Chapter 118 – Ogden

Everything was a whirlwind. As soon as Roger and Jennifer left, I was fuming. I was angry that Grace thought that she could manipulate me into being in a relationship with her. And when that didn’t work, she was going to sue me. If I just went with her, she would have stopped the lawsuit.

She thought that she could get a relationship with me through extortion. It was ridiculous. I quickly logged into the surveillance system and started to download all of the records that had Grace. I knew that she would try to cover her tracks and I needed to get to it before she had the opportunity to log in. I knew that I could have the security guards do it, but I wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else until this was done.

I tried to take deep breaths as I saved a recording to my computer. I quickly shoved in a flash drive so that I could save it somewhere else just in case she had someone who could easily hack into my computer.

My phone buzzed. I looked down, it was Sophia. “Hello?” I asked into the phone. I didn’t want to deal with another thing, and I hoped that Willow’s mom was okay.

“Jeez, angry much?” She snapped back.

I didn’t want to deal with her. Usually talking to Sophia was like pulling teeth and I just didn’t want to deal with it. “I’m dealing with something. What’s wrong?”

“I just wanted to give you an update. Will just got word from one of the docs that her mom was a little touch and go for a bit. But now Betsy is doing okay.”

I rubbed my eyes. Of course something was happening with Willow. I couldn’t leave work right now, even if I wanted to. I needed to make sure that we got everything against Grace. I wasn’t going down without a fight. “How is Willow?”

“How do you think she is? She is stressed beyond belief and doing her best to keep it together.” Sophia snapped.

Of course she was doing her best to keep it together. I felt bad that I didn’t message her. I didn’t want to bombard her with text messages throughout the day when she was stressing about her mom. I wanted to give her space to be present for her mom. I wanted to leave now, but I knew I couldn’t. I had to see this through. At least see this through as much as I could.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I said to her. I took my thumb and forefingers and started to massage my temples. A migraine was brewing, and I didn’t want to deal with that on top of everything else. “Let me know if anything else happens.”

Sophia exhaled. “I got you, cuz. Don’t stress too much, I’m here with her.”

I was grateful that Sophia was with Willow. I could only imagine how she would be dealing with her mom alone. I owed my cousin big time. “Thank you.” I quickly hung up as Marsha knocked on my office door.

I waved her in. If she was going to give me more bad news, I didn’t want to hear it. “What?”

She raised her eyebrows at me.

“Sorry. Just…” I waved my hand at my desk. “A lot.”

“Well, maybe I can bring you some good news.” She smiled at me.

I stared at her with tired eyes. “Oh yeah?” Any news that didn’t contain a psycho stalker had to be good.

She pulled a box that she was holding behind her back. “I got this.” She beamed a smile at me.

I looked at the box. I was too focused on finding all the footage of Grace and on Willow’s mom that I couldn’t recall what that box was.

Marsha frowned at me. “It’s the ring.” Her frown slowly turned up into a smile.

I stared at the box. It was the ring. The very ring that I was going to give Willow tomorrow. The very ring that could push Willow into agreeing to officially marry me. I didn’t want to force her, but anything that would get her to really say yes would be welcome.

I stood and held out my hand. “Let me see it.” My heart thudded in my chest as Marsha closed the distance between us and handed me the box. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. I slowly opened it and the exact ring that Sophia and I built lay nestled in a black cushion, glinting against the light. “It’s perfect.” I smiled at it.

The stress that was building throughout the day started to slowly seep away. This represented my future, the start of my future with Willow. The future that I had been yearning for since I met her.

“What do you think?” I turned the box and showed Marsha.

She smiled at it. “It is gorgeous and if Willow doesn’t want it. I’ll take it.” She let out a laugh.

“Not funny, Marsha.” I deadpanned at her. I turned the box back to me and stared at it. It was so perfect. Even though it wasn’t encrusted with diamonds, and the band was simple, it was perfect for Willow. It looked like something she would really love.

“It is good to see a small smile though.” She laughed again. “It is a really beautiful ring and I know Willow will love it.”

“Now, I just need to ask her to marry me.”

“I think that will be the easy part. I am like ninety-five percent sure that she is going to say yes.”

“Only ninety-five percent?”

“In all things, you can never be one hundred percent sure.” She shrugged at me.

I rolled my eyes at her. “Do you think you can handle the gathering of the surveillance?” I snapped the box closed and put it into my briefcase. I didn’t want to be in the office any longer. I knew where I needed to be and that was with Willow.

“Yes, I know Roger and Jennifer are gathering their own information against Grace. I can continue going through the surveillance. Honestly it shouldn’t be too long before I get everything. Once she left, she doesn’t really pop up too much. Only to mess with Willow.”

I took a breath. “Okay, great.” I pulled on my suit jacket and grabbed the briefcase. I opened the safe that was behind a painting. The ring was going to be safe in there, only Marsha and I knew the safe existed. And I was the only one who had the combination. It was going to be safe until tomorrow.

“Did you need anything else from me?” Marsha watched as I closed and sealed the safe.

“No, just get as much footage of Grace breaking into the building and any of her antics. I’m going to go to the hospital and be with Willow.” That’s all that I needed. I wanted to be with her, be there and support her. Hold her hand as she waits.

Marsha gave me a smile and a small nod. “On it, boss. Don’t worry about a thing.”

I left Marsha to work on the case with Roger and Jennifer. I knew that it was in good hands. It was just crazy that Grace had the audacity to sue me because she didn’t get her way. How long had she been working on that plan? Did she plan it the entire time after I fired her? Or did she just have a random thought and went with it?

I quickly maneuvered through the streets and made it to the hospital. It was midafternoon and the hospital was bustling with people going in and out. There was a crowd outside of the doors looking in. It was the damn paparazzi. They were doing everything in their power to get a glimpse of Willow.

I jogged up behind them.

“There he is!” Someone yelled and they started to take pictures of me approaching them.

“Please, leave.” I yelled at the crowd that was starting to circle around me. “You should feel ashamed of yourselves for bothering me and my wife at the hospital.”

“What is your wife doing here?” Someone yelled.

“That is none of your business.” I yelled back. “Leave.”

“There are stories that are going around that she is pregnant. Do you care to respond?”

I furrowed my eyebrows at the person that asked the question. “What? No. She isn’t pregnant. Please vacate the property before I call the police.” The rumor mill was really working. They were trying to make a story where there wasn’t one.

A group of the hospital security guards walked out and started to make a path for me to get to the door. “That’s enough, please disperse.”

I walked through the crowd; camera flashes went off as I made my way through. I didn’t understand why they were so thirsty for a story about Willow and me. We just got married, that was it. I wasn’t that famous. I was just a wealthy entrepreneur. Not some sort of actor.

I made my way through the hospital; I was eager to see Willow. I knew I should have been here the entire time. But I had important meetings that I couldn’t reschedule. And even if I could, Willow wouldn’t hear of it. I could tell she was feeling bad for all of the times I had to postpone meetings.

I walked into Betsy’s hospital room. Willow was sitting in a chair next to the window, Beverly was under the television, and Sophia was sitting next to Willow typing into her phone.

Willow’s eyes met mine and she jumped up from her chair. She pulled me against her into a hug. I wrapped her in my arms, holding her against me. When she was in my arms everything felt right. Like I was finally home.

“How’s it going?” I said as I still held her against me. Her head against my chest. I knew she could hear my heartbeat. Tomorrow she would know that my heart only beat for her.

She let out a long breath. “It has been stressful, a little bit ago a doctor said the surgery was touch and go.” Willow pulled away and bit her lip.

“Yeah, Sophia called me and gave me an update. That’s why I came earlier.” I kept my hands on her arms. I didn’t want to break the connection just in case me touching her gave her any sort of relief. “And no one told me there was paparazzi.” I glanced over at Sophia who looked at me and then averted her gaze.

“It wasn’t a big deal, Jeremy dropped us off at the back.” Willow gave me a weak smile then looked down at my shoulder. “What is that?” She pulled out of my grasp and pointed at my shoulder. Her eyebrows furrowed together. “Is that lipstick?”