alongside her.
“It’s a surprise,” she says, tapping her nose and winking at me.
I picture it outside on the veranda. My mom will have taken over decoration duty, and I imagine it covered in the white and yellow flowers she picked from the gardens. Carter’s aunties will be gushing over the exciting turn of events and his grandma will join us with well wishes for a long and happy marriage to her grandson.
I don’t expect there will be gifts, but if I’m lucky there might be cupcakes and dancing.
Carter’s mom makes an unexpected turn toward another hall, diverting us from the outside and taking us further into the building.
My heart sinks as we stop outside a door. There are more than one hundred rooms in this building, and every door is identical, but I can’t shake the horrible feeling that I’ve been through this one before.
All of my fears come to life when Carter’s mom opens it and gestures for me to walk in.
“What are we doing here?”
It’s a room with huge glass doors that open out to a balcony. Beyond the balcony is a private pool lined with palm trees and bamboo screening. In the middle of the room is a wooden desk with two chairs on either side. Carter’s mom points to one of them and walks around the desk to sit behind it. All of my senses are screaming run.
“You remember?” Carter's mom asks, sounding far too pleased.
My right eye twitches as I sit in the chair, but instead of shrinking myself down like I did the last time I was in this situation, I keep my back poker straight and hold eye contact with the woman.
“How can I forget? The last time we sat like this, you smashed my heart into a million pieces.”
Carter’s mom pours herself a drink from the decanter, and then pours another one and slides it to me. “You’ve always been a dramatic one,” she says, her eyes twinkling. I don’t touch the drink.
I clench my jaw as the memory I’ve tried so hard to bury in the darkest depths of my mind comes rushing to the surface.
“I’ve invited you to speak to me on a very important matter, Zoe.”
I stop playing with my hair and grin shyly at the woman behind the desk. I’ve quietly admired her perfect posture and sleek refinement for some time now. She tucks a lock of dark, blunt cut hair behind her ear. The rest falls in a neat asymmetrical line that frames her face stylishly. “Sure,” I say shyly.
Carter’s mom lifts her chin and takes a deep breath. “You’re a sweet girl. You’ve been nothing but polite and caring to all of the family. And you are, of course, very beautiful.”
I grin sheepishly. I’m definitely not used to being given so many compliments at once. “Thank you,” I say.
She dusts off her desk with her fingertips and seems to shift into a different gear. “It’s just a terrible shame…” she says with an exaggerated sigh.
“Excuse me?” I asked, my smile falling.
Her eyes rise from the desk to meet my puzzled stare. “As you know, Carter’s father is very sick. He won’t be with us for much longer.”
Her tone doesn’t sit right with me. It’s as though she’s talking about a loaf of bread about to expire, rather than a husband about to pass away.
“Carter is the heir to all of this.” She raised her hands and gestures to the room, but I know she’s talking about so much more than her hotel room. She means Sanctum and the family business.
I nod along but I’m not entirely following her train of thought. So what if Carter inherits the family business? I’ve always known about that, and I don’t particularly care. Carter could have been poor with nothing but family debts to inherit and I’d still adore him.
We get on like a house on fire and he’s the person I want to grow old with.
“Our lawyers have drawn up this contract for you to sign,” Carter’s mom continues, handing over a file. I open it up and frown.
“You want me to sign a pre-nup?”
Carter’s mom leans over the desk to peer at me as though she’s looking through a pair of spectacles. “Surely you can understand that a man in Carter’s position would require a certain kind of security, to ensure that when things inevitably go wrong, you don’t walk away with half of the family wealth.”
Her words are like daggers. Tears spring to my eyes unbidden.
“Inevitably?” I repeat. “You don’t think we’ll stay together?”
Carter’s mom shakes her head with a chortle and sits back in her chair. “You and Carter come from different worlds, my dear. Yes, you’re in love now... But what happens when you want to go off touring the world and building your own career, and Carter wants you to stay home and look after the kids?”
“What kids?” I ask.
“Yours, of course! Carter’s a family man, he has traditional values. You’ve talked about all of this, haven’t you?”
I can’t respond, I’m too shocked to think straight. No, we haven’t talked about kids. Why would we? Marriage is already more than enough to think about. Most of our peers are doing their Masters or starting new jobs, hardly anyone else is getting married in their early twenties. Carter and I just… don’t want to wait. We want to start our lives together.
The expression on his mother’s face makes my stomach lurch.
I look down at my knees. “You don’t think I’m good enough for him, do you?” I whisper. When I lift my eyes, there’s a sad smile on her face. She leans forward again. “Oh, sweetheart. I know you’re not good enough. But so long as you sign this pre-nup, we won’t have a problem.”
I shut my eyes and grit my teeth. In hindsight, I wish I’d stood up to Carter’s mom and spoken my mind. I shouldn’t have questioned if I was good enough for her son. No one would be. Jade Black is a formidable woman. She runs the family with an iron fist in a velvet glove.
She’s never emotional. In fact, on the day of her own husband’s funeral, she didn’t shed a single tear. And not once have I ever heard her talk about him since his passing.
I wish I could go back and do it all differently. I wish I didn’t go running to Carter to tell him what a jerk his mom is––effectively starting a huge fight between us––and that I couldn’t be the housewife he was looking for.
I wish I took it all with grace and just talked it out.
Maybe he wouldn’t have let me go so easily.
But that’s the difference between twenty-one-year old Zoe and thirty-year-old Zoe.
I might not be able to go back in time, but I can control my actions right here and now.
Carter’s mom sips her drink and I remain composed, waiting for the tirade of insults and my turn to speak. This time, I’m ready to stand my ground.
“What is this about, Jade?” It’s the first time I’ve called her by her name. Her nostrils flare, but she remains silent. I hold her gaze, determined not to show any sign of weakness.
“You should be aware that there is a matter of… administration to take care of before the nuptials.” She pulls out a file from her desk drawer and hands it over. I let out a surprised laugh.
“Is this the original pre-nup you shoved in my face all those years ago?” I ask, looking over the papers. No. I notice several of the pages are crisp and fresh with the present date. “You got these drawn up fast.”
I look up and Carter’s mom shrugs. “What can I say? I know my son. When he came up with this ridiculous idea to fool his grandma, I knew the only person he was going to fool was himself.”
“You think he’s fooling himself?” I ask, crossing my legs. “Interesting. Please tell me what you mean by that.”
I’ve put my coaching hat on. I give Carter’s mom the look I reserve for particularly difficult clients; the ones that are extremely confused but are convinced that they’re not. Detaching myself from the moment makes it a lot easier to suppress the urge to tear up the pre-nup and throw it in her face.
Carter’s mom gives me a wry smile and cocks her head. She can see through my act and she’s having none of it. “He’s kidding himself if he thinks he can have a happy, healthy marriage with you.”
If I had a pen, I’d be clicking it furiously. But in the absence of anything to fiddle with, I wriggle the diamond ring between my fingers. The smooth band is comforting. “I’m not sure I’m following, Jade,” I say. Her eyes bulge every time I say her name, and that makes me want to say it even more. “Last time, you told me it was my family background and ‘feminist’ ambitions that made me a poor fit for your son,” I say, crossing my arms. “But now I’m a self-made millionaire, and I’m at the stage in my life where I want to settle down and have a family. In fact, being a stay-at-home mom sounds like a dream right now. I’m totally uninterested in getting back into the rat race.”
Carter’s mom sniffs and picks up a tablet from her desk. She taps the screen a few times and then holds it up for me to stare at my own face. News bulletins flying across my chin. “You think Carter will stand by you through this?”
“Carter knows about it; I was transparent with him from the get go.”
“You ran away with your tail between your legs,” Carter’s mom continues, leaning over and resting her hands on the desk. Her eyes are nearly out of her head.
I rise to a stand. My temper is simmering dangerously close to the surface; threatening to boil and spill over. “I came here to help Carter and I––”
Carter’s mom slams her fist on the desk. “You ran away because that’s what you do, Zoe! As soon as something is hard and awkward, you disappear. Look at what you did to Carter––”
“Enough! I don’t have to justify my life choices to you. If Carter wants a pre-nup, he’ll talk to me about it himself.” I start to leave the room but then spin on my heel just before the door.
“How dare you try to intimidate me again?” I puff out an angry breath and I’m half surprised I didn’t breathe fire. “Do you not care about your son’s happiness at all?”
“Oh, please. You’ve been back in his life for ten minutes, what do you know about Carter’s happiness? Have you even asked him how he’s dealing with his father’s death? What he wants to do with the family business? Have you stopped for two seconds to discuss the future?”
Her words sting, but I shake the pain away and throw the door open. “I don’t have to stay here and listen to this.”
“Where are you going?” Her shout is laced with panic.
“To find my fiancé.”