Claire: The Forced Virgin Of The Billionaire

“Claire! Back in the f*****g house!” Azriel yelled. His uncle tried to pull free of Azriel’s grip and then the most awful thing happened. Azriel’s silver crucifix necklace flew airborne during the scuffle and it fell. I ran for it but it fell down and when my eyes landed on the ground, they didn’t land on concrete or on grass. It was a sewer grate. I landed on my knees and cried out. Azriel let go of his uncle and reached for me and then Tom grabbed my dad again and cold clocked him and my dad was knocked out, lying on the ground bleeding right beside the sewer that had swallowed up Azriel’s necklace, Azriel’s anchor to goodness.

I was inconsolable. I was on my now bloodied knees bawling, staring at the sewer. Anyone watching might’ve thought that I was crying for my passed out bleeding father but my eyes met Azriel’s and I knew he saw precisely what I was weeping about.

He hollered out “Jimmy!” and then Nino and James got my father up off the ground carried him, barely conscious back toward the house.

Azriel yelled at his Uncle, “Uncle, inside!” And then he lifted me off the ground and cradled me to his chest, carrying me tight against himself, back to the house while I cried inconsolably into his chest, clutching his shirt.

Azriel’s POV

The guys put Dawson into a car and had someone drive him. I knew they’d either get him looked at by a doctor or they’d bring him back to his house if he was alright. I got Claire into the family room and put her on the couch and covered her shoulders with a blanket and dabbed at her bleeding knees with tissue. She’d stopped crying but was making shuddering noises and had the hiccups. Rosita brought her a glass of water and put two glasses and a decanter of scotch on the coffee table, left the room and then came back with a first aid kit. I took it from her and waved her away and put antiseptic and then Band-Aids on Claire’s knees and then I poured a drink for Uncle and for myself. He sat a few cushions away from Claire on the sofa, watching me bandage her up with a weird expression on his face. I was sitting on the coffee table, my legs between the two of them.

“Uncle, it’s time for the truth.”

He downed his scotch and looked at her.

I said, “I know some of it, I know you know that I know some, but we need you to fill in the blanks.”

“I’m sorry if that upset you,” he said to Claire, “That necklace you’re wearing, I gave that to your mother for her eighteenth birthday. Caused quite an uproar at the time.”

She put her hand to her throat.

“We were crazy about each other but her brother, my best friend and business partner, wanted no part of it. He didn’t want one of his buddies dating his little sister. Died when he was 28. Tragic loss. I was there for her and she was there for me and we started to date. It was at the end of my marriage to Annette. But Lita and I had a fight one night and split up, stupid fight, and she decided she wanted no part of the life I lead. We went our separate ways. She married your father. She married fast so I’d know we were really over. You were born. Then we reconnected again, she wasn’t happy with him, and we talked about leaving our spouses. She got pregnant with my baby.”

Claire gasped.

“She had all this guilt. She decided to give things another go with him. Your father made her get rid of my kid. I’ve always hated him for that. I’m Catholic, you know; we don’t believe in that. When he made her have that abortion, I believe it destroyed her. He was the reason she died.” Uncle poured another glass of scotch.

“I saw you a few months ago,” Uncle said, “Saw you all grown up one day on the street with your friends and it was like looking at her all young and happy again and I, I … I decided to give my son what I should’ve had.

I’ve been married a lot. But if I’d married Lita, that would’ve been forever. I won’t deny I wanted to take Greg’s child the way he took my child from me, the child

I

never got to know.” He shrugged and downed the drink, “So I hate your father. Sorry but that’s how it is. I’ve wanted to knock him out for years and saw his smug face when he left here today and so I just closed the chapter with my fists, that’s all. I’m done.” Uncle looked at me and raised his hands defensively, “I’m done, my boy.”

Claire had stopped shuddering and hiccupping. She was dabbing her eyes.

Uncle got to his feet, “You wanna have him at your wedding, I’ll keep my mouth shut and I’ll be nice. As nice as I can be under the circumstances.”

“C’mon Uncle.” I said and signaled for him to follow me. I leaned over and kissed her on the forehead and whispered, “Back in a few.”

Uncle and I stepped outside. His driver was standing by the gate talking to Nino and Jimmy and they halted conversation when they saw us come out. I shot a dirty look their way. They looked like a couple of gossiping old ladies.

“What brought you by today?” I asked.

“Just wanted to say Hello,” he answered and shrugged but he was looking me right in the eye, the way he always did when he was feeding me bullshit.

It was obvious that he knew Dawson was here. Someone told him that my guys were picking the guy up. Who?

“Come by the office tomorrow morning, we gotta talk more about the Fete plan. Unfortunately, Denarda’s back in. People flying in tomorrow. I’ll fill you in later.”

“Right,” I said, jaw tight. Leo Denarda. Great.

“When ya getting married?” Uncle asked.

I shook my head, “Not sure.”

“What’s the problem? You not sure about her now?”

I shook my head, “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”

He frowned at me.

“I want it to be right. We’re almost there. It won’t be long.”

“You’re keeping me from my Valhalla,” he waggled a finger at me.

“Naw, Uncle. You go. We’ll be good. We’ll get married soon.”

“Maybe. The new house is still bein’ built so not a major rush. We’ll talk more later,” he slapped me on the back and then headed down the front stairs toward his car. His driver jogged over from the gate and opened the car door for Uncle. I followed the car out and stared at the sewer in front of my house. My mother’s necklace was gone. No way I’d get it back. Just as well, maybe. I needed to learn to control myself without it, anyhow. I heard Nino call out, “A?” I looked over my shoulder to see that suddenly Claire was beside me, staring at the sewer.

She grasped the cameo necklace around her neck then she dropped it over the sewer grate. She turned on her heel, and walked back toward the house. I let out a slow breath and followed her.

Claire’s POV

I walked up to the bedroom and kicked off my shoes and crawled into bed, the soft gray cashmere throw Azriel had put over my shoulders still wrapped around me.

The s**t my father had pulled in my life all pointed to him being a weak and broken man. But what I saw today was like an addict swindling to get his fix. He was looking for an in with this family and thought I was it. And he turned on me. Azriel had said he was still using drugs. Was he imagining working for this family and getting wealthy and having access to all the sins he wanted? Drugs, gambling? Notoriety? Was he

that

out of touch with reality?

Azriel came into the bedroom a few minutes after I did, looking stressed. He took the navy blue suit jacket he was wearing off and climbed in beside me and pulled me to his chest. I was going to cry again. It couldn’t be helped. So much for my tough hardened self that I thought I was after my conversation with my Dad.

“Your necklace,” I whispered, rubbing my hand up his chest.

“I know,” he sighed.

“That was really f****d up,” I said.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“But what did he mean?” I asked.

“Hm?” he asked distractedly.

“He mumbled something about you clearing my father’s debt. That didn’t make sense. Don’t I clear it by marrying you?” I couldn’t help but frown at the fact that I’d finally come to terms with the fact that all of it had been f*****g orchestrated and I was just a dumb pawn, thinking I was the queen.

Azriel’s eyes focused on me and he said, “I paid your father’s debt.”

“Huh?”

“Uncle gave you to me as a gift as he later told me. But I paid it anyway. My meeting you might’ve been my Uncle’s doing but you’re wholly mine.”

I shook my head and frowned, not understanding. He continued, “I paid it. Despite the gift, I wanted the debt paid just to get back some control of things. So when we got back from Mexico I paid it, with interest. To make it done.”

I started to feel spinny, “You paid for me?”

“Not for you, for the debt. To end it.”

“You paid money for me.” My fingers were at my temples.

“Claire, listen—”

“You really just had to ‘own’ me, didn’t you? You had to pay money for me because I’m a piece of f*****g property to you!” I pushed at his chest to get away from him.