“Good evening, beautiful.” I leaned down to hug my mom and kiss her cheek.
“Don’t good evening beautiful me.” She frowned at me. “Go over there and sit by your father.”
Oh shit.
I knew that tone. Mom wasn’t happy.
She sent a text demanding I come to her and my dad’s house immediately. My mom didn’t typically summon me, so I knew it must be something important. By the air in the room and how my dad looked irritated, I could tell this wasn’t a friendly visit.
“Why do I feel like I just walked into the principal’s office?” My brows furrowed and I looked between my parents after taking a seat.
“Because your father told me about nonsense he’s gotten you both in!”
“Honey, I told you.”
“Don’t honey me, Alonzo. Not only did you get greedy and wrapped into some bullshit, but then you dragged our son into it, forcing him to marry some rich asshole’s daughter.”
“No one forced me into anything. I chose to do this.”
Mom turned her glare to me. “Because you felt like this was the only way to save your father’s business.” Her eyes bounced between us. “You need to call it off.”
“I already told you, Zoya, a contract was signed. There is no calling it off.”
She paced back and forth in front of us before stopping and facing us again. “So that’s it? Our son has to marry some spoiled little rich girl and give his life up.”
“It’s only five years and then they can get divorced.”
I was sure my mom’s eyes were about to pop out of her head. “Only five years? Do you hear yourself, Alonzo? We raised our son to marry for love and to honor that commitment. This is the opposite of that. We’ve always had open communication in our marriage, why didn’t you just come to me and tell me what was happening?”
“What was I supposed to say, Zoya? That I fucked up? I trusted the wrong investments and made some bad calls, causing me to lose everything.” Frustration blared from his voice. “I exhausted every option before it got to this point and this was the only way to wipe the slate clean and fix everything. I know backing Siah into a wall wasn’t right and I’m indebted to him. That’s a burden I’ll have to carry for the rest of my life, but I did it to make sure our family continued to live comfortably and my business didn’t go to some asshole who planned on selling off parts of it as if he was at a foreclosure auction. I built this company from the ground up and the last thing I was gonna do was allow it to go under like that.”
Mom didn’t speak right away. Her golden cheeks were flushed. Her lips pinched and her eyes narrowed.
Growing up I didn’t see my parents fight too much. An argument here and there, but never a big blow up like this. I knew my parents loved each other and they’d built a life together from nothing. Dad always said he never expected his company to blow up like it did, but it helped him give me and my mom the life we deserved. He was prideful and I believed that was the issue at hand currently.
After having a stare off for what seemed like forever, Mom shifted her attention back to me. “Siah, sweetheart.” Her voice came out a tad softer. Mom was an average height woman, the heels she had on gave her a tad bit more height. While physically she wasn’t intimidating, her bite was another story.
Mom walked over to the couch and laid her hand on my shoulder.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” she asked.
My parents struggled getting pregnant, and when she finally did, the pregnancy was rough. It resulted in my mom being unable to have any more kids following my birth. She always tried to shelter and coddle me, it was one of the reasons she and my dad argued. He didn’t want her babying me, but that never stopped her from trying to protect me from everything.
“You don’t have to worry about me. Just because I agreed doesn’t mean someone put a gun to my head and forced me. I’m able to handle myself and I chose to help Dad out and marry Xylina. Even if I don’t agree with everything, I did agree with Dad when he said allowing Phil to gain control of something he built would be a slap in the face to all the work he put in over the years.”
“But that family is the worst, Yosiah. That Phillip would sell his own mother off to make a profit. I don’t want you involved with someone like that. I’ve read about that daughter too, only nineteen but constantly being talked about for her raunchy and party style behavior.” She scrunched her face. “Is that truly what you want to be tied to for the next five years?”
I chuckled. “Mom, I’m not a kid who can’t hold his own. No one puts fear in me, and regardless of what Phillip Fox has a reputation for, just know your son is capable enough to handle whatever comes with being married to his daughter.”
I could tell she still wasn’t happy. Mom was a college English professor. She took the first five years of my life off to be a stay-at-home mom and probably would have never gone back if my dad didn’t encourage her. After returning, she became the head of the department. Being a mother was all she ever wanted and I was her miracle child. She sacrificed a lot for me but there were times when she forgot I wasn’t a little kid anymore. If she knewexactly how I used my computer skills at times, she’d probably have a heart attack.
“Whatever issues you were having are gone now?” Mom shifted her eyes over to my dad.
He nodded. “It’s all been handled.”
“And financially? Should I be worried?”
“No. We’re good, our joint assets are good, and business is still running as planned.”