I saw the defeat in his eyes, and it was heartbreaking. But we didn?
?t have to give up. I wasn’t going to give up. Chase still had one option left. I knew it wasn’t one that he wanted to take, but it was an option.
“What about going to the Special Crimes Division?”
“No, we can’t. Escabar will for sure have us killed.”
“I’m sure they have some sort of protocol for things like this. We could at least go to them and talk about the situation.”
“If he has us followed and sees us go into there, we will be killed before there is any kind of discussion.”
“You’re right. But what choice do you have?”
We both sat in silence as we waited for Mr. and Mrs. Foster to finish talking. Our only hope was that Mrs. Foster was going to be able to convince her husband that us getting married wasn’t a bad thing.
Chase held my hand. I took deep breaths as we waited to see what the fate of our relationship would be in his father’s eyes. I hoped that he would accept the situation. I really hoped that he would accept that Chase would be a good leader for his company.
After about ten minutes of talking, Mr. Foster left the room. We both stood up as Mrs. Foster came over to us. It didn’t seem like Chase’s father was very interested in welcoming me into the family. I tried to hide my disappointment, but I just couldn’t.
“He seems to have calmed down a little. Let me continue to work on him.”
“All right, Mother,” Chase said as he hugged his mom. “We are going to head out for now. We will check in later this week, and I’ll see Dad at work.”
Chase and I made our way back out to the car and didn’t say a single word. I could tell that he was heartbroken that his father had not been more welcoming.
“It’s all right. He will come around,” I said quietly and held onto Chase’s hand.
“I hope so.”
Chapter Nineteen
Chase
I don’t know why I had any hope that my father would actually accept me getting married. He never thought I made good decisions. It was the story of our entire relationship. But I did hold out a little hope that my mother would be able to calm him down.
One thing that was extremely clear to me was that there was absolutely no way I was going to get my hands on enough money by the end of the week to pay off Escabar. As we left my family home, I couldn’t help but think I was only days away from being murdered. After Escabar took care of me, he would likely kill Jordan as well, since she knew all the details. Then, of course, he would go after my family for their money.
Just before we left my family grounds, I took a sharp left turn into the wooded area at the edge of our property. There was a small path that the car just barely fit on. The path had been there for years and was used by the gardeners to get to the pond at the other end of the property. I wasn’t ready to go home, and I wasn’t ready to go back to the cabin – the pond seemed like a good place to stop and think.
“Where are we going?” Jordan asked.
“I need to think.”
Jordan looked concerned as she turned and watched me. Her intense gaze seemed to be weighing the pros and cons of the situation. I could tell that she was extremely capable at understanding the situation and what was at stake.
The sun shone brightly as it reflected off the pond. I let my body breathe in deeply as I exited the car. The air seemed sweeter when we were away from the stuffiness of my house. The flowers, animals, and even trees appeared to be there specifically to offer an environmental hug to Jordan and me.
We grabbed a blanket from the trunk of the car, and I spread it out near the edge of the water. Jordan sat down. I sat next to her as we both looked off into the distance. We didn’t need to talk. Both of us already had so much on our minds.
Somewhere in the middle of thinking about getting murdered by Jose Escabar and my father, my thoughts shifted back to Jordan. Her long legs sat twisted up like a pretzel next to me. Her brown hair was swept to one side of her shoulder, and her delicate hands fiddled with a handful of grass she had pulled from next to her.
In that moment, I didn’t really care about Escabar or my father. All I cared about was doing right by Jordan. She had come all the way across the world to meet me, and I had pretty much ruined every moment of our time together.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly as I grabbed her hand and held onto it.
She didn’t ask what I was sorry for. She didn’t get mad at me. Instead, Jordan just looked back out at the pond and smiled. I saw a small tear leak from her eye and it absolutely killed me. She didn’t deserve a guy like me, she deserved much more. Yet, she was my wife now.
Wife, wow. I really couldn’t believe it.