Page 42 of Making Their Vows
"If I wasn't so pissed, I'd laugh." Oh, I guess it’s not from my mom. Lauren's fiancée motions with her eyes for me, and that's when I see two other men, all in black, on the ground. I recognize one of them from my father's security detail. He didn't use them often, and I thought when he did, it was for show. I suppose I was right because they were useless.
"You did that?" Blake gives a stiff nod. "Kind of hot," I whisper and then slam my hand over my mouth. Lauren’s fiancée giggles.
"Just let one of those intrusive thoughts right out." She's not wrong.
"You stay with me, got it?"
"Of course." Blake helps me out of the vehicle as the police come running up on us.
Everything from there is a whirlwind. I get checked out in one of the ambulances they tried to load one of the security men into, but Blake lost his shit, saying I was going first. I'm actually fine, and the EMT lets me know my blood pressure is a tad low and is likely part of why I passed out, along with the stress.
I expect to have to talk to the police, but Lauren and Blake handle it, and Emma, Lauren's fiancée, hangs out with me the whole time. I find out she's from a very prominent family too. We have a lot of friends in common, and I bet these two are going to be my favorite couple friends.
I'm not sure where the mayor came from, but I watch as he speaks with Lauren and Blake.
"It's hot to watch them in action, isn't it?" Emma lets out a dreamy sigh, making me laugh. "You okay, though?" she asks after a beat. "I mean, I know our parents in this elite social world can be crazy, but yours are really taking the cake."
"Yes, I'm okay." Is this how I would have loved for all this to play out? No, but I don't think there was another option. My parents were never going to admit their mistakes, and if they did, it would be to a very small faction.
This way, I get to see the truth fully. I can't dress it up or hope they'll be better. It's a clean cut, and that's what I tell Blake when we finally get to head home.
"Are you sure you're okay with fully cutting them off?" He gives my hand a squeeze, and while he might dislike the idea of me wanting to maintain a relationship with them, I know he will support my decision. I'm sure that way would include heavy security detail, but he'd do it, nonetheless. That's Blake, though; the man does whatever he can to make me happy.
He's shown me that since we laid everything bare. Scratch that; once I saw all he'd done for us while I was away at school and even before then, I realized he was always doing that: looking out for us and our future together. He hadn't wanted to let me go back then but told himself it was for only a couple years and he'd have me in the end. Blake believed I wanted to go off to school, and that's why he'd accepted it.
"Yes, I'm not going to have contact with anyone who would try to poison my mind when it comes to my husband."
"What did they try to tell you?"
"Tried to tell me it was all an act. That you had no plans of getting out. You were trying to get me pregnant so that I was stuck." Blake closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "That you only married me because your grandfather wanted it." Icontinue filling him in on all the lies my parents had tried to fill my head with. Blake’s eyes snap open.
"Not everything they said is wrong," he tells me. "I do want to get you pregnant, and my grandfather did want us to marry one day."
"So you're saying he liked me," I tease, which makes him relax a fraction but not much.
"He loved how I spoke of you." A wry smile forms. "I think he knew before I did. I mean, I knew, but I didn't understand when I was younger."
"I love that."
"And I am retiring. It's what I've been working on."
"They said you've been investing and buying other companies."
His brows pull together. "I have invested in a few companies I sold off," he admits. "Others are a bit tricky, but it's all coming together. I didn't want to worry you with the details until I had a full plan. I want to make sure I get employees into positions and some projects to certain people."
"I understand that.” Blake wants to do right by the people who deserve it. “I think they were trying to play on my insecurities, you know." I shrug, hating that. "That I wasn't first to you." I was never first with my parents either. "They were trying to convince me that you were only doing all of this because of your image. That being with me was good for all that." I wave my hand.
"You are my number one, and my image only matters when it comes to you and how you see me."
"Really?" I melt more into his side, ready to be back at the warehouse already.
"I don't want everyone to see me as this cutthroat businessman that can make any deal. I want to be seen as the man who stands by his wife and family at all costs."
“You are that, Blake. You’ve stood by me, even when I didn’t know you were doing it. Plus, who gives a shit how others see us anymore? We know who we are. What we mean to each other. That’s all that matters at the end of the day."
“You’re all that matters to me at the end of the day. As long as we’re together, everything else is in the details. Like buying a house in the countryside. If you hate the house, then we can try a penthouse in Paris instead.” He really does want to make sure I'm happy. I want that for him too.
“I’m sorry there was ever doubt on my end.”
