In Love With Mr. Billionaire - Chapter 23: Chapter 23

**** Caroline's POV ****
"Where to bitch?" Lahaina's voice made the smile drop on my face as I was running down the stairs to go to Aaron waiting for me outside.
I thought of ignoring her. Aaron hated waiting. Though he never said that to me, I could feel the impatience crawling under his skin every time he had to wait for someone—which was quite rare in itself.
But ignoring Lahaina had never worked. If anything, it would piss her off more and she would want to create more trouble for me.
"Just going to get some air," I told her. It wasn't completely a lie considering suffocation was what I always felt around them.
"With Aaron?" She raised an eyebrow.
"No," I shook my head. She threw a glance at the door, then looked back at me. A toothy grin appeared on her face as she pushed me aside and walked out of the door.
It was at moments like this that the suffocation was almost overwhelming.
I had only taken a couple of steps to go behind Lahaina when my cell phone rang. Thinking it was Aaron just being impatient Aaron, I pushed the button to mute it and run outside when my eyes caught my father's name on the display. With a deep breath as one taken before taking a dip in the ocean, I answered the call.
"Yes, dad?" I said politely.
"Where are you?" He questioned in his normal pissed off tone.
"At home," I said, omitting mentioning Aaron to him.
"What a useless piece of shit you are!" He exclaimed. "You're going to get married to Goddamn Aaron Woodwords and you decide to stay at home? I got to know he gave you a freaking Lamborghini yesterday. A Lamborghini for what? No occasion. Just like that. If that man is willing to spend so much on trash like you, why don't you go make some use of it!" By the time he finished speaking, he was shouting.
"What do you mean 'make some use of it?" I asked, unsure of what he was so angry about.
"You're really stupid, aren't you, Caroline? Spend time with him. Be with him. Be good to him. Do whatever he wants you to. I don't want him to realize he made a mistake by choosing you, which of course he did. But once he loses interest in you, I'm afraid that will be sooner than I think, we won't be able to get a penny from him. If that happens Caroline, it will all be on you. I won't think twice before ripping your head off," he threatened.
"So you want me to spend his money and then pass it to you?" I needed confirmation. After all these years living with him in fear, I knew wealth was where it all ended for him. But for some reason, I wanted him to say it. Confess it.
I heard him sigh on the other end. "Yes, Caro. Yes. God! You're just like your mother. She was just as stupid. I pity Aaron for choosing you over Lahaina."
"I won't do it," I snapped.
"What?" His voice held shock and disbelief. This was the second time that I had snapped on him. If he was physically here, I knew he would have hit me already.
I was used to him calling me names, treating me like dirt, hitting me when he felt the words would not cause enough pain. It all had become a part of life.
He hardly ever talked about mom. Hardly ever brought her up. It was like she never existed for him. For me, that was something I could live with. But calling her names, when he had done nothing but made her suffer. When he was the one who had trapped her inside his house and suffocated her till all the life was out of her, then beat her lifeless frame and dragged her out of the house, threatening to never return.
He had no right to speak ill of her.
"I'm not stealing from Aaron," I told him, sternly.
"Why?" He asked. Like it was the most ridiculous thing in the world.
"Because I'm like my mother and not like you or your wonderful other wife and daughter who run after money. I'm not going to fool Aaron just because I have a greedy father." My heart was racing in my chest like crazy as I said the words. I knew it was not something I should have said to him. But the moment he had brought mom into it, something in me had snapped and the words were out of my mouth before I could weigh the consequences.
I ended the call, not waiting for his response. I already knew what was coming.
Though the words were pricky, I meant them. Apart from saying ill about my mother, he had also asked me to rob the only good thing in my life right now. It was never going to happen. I was never going to become like them.
I walked out of the house, almost dizzy with thoughts. He will be furious when he returns from work. Should I apologize to him? But apologies never had any effect on him.
Aaron was standing near his car, looking half-dead as he said something to Lahaina. The moment he saw me, his eyes lit up. He came towards me with a smile and gave me a soft kiss on the lips. Despite the dread for the following evening, I smiled at him. It was just something about him that made the sunshine above my rainy life.
He guided me to his car and off we went to see Dylan.
We reached the hotel and were walking through the luxurious gallery when I saw my father talking to a group of men at the entrance.
I froze when his eyes caught me. Furious would be an understatement for what I saw in them. He gave Aaron a nod as Aaron pulled me away from there.
The manager took us to a tennis court where Dylan was already waiting for us. He was wearing a V - neck royal blue tee and khaki shorts whereas Aaron, who had expected a formal meeting, was wearing his normal office clothes.
Dylan could have told me about it. She should have told me about it. But why would he? He had the audacity to call Aaron and threaten him to stay away from me by giving the worst excuse possible. Why would he even care about Aaron's comfort?
"Why here, Dylan?" I asked him after they both had their heated session of glaring and a really tough handshake.
A brief conversation was shared between them that sounded more like throwing insults at each other rather than two people talking.
The two of them were the best men in my life and I was excited for them to get to know each other. It was already certain by each of their phone calls the other day that they don't like each other, but now looking at them, all my worries were gone.
They both were grown men. Influential men. Two of the very powerful people around the globe and here they were, having tough handshakes and throwing childish insults.
They may not like each other, but there wasn't going to be war any time soon.
Dylan tossed a tennis racket to Aaron. Aaron in turn took off his coat and gave it to me. I teased him about knowing tennis.
With the childhood I had spent with Dylan, I knew he was good at most things. Give him an hour on something and the next thing you know, he has mastered it. Tennis was no different. I had never won a sport against him and he had never acted like a nice big brother who lets his little cousin win a game.
Hopefully, he loses against Aaron. It would heal my wounded childhood pride.
The match started and my joy was unmatched when Aaron scored the first point.
Aaron was right. He was extremely good at it.
Dylan scored the next point and I couldn't hold back the cousin in me for cheering from him. Though I was still on Aaron's side. Always will be.
The match started again. My attention was pulled away from the game when I saw a figure enter the tennis court. My father.
Crap!
He looked at me with the similar thing in his eye as he had near the entrance. I cowered in my seat. This could not be happening.
He was about to come near me when something happened and he fell on the ground with a thud. I stood there shocked, not able to register what just happened.
Then I saw the tennis ball lying on the ground beside him and realization dawned upon me. Aaron hit him!
The scene had escalated at lightning speed. One moment dad was walking towards me with maddening fury in his eyes and the next, he was lying on the ground, groaning in pain. The tennis ball bounced and stopped inches away from where his face was now on the ground.
I turned to look at Aaron with pure, horrified shock. He didn't seem affected by the scene in front of him. He was only staring at the man on the ground, with no expression on his face.
"Oops," he said, raising his eyebrows when he saw me looking over at him. The expression on his face was ridiculously cute.
How he turns from charming to hot to cute in just seconds is still a complete mystery to me.
I took a step towards my father to help him up. I didn't know how bad the injury was. He had covered his whole face with his palm as he groaned with the immense pain it caused him.
Before I could take another step towards him, Dylan moved forward. Since he was on his side of the court, I let him go help him. I was pretty sure my father wouldn't want any help from me anyway.
It was strange to think that Dylan had taken the initiative to offer his help. With the hatred he held in his heart since he was a kid for the man, and which had grown almost twice by now, I had not hoped that he would even bat an eye at the accident. But I was wrong.
Dylan may hate people with everything in him, but deep down he was a nice person. He could never see anyone hur—
Wait!
Strike all of that. Dylan is a bitch.
He kneeled next to him just to pick up that ball. Without sparing a single look at the man lying on the ground, he came back to the court and resumed the game. The thing that left me in complete awe of the entire situation, was to watch them continuing their game as if nothing happened. Aaron did not object either.
By the time I got hold of everything happening around me, dad was up on his feet. He covered his nose with one of his hands and dusted his clothes with the other. Though covered, I could see the blood pouring out from between his fingers. The tennis ball had broken his nose.
When the ball hit the ground as Dylan missed a point, they saw me walk towards dad and followed me to him.
I still did not have the courage to talk to him or ask him if he needed help. He clearly looked like he did, though.
"Go to a doctor. Fast." Aaron ordered him rudely. I turned to look at him with surprise at the tone used but he gave me a 'what?' look in return.
"Yes. And don't worry about the expense. I'll take care of it," Dylan said arrogantly. A tone I never heard him use before.
Dad didn't say anything. He looked like he was in too much pain to even utter a single word. He stumbled. Instinctively, I took a step forward but Aaron grabbed my hand to stop me.
"We need to go somewhere. Come on or we'll be late," he said, taking his coat that was draped over my arm.
"Where?" I asked, helping him with his coat. Dad had limped away.
"You'll see," he said, then turned towards Dylan.
"Though we didn't get much time to talk about some important stuff," Aaron spoke, putting more stress on the word 'stuff' than required. "It was still nice meeting you, Dylan VanAssche," he said, forwarding his hand for another shake.
"Nice meeting you too, Aaron Woodwords. Don't worry, we'll have enough meetings in the future to talk about the stuff," Dylan replied, putting extra emphasis on the last word.
What was it with them using full names and 'stuff'?
They shook their hands. Dylan gave me a short hug and whispered, "still don't like him". I pulled back and frowned at him. He gave me a bright smile and I knew. I knew that even if he still had doubts about Aaron, he had approved him for me.
"Where did you learn to play so well?" I asked Aaron as we were walking through the hotel lobby.
"I was born with all these talents, Caroline. It's all-natural," he replied, placing his hand over his chest.
"Stop flattering yourself," I chuckled. "Was it on purpose?" I raised my brows at him.
He mimicked the action, pretending to be confused about the question.
"My dad. I know you don't like him for some reason," I said.
Aaron shook his head. "Not on purpose," he swore.
I narrowed my eyes on him. Neither his words nor the expression on his face was convincing enough for me to believe it. But... Why would he?
"Where are we going?" I asked again as we both slipped inside his car.
"First, we are going to have lunch, then we are going to meet my father," Aaron said, pressing the button to start the vehicle.
"What?" I asked in horror.
"You heard me, Caroline."
"Your father?" I gasped. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"What difference would it have made if I did?"
"I would have spent the whole day sulking and preparing myself for it," the words were out of my mouth before I realized.
"That's exactly why I didn't."
That was a great point, but the last time I met Ethan he was sitting in my house with my father, discussing the marriage of his son with my step-sister. The last time I saw him was at the charity event, where he had looked so happy with Lahaina being at Aaron's side. How was he going to react to seeing me now? Was he going to not like me? That shouldn't even be a question. Of course, he was going to hate me for it.
Aaron placed his hand over mine and gave it a squeeze, "relax, Caroline. I'm going to be there with you."
I turned my head to look at him. He leaned forward to kiss my forehead, assuring me of his words. I nodded when he pulled back to look at me. He was going to be there with me. And that was all that really mattered.