Billionaire by Design (A BWWM Romance)

by Tiana Cole

  “Mr. Talbot!” the manager exclaimed in a heavy Italian accent as he assessed the damage with confusion. “What happened?”

  “I’m… I’m sorry, Anthony,” Zane stammered with look of sincere apology. He glanced down at his right fist that was still clenched in anger, then at Phil’s crumpled body, and finally around the room at their captive audience. Behind him, Jenna began wheezing, the excitement having triggered her asthma, and reached into her purse to retrieve her inhaler.

  “It’s okay, everybody! Please, enjoy your meals while we take care of things here!” the manager announced with an embarrassed chuckle before kneeling to check on Phil’s limp body. Members of the waitstaff rushed to his aid, righting the table and frantically cleaning the mess from the floor while offering their apologies to the unimpressed women whose meal had been ruined. A waiter bent to whisper something into the manager’s ear, and he looked alarmed by the news. Rising to his feet, he scurried over to Zane to relay what he’d just learned.

  “You need to leave now,” he spoke softly so nobody could overhear. “Somebody called the cops. They’ll be here soon.”

  “It wasn’t his fault!” Jenna pleaded in Zane’s defense.

  “Anthony, you know I’d never—” Zane began, only to be hastily quieted.

  “Shhh… I know, old friend,” the manager interrupted with a compassionate smile. “That guy’s become a real nuisance here lately. I’m sure you gave him what was coming to him.”

  Jenna was relieved to learn that the two knew and respected each other. It was obvious by their rapport that they had some sort of history, and that Anthony was eager to help Zane out of this mess.

  “We’ll send you a check for the damages, okay?” Jenna chimed in. Zane nodded his agreement as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

  “I don’t think a broken plate and three shattered wine glasses constitute ’damages,’ my dear,” Anthony laughed heartily. “I’ll comp those women their meals, and that’ll be that.”

  “At least let me pay for those,” Zane insisted, reaching for his wallet.

  “Nonsense,” Anthony refused. “You’ve done so much business with us over the years, I should be comping your meal!” he laughed again, and Jenna found his endearing, jovial attitude to be quite calming. Behind him, the room had come alive with conversation again as the city’s most influential citizens returned to their dinners. Phil had regained consciousness, groaning in pain while holding his throbbing jaw, and had managed to erect himself with the assistance of two waiters.

  “You’re so sweet,” Jenna smiled in awe of his kindness.

  “And you’re so beautiful!” he playfully winked with innocent Italian flirtation. “Now you two lovebirds get out of here before the police show up.”

  “Thank you,” Zane replied, shaking the man’s hand in appreciation. Jenna had stepped behind him again as they readied themselves to leave the restaurant.

  “Look out!” a shrill voice screamed from one of the tables.

  Zane looked over Anthony’s shoulder just in time to see Phil charging at him with a maniacal look in his eyes and wielding one of the dining room’s sturdy iron chairs. He was holding it with both hands, one on its back and one on its seat, and its four metal legs protruded forward dangerously.

  With little time to react, he pushed Anthony out of the way and jumped aside, failing to realize Jenna’s unfortunate position. The restaurant came alive with a mixture of shocked gasps and screams as one of the chair’s legs was driven into her abdomen, knocking her backwards onto the floor painfully hard.

  Realizing what he’d done, Phil dropped the chair and stood over Jenna’s body with a look of horror. Anthony, a powerful man in his own right, wrapped a thick arm around Phil’s neck and threw him to the ground. He pinned him there by placing a knee on his back and pressing down with all his weight as Zane rushed to Jenna’s side. She lay writhing in agony, holding her stomach with her eyes clenched tightly as sobs of pain escaped her gritted teeth.

  “Babe! Babe! Are you okay?!” Zane asked in alarm as he knelt beside her and slid a hand under her back to gently lift her into a seated position. He glanced at a subdued Phil and shot him a hateful scowl as he cradled Jenna in his arms. Anthony nodded a tacit assurance that he wouldn’t be releasing Mr. Miller anytime soon.

  “It hurts,” Jenna groaned as she held her stomach.

  “I’m calling an ambulance,” Zane bleated as he reached into his suit jacket for his cell phone.

  “No,” Jenna stopped him as she fought to overcome the pain. “I’ll… I’ll be okay,” she winced.

  “Babe, you’re hurt. I’m calling 911,” he frantically insisted as she sat with his strong arm propping her up. He fished his phone from his pocket, but she swatted it aside in irritation.

  “No!” she repeated loudly. “I’m fine. I just want to leave.”

  “Are you sure?” Zane questioned skeptically as she gripped his shoulder and struggled to her feet.

  “I’m sure,” she breathed as she stole an embarrassed look at the audience that had gathered around them. “Just get me out of here,” she muttered, fixing her twisted dress.

  “You poor thing!” a middle-aged woman from the crowd exclaimed as she hurried to Jenna’s side to offer assistance, but Jenna declined it with a polite smile and dismissive wave.

  “The cops will be here soon,” Anthony reminded them as he pressed his knee into Phil’s back even harder, his big arm still wrapped around the man’s neck. “You want to press charges?”

  “No,” Jenna blurted before Zane had a chance to respond. His surprised look suggested he would have answered differently. “Not right now. I just want to go home.”

  “Okay,” Zane conceded with a sigh. Ignoring the crowd of onlookers, he asked Anthony to relate the events to the authorities and to send them his way should they need a statement. Several patrons compassionately offered their support, agreeing that Phil was in the wrong and offering to back the couple’s story should they need it. Zane and Jenna thanked them for their kindness and expressed their gratitude to Anthony once more before making their way outside. Noticing her slight limp, Zane scooped Jenna into his powerful arms and carried her to the waiting town car with her arms wrapped around his neck. After delicately placing her inside and taking a seat next to her, he pulled her close, kissed her forehead, and instructed Carl to take them home.

  “That guy’s finished,” Zane growled in anger as the car rolled out of the parking lot. “I was willing to let him walk with that money, but I’m not going to let him get away with this.”

  “Whatever you want to do,” Jenna replied halfheartedly, more preoccupied with the growing pain in her abdomen than anything else.

  “He’s lucky Anthony got to him before I did,” Zane continued to justifiably rant as the car headed back to his foothill estate.

  “Mmmhmm,” Jenna agreed as she held her aching belly.

  “I’m going to make sure he gets locked away for a long—”

  Jenna suddenly let out a loud wail, interrupting Zane mid-sentence as a bout of agonizing cramps stabbed through her lower abdomen. She threw her head back and let out another tortured scream as her hands turned to fists and began punching the seat in pain. Jarred by her cries, Carl jerked the steering wheel but quickly regained control of the car. He craned his neck to find Jenna’s face twisted in pain, and Zane looking on in terror.

  “Take us to the hospital!” Zane shouted in panicked distress. “Now! Hurry!”

  “I… I don’t know what’s wrong…” a flushed Jenna trembled as tears rolled down her cheeks. As the cramping began to subside, she became aware of a warm wetness between her legs.

  “It’s going to be okay, babe,” Zane tried his best to assure her as he held her hand. The metal leg of the chair had hit her hard, and he feared it may have caused some internal injury.

  “Something’s not right,” she sobbed as she looked into Zane’s concerned eyes. She tugged her dress up slightly and reached her ha
nd up it to investigate the thick, wet warmth she felt spreading. She pulled her hand out and found her fingers covered with blood.

  “Jesus…” Zane gasped in horror at the sight.

  “I’m bleeding,” Jenna gulped, her lips trembling and head spinning.

  “Hurry the fuck up! Go, go, go!” Zane yelled at Carl in hysterics.

  “It’s… the baby…” Jenna mumbled as she began to lose consciousness.

  “What are you talking about? What baby?” Zane asked in concerned confusion as he gripped her hand tightly.

  “Our baby… I think I just lost… our baby…” Jenna managed to mutter before passing out in his arms.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jenna groggily woke to find herself in a hospital room. She found Zane seated in the corner with his head sunk, arms resting on his legs, and foot tapping anxiously.

  “Baby…” she croaked as she came to.

  “Hey!” he sprung from the small chair and darted across the room to take her hand in his.

  “What… what happened?” she asked as she took in her surroundings. She had a vague recollection of being in the back of his town car, but everything after that was a blur.

  “You passed out,” he explained soothingly, “in the back of the car. You passed out, but you’re okay.”

  “There… there was blood,” Jenna recalled as she stared up at the ceiling, her eyes beginning to water as she remembered the baby.

  “Yes,” Zane sighed as he brushed the hair from her face and kissed her forehead softly, “but you’re okay.”

  She could tell by his troubled blue eyes that he was withholding something from her. For the first time since she’d met him, he looked as if he may shed a tear. He knew about the baby, and she could tell. It was written all over his face.

  “The baby?” her shaky voice asked as her eyes began to water with emotion. She already knew the answer but didn’t want to hear it.

  “You lost it,” Zane told her quietly as he hung his head. “I’m sorry.”

  Her chest began to heave as she sobbed, her mascara staining her face as tears streamed down her cheeks. She wept inconsolably as Zane held her hand, his eyes now puffy and red as he shared in her grievance.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he whispered when she calmed down enough to speak.

  “I… I didn’t want to get in the way,” she sniffled. Zane handed her his pocket square, and she wiped her eyes with the handkerchief.

  “Get in the way?”

  “Get in the way of your business,” Jenna answered. “Especially with the expansion and everything. I didn’t want to screw things up for you.”

  “You wouldn’t have gotten in the way,” Zane replied as he calmingly ran his fingers through her long hair. “That’s silly.”

  “Yes, I would have,” she insisted. “You worked so hard for this New York branch. Years, even. There’s no way a baby wouldn’t have messed it all up. That’s why I was going to get an a-a-bo…” she stammered and abruptly broke eye contact with him.

  “Get a what?” he gently prodded. When she remained silent, he asked again with a more soothing tone. “You were going to get a what?”

  “I was going to get an abortion,” she confessed in a mumble, ashamed to speak the words aloud. “The appointment was next week.”

  “You were going to get an abortion without even telling me you were pregnant?” Zane asked in appall.

  “I didn’t know what to do! I planned on telling you tonight, I swear,” Jenna pleaded. “I was trying to tell you, but then Phil…”

  “I know, I know,” Zane sighed. “I just can’t believe you even thought about aborting our baby…”

  “You wouldn’t have wanted me to?”

  “Of course not!” he fired back. “Don’t you understand how much I care about you? I would have been by your side every step of the way. New York could have waited.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she swallowed hard, embarrassed by her assumptions and sensing a disappointment in Zane. She could tell that she’d violated his trust and had hurt him deeply in doing so. He consoled her with another gentle kiss on her forehead and stayed with her throughout the night. She was released the following morning, and the two spoke very little as Carl drove them back to the foothill estate that now felt cold and unwelcoming to her.

  Over the following weeks, Jenna withdrew from Zane, becoming distant in the wake of her tragic miscarriage. They’d both given their statements to the police, and Phil had been charged with aggravated assault. They heard nothing more from him as he awaited trial, and when the day arrived, their court testimony put him away for two years. It would have been one, but a sympathetic judge agreed the loss of Jenna’s baby warranted a longer stay.

  Zane realized Jenna’s worst fear by postponing the New York expansion, choosing to stay with her in Tucson to support her emotional healing. Although he denied it, she feared he resented her for delaying the launch of his East Coast branch and found herself growing increasingly despondent. She’d taken a week-long absence from work in the aftermath of her loss, leaving Zane to present BMW with the campaign she’d worked so diligently on. They loved the bold new strategy she’d helped create and eagerly agreed to run with it.

  When she did return to the firm, wading through a sea of condolences, her work suffered noticeably from the deep depression she’d sunk into. Her creative faucet that once flowed so freely had been reduced to a trickle, and she found the sympathetic looks from her coworkers too much to bear.

  She could feel their eyes on her and could hear the murmurs behind her back. Zane was relieved when she requested more time off and happily granted her as much as she needed. He’d been against her returning so quickly in the first place, insisting she wasn’t ready to jump back into the swing of things. The entire place reminded her of Phil Miller, and kept the painful memory of her assault and subsequent miscarriage at the forefront of her mind.

  Their relationship began to decay, guilt overcoming Jenna and driving a wedge between her and Zane. He tried his best to cheer her up, but every attempt seemed to fail. The wonderful memories of their magical first date at Primavera had now been overwritten by the horrible recollections of her miscarriage, ruining the restaurant for the both of them forever. She began to have reoccurring nightmares of the incident, waking up terrified yet shunning Zane’s efforts to console her. She was ashamed of herself for even considering the termination, and knowing Zane would have welcomed the baby filled her with remorse. Weeks later, she still felt as if he judged her for scheduling the abortion without his knowledge, and suspected he harbored resentment for having to push back the launch of the New York office.

  Her worry resulted in a tension between them that caused their living situation to grow uncomfortable. She considered moving out, but Leigh had found a new roommate, and she was wasn’t thrilled with the idea of living alone.

  The decision of where to live came when she received an unexpected phone call from her brother informing her that their mother had fallen ill. She’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and her frequent hospital visits explained why Jenna hadn’t heard much from her.

  The woman hadn’t wanted to worry her daughter with her malady, choosing to remain silent as her health quickly deteriorated. According to her brother, she didn’t have much time left. As much as she dreaded returning to her old neighborhood, she knew she had to be there for her mother’s final days.

  She packed her things into the car Zane had bought her as he watched in sadness. He understood why she needed to go, and pleaded to accompany her, but they both knew the time apart would do them good. Deep down, she felt there was no salvaging their damaged relationship. She could tell by his forlorn eyes, as he watched her stuff the majority of her belongings into the vehicle, that he suspected this goodbye was likely permanent.

  After an emotional goodbye, she made the 2,400 mile journey back across the country in only three days, this time without issue and with plenty of money in her bank account
thanks to the bonus she’d received for her work on the BMW campaign.

  Back in Brooklyn, she stayed by her mother’s bedside, caring for her as the cancer got progressively worse until she passed in her sleep four weeks later. Her brother attended the small funeral with her where the two grieved together over the woman who’d sacrificed so much to keep food in their bellies and clothes on their backs. She chose to stay in New York City, fearing it was too soon to return to the Southwest, and used her savings to move to a much better neighborhood in a different borough. Her mother’s death also strengthened her sense of family, and she wanted to spend more time with her brother. He was still spending his time with the wrong crowd, and she hoped she could help get his life on track before he wound up in prison or the morgue.

  Communication between her and Zane dwindled as they both struggled to move on with their lives. The phone calls stopped, as did the text messages and e-mails, but she thought about him every day and appreciated the recommendation he’d given that helped her land a job with Regency Advertising, an up-and-coming marketing firm based out of Manhattan. She fit in well with the start-up company, and found her creativity returning as memories of her pregnancy faded and her reoccurring nightmares stopped.

  She excelled at her job, quickly moving up the ranks to become the head of the art department, and her coworkers all seemed to adore her.

  As weeks turned to months, her career blossomed and her social circle grew with it. She still kept in touch with Leigh on a fairly regular basis, along with a few other acquaintances from Tucson via social media, but had made a few good friends at her new firm and found her desire to move back to Arizona waning. She missed Zane terribly, but had settled into a new life and was managing her asthma well enough.

  She began to hear rumblings in the workplace of a potential buyout, but management remained tight-lipped and would neither confirm nor deny the rumors.