“Oh, her? The model?”
“That's the one.”
“I bet the baby news is going to kill her.”
“She doesn't want me. Not like that. She wants to see a grand merger of the Thomas and Hampton family fortunes.”
“You guys would have made a cute couple.”
I wrinkled my nose. Whether a couple looked good standing next to each other really had no bearing on whether they were good for each other as people. That was what my mother and Elizabeth Thomas valued; who would make the prettiest family portrait. “I'll invite her to the wedding.”
Niall laughed. “Wedding? Aren't you jumping the gun a little bit?”
“We’re expecting a baby already, if anything we're doing things out of order.”
“What about your mother?”
I shrugged. “What about her?”
He leaned back in his seat with a shocked look on his face. “Oh my God, she doesn't know, does she?”
“I don't need my mother's permission to start a family.”
“No, no. You, Charles Hampton, are one of the rare people who does need your mother's permission in order to start a family.”
I shrugged. "She might not like it."
“She's going to hate it. Her son, finding a woman that he loves and starting a family with her, without her approval? Like a normal person? You might give her an aneurysm.”
I had thought about all of this. I had been thinking about it a lot more lately, the better things had been going with Brenna. There was no endpoint to this. Brenna was staying in my life. she and my mother were going to have to get along. Brenna was already kind of weary of her, with good reason. I knew, however, that she would do her best to be polite and civil around her. My mother didn't have that. She was the queen of putting on her best behavior when she was talking to someone she wanted to impress, but with people she thought were beneath her, she could be ruthless.
“I can't let her run my life anymore. She wanted an heir from me to safeguard the family fortune and I'll give it to her, but only on my terms. Brenna is the woman of my choice, and our baby is going to be raised by two people who love her. If my mother has a problem with that, then, she might just have to grow up without a grandmother.”
Niall whistled. “Where did all these balls come from?” he asked me. “You used to just take her bullshit back in the day. Not even that long ago, just like a month ago even. What changed?”
Everything had changed. I had gone from jaded and hopeless about my mother's expectations from me to finding the love of my life again and starting a family with her. I had done a total one-eighty in just a matter of weeks, and I was happier and more satisfied than I had ever been. I didn't realize that getting my life headed in the direction I actually wanted it to go could do that to me. I honest-to-god did not care.
“Everything fell into place. I have the family that I want with the woman that I love and my mother doesn't have to lose sleep anymore thinking about the state of the family fortune. If she wants to be part of her granddaughter’s life, this is the way it's going to happen.”
Niall’s eyebrow went up. “Granddaughter?”
“It’s still too early to tell. I just have a feeling that it's a girl.”
“Well, I can't wait to meet her. Congratulations, and best of luck dealing with Veronica.”
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you. Now that you finally have your shit in order, I don't have to worry about taking over the title from you.” Even as a new-born my child would have better leadership and administrative skills than Niall. Nobody wanted to see him ascend the title.
“Find yourself a woman, Niall. Great experience. Highly recommend.”
Niall stood up, sighing. His face darkened and he looked down.
“I’ll leave that to you.”
“No one special in your life right now?”
“No. Women are great for a night or two but that’s my limit,” he said.