A Broken Fate (The Beautiful Fate Series book 2) (24 page)

“We
’ll be in California tomorrow at three thirty in the afternoon; will you will be okay to pick us up at the airport? Ari, Max is so adorable. But he’s sad; we will have to careful with him.”

“Yes, I promise to be there...and I am ready to do whatever I need to do to give Max a secure and happy home...and I am so excited to see you; to see you both.”

“It’s not the same here in Greece without you,” I whispered softly in the phone. “I miss you. The balcony at The Loft misses you, too.”

“Is that so?” I could hear him smile in to the phone. “Well I miss you and that little freckle.”

“I love you, Ari.” I could feel tears stinging the backs of my eyes.

“I love you. Be safe, Ava.”

Chapter 21

Bad Decision

Sixteen hours on a plane may as well be an eternity for a three-year-old. We were only two hours into the flight home when Max started to get bored and restless. Aggie, a mom after all, had thought ahead and planned for the long trip. At a moment in the trip that might have seen Max in a major meltdown, she pulled from her carry-on a tote bag full of crayons and coloring books, storybooks and puppets, little race cars and trucks she had found in the airport shops. She entertained us both with a little puppet show and then gave Max a turn to play out a story of his own. I laughed until my stomach muscles started to complain. Aggie
’s animation and Max’s little-boy enthusiasm gave life to the little plays and when Max was ready to settle down, he had pictures to color and little books to look at. Aggie’s gift for soothing him made me think of all the cute projects she must have shared with Ari when he was little.

Once Max started to get sleepy, I put some PBS cartoons on my iPad. He took to them immediately and very shortly
after, he fell asleep.

“Ava?” Aggie said quietly.

“Hmm?” I asked shutting my eyes and leaning my head back on the seat.

“How are you going to do this?”

“What do you mean? Do what?”

“Well…” she started, “I mean, how are you going to make living with Max work? You have a house full of people living with you. You are newly married. And you scream all night long in your sleep. Max can
’t stay in your room, surely you see that. And you are busy, sweetheart; you have a very full plate right now and parts of that plate are scary and threatening. You have to figure out your issues with Margaux. Max isn’t safe as long as that last Kakos is out there.”

I placed my head on her shoulder, “I don
’t know what to do, Aggie. What choice do I have?”

Just weeks ago, Aggie was pressing Ari over having children and here she is telling me I’m not ready for a child. Her signals were full of contradictions, that was for sure.

“Here is what I am thinking, Baby. Let Andy and me take Max,” she said cautiously, as though she were afraid of my response.

Her proposal completely floored me. I furrowed my brow and frowned. My emotions rebelled against the idea but my serious side saw the wisdom of her idea. Still I felt asking Aggie and Andy to take Max would be placing a burden on them.

“Aggie, I can’t expect you to drop what you’re doing to take on my responsibility. I can’t push Max off on you.”

“My kids are grown. They don
’t need me anymore and you aren’t pushing anything off on me. I know you would never do that. I want this. I want to take care of Max.” Her sentences were careful and full of conviction.

I looked her in the eye, then looked down at Max. His little head was nestled into a pillow on Aggie
’s lap. I could tell she was serious. In fact, I could tell she was more than serious. Her heart was already involved.

I pushed back tears.

“Um, ok,” I said nodding my head. “Okay, Aggie, I can tell he already loves you.” Saying the words aloud hurt and I immediately regretted my decision. I think my heart may have been involved as well. She was right though, Max would probably be safer and more emotionally stable if he stayed away from me – stayed safe. I knew not to allow Max in to my life considering that my time on earth was at the mercy of No. 7.

“Thank you, Ava,” she said as she wiped a tear from her eye.

“I think Ari is going to be disappointed though; he was pretty excited about having Max.”

“I know, I know,” she said quietly while softly rubbing my cheek, “but you and Ari will be right next door; you
’ll see him every day. And you will give Ari his own baby one day.”

I couldn
’t respond to her. I put my head back against the headrest, closed my eyes and stayed that way until we landed.

****

At LAX we gathered our bags and set out to find Ari. As soon as my phone got reception, a dozen texts came flooding in, the texts told me that Ari was stuck in a meeting all day long and couldn’t get away in time to pick us up from the airport. Andy was in court and everyone else was somewhere else, either at work or in class. Ari’s last text let me know that he had arranged for
baio
’s car service driver to pick us up instead. I grabbed our bags and sent him a quick “ok.”

By the
door, I spotted a man waiting and holding a sign that said “A. Alexander.” I waved my hand at him and he came to collect our luggage and guide us outside to a waiting car. I opened the car door and was relieved to see a child’s car seat strapped in on the back seat. Aggie got Max buckled up as I climbed in on the other side of them. The driver pulled away from the airport and turned into L.A. rather than towards home.

“Are you taking us to Dana Point?” I asked hoping he had taken the L.A
. exit by mistake.

“No ma
’am, I am taking you to
baio
. Ms. Baio is in need of the car. I will be dropping you off there with Mr. Alexander.”

“Terrific,” I said, wanting to kill Ari.

We pulled up to
baio
and the driver switched the car seat and the luggage out from his car into Ari’s. I sent Ari a text letting him know we were outside in the lot. He called me back, “Ava, I am so sorry. I’m stuck here. Can you come up and sit in my office for like one hour? Then we can go, I promise.”

“You have to be kidding me, Ari!”

“I’m not and I’m sorry, but don’t worry. Margaux is in a meeting right now and when it’s over she has to go straight to LAX to leave for Chicago. Chances are you won’t even see her.” I hung up the phone and started inside. Aggie and Max followed behind me.

Up on the twenty-second floor we found
baio’s
business office teaming with people. Margaux’s business office was very chic and modern. She had had magazine covers, blown up and framed, showing popular models and movie stars wearing her clothing designs. In the vast waiting room were stylish club chairs and a matching sleek couch for seating. All of her employees were dressed in top fashion and spoke in hushed tones and whispers.

I made my way to the back towards the large, executive offices. Every single person we passed greeted me as if I were Margaux herself. I had never met ninety-nine percent of them, but they apparently knew exactly who I was. After I heard the hundredth, “Good afternoon, Mrs. Alexander,” I reached Ari
’s office. He was nowhere in sight. I walked in; Aggie and Max followed in behind me and I closed the door with an irritated sigh.

Ari
’s office was decorated in the same fashion as the rest of
baio
. He had a few personal items on his desk. A photo of the two of us with our faces pushed together, wearing sunglasses, out sunning on the sandy beach by our home.
The Times
was resting, folded up near his computer and his empty, coffee-stained mug sat on the other side of the paper along with the most recent
baio
catalog.

I picked Max up and walked over to Ari
’s huge window. I pointed to different buildings along the skyline, then looked down towards the street at the cars buzzing by and got dizzy. A few minutes later, I heard the door click open I turned around expecting to see Ari, and was seriously disappointed to see Ari’s assistant, Fauna.

Fauna did not look at all as I had expected. She wasn
’t a fake, tall, skinny blonde. She was my height with long, wavy brown hair, green eyes and a pretty, dazzling white smile. She was naturally beautiful.

“Hello, Mrs. Alexander,” she said to me with a kind smile, “Mr. Alexander is in a meeting but he
’ll be out shortly. Is there anything I can get you?” She ran her fingers through her hair a bit nervously.

I eyed her for a minute then shook my head no and looked over at Aggie to see if she needed anything. She shook her head no, too and Fauna quietly let herself out
of Ari’s office.

Fifteen minutes later, I started to get restless and so did Max. Aggie was flipping through the catalog at Ari
’s desk so I decided to take Max for a walk through the building. We walked the halls for a little bit and everyone offered Max candy and chips, whatever little snacks that they had holed away in their desks. He thought the whole place was great and probably created just to amuse him, but I was growing increasingly ill at ease. I continually suppressed the chills that ran up and down my spine.

We reached the back office, Margaux
’s office. The lights were off and the door was closed. She was gone, just as Ari had promised. I looked around and saw no one, so I opened the door and flipped the switch.

Max and I walked in and I slowly looked around
the room. Ari was right; there were pictures of me everywhere, not in a stalker kind of way, but it a loving grandmother kind of way. Margaux had a picture of herself on her desk; in it, she was smiling from ear to ear and was holding a very tiny baby with a head full of dark hair and bright green eyes. That picture was the first and last photo the two of us had ever had taken together.

She showcased my life in photos. She displayed my awkward and clumsy school pictures, piano recitals, dance recitals. She even had pictures of Ari and me from our wedding.

I picked up a photograph of our first dance and showed it to Max.

“Look, Max, that
’s Ari. Do you remember Ari?”

He smiled and then giggled a little bit and said, “Ari!”

“Yes?” Max and I both turned around and saw Ari leaning against the doorway with a huge, beautiful smile stretched across his face. I set Max back down and he ran over to Ari and hugged his leg. I was right behind Max and wrapped my arms tight around Ari’s neck.

“What are you doing in Margaux
’s office?” he asked curiously.

“I guess I just had to see it for myself.”

“Ah, well, she’s still around here somewhere, so let’s hurry up and go.”

I flipped the light off and shut the door. Ari picked Max up and carried him back down the hall, tickling him the whole way. The hall rang with Max
’s loudest giggles ever, but Ari didn’t stop. He didn’t care at all that people were working or on the phone, he just tickled Max harder, causing even bigger laughs. I stayed a few steps behind him and saw how happy he was. How would I be able to tell him that I had agreed to let Aggie take Max? Pain attacked my stomach when I thought of what I had done.

Once we arrive
d back to Ari’s office, he handed Max off to Aggie. Then Ari pulled me into his arms and kissed me passionately. I could feel my cheeks getting pinker and pinker by the second.

“Alright,” Aggie finally said. “Some things are better off being done at home.”

Ari pulled away and smiled at me again, looking at me in my eyes. He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear and gave me one more little kiss. Max whined and pushed out of Aggie’s hands and wrapped himself around Ari’s leg.

“Ari, Margaux stopped by here looking for you. She said she needed to speak with you.”

“About what?” Ari asked as he picked Max back up in to his arms. “I just spent the entire afternoon stuck in a meeting with her.” He rolled his eyes. “What more could she have to say?”

“I wouldn
’t know, darling. She said she was looking for you -- you weren’t here so she said she would just talk to you when she got back from her trip. Margaux and I chatted for a bit and she left.”

Aggie took a step and stumbled forward towards the floor. Ari, with Max still in his arm, jumped towards her and grabbed hold of Aggie, steadying her on her feet.

“Jeeze Ma, are you alright?”

She looked up at him and slowly shook her head. “I
’m ok. I’m just a bit dizzy; jet lag from the long trip.”

“Sit down.” He ordered.

Aggie smiled. “I’m fine now, Ari. Let’s go home.”

He gave her a sideways glance, she patted his cheek sweetly and we left his office.

“Have a nice evening, Fauna.” Ari knocked on his assistance’s desktop with his knuckles and she waved goodbye while she talked on the phone.

Ari grabbed hold of my hand and we walked through the halls towards the elevators with every single person saying goodbye or wishing us a nice evening. I had a feeling of uneasiness while in the
baio
office, and the feeling seemed to stay with me as we left and headed for home.

Ari continued to hold my hand on the ride home, kissing each knuckle seemingly a hundred times and stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. He asked how the trip was. I filled him in on the details of Maya
’s funeral and of going through her meager belongings. When I was through, he told me I hadn’t missed much at home other than a squabble between Rory and Julia over whose turn it was to do the laundry.

“I didn
’t get any furniture yet for the extra bedroom so Max will just have to stay with us in our room until we can pick out some things. The three of us can shop this weekend. I called the painter; he will come out Monday morning to paint the room and I…”