The Billionaire's Surrogate: A BWWM Pregnancy Love Story (16 page)

“
Don’t
be silly chérie, I’m going to be here until you are all
well,” she said. Max sighed deeply, leaning his head back on
the bedstead.

“
Clarence,
could you come back later please. It looks like I’ll be
visiting with my mother at this time.”

“
Wait
no Clarence needs to stay; we have to discuss power of attorney.”

Max stared at her for a
good ten minutes. “I beg your pardon?” he said.

“
You’re
very ill Max and you need to put someone in charge in case something
happens to you. As your closest kin it's my responsibility to make
sure that happens. That’s why Clarence is here; to write a
power of attorney for
moi
.”

Max and Clarence stared
at each other as if to say ‘can you believe her?’ but
neither said a word.

“
I
already have somebody designated as in charge if something happens to
me. Thank you though mother-”

“
Somebody
else?” Claire screeched. “Who is more qualified than me?”

“
My
wife to be,” Max said resigned to having to tell her now.

“
Your…wife
to be? I had not heard you were engaged.”

“
I
am,” Max said.

“
Who
is the lucky
mademoiselle
then?” she asked.

“
You’ve
met her grandmother; Martha,” Max said.

“
Your
housekeeper
?”
Claire said incredulously.

“
Yes,”
Max replied impassively.

“
Have
you lost your mind. Insensé!”

“
Mother,
I don’t really have the time or energy for your hysterics right
now. Would you kindly leave us?”

“
Well…I
never,” Claire said tossing her head back and stalking out. Max
rolled his eyes.

“
So
you were saying Clarence…” he said with a sigh, settling
himself into the bed. “And you can find out when we can leave
this dump?”

“
Not
for another two weeks and nobody’s trying to bend that rule
Max; you’re staying here the entire time; no questions, no
negotiations.”

Max gave him a betrayed
look. “Who died and made you the boss?” he snarked.

“
You
did. You’re going to get well this time Max – you have a
kid now. You wanna live to see it or not?”

“
Low
blow Clarence,” Max complained.

Clarence shrugged,
“Whatever it takes.”

“
About
the prenup…?” Max reminded him.

“
Ah
yes, well the arrangements about the baby and the prenup are two
separate issues and cannot be in the same contract. I have a standard
prenuptial agreement here; division of assets before and after the
marriage, the marriage settlement in case of dissolution – I
put it at ten million but of course that’s subject to change if
you disagree – and a list of assets that pre-date the marriage.
Does Christine have any assets I need to know of?”

“
I’ll
ask,” Max said with a smile.

“
What’s
funny?” Clarence wanted to know.

Max shrugged, “I’m
getting married; that doesn’t sound funny to you?”

“
Sure
it does. In fact, I’ve been tempted to think maybe you lost
your mind but you seem fairly sane in spite of what your mama said.”

“
Not
just sane Clarence,” Max said, black eyes fixed on him.
“Happy.”

“
Yeah.
I see that too.”

*****

Claire Lestrange left
the hospital in very much of a huff. She was flabbergasted at Max’
news. She had gotten complacent in recent years as time passed and
Max had stayed single. In his late twenties and early thirties she
had been worried he’d find some sweet young thing who would
turn his head and give him a couple of kids to dote on. For one
thing, she wasn’t old enough to be a grandmother, for another,
children would play havoc with her game plan to be the sole heir to
the Lestrange fortune. Also if Max had kids, he probably wouldn’t
spend so much of his money on her. She could not allow this; really
with the cost of living what it was these days, a drop in income was
just not an option. She had to do something…but what? She
fished out her phone to call Andrea who had clued her in to what was
happening in the first place.

“
Andrea?
Can we meet for lunch?” she asked.

“
Sure.
Where would you like to meet?” Andrea asked.

“
The
Ritz Carlton; bring one of Max’s black cards would you?”
she said.

“
Of
course. I’ll just run it by him first in case he thinks I’m
stealing from him,” Andrea said with a laugh.

“
I’d
prefer he didn’t know about this lunch,” Claire said a
bit coldly.

Andrea was torn; on the
one hand she wanted to snap at Claire and ask her if maybe she’d
make up her mind whether she wanted to have a secret lunch or if she
wanted her son to pay for it. She can’t have her cake and eat
it. On the other hand, she needed Claire’s help in getting rid
of Christine…there was always the corporate card after all;
and Andrea could report the expense to accounting instead of to Max
directly. Even if he eventually found out about their lunch it would
not be soon. Short term goals vs. long term goals.

“
Okay
I understand Mrs. Lestrange,” she said.

“
Good,”
Claire said sounding pleased.

They met at 1pm and
Claire wasted no time in getting down to business; after she’d
ordered some chilled champagne and caviar off the menu.

“
Who
is this Christine girl and where did she come from?” she asked.

Andrea shrugged. “She’s
kind of always been around since her grandmother is in charge of the
household. She and Max have been…I don’t know
acquaintances? Friends? I don’t exactly know what to call them
but you know how Max looks up to Martha so he kind of always felt a
responsibility for the granddaughter. He went to her aborted wedding
and everything.”

“
Aborted
wedding?” Claire asked perking up.

“
Yes.
She was going to marry some guy she met in college but it turned out
some other girl had prior claim. It was messy,” Andrea said
with an amused smile. “Max whisked them off to an island in the
Caribbean for three weeks.”

“
Just
the two of them?” Claire asked in surprise.

“
No.
They went with the grandmother too. They were trying to get her to
forget about the guy. She was pretty cut up. I thought she still was
according to the grapevine. Then suddenly she up and links up with
Max and they’re having a baby.”

“
When
did this happen?”

“
Just
after he collapsed the first time,” Andrea said fingers
steepled and head resting on her hands.

“
I
get why she would want to have his baby but why would he want to have
a child with her? What’s so special about her?”

Andrea shrugged. “Like
I said he looks up to her grandmother. He treats her more like his
mother than…” Andrea looked up remembering who she was
talking to. “I’m sorry.”

Claire shook her head.
“It's okay; I understand. I was maybe not the best mother in
the world.”

Andrea shook her head
and leaned in to cover Claire’s hand with hers. “You’re
still his mother and that means something.”

Claire grimaced wryly.
“I would hope so…but given that I’m hearing about
his impeding marriage and baby from you…”

“
There
must be a reason he didn’t tell you; a reason he doesn’t
want you to know,” Andrea prompted.

Claire thought about
it. “He knows she’s no good for him,” she said.

“
So
what are you going to do about it?” Andrea asked barely
suppressing her glee.

“
Tell
me about this ex-fiancé. What happened exactly?”

Andrea put her hand up
to signal the waiter. She needed some water to get through this
conversation. It was going to be a long one.

*****

Clarence walked into
Max’s room with a bunch of papers.

“
We
have a winner,” he declared prompting Max to turn toward him
from his contemplation of the sunset outside the window.

“
And
who is it?” he asked.

“
It's
definitely Cordelia Richards and her husband Kevin Brown. The private
investigator staked out the lawyer’s office and those two were
seen leaving there recently. More than once.”

“
Great,
so what’s our plan? Are we paying them off?”

“
Don’t
you think that’s setting a bad precedent?”

“
Okay
then, what?”

“
I
was thinking we could start with mediation; get Martha to speak to
her daughter and maybe get her to stop what she’s doing.”

“
If
that doesn’t work?”

“
I
have faith in Martha,” Clarence said.

“
So
do I but Cordelia is a bit of a druggie. She might not be thinking
straight.”

“
Yeah
yeah I get that. It's still worth a try.”

“
Fine.
I’ll talk to Martha and see if she’ll do it.”

The tread of light
footsteps coming down the hall distracted them. They both paused to
see who would pass by the door. The footsteps stopped at the door
however and they both looked to see who it was.

“
Christine,”
Max called in a pleased voice.

“
Hey
you,” she replied and then saw Clarence. “Oh, am I
interrupting business?”

Clarence smiled. “Not
at all, in fact we could use your help.”

“
Oh?
How?”

Christine drove up to
her mother’s apartment still breathing heavily. The anger was
coursing through her veins like bolts of electricity with no
grounding. She lunged from the vehicle and dashed into the house
banging on the door and calling for her mama.

“
Okay
okay, hold your horses,” her mother said as she opened the
door.

“
Mama
what the fuck are you doing?!?” she screamed not even waiting
until her mother had the door closed.

“
What
am I doing?” her mother asked sounding honestly bewildered;
Christine was impressed with her acting.

“
You
want some MONEY? Is it MONEY you WANT? I’ll give you some. HOW
MUCH?” her voice was rising and falling in her agitation. Her
hands were shaking so hard she couldn’t keep them still and she
was slightly dizzy with too much adrenaline.

“
Chris!
Calm down,” Cordelia tried to catch hold of Christine’s
arm but she ripped her arm out of her mother’s hand.

“
Oh,
now you’re concerned about my health,” she growled.

“
Baby,
I admit it okay? I did it; I went to a lawyer to try to get some
money. But I stopped it. I did. It's over.”

“
Oh
it's over? Is that your story? Are you sticking to it?”

“
It
is
over. I
told Mr. Cosby to drop it.”

“
Oh
you did huh? Was that before or after he’d asked for a meeting
with Max’s lawyer
to discuss
terms
?” Christine asked arms
crossed to prevent herself from strangling her mother.

Cordelia opened her
mouth…and then closed it again; looking genuinely puzzled.

“
I
didn’t ask him to do that,” she said. Christine stared at
her. She really looked like she was telling the truth.

“
Well
then if you didn’t who did?” she demanded.

Her mother’s brow
stayed furrowed and her eyes were puzzled yet frantic as if she was
looking for a way out. Christine moved closer, glaring at her.
Suddenly her brow unfurrowed and she looked…there was no other
word for it…crestfallen.

“
What
mama?” Christine asked.

Cordelia’s eyes
slid to Kevin who was sitting on the couch watching the game and
smoking a blunt. Her eyes grew shiny with moisture.

“
Kevin?”
she said.

He glanced at her
overly casual and lifted his brow, “Yeah?”

“
Er,
you didn’t go behind my back and tell Mr. Cosby to…”

Kevin shrugged. “It's
our pay day. I figured you didn’t want to be involved that’s
fine. No reason why the rest of us shouldn’t.”

Christine wanted to run
at him, maybe jump on him and bash his head in. she whirled on her
mother.

“
This
is the trash you call a husband?
This
?”
she screeched.

“
Hey,
you shut your disrespectful mouth bitch,” Kevin growled.

Cordelia took the two
steps that would bring her to the couch and bitch slapped Kevin so
hard there was a hand print left on his light skin cheek. “Don’t
call my daughter that,” she said and then looked extremely
surprised at herself. Not as surprised as Christine though.

“
Bitch
what did you just do?” Kevin snapped holding his cheek and
glaring up at Cordelia.

“
She
just bitch slapped you,” Christine said helpfully. “Call
Mr. Cosby right now and call this deal off before I sic my
grandmother on you…bitch.”

Kevin sneered still
holding his cheek. “And how you gonna make me?”