Zari had to wait while Martha complained about her salad. She gave up and started eating, no longer caring if she was being rude. She was hungry, and Martha was being a pain in the ass. She would leave a great tip to make up for some of it, but money simply wasn’t enough to make up for being treated as if you didn’t matter.
“Martha, he brought you exactly what you ordered, but if it’s not to your taste, I’m sure he’ll bring you what you want,” she snapped, finally, and Martha glared at her.
“Of course, you would empathize with the help, Zari. That is what you are, in the end. The help.”
Zari froze.
The waiter withdrew.
That’s it. She was done playing nice.
“Martha, what is your problem with me?”
Martha’s face changed. It looked like she was done playing, too.
“Let me make a list. You’re not one of us. You don’t make a good picture with East. You’re raising the babies without taking our status and our needs into consideration. You don’t fit in with us. You’re not rich, you’re not famous, and yes, those are things that matter in this world, the world that we’re a part of. You might not understand, but that is how it is, Zari. You are not an asset to the family.”
Zari couldn’t quite find her voice. She’d known, of course, that Martha was a snob who thought all of that, but she hadn’t really expected her to just come right out and say it just like that.
“Wow. That is incredibly disrespectful.”
“What is disrespectful is expecting that we would accept you as part of the family. Why, for all we know, you’re a fame-seeker. Or a gold-digger. You might be using East and our family’s reputation to launch your own career and get a meal ticket for life! I know how you people operate. Just because you have East’s children—and we need a paternity test for that, I’m afraid. We’re not going to take your word for it—it doesn’t mean that you’re a part of the family.”
Zari took a deep breath and tried to figure out where all her anger was. She felt strangely calm.
“First of all, Martha, if this is what your family is like, I’m not entirely sure that I want to be a part of it at all. Second, if you’d bothered to even look at the babies, you would have seen that they both have East’s eyes. They have blue eyes. But of course, you didn’t look at them. Third, I am not going to take a paternity test, and I am not going to satisfy you that I’m not a gold-digger or a fame-seeker. I seek neither of those things. I don’t expect you to understand. I would vastly prefer it if East wasn’t part of such a famous family. We could have an easier, more normal life if he were just a man like any other man. I deal with it because I love him. That’s all there is to it.”
“I will pay you.”
“What?”
“One million dollars for yourself, to leave us alone.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Legal joint custody of the children, if you insist, and you leave us alone. You break up with East, and you stay out of the limelight. You let East have his life back. One million dollars, immediately.”
“You’re absolutely crazy. You’re demented.”
“Two million. If one million is too little, you will get two million. The babies’ names will be changed to Cooper, not Davis-Cooper, for that price. They will be part of this family, and you will get visitation.”
“Stop.”
“Three million to give them up completely. East will raise them. We will raise them as our children.”
“Stop. Stop right now before I do something to embarrass you in front of the paparazzi that I know you tipped off.”
“Five million to never bother us again. To disappear.”
Zari didn’t know when she got to her feet. Her head swam.
She gripped the fork in her fisted hand and she honestly couldn’t have sworn that she wouldn’t have stabbed it right through Martha’s heart in that moment if an arm hadn’t slipped around her waist, and gentle fingers hadn’t pried the fork out of her hands.
East. Had East come for her?
“I think it’s time to take you home, Zari.”
No, not East. The same blue eyes, but different. Cole.
“Cole.”
“Come on, Zari. I already paid. Knowing my mother, I added a fifty percent tip. Hopefully that will make up for some of the distress she caused the wait staff. Come on, sweetheart.”
“Cole…”
“Don’t, mother. I heard too much of what you said. Don’t make it worse. Please, just don’t. Come on, Zari, let’s get you out of here.”
Zari let herself be led to the door of the restaurant, the restaurant she knew she’d never come back to even if she had loved it so much.
“Cole,” she managed to whisper, finally.
“There are photographers out there. Here, take my coat and take my arm. Turn your face to me. You cried, your makeup is ruined. Mother would be delighted if she managed to get a photo of you with ruined makeup in the tabloids. But we won’t let that happen because you’re going to use my hat to cover your face.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Thank me after I get you out of here. Come on. Chin up, don’t look like that. Let me get this…”
He quickly dabbed a wet napkin along her face, getting at least some of the mascara streaks.
“Now, be strong. I have the car out front. It’s probably getting a ticket right now, maybe I should use my mother’s card to pay it off, what do you think?”
He was distracting her, she knew that. But she was grateful for it. She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and walked quickly out of the restaurant towards Cole’s car.
She knew, of course, that there was no getting away with all of it. There would be plenty of people who were more than happy to start all that speculation about her and Cole all over again. It didn’t seem to matter that they were friends, and as close to family as people could be.
For some reason, the tabloids were obsessed with the idea that she might be getting it on with both of the handsome twins.
Cole knew how to handle media, though. He tossed them a couple of grins and waves, said something about getting his lovely sister back to his beautiful niece and nephew, and had her in the car and was driving off faster than she could possibly have navigated it herself.
“Home?” he asked, finally.
She shook her head.
“Not yet. Can we drive for a while?”
“Of course. But you didn’t really have lunch. You need to eat, to be able to feed those monsters, don’t you? Come on, let’s get you a sandwich or something. Somewhere where there will be no drama at all.”
Zari nodded, and let Cole make the call.
She couldn’t do it. She was too heartsick to do anything.