Chapter 13

Wednesday, 4:41 pm

When I wasn’t busy checking the news every thirty minutes, I spent the rest of my workday doing damage control. I had a growing number of unreturned texts and missed calls that needed to be addressed. While looking over my grandfather’s collection of assets or counting money like a rich duck sounded appealing, if I wanted to keep the relationships I’d built, I needed to start whittling down the number of notifications on my phone.

I started with my dad. Well, stepdad

Henry Upton was a good man and was the only father I’d ever known. He married my mom so early in my life that it felt like I’d always known him. We were close, too. He’d taught me to ride a bike, catch a ball, and swim - all the apple pie stuff you’re supposed to get from parents. He was a musician who had given up his dream of writing music for Broadway in exchange for helping provide for a family by writing music for ads and other small marketing gigs. It paid well enough that he’d made peace with it, but I could always tell he longed for something more fulfilling than writing catchy melodies for commercials.

I called him twice and got no response. I spent the next several few hours returning calls, starting with friends. I began with Dillon, who had called me about an hour ago. Lo and behold, he was the only one who hadn’t called to ask about the money. His call had been an attempt to check on me to see how I was handling the breakup since we hadn’t talked after I showed up at Strange Mudd on Friday. It shouldn’t have surprised me because Dillon never kept up with the news. I filled him in on the situation and enjoyed being the one to get to break the news to someone for a change. Needless to say, he was astounded.

Very few of my other calls were as fun. An uncle I hadn’t talked to in nearly five years mentioned he would be in town on business next month and wanted to take me to dinner. A great-aunt wanted to play catch-up with family news before mentioning that she would need foot surgery next month. Fortunately, I went through the calls faster than they were piling up, especially since many of them didn’t answer, since it was the middle of a work day. None of my siblings answered the phone when I called. It made for quick work, which was a problem in a way. It meant that there would eventually be one person left on my list, which was the one I should have started with - my mother.

Mom was well-known in the architectural community as one of the best designers in New York. She was also known as one of the few successful black women in the space, which was a testament to her skill. Working in a space dominated by people who typically dismissed her for over two decades had made her relentless and fierce. There wasn’t much she couldn’t do. Sometimes, it also made her very difficult to get along with.

That was who I was currently on the phone with.

“Well it’s not like you were all that forthcoming with me,” I retorted. “You said the money came from a trust fund created after Dad died.”

“I signed an NDA, Marcus! I couldn’t tell you anything! Knowing you, you would have told your entire fourth-grade class or tried to use it to get a date with Alicia Summers! You would have ended up getting both of us into a world of trouble. That’s very different from you inheriting that kind of money and going a week without saying anything to your own mother!”

“Okay, sure. I get the logic when I’m ten or fourteen, but twenty-eight? I could have gotten the message that I wasn’t supposed to say anything, Mom. I’m not mad about it. I just think it’s pretty hypocritical of you to blame me for not immediately phoning you about it when you’re guilty of not telling me who my dad really was for 10 years of my adult life!”

“They’re not the same thing,” my mother retorted. “Look, I love you, sweetie. I would have told you if they hadn’t insisted that our lives would be destroyed if it ever got out that you were a Gerrard.”

“Who’s ‘they’? Who spoke to you?”

“I don’t know ... it was so long ago. I think it was a man who worked for your grandfather. Some big man. He was really intimidating. Had some scars on his face ... some kind of thug or strong man your grandfather used to scare people, probably. It was just you and me, and I didn’t know what to do. We needed the money he offered us.”

I fell silent, imagining myself in that sort of scenario - alone after the death of the father of my child, trying to work my way through school in a field that didn’t appreciate my talents. I knew she had it hard before Henry came along, but on top of the intimidation and threats ... it painted a desperate picture. “Okay.”

“What do you mean, ‘okay’?”

“I mean, I get it. Some goon scared you into signing an NDA and keeping quiet about the baby daddy. I get it.”

“Don’t you say it like that, young man! It was serious! I’ll-”

“No, I’m being serious, mom. The things people can get done and how fast they get them done when they have enough money ... it’s kind of scary. They could have messed your life up completely. They could have been capable of anything. You did the right thing.”

She stayed silent for several beats before finally responding. “Thank you.”

My desk phone started ringing.

“Hang on, Mom,” I said and picked it up. “Hello?”

“Hey.” It was Natalie. “I was wondering if I could come up and see you for a minute.”

“Yeah! Come right up!”

I hung up the desk phone and returned to the call with my mother. “Mom, I have to go.”

“Why? I’ve been trying to call you for days and you just now reached out. Now you have to leave and it hasn’t even been five minutes?”

“It’s been more than five minutes, Mom. Someone’s stopping by my office, and I need to meet with them.”

I heard her huff on the other end of the line. “Okay, but can you call me back? I need to talk to you about Jacob.”

“Yeah. It’ll be later today. I have some stuff I need to get done.”

“Alright.” Mom sounded low-key upset, but with Natalie on her way up to see me, I barely even noticed. “When will you be coming out to the house?”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to be careful when I do. Has anyone shown up out there asking questions since the story broke?”

“Someone called asking if we would be interested in doing an interview, and Henry saw some photographers when he went for his run, but other than that, not much.”

“Alright. I’ll call you later and we’ll figure something out, so I can get over there to see you guys.”

The panel built into my desk lit up, indicating someone was trying to reach this floor. I checked the screen and saw Natalie in the elevator. Erin would have let her up, but she was currently out of the office working on the tasks we’d discussed earlier. I pressed the button to give the elevator access to the top floor for this trip.

“I’ve gotta go. I love you, and hug Dad for me.”

“Okay, cabbage. I love you.”

I hung up the phone, sat down, felt awkward about her finding me sitting in my chair, and stood again. Then I grabbed one of the files that contained a list of some of my grandfather’s assets and immediately opened it - it was a list of the paintings he’d collected. Moments later, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” I said, and Natalie entered, giving me one of her wide smiles.

“Hi!”

“Hey yourself,” I said, throwing the file back on the desk.

I approached her and slipped my arms around her waist. She placed her hands on my chest as I pulled her into me and we immediately sought each other’s lips in a sweet, gentle kiss that went on for a full minute and a half. Our tongues met and began softly caressing each other, and I almost melted when I heard her softly mewl into my mouth. We eventually parted, but I didn’t let her go. She slid her hands further up my chest to rest them on each side of my neck, rubbing my jawline with her thumbs as we studied each other’s eyes.

“You okay?” She asked.

“You heard?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah,” I said, “I’m okay. I just didn’t want it to come out this way. I wanted it done on my own terms.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, “I get that.”

“This doesn’t change anything?”

She shook her head, “It explains a lot, but I have a handsome man interested in me who turns out to be a billionaire. Why would anything change?”

Her words made me break into a huge smile, but she didn’t return it. Instead, her gaze studied my face. “Does this change anything for you?”

My grin faltered, and I had to wrestle with some hard truths quickly. Natalie and I had come a long way in the last week. We’d expressed feelings for each other, kissed, and came close to having sex. We were clearly on the road to something.

I was also regularly fucking my new lawyer Helen. I turned Bobbi Nanford into a sexual pet, and I had received blowjobs from two other women in the last twenty-four hours. No good woman in her right mind would tolerate that behavior from someone she was interested in, and Natalie was the best of women. I needed to navigate this situation carefully.

“Absolutely not,” I said and smiled at her again.

That was true. Nothing about my desire for Natalie had changed.

She cast me a doubtful look and her hold on my face tightened infinitesimally, “Are you sure? There’s a whole lot of women out there who would love to have a good-looking billionaire boyfriend.”

I studied her for a long moment as I tried to make sense of this line of questioning. Had Helen gotten to her? She had told me something very similar on more than one occasion. “Are you sure you’re not having second thoughts?”

“No,” Natalie insisted, “I mean...”

Her eyes wandered from my face as she seemed to search for words. I felt her hands slide down my body, and I let her slip free from my arms. She stepped back and then returned her gaze to my face. “I’m not having second thoughts. It’s just...”

“Just what?”

“You broke up with Jessica.”

“I did,” I confirmed, waiting for her to make sense. We’d already gone over the recency of my breakup, so what was she getting at?

“Did you break up with her after you found out about the money?”

Now I was truly confused. Why did that matter?

“No,” I said, “She told me about her affair that morning, and I told her we were through. Then I went to work. Remember how I was just there for a couple of hours? My lawyers called me while I was there, and I went to see them. That’s when I found out.”

I could see Natalie doing the math. After taking a few moments to digest what I told her, she finally nodded. “Wow ... what an unlucky day for her.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “but lucky for me. We might have still been together if she’d known.”

She studied me with an unreadable expression for several moments; the silence was getting uncomfortable. Something felt off, and I didn’t fully understand why. “What is it?” I asked, breaking the silence.

“I’m just a little scared. You broke up with Jessica, and within a week, you inherited a lot of money, bought out the company, and now ... whatever this is with us. I guess I’m just a little afraid that you’re ... trying things out. Experimenting.”

“Experimenting?”

“You know ... playing the field. Buying companies. Trying out new girls.”

“Oh.” I understood now. She was afraid of becoming a casualty in the billionaire’s journey of corruption.

“And it’s not just you,” she interjected before I could say anything. “Something was different for me after Jessica broke up with you. I mean, I’ve always liked you. I’ve always thought you were cute and a great guy. But my attraction was stronger after your breakup, and I’m a little scared because I don’t know why. Was it because you were available? Was it because something about you changed when you got the money?”

She shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. “I like you, Marcus. I guess I’m just a little scared of how much I like you. I don’t want to get hurt.”

This wasn’t where I expected the conversation to go when Natalie started speaking this way. I thought she was about to tell me that things were too complicated and that despite how we felt about each other, maybe being involved wasn’t a good idea. My mind was already preparing for her to break things off before they began. Hearing her confess her feelings made it seem like my heart would burst, and I couldn’t help but smile at her. She was simply telling me she was scared.

“I like you too, Natalie. I’ve liked you for a long time, and I don’t want to hurt you either.”

“So what is this?” she asked.

“What do you want it to be?”

She didn’t respond, and I didn’t want to rush her, so I simply waited.

“I’m going out of town for the weekend,” she finally said.

“What?”

“One of my best friends is getting married, and I’m in the wedding party.”

“Oh,” I said. When she didn’t volunteer any information, I fished for more. “Did ... you want me to come with you?”

“No,” she said. “I was just thinking maybe this would be some good time apart to think about what we both want. Can we pick up this conversation after I get back?”

“Yeah. That’s fine,” I said as I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice. I already knew what I wanted, and my mind had conjured images of us on the dance floor of a wedding reception.

However, if I were to be completely honest with myself, there was no way I could go to a wedding. I had too much going on here, and I still had some things to work through - namely three other women to consider. Truth be told, if Natalie had asked me to be completely exclusive a week ago, I would have said yes. Now ... I would have likely said yes, but there was a growing part of me that wondered if exclusively dating Natalie was the best idea.

I wanted my cake while still having the ability to eat it.

“So ... friends until I get back?” she asked, giving me a cautious smile. “Then we’ll talk?”

“Absolutely,” I said, meeting her smile with one of my own. I was disappointed, but I also felt good that Natalie was taking this so seriously. I was also feeling a little guilty at the same time. Natalie wasn’t fucking three guys while we were in talks.