“Alex and I love each other.” I hated that my lips were trembling. It was the very thing that I’d had nightmares about.
The Turners had seen right through me. There is a phrase that says, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. That was me. No education could cover up the fact that I had been brought up by an alcoholic and drug addict.
I’d come from the gutter and they wanted no association with me.
“Love?” Mrs. Turner said, spitting the word out like it was dirty. “Young people brandish that word around while understanding so very little of what it means. A month from now, both of you will be in love with other people.”
I wanted to burst into tears but I wasn’t going to show her how much her words were hurting me. I thought of losing Alex and my chest constricted, squeezing my heart. Pain pierced through me. I couldn’t bear to lose him.
He’d become my whole world. But who said I was losing him? His mother wanted us to break it off but it didn’t mean that Alex would.
I still had some fight in me. I thrust my chin out. “Alex won’t leave me.”
She laughed. Startled, I stared at her.
“Is that what you think? That I’m stupid enough to think I can convince my infatuated son to leave you by simply appealing to his good sense, which I know is missing right now?”
She paused as if waiting for me to speak before she continued.
“Of course not! His father and I will convince him by what he values the most. His lifestyle and his future. Alex can’t wait to join the family law firm but his father will let him know that there’s a condition attached to it.”
I gasped. “You can’t do that!”
She nodded. “Oh yes we can. We’ll do everything to ensure that Alexander has a good future. If we have to threaten him, then so be it.” She stood up and turned to me. “That’s not all. From now, henceforth if he doesn’t end this silly little dalliance, his allowance ends with immediate effect.”
Alex
A knock came on my bedroom door as I was waiting for a decent amount of time to pass before going to Charlotte’s bedroom. No way was I not going to spend the night with my woman.
I opened the door and was surprised to see my father. “Can I see you in my study?”
“Sure,” I said and followed him to the first-floor study room. He held the door open for me and shut it behind us.
My father was a formal person and he didn’t speak until we were both seated. He, behind the big mahogany desk and me in the spare chair.
“We’re very happy to have you home son,” he said.
“I’m happy to be home too,” I said. “But I go back on Sunday.”
He waved a hand. “I know. But it won’t be long before you’re back home permanently.”
“True,” I said.
“Your mother says it wasn’t a good idea for you to study in Ohio,” Father said.
I was puzzled. That was an odd thing to say. I’d sent them all my grades throughout my year undergraduate course and I’d done very well. “Why would she say that?”
“Because the intention had been for you to study and come back to New York where you’d meet a suitable girl,” Father said.
My heart fell as I understood what the meeting was all about. Charlotte. They didn’t think that Charlotte was good enough for me. If only they knew the truth. I wasn’t good enough for Charlotte. She deserved a better man than me.
I kept my cool. Maybe good reason would prevail. My father was a reasonable man. The only problem was that my mother wielded a lot of influence over him.
“I’ve already met a wonderful girl whom I want to marry,” I said.
“We don’t think she’s the right person for you. You need someone with the right background. Someone who’ll fit into our lifestyle. Someone from the right family.”
I reigned in my anger. “Father, Charlotte is a wonderful human being.”
“No one is disputing that fact son,” he said. “But even you can see that her background can become somewhat of an embarrassment.”
My muscles quivered. Blood rushed through my brain. I couldn’t believe that those words were coming from my father’s mouth. I knew that my parents were snobbish but I never thought they would stoop so low as to dislike a person based on where they were born. “To who?”
“To all of us.”
Shame flooded me. I had come from these people. “I’m not going to give up Charlotte.”
A hard look came over my father’s face. I knew what I was up against. He had not built one of the most respected law firms in New York by losing. Unfortunately for my parents, Charlotte was the one thing I was not going to lose.