Chapter 12

I froze as soon as the words left his mouth. I opened my mouth to protest but I am not sure what to protest, I answer the only I can, "Can me and Branton borrow a room to speak privately?"

"Of course Lexa, you can go to any room you would like."

Branton looks over at me, "Actually, I need to make a run back to your house, I forgot something. We can talk there." He says quickly then diverts his eyes to Sam.

Sam nods at him in understanding, "That is actually a good idea. It will give you both a breather. How about we meet back here for dinner tonight, after you two had some time to talk?"

I take a deep breath and nod letting my breath out slowly before answering with words, "Yeah I think that is the right thing to do. We will have your answer tonight."

Branton stands up and turns toward me and holds his hand out. I look at it then look up at him and take his hand allowing him to help me from my chair. I stand and try to retract my hand but his grip slightly tightens, communicating his wish to not let go. I look into his eyes and dip my head agreeing and I relax my hand allowing him to intertwine our fingers. I gather my things and allow him to lead me from the room before I remember something I wanted to ask Donya. I slightly pull back on his hand signaling him to stop.

He stops and turns to me, "Are you ok Lex?"

"Yeah Brant, I just need to ask Donya a question real quick." I turn back to the group and find Donya's eyes and motion her to follow us out of the room.

The three of us get outside the doors as soon as the doors are shut I turn to her and start, "Don, I love you and I am absolutely not even the slightest bit upset but, how long have you known about this? You said you read the contract this morning, is that the first you heard about it?"

Donya chews the bottom corner of her lip choosing her words carefully and looks me in the eye before she answers softly, "I found out about three days ago, that is why I have been working here non stop, I wanted to make sure that telling you the truth was absolutely necessary."

I nod in understanding then my scrambled brain forced my mouth open and forced all my thoughts out loud,. "What do you think about all of this, Donya, my best friend? Well I feel like me and Branton just got led into a mine field we didn't know existed. Do you think it was right to keep this from us? Do you think we can do this? How will this work with our company? Oh and this big lug here wants a real marriage, I mean what the hell? Sure, I want to walk off into the sunset with this gorgeous god of a man, I mean who wouldn't? Sure we seem to be a great team, sure we can run a mafia together, sure we can have loud, wild, and passionate sex till we force the neighbors to crave a cigarette, but I want cute little Branton babies. Can I pull off mafia queen and soccer mom? Can someone please tell me what the hell kind of fucked up black hole was I sucked into?" I stop, realize all that just spewed out of my mouth and look at the wide eyed faces of Branton and Donya.

Donya smirks at me, "Were those rhetorical questions? No matter I will answer them anyway. I think this is your destiny, both of your destiny's. You and Branton are soul mates, everyone but you can see it. They, well eventually we, thought we needed to keep it from you. We wanted to be absolutely sure we had to force this upon you before we did. Sam wanted to offer the mafia to you at a later time and had a plan to have you Branton meet here at some point and he was going to explain everything. Jonas's cancer sped up the need for an heir to take over which cast a brighter spotlight on Cane, that spotlight pulled his secrets out of the shadows he was hiding them in. Sam and I already have solid plans for our company. Me and you need to iron out all the details but it boils down to our business basically becomes another leg of this mafia, nothing businesswise changes except legalities. You and Branton can have a real marriage, you both are already falling for each other and again everyone sees it but you. Branton and you can have as much loud, wild, passionate sex as you want because you have no neighbors. You will only have your staff around and they will get paid enough to consider it worth the small annoyance. You can have as many Branton babies as you want because you are a team, you will have enough house staff at your disposal to help you take care of them if need arises. Look, all I am saying is stop over thinking this. Go home, you both lay all your cards on the table and come back with the answer. There is no right or wrong here but I think you both will always ask yourselves, what if, if you don't do this."

I take in her words silently as she finishes, I nod and turn to Branton, "Let's go, I know you want to also respond to my word vomit but I want to wait till we are alone. I think we both have a great deal to say but I think my newly found family has heard enough about our potential sex life for today so shall we?"

Branton let out a startled chuckle at my words before responding with, "Oh, but we still have dinner with them tonight and obviously you don't know them as well as you think you do."

I roll my eyes at him and wave at Donya as I lead him to the door by our still grasped hands. I pull my hand away from his as we get to my car we get in and I drive us away in uncomfortable silence. I reach to turn on the radio and he grabs my hand to stop me and says, "Don't, I..I am not meaning to be quiet but I can't seem to form the words to say anything. I don't even know why I am nervous."

I glance at him and swiftly turn my attention to the road before answering him, "I know, I don't know what to say either. I mean my little explosion I had back there is not normal for me. I just didn't see any of that coming. I want a husband and kids and I am.. was.. am starting to have feelings for you. We have something different and I believe it is the something I have been waiting for but I was blindsided when it seemed the choice was taken away but I don't feel like marrying you will make me lose anything I have dreamed of having." I stop and allow him to digest my ramblings hoping it will open up his dialogue.

I hear him inhale deeply and sigh, "I think I love you. I really was not romantic enough to believe in love at first sight so I dismissed what I thought I was feeling and chalked it up to lust to forget about it. When I had that rush of memories from when we were small children, I also had a feeling of real love wash over me. I know this sounds absolutely cringe worthy and cheesy but I don't know how to voice the thoughts in my head."

"Branton, I wish I had even a small memory of you." I say wistfully, really just wishing out loud to the universe but sounding like a response to him.

I see him smile out of the corner of my eye before he says, "I guess you have no idea what happened to B Bear then. Never mind, of course you don't you were obviously too young to remember."

I laugh at the sudden mention of my very old but beloved teddy bear and say, "I'll have you know, B Bear sits on my bed till this day and is still in relatively good condition. Wait, Do you know something special about B Bear? I have had him longer than I can remember. I asked my dad where I got B Bear and all he told me was it came from someone that will love you forever even if you never see him again. I assumed he was being quirky and he meant himself. Now, what do you know about B Bear?" I ask curiously.

"Lexa, I gave you B Bear because you told me you didn't sleep good at night cause I wasn't here to hug you asleep so I gave you my favorite bear and told you it could hug you asleep when I couldn't." I see the scene he is describing flash quickly in my head forcing the once hidden memory to slam forward and tears to spring to my eyes.

Thankfully, I was driving into my driveway. I don't even bother to try to pull it into the garage. I get to the garage door and shakily put the car in park. I broke down into sobs and reach over to wrap my arms tightly around him. The reason I have held so dear to that bear hit me, 2 weeks later HE disappeared. That bear was all I had to cling to when my best friend, my only friend left me. My dad and HIS dad were gone all the time on jobs together and HIS mother worked twelve hour shifts at the hospital, so at six am 4 days a week HE would be dropped off in my room here to spend the day with me being tended to and taught by the nanny and private tutors. I somehow shoved HIS name and all those memories away. Donya came into my life several years later but HE was different. HE was my light in the dark world, even as a small child my world revolved around HIM. HE was there even when I was a baby HE was there. HE was only a few years older than me but HE loved me, even then. I start to come back to a sense of composure as I allow the memories of HIM, my Ban, my Brant, my Branton James come back to me. I pull away and wipe my tears from my face.

"Branton, I...." Before I can finish he puts his index finger over my lips and says,

"Lets finish talking inside. I need to grab something from my room I will meet you in the living room." I nod then wordlessly turn my car off, grab my things and follow him inside. He splits to go in the direction of our rooms and I allow my feet to guide me to the living room as my mind is swirling. I sit down on the couch and pull out my phone and speed dial Donya. Just as I finish my quick call to Donya I hear Branton step into the room. I decide to wait till he sits down before I look in his direction but instead of sitting down he kneels in front of me holding an open ring box, inside there is a beautiful rose gold engagement ring with a black pear shaped diamond center surrounded by white diamonds and a matching wedding band.

My mouth drops open as I look from the ring into his eyes as he starts speaking."Lexa, these rings belonged to my mother. I understand as you may have reservations taking these rings because you may blame her for taking me away but understand what she did was because of her love for me and her loss of my dad she did not know what else to do, she was lost. These rings belonged to a strong woman given to her out of unconditional love. These rings represent not only the start of their love but also the start of ours. Our parents brought us together when we were babies then left it so we could be sealed together now. Lexa Belle will you marry me and by my side as my wife and one true love forever?"

Without a second hesitation, I answer, "Yes Branton I will marry you, I will be your wife contract or not I can not imagine being married to anyone else, ever, and I will be honored to wear your mothers rings. She did what was best for you. You made it back to me now and that is all that matters."

He kisses me deeply and it is filled with passion like I have never felt. He plucks the engagement ring from the box an slips it onto my left hand ring finger, where it fits as if it was sized just for me.