“I will get a hold of you in a couple of days about it. Let me talk to Aunt June and get her opinion.”
“We need to move forward, Dahlia. There is not a lot of time to plan a wedding and a child in a year.”
“Thanks, Alfred. I assure you that it's crystal clear to me now. I was just thinking that it would work out a little differently. I have been dating Baxter for some time now, Father knew that. I can't be so callous as to not give him time to adjust.”
Alfred made a face that showed her that he would have wanted to be anywhere else but there, telling her who and when she could marry. With all that she had been thinking about, her boyfriend of six months did not come up until just then. What would she tell him and would he understand? Did she understand?
Standing up, she shook the man’s hand and told him that she would be in contact with him soon. “Thank you for making this so easy. Always with your mother’s grace.”
“I suppose, Alfred, but my father’s temper is always close behind.”
He nodded and smiled. He had always been fond of her.
***
Dahlia slid the sunglasses on her face as she left the four-story building. What was once the biggest law firm in Chicago, Jay and Claggen was dwarfed in size by the bigger firms that had taken over. After they lost a few contracts from the government, there wasn’t much left for a small town lawyer in the big city. As the city grew around them, Alfred and his silent partner stayed the same. It was why Dahlia liked to continue to do business with them, but there were disadvantages. One big one was that she could not treat him as less than an old family friend that she cared deeply about. It wasn’t just that she had known him since she was little, but Alfred was a reminder of the parents now gone to her. She couldn’t refuse him as she could any other business acquaintance.
She cursed the old man and her parents for imposing so many rules on her. Ever since her father had come into her life, everything had changed. She was pushed to be proper and now, they wanted to control who she married and had children with. Dahlia waited for the car to come back around for her as there was nowhere to park. She didn’t have to wait long and she then went back to her uptown apartment that she shared with her boyfriend. The boyfriend that she was going to have to break up with and she was trying to find the best way to tell him.
He of course was home when she got in and she waited until dinner was ready before she said anything to him. He kissed her and she ended it, pulling away and trying to make the smile from her lips reach her eyes.
“What’s wrong, my love? You look as though you've had a bad day. Did you lose a contract or something?”
She giggled at his drama. He was always one to make her smile, even in a bad time like that one. She was going to miss that about him. “No, just a long day. I had to go speak to the lawyers about Dad’s will and I'm just ready for all of it to be done. There are always stipulations and more red tape.”
“Well that doesn’t sound good.” Baxter poured her a glass of wine and she took it with real gratitude. The dinner was served and she looked down at the small shrimp on her plate. It was her favorite, but all she could think about was the conversation she had just had with Alfred. Should she just rip it off like a bandage or should it be slower, more gentle? She toyed with the idea of making love to him one last time to soften the blow, but Dahlia knew that it would only make it worse.
She took a couple bites of her dinner and then drank the rest of her wine. “So what did old Alfred have to say? Is he as worried about James as you are?”
Dahlia nodded. “No, he doesn’t worry about those types of things. Father always thinks ahead and he has made it nearly impossible for him to get the business.”
“Nearly?”
“Yes, I could die and then he would be the next in line, though father has something to take care of that as well.”
“He always did have the next ten moves done in his head. What did he think of this time?”
She sighed and didn’t know how to say it. “I have to get married and be pregnant with a child in a year.”
His face drained of color, much like she thought it would. Dahlia started to wonder if he was going to bow out and make it a whole lot easier for her. He choked on whatever food or drink was in his mouth and looked at her with wide eyes. “What?!”
“Yeah. That was the day I had. I have to get married and pop out an heir or the estate goes to charity. Every last drop of it and there is nothing I can do about it.”
The flushed man was as white as a sheet and if she didn’t feel so bad, she may have been able to feel for him. It was clear that marriage was certainly not on his list of things to do, but it was for her. “Well, um, I wasn’t thinking we would get married for at least a few years. You know, we're both still so young.”
It was more of an offer than she had honestly thought there would be, but she shook her head. “No. It's even worse than that.’
“What could be worse than forcing you to get married and have children in less than a year?”
“Well it has been arranged, the marriage and all. I'm to wed into the Black family and merge our businesses.”
This time there was the shock she was looking for. The choice had been taken away from him and even though he hadn’t liked the option, he liked less that he had none. “So what does that mean for us?”
She groaned inwardly. He was pretty, but not very smart. It was pretty obvious what she meant, but he seemed more worried about the immediate moment. “We'll have to break it off and you'll have to move out. I can’t have a man around with my husband in the house. I'm so sorry Baxter, I truly am, but I have to protect my father's empire.”
Baxter swallowed hard and took his own gulp of wine. It wasn’t strong enough as he tried to dislodge the knot that had formed in his throat. “This is craziness. I thought we had time!”
“Baxter, it doesn’t have to be this way. I'm sorry, but it is just how it has to be right now.”
“Do you really think I'll wait for you?” His eyes that were usually so friendly were derisive and he reminded her of James for a moment. There was a look of evil and when he stood up she knew that it was not going to end well.
“Really, I'm sorry, Baxter, but I think you should leave. I'll have your things sent over. I don’t want any more drama. I've got enough of that already.”
“How can you be so damn cold, Dahlia? You act like we haven't shared everything together, laid awake naked all night just to talk.”
She sighed. This was the part that she hated the most and she was starting to second guess the way that she handled break-ups in the future. “I love you Baxter, but you know that I need to do this. If you can wait then when all of the ink is dry, I can quietly get a divorce. It's not like I have to stay married forever. Nothing is forever nowadays.”
Her words didn’t seem to make any of it any better, so she stopped talking. Dahlia watched the different emotions play over his face. Rage was the strongest and longest to linger, but then he seemed to accept something in his mind. “I will wait for you, Dahlia.”
She nodded her head and kissed him gently as he leaned forward. If he was smart, he would know that they would never touch again. They would see each other in passing, but never would they be that intimate again.
“Do you want to spend one last night together?”
Dahlia smiled and laid a dark brown hand on his face. She shook her head, “I can’t. It'll only make it harder to say goodbye.”
He got up abruptly, trying to salvage what was left of his dignity. She didn’t want it to end on such a sour note and even with the false words she knew that was their goodbye. She should have done better, but she had already moved on in her mind. Her destiny now included a man she had met once many years before. She was too young then to see him as anything more than one of her father’s friends.
Dahlia tried to get upset about Baxter leaving, but it felt like they had worked through their time together. She never thought it would be forever anyways. He was her age, but years behind her in maturity. If only she could actually like this Charles guy. If he wasn’t too overbearing and bossy, she just might be able to swing it without losing her mind.
She left a message with her Aunt June and told her that she would be over in a few days. June liked time to prep for visits and since she cooked better than anyone else she knew, Dahlia gave herself a few days to contemplate what was about to happen. She just needed to talk to June about it. See if there was any way around it.
Chapter 2
Charles was not as surprised with the news as Dahlia was. He had known they were destined to be together, ever since he tried to marry someone else the year before. It was set long before Johnston died, but even he was afraid to tell her his plans. Charles, like everyone else in their circle, had heard of Dahlia’s temper. Anyone who read a paper had seen one or two stories that ended with her getting sued and sometimes going into a rage. She was the wild child that was in every family, but even with all of that, she was the best for the business.