Page 51 of Cocky M.D.
I hadn’t put chairs in the room, so I gazed at the bed. I took a corner, and Olivia sat beside me. She was wearing the same clothes as the day before.
“So what happened?” she asked.
I rubbed the back of my head and wished she knew all of the sordid details of my life. But then she would probably leave and demand that I give up custody of my son or something. I swallowed and realized I was being half crazed. “Look, this is hard to talk about, but you should know.”
She patted my arm. “I’m not judging.”
Right.Because, unlike me, she’d made choices in her life that didn’t hurt anyone. Adrenaline rushed through me, and I stared at the wall, which made talking easier. “Ruby was picked for me because our marriage brought forth a contract for the Daweses’ holdings. But she never made me feel anything other than familiar. I wasn’t prepared when I started falling for you.”
She pulled back, and the space between us seemed colder. “I don’t know if you can entirely prepare for life to happen.”
“I know.” I reached for her hand, which felt like the only warmth in my life. I had to say the truth and hope she would forgive me. “But I wondered if you wanted to marry me because your sisters and you were all competing gold diggers.”
Her eyes widened, and she said, “What?”
I nodded. I had nothing else to say. She shouldn’t forgive me. “I know it’s seriously fucked up. I have serious fucking issues, and I was wrong. My parents had twelve sons, but my father was never faithful to my mother. We were raised like we were little kings and other people existed to service us.”
She lowered her head and broke our connection. “Seriously?”
Olivia would leave. I knew it. My heart thundered. “Yeah. I decided I wanted to walk away from the depravity of my family and raise Bradley to be different, but I wasn’t doing it any better than they had. I didn’t even know it until I met you.”
She let out a small sigh. With her hands on her knees, she said, “I… I don’t know what to say.”
Right.I’d said my piece, and there was nothing left to say. I pivoted and said, “I understand that you don’t want to marry me tonight, and if you want to go, I’ll ensure Bradley doesn’t follow you.”
She didn’t move at all. She just sniffled and asked, “Is that what you want? How do you even see me?”
I went down on my knees in front of her. “You’re my angel, Olivia Steel. I love you and want to marry you because you make my life, my son’s life, and everything around you better. I promise I’ll work on my trust issues if you stay. I’ll do whatever you want.”
She reached out and cupped my face and asked, “You will?”
I kissed the palm of her hand. “Yeah. Of course. I love you.”
The light in her eyes was hypnotic. “It would probably be easier for us if you were poor and just starting over, but we’ll have to make do with us being a family.”
I laughed then held her hands to my heart. “You’ll marry me?”
She scooted off the bed and tugged me to stand. “Yes. I love you too.”
I kissed her forehead and said, “So I didn’t fuck it all up.”
“You tried.” She chuckled, and I spun her around. As I put her down, she asked, “Do I have some clean clothes here?”
The bag she’d given me was in my room. I let her go and said as I left, “Yeah. One second.”
She grabbed her phone and followed me. When I turned around, I saw she was texting. “Thank you. Now I’ll text my sisters that the wedding is on so no one leaves and we can start planning.”
“Tonight, it is,” I said, and I felt full of love and hope for the future. She’d taken me back, and I would ensure she never regretted the decision.
Chapter Nineteen
Olivia
The restof the wedding day was a blur. Birds chirped as we’d organized. White tables had been set. The warm breeze made the day sweeter. And the staff hired more staff, and caterers were brought in. Then for half the day, I was whisked away for a massage and to get my hair and makeup done as a tailor and her team worked on my original dream dress so that it would fit me like it was made for me.
My sisters had called me back after I texted them, but I hadn’t had the time for a conversation or to answer their text messages. Decisions for the wedding needed to be made fast, and things that brides normally took a year to decide had to be snap decisions for me.
The cakes were yummy, though. Being wealthy had perks that included people doing things for you on short notice. I decided on a lemon meringue vanilla cake, as it was good and likely to go with everyone’s taste buds.
