Christmas Billionaire

by Nella Tyler

“As glamorous as that sounds, I don’t think modeling is the vocation for me,” I said. “Actually, I’ve always wanted to open up a gym of my own.”

  “Really?” Maisy said with interest. “I knew you were into fitness, I just didn’t know how much.”

  “Well, this idea’s pretty recent,” I admitted. “Probably only a couple of years in the making, but once Chase suggested it, I knew it was something I needed to work towards.”

  “Chase, huh?” Jeremy said rolling his eyes. “Him again. Sometimes it’s like Chase is the only name you ever mention.”

  I laughed. “I’ve mentioned him only once this week.”

  “Too many times, if you ask me,” Jeremy said. “I was just starting to convince myself that he doesn’t exist at all.”

  “Umm, hello? He plays for the Rams,” Grace said. “How can there be any doubt? He was named Rookie of the Year, too, and side note, he’s freaking hot.”

  I smiled at Jeremy’s sour face. “I don’t really watch much football.”

  “Clearly,” Maisy said, rolling her eyes at him before she turned to me. “You could really make this happen then – the gym, I mean. I mean Chase is doing all right in the NFL; it’s not like you don’t have the capital.”

  “We were lucky that his career took off,” I nodded. “It’s opened us up to so many opportunities. I’m lucky that he’s so supportive of me.”

  “So, this is going to happen soon?” Grace asked.

  “I’m not sure yet,” I admitted. “We’re looking to buy a house after I graduate. Maybe once we’re settled down there, we can start looking at places to start up a fledgling gym.”

  “Well, keep us posted,” Maisy said. “I’m looking to change gyms.”

  I smiled. “Will do.”

  An hour later, we said our goodbyes and dispersed back to our own lives. On the way home, I stopped by the upscale grocery store on the corner and bought some spinach fettuccine and some shrimp for tonight’s dinner. I wanted to make something special for Chase.

  I changed into my favorite black sweats and an old t-shirt and started on dinner. I had just finished adding the freshly boiled pasta into my big vat of sauce when I heard a bang that sounded as though someone had crashed into the apartment door. I made sure nothing was on the fire and then I rushed to see whom it was.

  I opened the door and found Chase on the other side looking as though he had just come through the gates of hell. His eyes were wet with tears, his skin was pale and pasty, and he was shivering uncontrollably.

  “Dear God,” I gasped as I reached for him instinctively. “Darling, what happened?”

  “I…I…”

  He was shivering so badly that I could barely understand him. I plucked him out of the stairwell and guided him to the sofa. He sunk into it lifelessly and looked off into the distance, as though he were seeing ghosts. Fear gripped my heart, and I knelt down in front of him and grabbed both his hands in mine.

  “Chase, please,” I begged. “Tell me what’s wrong?”

  He swallowed hard, and I could see the effort it was taking him to speak the words. Even as he spoke, tears rolled down his cheeks and the sight of them brought moisture into my own eyes.

  “It’s Braden,” he said at last, and my breath caught.

  “No,” I whispered.

  “He was injured over there,” he continued quietly, and I was surprised to hear that his voice didn’t shake that much. “He lost both his legs and needed to be flown to the nearest hospital.”

  “But he’s alive,” I said desperately, wishing that Chase would speak a little louder. The sound of his voice was making me think of death. “Is he alive?”

  At that moment, Chase lifted his head and met my eyes. I felt my breath falter as I took in the expanse of pain that was reflected there. “He died on the way to the hospital,” he said in a whisper. “They didn’t make it in time.”

  I felt my knees buckle, but I held myself together – I had to. I had to do it for Chase; he needed me to be strong so that he could fall apart. I reached for him and pulled him towards me, cradling him as though he were a child.

  “Oh, my darling,” I said softly. “I am so sorry; I am so sorry.”

  He sobbed against my chest for a long time, and when he finally pulled away, his face was drained of emotion and energy. It made him look corpselike and again, the same fist of fear that had engulfed me earlier gripped me.

  “Chase…” I said uncertainly as I reached for him again.

  He pushed himself off the sofa and away from me. “I need to be alone,” he said abruptly. “I just need to be alone.”

  He walked away from me and went into our bedroom. A moment later, he shut the door and the sound of its shutting had an ominous finality about it. I felt the sound reverberate deep inside me in the echo of a dirge. I sat there alone in the muted light of the living room, trying to process my own shock and worry, surrounded by the smell of pasta and grief.

  Chapter Six

  Chase

  The funeral home was peppered with tasteful arrangements of white daisies and tulips. I might have been able to admire how pretty everything looked if my vision wasn’t clouded over by a thick haze of disbelief, pain, and anger. I stared around at the people milling past and avoided eye contact with everyone. I couldn’t think of anywhere I wanted to be less.

  No matter how I tried to distract myself, my eyes kept flitting to the beautiful, mahogany casket my mother had picked out only days ago. It was a closed casket so nobody could see my brother’s broken body lying inside it, but I could. I didn’t even have to close my eyes. Every time I blinked, I could see his image on the back of my eyelids.

  No one had wanted me to see him, but I had insisted. The moment his body had touched ground in the States, I had insisted I needed to see him no matter what. My parents had protested a little, but when they saw the need on my face, they had conceded. There were moments afterwards when I realized what they had been afraid of.

  It was shocking; it was unbelievable and it was horrifying to see Braden like that. He didn’t even look like himself. He was just a shell of the brother I had grown up with; there was nothing about him that I recognized, and that made it ten times worse. I had stood over his body for almost twenty minutes. I had stared at his pale face and the stiff way his upper lip curled over the lower one. I saw a birthmark on his neck that I didn’t know he had, and for a moment, I genuinely believed they had the wrong man.

  My eyes had slowly panned down to stare at the rest of the table where Braden’s legs should have been occupying space, but there was nothing there. His legs finished off in empty stumps that seemed unrealistic in their strange shape. I had stared at them for almost ten minutes, and they still didn’t make sense to me.

  I felt a warm hand slip into mine, and my body shuddered a little before I turned to her. She looked at me with those big, green eyes and squeezed my hand to remind me she was there for me.

  “Can I get you anything?” she asked quietly so that no one else could hear. “Some water, maybe? Your lips looked parched.”

  I hadn’t eaten anything in a day and my stomach felt hollow, but I welcomed the empty feeling it gave me. “I don’t want anything,” I said without emotion.

  It surprised me how my voice had changed since I had seen Braden’s body. It had become almost robotic, no emotion behind it, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring back the feeling. I saw Lauren watching me sometimes from a distance, her eyes glazed over with worry, but I couldn’t even bring myself to comfort her. I had no energy for anything apart from my own loss. I knew it was consuming me, and I wasn’t even trying to fight it.

  “Where were you this morning?” she asked gently. “Your parents asked me, and I had no idea where you’d gone.”

  I felt my lips seal up instantly, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid her question entirely. “I just…went out for a walk,” I replied evasively.

  I noticed her eyebrows rise a little and knew she suspected I
was telling a lie, but I also knew she wasn’t going to push me for the truth right then. She had been really good about giving me space during the last week.

  “A walk?” she repeated slowly. “You went alone.”

  “Yes,” I nodded shortly.

  I had gone for a walk that morning, but the whole truth was that I had an actual destination in mind. I had a purpose to achieve on that walk and that is exactly what I had accomplished. I had woken up that morning at 5:30 after a night of fitful sleep that had only barely kept the nightmares at bay. I had brushed my teeth, splashed cold water on my face, and put on my running shoes before I had left the apartment without leaving a note for Lauren.

  I hadn’t stopped walking until I got to the military headquarters. Large, impressive walls cordoned off the building and American flags stood at every entrance. I had walked inside and requested enlistment papers to be filled out. When I had walked back out hours later, the military had all my information, as well as the right to call on me to serve my country.

  The truth was I didn’t know if I would ever get the call and I figured that until I did, there was no reason to tell Lauren. There was no reason to tell anybody. I stood there silently, trying to avoid people’s eyes even as they came up to me to offer their condolences.

  “I’ll go check on your mother,” Lauren said after a moment, disentangling her hand from mine.

  “No,” I protested hurriedly. “Stay with me. I can’t deal with people on my own.”

  It was easier when Lauren was standing next to me. She would accept people’s sympathies, say a few words, and they would move on without my having to say a word. She hesitated and then nodded as she slipped her hand back into mine.

  “Of course,” she said readily as she installed herself like a pillar of strength beside me.

  I didn’t even notice that Tyler and Daniel had arrived until they were standing right in front of me, looking around uncomfortably, as though they had no idea what to say. I realized that that was probably the case. What could they say? Words were completely inconsequential at this point and everyone knew it.

  “Hey, man,” Daniel said awkwardly as he leaned in and gave me a stiff hug. “I’m so sorry.”

  Tyler did the same, and I nodded to them without saying a word. I kept my eyes lowered as Lauren hugged both of them. “Thanks for coming,” she said.

  “Of course,” Daniel nodded emphatically. “How are you both holding up?”

  Lauren glanced at me and then towards the guys. “As well as can be expected,” she replied after a moment’s hesitation. “There are good days and bad days.”

  I wondered harshly when the good days had been, but I bit my tongue and swallowed my words. Lauren was just saying what was appropriate under the given circumstances.

  “And your parents?” Tyler asked. “How are they?”

  I desperately wished I could tell him what a ridiculous question that was, but Lauren rushed to answer him and I let her. “They’re both…well, it was a shock for both of them. It’ll take a long time for them to recover.”

  “Of course,” Tyler and Daniel nodded in unison. I suppressed the urge to punch them both in the face. I could see people from my peripheral vision, and I noticed that some of my teammates had shown up. I turned my face away from them, hoping they wouldn’t notice me.

  “We’ll get going then,” Daniel said glancing at me. “We don’t want to take too much of your time.”

  He said it as though he were interviewing for a job or something. I felt nausea burn at the pit of my stomach, but I also knew it was a mental block. Nothing would come up but painful dry heaves. My hands were becoming sweaty, and I let go of Lauren’s hand so that I could wipe mine against my pants. She kept glancing at me as though she were scared I would fall or faint or freak out. It was starting to grate on my nerves.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” I hissed under my breath between condolers. “I’m not going to go to pieces here.”

  She looked a little taken back by my tone, but averted her gaze immediately and greeted the next couple that came up to us to offer their sympathies. I knew I should have felt bad for the way I had spoken to her, but I didn’t. I was so consumed by my pain that I couldn’t seem to register anyone else’s.

  After another harrowing 15 minutes, Beth showed up in front of us. She leaned in and hugged me without a word and then she grabbed Lauren’s hand. “How are you?” she asked.

  Lauren must have replied wordlessly because I didn’t hear her say anything. It was entirely likely that I missed their exchange completely, though. My eyes fell on the casket sitting a few feet away from me next to the ten by ten of Braden in his uniform, looking young and healthy and whole. I took a step back as though his ghost was encroaching onto my space and both Beth and Lauren looked at me with concern.

  “Chase?” Lauren said cautiously.

  “I…just excuse me for a moment,” I said, stumbling over my words as I backed away from them and moved into the private rooms of the funeral home, free from people’s watching eyes.

  I closed the door behind me and sighed deeply. It was only after a moment that I realized I wasn’t alone. I turned my head to the side and saw my mother was sitting in one of the chairs pushed up against the wall. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, her eyes were red, her nose stuffy, and her hair had lost any semblance of order.

  “Mom,” I said, unable to do anything but move over to sit next to her.

  I had done my best to avoid my parents over the last week. I wanted to be there to support them, but the truth was that their grief was more painful than I could have imagined. I was enough of a coward that I didn’t want to see that – I didn’t want to feel that.

  She tried in vain to wipe away her tears, but they were just replaced by new ones. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she said. “I didn’t cry at all yesterday and today of all days, I become a weeping mess at Braden’s wake, with everyone outside.”

  “It’s normal, Mom,” I said gently.

  “I should be strong for him.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment. “There’s no need to be anything for him,” I said without thinking. “He’s not here anymore.”

  Her breath caught slightly, and I wanted to bite my tongue and kick myself for being such an asshole. It seemed as though my pain was so great that it had crowded out all the sensitivity I possessed. “I’m sorry,” I said lamely.

  “Where’s Lauren?”

  “She’s out there talking to everyone,” I said.

  Mom managed something that faintly resembled a smile. “I should be out there talking to people.”

  “People will understand why you’re not out there,” I said. “I don’t even know why you wanted to have this wake in the first place.”

  “I wanted to give him a sendoff,” she replied quietly. “He was a hero. He died for his country. He deserves that much at least.”

  “He deserved a long, full life,” I said, unable to keep the words at bay. “He deserved to die in his sleep as an old man surrounded by his children and his grandchildren. He was selfless and brave, and he deserved a happy ending.”

  Mom was quiet for a long time. “Yes, he did,” she said finally as another tear slipped down her face. I knew she was imagining what could have been. She was imagining the life Braden might have had if he had never joined the military. “But that’s not what happened.”

  “No,” I said mostly to myself. “That’s not what happened.”

  Chapter Seven

  Lauren

  Beth’s eyes were focused on me even when she leaned in and hugged Chase. She didn’t say anything; she didn’t even offer up her sympathies, and I was grateful. I was sick of hearing the words, and I was sick of having to reply to them. I just wanted to retreat into a corner and not have to deal with anyone. But every time I glanced at Chase, I knew I couldn’t do that.

  He was the one who needed to retreat and I needed to allow him the space to do just that. I needed to
be strong and stand there and accept people’s condolences because his family was broken and grieving and I was the only one who could put on a brave face on their behalf. Beth turned to me and inclined her head in a gesture that asked me how I was doing without actually saying the words.

  I made an attempt to smile, but my face felt taught and stony. I realized I didn’t have to pretend with Beth, and I allowed my anguish to shine through. She reached for my hand and the pressure of some human contact felt amazing.

  At that moment, Chase took a step back as though he had just been startled, and Beth and I both turned to him in alarm.

  “Chase?”

  “I…just excuse me for a moment,” he replied distractedly and then turned tail and walked away from the throng of people that milled around Braden’s closed casket.

  I stared after him helplessly before Beth’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Come on, Lauren,” she said gently. “Why don’t you sit down for a little?"

  “No,” I said quickly. “Someone has to be here to receive the mourners.”

  “I’m sure everyone will understand if you take a ten-minute break,” she insisted. “You’ve been on your feet the whole day and you look exhausted. Come with me.”

  It felt so good to have someone see to my needs and my comfort that I didn’t bother to argue further. I just followed Beth like a blind puppy, grateful for her calming voice and her certain presence. She led me to one corner of the funeral home where a few chairs had been set up against the wall, wedged between floral arrangements. We sat down together and Beth placed her hand on my shoulder.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” she asked.

  My throat was parched but I didn’t think I could keep anything down today. “No thank you,” I replied.

  “Lauren, are you okay?” Beth asked with muted concern.

  I lifted my eyes and scanned the room, instinct pushing me to search for Chase, even though I knew he was not in my line of vision. “I’m fine,” I replied without thinking. “I’m just worried about Chase.”