“We can definitely make it work. What about if you get custody of River? Will he stay with you too?” The thought crossed my mind more times than I could remember.
“Yes, he would. Is that too much for you?” I asked, realizing that Zuri didn’t sign up to be a stepmom to my son. I would respect her if she said it was too much.
“Roman, your son is a part of you. I can’t wait to meet him. If you got the chance to have him live with you—live with us , then I’d be over the moon. We can make it work. We can make anything work.”
“I love your optimism, Zuri.”
“You don’t think we can?”
“It’s not that. I just don’t want you getting into something you didn’t bargain for.”
“I’m still here after finding out about him. I’m not going anywhere. Whatever comes with having you…that’s what I’m having too.” It wasn’t possible to love her anymore. She’d filled my heart from the bottom to the top and now, it was starting to overflow.
I kissed the top of her head and nodded. “Well, I guess I’m calling my parents tonight.”
**
I wished Zuri were there to sit in my lap while I readied myself to call my parents. It had been so long since I heard either of their voices. I rubbed my hands on my knees and blew out a breath before unblocking my father’s number in my phone.
Calling him was the most nerve-wracking thing I’d done in a long time. A part of me hoped he didn’t answer. That way I could leave a message and he’d have to call me back.
Anxiety was a bitch.
“Roman?” He sounded like he was in awe when he answered. My stomach turned into a mess of knots as I steadied my breathing.
“Hey, Dad.”
“It’s so good to hear your voice. It’s been a long, long time. Are you okay?” His words rushed out all at once and I felt the confusion creeping in.
I never knew how to deal with my parents. They condoned awful things within the family business but they treated me like the golden child because I was their only son. The happiness in my father’s voice was the same as it always was when he spoke to me.
“I’m fine, Dad. I didn’t call for a family reunion though. I need your help.” I hung my head under the weight of those four words. I knew it meant the game was over for Michelle.
“Help? What’s the matter? Can we speak in person?”
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Come to the house tonight,” he said. It wasn’t a question. My dad never asked questions when he wanted something. He simply got what he wanted and that’s exactly how he raised me…never to bow and never to ask. I took what I wanted and I knew eventually, I’d take Zuri too.
“Okay. I can’t stay late though, I have work early in the morning.”
“Work? Roman…what ?” He laughed a hearty laugh and then he paused. “You’re serious? You have a job? Jesus Christ. Are you eating out of dumpsters too?”
“No, Dad. I’m living just fine.”
“Not if you have a job. Do you clock in? Do you work for tips.”
“No!” I snapped, annoyed. “I’m a teacher.”
“A teacher?” I had to pull the phone away from my ear because his voice rang inside of my head. “Roman Clermont, you are not a goddamn teacher. You have an entire empire at your fingertips and you want to be underpaid and underappreciated?”
“I’m fine. What time should I be there for dinner?” I grumbled.
“Seven. Sharp. I’ll let you speak to your mother, she misses you, son.”
“I know,” I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut.
“Roman?” My mother’s voice was unchanged. A small smile tugged the corners of my lips up. If I had a soft spot for anyone in my family, it was her.
“Hey, Mom, how are you?”
“Oh, Roman…I’m much better after hearing your voice. I hear you’re coming to dinner.”
“Yup. I’ll be there in a little.”
“Roman, your father said you needed help. Should we have our lawyers present for dinner?”
“No. Not yet at least.”
“Should I have them serve extra wine at dinner?” She quizzed.
“Probably. I’ll see you when I get there.” I ended the call because as much as I loved my mother, she was still like the rest of them. With my phone still resting in my palm, I sent Zuri a text.
Me: I did it. I called them.
PBE: Roman I’m so proud of you! I wish I were there to kiss you.
Me: Me too. I wish you were here to kiss something else too.
PBE: I’d do much more than kiss it. I’d swallow it whole.
Me: Can I have a rain check? I promise to let you swallow my cock whole tomorrow morning. I have to go to dinner at my parents’ house tonight.
PBE: Really? Please behave, Roman.
Me: Always, love.
PBE: Send me a picture of you all dressed up for dinner. I know you’re going to look sexy.
Me: I’ll send you a picture when I get there.
PBE: K. I love you.
Me: I love you too, princess.
I was smiling like an idiot when I set my phone down. Zuri was taking hold of me in the best way possible.
**
I made sure to send Zuri a picture when I stepped out of the car in front of my parents’ house. Once it was delivered, I slipped my phone in my pocket and rang the doorbell. Maurice, my parents’ butler opened the door with a smile and a glass of my favorite champagne. I could smell it already.
“Mr. Clermont, good to see you home again.”
“Thank you, Maurice.” I took the flute and sipped the amber liquid as I made my way inside. Not much had changed in the five years I’d been absent from my parents’ lives. They redecorated and that was about it. The house still smelled and sounded the same. Maurice was still moseying around and jazz was still on repeat in the den.
“Roman!” My mother rushed me with a hug. I kissed her cheek and ran my thumb over the back of her hand. She looked like she’d been preserved in suspended animation. Her deep brown skin and loosely curled black hair were still the same and her smile was still bright.
I didn’t ever think she’d stop hugging me. Every time she pulled away to look at me, she got choked up and hugged me again. “You look so good. So handsome. Your father told me you’re a teacher now. Have you been eating?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“Do you need money? Your trust fund is still untouched. Do you live in a decent home at least? Please tell me you live in a gated community, Roman.”
“No, I don’t. I live in a regular neighborhood,” I sighed.
“Oh, my goodness. Do people just drive through the streets like they’re on a safari? What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Mom, I’m fine. Nobody is pulling up to my window at night with crackers to feed me. I don’t live in the Serengeti.”
“You might as well live in the Serengeti.” My father walked over and wrapped his arms around me in a big hug. When he pulled away I finished the rest of my champagne. I needed another glass already. “You look good, Roman.”
“Thanks, Dad. Can we go sit down?” I asked. I headed to the kitchen to put my glass in the sink but I stopped cold, realizing where I was. “Um, Maurice, can you take this, please? I promise after dinner I’ll sneak away and help you with the dishes,” I laughed a little and patted him on the back.
While I sat in the den with my parents, I could hear their staff preparing the dining room table. The clinking of silverware and China made me nostalgic. I sat on the couch across from the high-back armchairs my parents sat in. I felt like I was in an interrogation room, only the interrogators were smiling at me.
“What is going on with you? You finally decide after five years you want to reach out to us because you need help? You must be in some hot water, son. Are you screwing one of your students?” My eyes got wide and I tipped my flute up. I needed all the alcohol I could get.
“We’ll talk about that later,” I nodded. �
�No, that’s not why I’m here. Mom, Dad, I have a son.” They both reacted by muttering curse words in French. Once my father abandoned English altogether, I knew he was pissed. His words flew out like rapid fire.
“You have a son? When were you planning to tell us this? Who is the boy’s mother? And please God; don’t let her be a common whore, Roman. Did you knock up one of your students? ” My brain made the switch from English to French and I didn’t miss a beat.
“Henri, calm down. Please ,” My mother whispered in French, rubbing his knee.
“It’s not one of my students. The boy is three and I’ve been fighting his mother for custody all this time. She’s keeping him from me, and trying to ream me for child support. She did her homework and knows who our family is. She’s after money. I can’t fight her on my own anymore because I can’t afford a good lawyer. ” I hung my head in shame.
My mother cleared her throat and smiled at me. It was gentle and soft. “Roman,” she reverted back to English. “What is our grandson’s name? Can we at least know that?”
“River,” I nodded.
“Clermont, I hope,” My father added with a grunt.
“Yes, River Clermont. She wasn’t passing up the opportunity to give him our name.”
“You’re sure this child is yours? You’ve had the necessary tests?”
“Yes, Dad. She petitioned for paternity when he was six weeks old. It was the first time I ever saw him. I saw him briefly again when he was one. I hate the fact that he has to grow up without me and he has to hear whatever lies his mother is telling him.
She doesn’t even know me. She tricked me into getting her pregnant. She took the condom we used and a month later she popped up with a positive pregnancy test,” I fumed.
“Oh, sweetheart.” Mom shook her head with a frown. “You want to be in this child’s life?” She asked.
“Of course. That’s all I’ve wanted since I found out he was mine.”
“Then you’ll be in his life. We’ll all be in his life. I will not allow any grandchild of mine to live in poverty with the Clermont name. I don’t think too kindly of my son living in poverty either. Roman, who is the mother of your child?” My father looked to me for an answer.
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t leave me alone. She wore me down and finally got me to have sex with her. It was only once and I used a condom. I did everything right and still ended up in this mess.”
“Doing everything right would have meant never sticking your penis in her, Roman. Honestly.” My mother shook her head and I waved Maurice over for another glass of champagne. I was already feeling the buzz settle into my joints.
“I know that, okay? I meant I did everything right in the sense that I didn’t have unprotected sex with a random woman. I wrapped it up.”
“You wrapped it up and still ended up with a child. I told you women out here are out to get us.” My father paused and tilted his head to the side. The ice clinked in his glass while he swirled his gin around and around.
“Roman, when I asked you about one of your students you said we’d talk about it later. I want to talk about it now. Are you involved with one of your students?” He sounded more intrigued than anything else.
Like I said, my father wasn’t a man to ask for what he wanted. He took it. Right or wrong. My mother was only fifteen when he set his sights on her at twenty. He waited until she turned seventeen before he courted her but he told me that he knew the minute he laid eyes on her that she was all he wanted. I guess I wasn’t that different after all. At least not when it came to love.
Morally, we were night and day though.
“Yes,” I sighed. Even though I loathed their ethics, I knew if there were any place in the world I could be open and honest about Zuri, it was in my parents’ house. The rules didn’t apply to them. They were above the law.
“How old is the girl, Roman?” My mother asked with a heavy sigh.
“She’s seventeen. She’ll be eighteen in June.”
“Nine years younger?” My mother muttered something in French under her breath and my father chuckled at it.
“You plan to wait before you run off with the girl, I hope. I don’t need that kind of heat but I will, of course, endure it for you.”
“Yes, Dad. I’m waiting before I make any type of public moves with her. Her father is very prominent in the medical field. I’m sure he’d lose his shit if he knew I was with his daughter. He won’t even talk to me one-on-one because he thinks I’m beneath him.” It was my turn to curse in French.
“Beneath him? Does he not know you’re a Clermont? I’m certain if he lives here he works in one of my hospitals. I fund his entire life. How dare he look down on my son?”
“Dad, he doesn’t know who I am. Nobody does.”
“They should know! Everyone should know. Our family didn’t work for hundreds of years to be swept under the rug. The Clermont’s are titans. We will be treated as such in any situation. That entire school should be kissing your feet,” he boomed. “What school do you work for, Roman? I swear with everything in me if you say you work for a public school system I will choke you.” He leveled me with a scowl.
“I’m an art teacher at Aspen Grove private high school.” My shoulders slumped forward and I motioned for another drink. Maurice had a full flute in my hands in a matter of seconds.
“Aspen Grove. At least it’s a decent school. Now, who is this student? I want to pull up her father’s information immediately to see who he is and if he needs a pay adjustment to remind him that the Clermont’s aren’t beneath anyone.”
“Zuri Okolo. Her father is Dr. Adam Okolo.”
“Okolo?” Dad lifted an eyebrow and fell into a fit of laughter. “He’s a superstar surgeon. I know of him. Thinks he can make demands at the snap of his delicate fingers. Little does he know, talented neurosurgeons come a dime a dozen. Why, we found him in Nigeria and made him the teacher’s pet that he is now. I have no idea what makes him think we can’t do the same thing again.
He’s absolute hot air. To think, he refuses to speak directly to a Clermont. Son, you could buy and sell his entire lineage. Does he not understand that? He must only recognize The Legacy Group and not the people behind it. He’s in for a wake-up call once he realizes the Clermont’s own the corporation that stamps his checks.” I sat and listened to my father go on a fifteen-minute tirade about Dr. Okolo and I remembered why I put so much distance between my family and me.
“Well, at least you’re banging his daughter behind his back. That’ll show him. And if he even thinks of trying to screw with you once you go public with…what’s her name?”
“Zuri,” I sighed.
“If he even thinks about screwing with you once you go public with Zuri I will smother him under every piece of dirt I have and send him back to Nigeria with his tail between his legs. Oh, and I have tons of dirt. I know what Okolo likes to do in private.” He let out a deep chuckle and shook his head.
“Henri, we’re here to talk about our grandson, not some pretentious doctor.” My mother reminded him. It was rich hearing her call someone else pretentious. I almost laughed at it.
“Right. Our grandson. Roman, I will have our family lawyers on the case tomorrow. You’ll have your son by New Year’s Day. I would advise you to at least try to start some dialogue between you and the child’s mother. If she seems to comply then she’ll be granted visitation. If she’s still being a pain in the ass then she’ll never see her son again. Not like he needs her. He’s a Clermont.”
The fact that my father was okay with tearing a child from his mother when she’d been the only person he knew, was unsettling. I shook my head and slid to the edge of my seat. I was fully drunk by then and I needed to focus.
“Dad, I don’t want to rip him from her. I want her to be in his life. She’s his mother. She gave birth to him.”
“She tricked you into having a kid with her! I don’t take that lightly. She doesn’t deserve to be a mother if all she sees whe
n she looks at her son is a paycheck.” His words stung me for some reason. Maybe because I never thought of it that way. I wanted River to know both of his parents. But the truth was starting to seep in and it was rough.
“I want this to remain civil,” I insisted with a stern hand gesture.
“It stopped being civil the second she decided to baste herself with your sperm like a fucking turkey, Roman. She should have never gotten the opportunity to see her child. Like I said, if she’s cordial then I will consider letting her have visitation. That’s it. River is your child. He will live with you and she will see him occasionally if she’s deemed fit.” I realized that by unleashing the Clermont beast, I had to go along for the ride. It was all or nothing.
I wanted my son and I hoped for Michelle’s sake that she was willing to be diplomatic about the whole thing. I was done being nice.
I listened to my father and mother rant and rave about family issues I’d missed out on for the past five years while I got wasted on champagne and I felt like a teenager again. I couldn’t wait to leave. I missed feeling grounded.
Being in the Clermont home was like being in a floating bubble where regular rules and standards didn’t apply. Listening to the way they spoke to and about people was cringe-worthy. Before I left, my father gripped my arm and looked me square in the eyes.
“Roman, it’s good to have you back.”
“I’m not back. I need help. I told you that. That’s it, Dad. I didn’t mince words.”
“I know but I’m hoping you’ll reconsider. I know you have a bleeding heart and you don’t agree with our legacy but it is what it is, son. You’ve always been our top priority. We’ve never treated you bad. Quite the opposite. You’re like royalty, Roman.
Your mother and I would lay the world at your feet. Certainly, you can find it in your heart to separate us from our business.
We love you more than life itself. I’m fine with you wanting to work a meager job and live like a pauper but I’m not okay with you detaching yourself from us.
We’re your parents. We want you in our lives and we want to get to know our grandson. Please consider spending Thanksgiving with us.”
The Monarch Room Page 14