Chapter 105. He Said Yes

Chapter 105. He Said Yes
Eaton Residence, Belgravia, London

Brandon has just finished reviewing the documents Maximillan places in front of him when his phone lights up on the desk. He glances at the screen almost absentmindedly before the name displayed there makes him pause, Roxanne.

A small smile appears almost immediately. He has been expecting this call ever since Alexandra sent him a brief message earlier that morning, informing him about Caleb's condition, things she has done in Texas, and Roxanne's conversation with Madelyn.

Alexandra never gives unnecessary details over text, only enough information for Brandon to understand what has happened and prepare himself before Roxanne eventually calls. Without another thought, he accepts the call.

"Good morning, Roxanne." His voice is smooth and gentle.

"Morning, Father." The single word makes Brandon smile more than he cares to admit.

Four years have passed since he brought Roxanne out of Texas, yet every time she calls him Father, he still feels the same satisfaction. It never sounds forced, nor does it sound rehearsed.

Sometimes she says it because she wants advice. Sometimes because she wants permission. Other times simply because she's talking to him. Somewhere along the way, the title stops being something she gives him out of gratitude and becomes something natural.

He has never asked her to call him that; after officially adopting her, he always gives her time and space to adjust. Never forced Roxanne to do things she feels uncomfortable with. She simply starts doing it one day, and he accepts it gratefully.

Turns out being a father of intelligent, obedient, and skillful teens isn't bad. He loves how just a little bit of achievement she gets makes him proud. She adapts quickly to her surroundings.

"How's the cruise?" Brandon asks, leaning back in his chair. "Did you finally meet Vladimir?"

"I did."

"And?" Roxanne laughs softly. "Such a good old sport."

Brandon chuckles. "That sounds like him."

That earns another laugh from Roxanne, and Brandon finds himself relaxing into his chair. Hearing her laugh always reminds him that, despite everything, he manages to give her a life where moments like these are possible.

"So?" he asks. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"I am." Her answer comes without hesitation.

"It's actually... really fun." There's excitement beneath her usually composed voice, the kind she rarely allows herself to show. "It's my first cruise."

Brandon blinks. "Your first?"

"Yes."

He frowns. "I never took you on a cruise?"

"No."

"A vacation?" Roxanne grows quiet for a second before answering with complete honesty.

"We spent four years studying." She says it so matter-of-factly that Brandon almost wishes she had complained instead.

"You were preparing me for the heir program. Between university, company training, language classes, board meetings, and everything else..." She lets out a small laugh. "I don't think either of us had much time for leisure."

Brandon slowly massages his forehead. "Oh, damn."

The words leave his mouth almost unconsciously. "So you're telling me..." He exhales heavily. "...I accidentally stole four years of your teenage life." He stares out the window of his London house.

Ever since his diagnosis five years ago, every day has become a race against time. He spends those years trying to build Northgrid into a company that can survive without him while preparing Roxanne to inherit something far larger than a corporation.

He teaches her negotiations, finance, acquisitions, leadership, languages, crisis management, public speaking, and every lesson he believes she will need long after he's gone. At the time, it feels necessary.

Listening to her now, however, he suddenly realizes that while he's busy preparing her future, he forgets she's still a teenager. "I wasn't complaining," Roxanne says gently, almost as though she can hear the guilt settling inside him.

"I know." Brandon smiles faintly.

"But I should've done better." He makes a mental note to fix that if there's still time.

Roxanne remains quiet for another moment before finally saying the reason she calls. "Father..."

"Hm?"

"I want to ask for permission." Brandon already knows what is coming.

"I'd like to go back to Texas." She speaks carefully, as though expecting resistance.

"Just for a day. Maybe two." She pauses.

"I want to see Caleb. He's in the emergency; he got bitten by a snake. Another pause follows.

"Madelyn needs me. And..." Her voice grows noticeably softer. "My father is finally divorcing my mother." Before she can continue explaining herself, Brandon answers.

"You have my permission." Silence fills the line, a complete silence.

Then he hears Roxanne inhale sharply. "...Really?"

"Really."

"I thought you'd say no."

"I was going to," Brandon smiles to himself.

"Until this morning." He glances toward the message Alexandra sent him several hours earlier, her men in Texas reporting that Amelia Stephen has been taken by the debt collector.

They're still watching everything, she told him that she'll have her under their watch until the divorce with Robert is finalized. And for Brandon, that changes everything.

"The only reason I never let you return to Texas," Brandon says quietly, "is because Amelia was still there."

Roxanne falls silent, hearing it for the first time. Because Brandon has never explained it before. Not because he wants to keep secrets from her, but because some truths are kinder left untouched until the right moment.

"I never worried about Robert, he's my brother. Or Madelyn. And I certainly never worried about Caleb." His voice grows calmer.

"I worried about Amelia." He remembers that day as clearly as if it happened yesterday.

The day before he flies to Texas, Amelia sends him a message. "Are we still on for tomorrow? I've already prepared the kid."

Even now, remembering those words leaves a bitter taste in Brandon's mouth. He grows up in a household where family means responsibility long before it means privilege.

Their mother, Magdalena Stephen, is a proud woman with solid principles, and although she raises Brandon and Robert with strict discipline, she never once treats either of them as something to be traded or sacrificed for her benefit.

Every lesson she teaches them revolves around protecting the family, preserving the ranch, and standing beside the people they love even when doing so demands everything they have. She spends her entire life doing that, to go above and beyond for her husband and her two sons.

After their father passes away, Magdalena shoulders responsibilities that would have broken many people without ever allowing her sons to see how exhausted she truly is. She fights for the Stephen Homestead, works alongside the ranch hands when necessary, and still manages to make sure Brandon and Robert never go to bed wondering whether they are loved.

Brandon remembers those years clearly. His mother is demanding, stubborn, and sometimes impossible to argue with, but never once does she make either of her sons feel as though their worth depends on what they can give her. To Magdalena Stephen, family is never currency. It's something worth protecting until the very end.

Perhaps that's why she never truly approves of Amelia. Brandon remembers the countless conversations between his mother and younger brother before the wedding.

Magdalena never openly forbids the marriage because she knows Robert loves Amelia with every part of his heart, but she also never hides her concerns. She tells Robert more than once that love alone isn't enough to build a family, especially when only one person seems willing to make sacrifices.

At the time, Brandon secretly agrees with his mother. Robert, however, has never looked happier. For Magdalena, that is ultimately enough. Whatever doubts she carries inside her heart, she buries them beneath a mother's love. If Amelia is the woman her youngest son chooses to spend his life with, then she'll accept her with dignity and hope she's proven wrong.

Unfortunately, she was never wrong. Years later, Brandon stands in front of Amelia after receiving that text message asking whether they're still "on for tomorrow" because she has already prepared her daughter.

Even now, he remembers feeling uneasy before he even arrives at the ranch. Something about those words unsettles him in a way he can't quite explain, and when he finally looks Amelia in the eyes, he can't stop himself from asking the question that has been bothering him since reading her message.

"Even if I'm only her uncle... even if I'm your husband's brother... shouldn't you be at least a little worried?" he asks. "That's your daughter we're talking about."

Instead of looking offended or even conflicted, Amelia simply laughs as though Brandon has said something amusing. "That's literally her job as my child," she replies without the slightest hesitation. "If she can't be useful to me, then she can't be mine."

The words hit Brandon harder than he ever expects. In that single moment, every concern Magdalena has ever voiced suddenly makes perfect sense. He has met ruthless businesspeople, corrupt politicians, and executives willing to destroy entire companies for profit, but never before has he heard a mother speak about her child with such complete indifference.

Disgust settles deep inside him. From that day onward, Brandon stops seeing Amelia as Robert's wife. He sees her only as the greatest threat to Robert's family.

From that day onward, Brandon makes himself a promise. As long as Amelia Stephen remains at the ranch, Roxanne will never set foot in Texas again.

It has never been about distrusting Roxanne. If anything, Brandon has complete faith in her judgment. He knows how priceless Roxanne is, because he's the one who watches her grow into it. He watches her struggle through endless meetings, survive relentless training, learn to negotiate with executives twice her age, and slowly develop into someone capable of carrying responsibilities most adults would crumble beneath.

He builds her carefully, piece by piece. He transforms her not into a weapon or a puppet, but into someone who knows her worth and can stand on equal footing with the most powerful people in the room without lowering her head or questioning her place there.

Brandon has invested too much of himself in that journey to let anyone tear it apart. He knows exactly what Amelia is capable of, a woman who can look at her own daughter as nothing more than a commodity has no limits once money is involved.

Brandon has seen enough of the world to understand that people like Amelia rarely change. They simply become more desperate when the opportunities around them begin to disappear. He refuses to gamble Roxanne's future on the hope that Amelia might suddenly become a different person.

If protecting Roxanne means she resents him for keeping her away from Texas, then he's willing to carry that resentment. It's a far lighter burden than watching her become another victim of the same woman who has already stolen so much from her. He will not let her manipulate Roxanne, his Roxanne, now his daughter.

Brandon slowly closes his eyes. Even after four years, Amelia's words remain as vivid as the day she speaks them. The memory still fills him with quiet disgust.

He will never let those words be known to Roxanne. Some truths serve no purpose except to wound the people forced to hear them, and Brandon sees no value in allowing Roxanne to carry the knowledge that her mother once speaks about her with such cold indifference.

She has spent four years rebuilding her confidence and discovering that her value has never depended on what she can provide to other people. He refuses to let Amelia's cruelty poison that hard-earned peace.

Only now does everything finally begin to change. Robert has chosen to remove the danger himself. It takes Caleb lying unconscious in a hospital bed after a venomous snakebite to force his younger brother to see what everyone else has seen for years.

Brandon wishes it had happened differently. He wishes Robert had opened his eyes before the marriage costs him so much, before the ranch is pushed to the brink, before his children are forced to carry burdens that should never have belonged to them.

But regrets accomplish nothing. What matters now is that Robert finally asks for help. Brandon opens his eyes and lets the memories drift away. The past can't be rewritten, but the future still can.

For the first time after four years, Roxanne will be able to return to Texas without Amelia waiting for her, and Robert will no longer have to fight his battles alone. That, Brandon decides, is reason enough to finally let his daughter come home.

"You may go."

The excitement in Roxanne's voice is immediate. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh my God." She laughs openly this time. "I'll only stay a little while. I promise I'll come back to New York exactly when I'm supposed to. I just... I need to see them."

"I know."

"Thank you, Father." Her happiness is so genuine that Brandon can't help smiling.

"You'll coordinate everything with Alexandra."

Roxanne hums in agreement before asking, "Why?"

"Because if she goes with you, I'll worry less."

"Because she's my mother?" There's a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Brandon laughs. "No," He answers without missing a beat.

"Because she's an adult." 

There's a long, offended silence before Roxanne protests. "I'm an adult."

"No."

"I am."

"Roxanne."

His smile widens. "You're twenty, just a baby."

"No, I'm not a baby," Roxanne complains.

"Yes, you're still a baby." Brandon replies, seemingly enjoying himself with the father-daughter banters.

"Father." Roxanne is ready to list all the reasons she isn't a baby and is a full-grown adult.

"I've got employees older than you who still behave like children." Brandon chuckles, totally enjoying the banter.

"I run one of your divisions."

"You do."

"I negotiate million-dollar contracts."

"You certainly do."

"I literally represent Northgrid."

"And you do an excellent job."

She sighs dramatically. "So why am I still a baby?"

Brandon chuckles. "Because no matter how many companies you run or contracts you negotiate, you're still my daughter."

Another defeated sigh reaches his ear. "I don't like that answer."

"I know, but you'll accept it." Brandon says non-chalantly.

There's a brief silence before Roxanne finally laughs. "Fine."

"Thank you, father. For this, I'll be back before you come back from London." She promised him.

"Go take care of your family in Texas." He said softly.