The Blue Eyed Billionaire: A BWWM Single Mother Romance

by Kendra Riley

  “It is you! Making your way up the ladder, I see,” Jose had exclaimed.

  I am not a gold-digger, she said to herself. Let them think otherwise. She had no idea he’d be there. She was too caught up in the romanticism she had envisioned, she was caught up with the glitz, and the glamour, and the lights. Jose Aguirre was the last thing on her mind, but Dante was certainly the first.

  The look Dante gave her was too painful, and yet it was burned in her mind. She was a pariah now, and a traitor. She wanted to call him, but she knew she didn’t have the strength to argue, or defend herself. But what did she need to defend herself for? She had done nothing wrong. In fact, she didn’t even know Dante knew who Jose was. She didn’t see the need to tell him who the father of Isabella was. She didn’t see the need to inform Dante of something he wasn’t curious about. Aniya didn’t want to open old wounds, she had wanted to move on, and she had thought Dante had become a perfect partner, a great father figure to Isabella…

  There were so many things she assumed wrong. And worst of all, Jose now knew. She suddenly, violently hoped he wouldn’t care at all, that he would refuse to acknowledge himself as the father, that he would just leave her and Isabella alone. It was possible, right? He was still self-absorbed, he was still rude, and he was still completely in love with himself.

  Aniya looked at her bare face, a smattering of freckles surfacing underneath the makeup. She threw the used up makeup remover into the trash can, and she stared at it for a while, feeling like trash, feeling discarded. She closed her eyes, and allowed that ugly moment of misery to wash over her once more.

  ***

  They weren’t gentle to her at work. It leaked in the tabloids, and she thought no one cared, she thought no one cared because she didn’t belong in high society. On Monday morning, her colleagues looked at her with discomfort, like she had wrong them personally. That was when she saw a tabloid, conspicuously tucked away in the pantry, the page folded where her face was, beside Dante.

  She felt blood leave her face. Good god. She picked up the paper, her eyes awash in horror. It was a full article of what had happened that night. There were pictures of them, flattering and unflattering ones, and there was one blurry one, where she stood in between Dante and Jose.

  “Why?” she thought, “why would they put me here? Because Dante and Jose had long been rivals of sorts? She looked around, glad she was alone in the pantry. She quickly scanned the article, hating every word she read.

  MESS at the GALA

  A public spat between scions was recorded by an unnamed source last Friday, 20:00H, at the Madrid Intercontinental.

  Jose Aguirre and Dante Santoro were witnessed to have exchanged heated words during a Charity Dinner in honor of Educación Internacional. The argument was believed to have stemmed from a woman under the employ of Dante Santoro. Sources say that Jose Aguirre had made it known to Dante that he had dated his current beau.

  The woman’s identity, revealed to us over the weekend, is said to be Aniya Alves Compton, 25 years old, and a single mother. Who the father is remains to be in question.

  Aniya closed her eyes, feeling the weight of the article crash down on her. They knew who she was, they were wrong about who she worked for, and they knew she had a child. Everyone who enjoyed reading filth like this now knew she had a child. What was going to become of Isabella?

  Suddenly, she got a call. She frowned. It was daycare.

  “Yes?” she said.

  “Miss Compton,” the woman on the other end of the line said, “we have a bit of a situation here.”

  Aniya’s heart began to hammer. “¿Cuál es el problema?”

  “There’s media outside of the center,” the woman said in a confused and stressed voice. “They insisted on taking photos of Isabella. She’s now in the library as we speak. I don’t understand what’s going on, Miss Compton-“

  “Hold on,” Aniya breathed out. “I’m coming.”

  She walked to Anna’s office, and knocked on the door. “Miss Anna-“ she began.

  Anna looked at her with a stern look on her face. “Yes?”

  “I’d like to talk a leave of absence this afternoon,” she mustered herself to say.

  Anna’s brow arched. “To fix some personal issues?”

  Aniya didn’t say anything. The day was going from bad to worse. She was going to get fired, wasn’t she? She was going to lose all the hard work today, just because of that single incident that came out of nowhere. Fine, fire me, she thought in desperation, but I need to get to my daughter.

  “I don’t really care about your personal life, Aniya, Work is priority while you’re here,” Anna continued, “but to know that my nephew was dragged into something that’s controversial…”

  Aniya took a shallow breath. She readied herself for harsh words, wanting to get everything over with. “Please, my daughter…..”

  “I don’t know your daughter either, but I do know you,” Anna said. “You’re an honest and sincere person, and whatever is going on, you have my blessing for a leave. I expect to see you on Wednesday, though. You may go.”

  Aniya nodded. “Thank you, Miss del Prado.”

  ***

  Aniya saw the small crowd of photographers and reporters loitering in the vicinity of the daycare center. How was she going inside without anyone noticing her? She stood from afar, wondering what to do, when she realized there was a back entrance to the building. It would be a longer walk, but she’d be safe. She backed away, dialing the daycare center’s number as soon as she got into an alleyway with overflowing garbage bins.

  “Ines,” she began, recognizing the voice that picked up. “This is Aniya.”

  “Miss Compton,” she said, breathless, “where are you?”

  “I’m having a hard time getting in,” she explained, “I need you to open the emergency exit at the other side, please.”

  “Miss Compton, I’m not authorized to-“

  “Please, please just do this for me. I need to get Isabella out of there.”

  “I don’t understand what’s happening, Miss Compton.”

  “She just needs to be safe. Please.”

  Aniya heard a sigh.

  “Alright,” Ines relented. “Please hurry. I don’t want my boss seeing that.”

  Aniya walked the other way, and she walked a block to get to the emergency exit. She knocked on it once, and the door slowly swung open, and there stood Ines with a bewildered looking Isabella in tow.

  “Miss Compton, I hope there isn’t anything wrong with Isabella or you,” Ines said earnestly.

  “Just some family issues that need to be resolved,” Aniya said quickly. “Thank you so much, Ines.” And she picked up Isabella in her arms. “I’ll just call the daycare center for concerns with absences.”

  “Will Isabella be coming back anytime soon? She’s such a sweet child.”

  “Give me a few days,” Aniya told her. “Thank you. Thank you.”

  Wasting no time, Aniya quickly walked the other way, taking three buses in thirty minutes, instead of the usual ten-minute walk home. She sighed in relief, seeing no one knew where she lived, yet, but they had traced Isabella’s daycare so quickly, what was stopping them from coming here?

  “Mama?” Isabella began, sleepy.

  “Yes, sweetheart?” Aniya said, as she tucked Isabella in for her nap.

  “Why didn’t my daddy come?”

  Aniya almost recoiled from the query. “Daddy? You mean uncle Dante?”

  The little girl nodded blearily, “Yes, my daddy.”

  “He’s…,” she stopped herself. “Sleep, Isabella. We’ll watch cartoons later. How does that sound?”

  Isabella nodded, dozing off in a few seconds. She placed a blanket over her and Aniya stared at her daughter with her arms crossed, as if she was about to shiver. How had it come to this? Her child had now assumed that Dante was her father? He had only picked her up from daycare twice, they didn’t even live in the same house!

  It se
emed that her daughter had been echoing her own sentiments -- that she needed a father figure in her life. Dante wasn’t meant to replace Jose, but she saw qualities in him that mirrored that of a good parent like her father.

  She remembered the look on Jose’s face the moment he learned that she and Dante were dating. It was taunting, it was a deliberate act of hatred for her and for Dante. Jose was petty and arrogant. She was glad Isabella was none of those things, although she did have her father’s hair color and chin… Looking at her daughter, Aniya found herself climbing onto bed, and then she snuggled against her daughter who was oblivious to their mayhem.

  ***

  Dante forced himself to work. In fact, he was ten minutes late to work, having barely slept at all. He was cursing and muttering as he drove, wishing he had gotten a chauffeur instead at random intervals. The Monday had been a slow one, with files missing, and absences from his team. He said nothing of it, despite the constant apologies of his HR manager, his secretary, and the other managers.

  Why do I have this feeling something stupid is going to be in the tabloids, he thought. And he was right. He saw a spread of the morning dailies and one tabloid magazine he hated the most, since it enjoyed articles about their family, or anyone related to them.

  He opened it, and he saw photos of the ball, and how Aniya’s face looked happy and anxious at the same time in one, and that one damned photo where she stood in between them, in some failed attempt to stop the fury running through him. He found himself shaking his head at the events relayed on paper. Unnamed source? Which damned person was this?

  Dante knew it wasn’t Pilar, as she had been too caught up in the scene, and she and Carlos had taken Aniya home. Aniya. Why did it have to be Aniya? It was only one night, right? And it escalated into something serious. It became tabloid fodder, and Isabella would be dragged into this. He was worried about the child. She would be too young to realize the toxicity her mother had dropped herself in, but Isabella would be affected in other, more subtle ways. He was almost tempted to call Aniya, and ask her how Isabella was, at least. He was too angry for that, he realized. It was just an excuse to check on Aniya and the child. He would look weak, and it was highly likely that he would look clingy.

  A woman had distracted him from his day to day life. Sure, it had been a good distraction at first, it was fun, and he found himself falling for her every moment they were together… but it wasn’t enough, was it? He had prided himself on never feeling restless and off, whenever bad things happened between him and his dates. This time, this time it was different. Is this how a loser feels? Is this what Jose feels like? And he almost laughed aloud. He wasted no time in crumpling the tabloid page, wanting his revenge on Jose. The twat ruined what was supposed to be a romantic night between them. It was the night he had planned to tell her all that he felt for her. Should I feel relieved that I didn’t get to tell her that I loved her?

  That meeting with Jose changed everything, and what affection he had felt for Aniya was now replaced with revulsion. He could have not cared if Aniya dated someone else before him, and then Dante realized he was as petty as Jose was, but he wanted to feel petty, and he had been feeling it since Friday night. There were times that he wanted to call her. There were times that he wanted to call her just to scream. And there were times he wanted to just hear her voice. For what? He knew it wouldn’t make him feel better about her.

  “Mr. Santoro,” his secretary began over the intercom. “Your mother is here to see you.”

  “What?” he repeated, distracted.

  “Mrs. Santoro is here to see you.”

  “I don’t think we’ve set an appointment-“

  His mother walked in, wearing a camel coat and a black dress, showing off her svelte figure, despite her being past fifty years old already.

  “Mama,” he greeted, standing up. He walked to his mother and kissed her cheek lightly. She held his face with both hands and looked at her eyes.

  “You left the gala without saying goodbye, or introducing your- significant other,” she told him, walking past him for the refrigerator, looking for a bottle of Perrier.

  “Please, take a seat.”

  She took a seat across from him at the table, and he did the same, sitting face to face with his mother. “Would you like coffee?”

  “No. It’s acidic,” she replied, “Tea, that will do.”

  Dante pressed the buzzer asking for tea. “So what brings you here?”

  “You didn’t acknowledge my earlier statement.”

  “I didn’t have to. It wasn’t a question.”

  He disliked sudden meetings like this. It meant his mother had something on her mind, and she wouldn’t rest until she had spilled it out, or scolded anyone she wanted to scold.

  “Who was she?”

  “Someone. It’s of no concern to you.”

  “The same tabloid has exploited our good name once more. It was mentioned she was a single mother, who worked for you.”

  “She doesn’t work for me,” he said. “Look, I have things to do.”

  The tea came in, and they fell silent as his secretary prepared it for them. It took all of two minutes before they resumed their talk.

  “Things to do? How about press control?” she remarked.

  “Mama, its gossip, tabloid fodder,” he replied. “There’s nothing to control. Why would I rebut something that stupid?”

  “There’s pictures, Dante.”

  “There’s always pictures.”

  “She’s a single mother. And she’s from where? America?”

  “Does it matter? We’re not exactly together,” he said. “She was my date for that night. And Jose Aguirre was being rude to us.”

  “And you stooped down to his level?”

  “He was being a prick. If I had it my way, I’d have punched his lights out,” Dante suddenly said. “Of course, we have the family name to uphold.”

  Melissa shook her head. “Sarcasm won’t get you out of this mire.”

  “It won’t, but what else can we do?” he retorted. “Look, it was a mistake, if that’s what you wanted me to say. It was a mistake dating a single mother.”

  She looked satisfied. “Why must you find a charity case?”

  “She is not a charity case,” Dante said, closing his eyes. “And neither is Isabella.”

  “I assume this is her daughter? Aniya Compton, am I correct?”

  He said nothing.

  “Your father and I had a discussion heading home after the gala. You failed to mention that you were dating a single mother, who is in our corporation’s employ. You had months to tell us that, to soften the blow at least.”

  “Why do you care so much now?” Dante said. “Because she isn’t a member of high society? Because she isn’t the model or celebrity you’d always envisioned me to date? Well, apart from the eldest Santoro child besmirching the family name--”

  “Have you always hated me, Dante?” his mother suddenly asked him.

  “What?”

  “Have you always hated me so? I’ve always only wanted the best for you,” she said, looking at her son’s face critically.

  “I know you’ve always wanted the best for me,” Dante said, “but sometimes, it gets in the way. That’s why neither Catalina nor I share anything to you. We’re more comfortable with father, if only he had more time for us. You’re just so controlling—” he stopped.

  “You may continue.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want to. I think I’ve said enough. I don’t want to add to the uncomfortable relationship we already have.”

  “Uncomfortable? The only reason why your father and I have been working so hard is because we wanted to give you the all the comforts that life has to offer. I don’t want you throwing all that away for a woman of her stature.”

  “Her only fault was that she dated Jose Aguirre, and had a child by him,” he told her, “but don’t worry, mother, all thoughts of us together dissipated the moment I found out.”
>
  Chapter11

  Aniya had just walked out of the apartment, without Isabella in tow. She was heading for the small deli a block away, grateful the neighborhood was still quiet, grateful no one here cared or recognized her as the harlot who played on men’s hearts, specifically men who belonged to higher society, whose worth was merited through their looks and bachelorhood. One tabloid was enough, and she had no intention of reading another one.

  Isabella was at home, under the care of her trusted babysitter, who didn’t bother to ask why Isabella wasn’t in daycare. Aniya had a feeling the babysitter knew, but that she had chosen to stay mum about it. She had only exited the apartment building, when she heard someone clear his throat. Her heart almost stopped. Dante!

  And then she felt herself deflate. It wasn’t Dante. It was Jose. She said nothing at first, her mind filled with rage, her fists ready to fly at his face the moment she gathered enough anger. “What in the hell are you doing here?” she found herself saying.

  “Aniya, I-“

  “Get away from me, or I’ll call the police.”

  “And tell them what? You want more news coming in?” he snapped at her.

  She glared at him, knowing there was no way out, but to try and be civil this time. How could she remain civil? When he was the cause of all this mess?

  “I don’t want you here,” she told him. “Please, go away.”

  “I just want to talk.”

  “About what?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? About the possibility that I have a kid,” he told her.

  “There’s actually nothing to talk about. It was sarcasm, if you didn’t get it,” she told him, walking past him.

  “Aniya, I want to see my daughter.”

  Aniya stopped in her tracks, and she closed her eyes, wanting peace to course through her immediately. What peace was there with this happening now? She had thought everything had fallen into place, until he came along.