Marrying Her Older Billionaire

“I’ll have the valet call me a cab,” said Matthew. He went to the valet and talked to him. Angie and Richard looked on as Matthew got into a cab and left without so much as a second glance towards either Angie or Richard.

They stood like they had just survived a bomb blast. “What just happened?” asked Angie.

“Well,” said Richard, “I just lost my job.”

“That was so much worse than I expected,” said Angie. “I didn’t think that he would fire you. I didn’t even know that he could fire you at all!”

“I will always be a partner at the law firm unless I commit an actual crime,” said Richard. “But my position in the company’s workforce is always something that can be taken away by the actual manager of the company. And if Matthew wants to be the manager of the company, I can’t stop him. He added a clause in the resignation document that stated that he could come back at any time. The contract that I signed when I became manager of the law firm stated that he could assume his position again at any time he wanted, and if I attempted to stop him I would face litigation. Matt never played softball when it came to his firm. He never trusted me completely. He never trusted anyone completely. He doesn’t trust me at all now.”

“Richard,” said Angie, “that job was everything to you.”

“It meant a lot to me, it’s true,” said Richard. His shoulders were slumped. He looked completely and utterly dejected. He looked like nothing in the world could console him in this moment. He looked like half of his body had been taken away from him, that everything he had enjoyed had been brief and fleeting and he had only just realized it when he was gone.

She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to make this better. Unless she did something that she really did not want to do.

“We have to call it off,” said Angie. “The engagement. We have to call it off. We can’t keep doing this. We can’t keep… we just… We can’t go on if it costs you your job. I can’t go on. And not if it makes my dad this unhappy. His retirement meant so much to him. He just… he can’t just go back to work, that would make him miserable. I think he would be happy if he retires. He would be able to process all of the things that had happened. He would be able to enjoy his life a little bit more.”

“What’re you saying, Angie?” asked Richard, grabbing her by her shoulders and pulling her in front of him.

“I’m saying that we can’t be together anymore, Richard,” said Angie. “The cost, it’s far too great… my father’s retirement, your job… If I go home and tell him that we have called the engagement off, perhaps he would be happy for a change. Perhaps it would convince him to let you work at the firm again. Perhaps he’d also allow you to keep running the law firm. I don’t want him to have to give up something that he wanted for so long just because I am so selfish.”

“You… you weren’t being selfish,” said Richard. He was looking at her like she was made of glass, like if he touched her he might break her. “You were doing what you wanted to do, but where love is concerned that is not selfish. Of course you love who you want to love. Of course you feel the way you want to feel. Your father… he fired me, it’s true, but he also said that he won’t stop our marriage. I can get a job somewhere else and we can be together. We could be happy, Angie.”

“My father would never come to the wedding,” said Angie. “Do you really think I want a wedding where my father was not there to walk me down the aisle? That’s every little girls dream, to look at her handsome husband and to have her father walk her down the aisle and give her to him. That’s what I want. And if I can’t get that… well then I can’t do this. I can’t have a wedding that my father will not be a part of, I just can’t.”

“Angie,” said Richard. She wasn’t looking at him anymore. She had turned away. But she could hear his voice and the sound of it broke her heart. She couldn’t help but feel like she was making a terrible mistake. She couldn’t help but feel like everything she had done so far had been a complete and utter mistake. Going to Kenya seemed like it had been a huge mistake. Every single choice she had ever made suddenly seemed like the worst choice that she could have possibly made because each and every one of them had led her to this moment, where she had to break the heart of the man she loved in order to preserve the happiness of the man that had raised her.

She started to walk away.

“Angie!” Richard said, louder. She could hear the dejection in his voice. He started to come closer and she started walking faster. Thunder clapped overhead and rain started to fall. It fit the whole situation. It fit the fact that it was raining inside her. She was so sad that she could not even think straight. The last time she had been this sad had been when her mother had died.

She walked away, ignoring Richard’s cries, Richard’s pleading. She walked away, knowing that she was walking away from the man that she loved, possibly the only man that she would ever love. Would she ever find happiness? She didn’t know. But that didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was that she got home and told her dad that the wedding was off. All that mattered now was making her dad feel like she really did care about his happiness. All that mattered was him knowing that his happiness mattered to the only family he had left. How abandoned he must feel right now. He must feel like he had lost his only daughter. She was going to go back to him and make him realize that she was still his daughter. That she would always be his daughter. And that if he didn’t like something that she was about to do, she would simply not do it. That was how much his happiness mattered to her. She was willing to leave the only man that she would ever love, the only person that had made her want to spend the rest of her life with them, in order to make her father happy.

Richard was no longer following her. Angie turned the corner. Her face was stony, stoic. She showed no emotion in case Richard saw her. She knew that he was no longer following her, but she was still a little bit paranoid about it. She hailed a cab and got in. The cab was warm, but the warmth was cloying against her soaking wet skin. She told the driver where to go and laid back onto the seat.

And then, finally safe from prying eyes, Angie allowed herself to cry.