Take Me Out (17 page)

Chapter 18

The Dinner

(Charlotte)

We walked into my parents’ house for the big family dinner we had planned. I had been craving a home cooked meal from my parents’ cook, Miss Emma. No matter what she made, it was always amazing. I credited my freshman fifteen to her cooking, because I refused to eat on campus at BU.

As we walked in, I could smell her honey-mustard chicken filling the house. My stomach growled. I think she made it because she knew it was my favorite and I was the mastermind behind this family dinner.

“Charlotte darling, can you come with me for a minute before your brothers arrive?” My mother asked, I knew exactly what she wanted but I would humor her. I couldn’t think of a time after my thirteenth birthday that my mother and I actually saw eye-to-eye. We were just two very different people with extremely opposite ideas of life.

My mother wasn’t one for surprises. She wouldn’t beat around the bush either. She wanted to be the first to know whatever news it was that I would be delivering to the family.

As we rounded the corner into her personal study, her body became rigid and she turned to me and snapped in her typically cool tone. “Charlotte, I would like to know what this dinner is about. I will not have you making a fool of me and your father in our own home with whatever game you are playing.”

“Game? Mother, please! You will find out along with everyone else. I’m not a child you can bully anymore.” Ice ran through my veins. The more my mother had pushed me over the past few months, the more I wanted nothing to do with her at all. Unfortunately I knew I would always be stuck with her.

I turned and walked out of the room to rejoin the small party we had waiting in the dining room. I knew if I didn’t get away from her, she would rope me back in with an argument. That was her most popular method of prying whatever she wanted out of us.

Thankfully, when I walked into the dining room all of my brothers were there waiting with my father and Bentley. They were all being so nice to each other, exchanging pleasantries, handshakes and bro-hugs.

I sighed with relief. I wasn’t out of the woods yet, but they were warming up to Bentley. They would need to do it a hell of a lot quicker with the news we were about to drop.

“If everyone would take their seats, we could get started,” my father chimed in. At hearing his baritone voice, everyone made their way to their usual spots at the table. Bottles of wine passed from one hand to the next clockwise around the table. I was dreading it reaching me. I gulped down my water and looked for Cook’s fabulous dinner rolls while I filled my bowl to the brim with salad.

My stomach was churning. This wasn’t morning sickness. They should have really considered renaming that because the term morning sickness was totally false advertising. It was all fucking day sickness. This time, though, the roiling in my gut was all about the nerves.

Bentley reached under the table and rubbed my leg, almost like he knew I needed reassurance until we were fed to the lions. I grabbed his hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

He pushed his chair out and stood. “We called everyone here tonight because we have an announcement, as you probably know already,” he started. I was so off the hook! He was going to spill the big news for me. A cool relief washed over my entire body-- or was that a cold sweat? Whatever it was, I felt a little bit better. I stood up to accompany Bentley and took his hand. I felt incredibly comfortable next to him. I laced our fingers together and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek.

“Charlotte and I wanted to wait a little bit longer to tell everyone, but we’re too excited not to share the news with everyone. It’s not something we planned, but Charlie is pregnant!”

My mother gasped in shock. It looked like she was going to pass out right there at the table. Her mouth dropped open as she tried to say something but nothing came out. Secretly I wanted to laugh, but restrained myself. Shay and my brothers congratulated Bentley before making their way over to hug me.

“Oh look! My baby sister is all grown up now!” Jon teased as he engulfed me in a huge bear hug. I could feel a small twinge of love in my stomach. No matter what happened, my brothers would always love me unconditionally.

“I recall threatening to cut the dick off of the man responsible, if something like this happened...” Trey joked coming after him with a butter knife from the table.

“GURRRRRRL!” Shay yelled. It was all she could say. She reached around giving me a big hug and a kiss on both cheeks to go along with it. Little did everyone else know, she already knew. Had it truly been a surprise, Shay probably would have been firmly planted on the floor muttering curses.

My father was the last one to come over to me since he already knew everything. We wouldn’t dare let my mother or brothers know that though. A tight hug and a kiss on the cheek said more than any words ever could. I was his baby, all grown up. I could feel a lump in my throat as I tried to choke back my emotions to my father’s acceptance. It was all I needed to know that everything was going to be okay. A handful of tears streamed down my cheek.

My poor mother still sat in the corner in shock. “Mother, it’s okay. Have a drink or something.” Jon laughed in her direction. I walked in her direction to give her a reassuring hug, but you could see her becoming increasingly tense. I froze in place and just then she exploded.

“Charlotte Ann Windsor! How could you do this to me? How could you do this to our family? How could you run our name through the mud
again
! I forgave you the first time around, but now a
bastard child
?” She screamed across the room. Her face was red and the vein on her forehead was throbbing.

The tears which had threatened to fall just moments earlier turned into a waterfall. I would never be good enough for my mother and this was just another instance solidifying my suspicions of her opinion. I turned to run but someone jumped to my defense.

“Elizabeth! How dare you call that precious baby a bastard! Don’t you cross that line! Don’t you dare!” My father interrupted her. I had never seen him stand up to her. He must have been hellishly mad. She’d always gotten away with saying whatever hurtful things she wanted-- but not this time.

She stood and slapped both of her palms on the dining room table before she cut him off, “Do NOT defend her irresponsible actions this time. I have forgiven a lot of the shit she has pulled over the years! I stood by her when the cops picked her up for causing a riot at some club when she was pretending to be a musician. I bailed her out of the papers. I cleaned up the mess!” Her arms flailed around as she continued screaming. “This-- THIS is too much! She just met this guy and she was stupid enough to get herself knocked up! It won’t be long before he grows annoyed with her games and walks away! Then what happens to the Windsor name?”

“ENOUGH MOTHER!” Christian stood up. “You will NOT treat her like this. You have always treated her like shit. Get over it! She isn’t fucking perfect. None of us are! YOU INCLUDED!” He looked down on her in cold judgment. It was possible he was more angry than my father. He wasn’t just standing up for me, but for Bentley too.

He glared at my mother. “We know about your skeletons. You aren’t perfect, you just go out of your way to hide it better than Charlie does because you care what the public thinks of you. You don’t care if your oldest son is out with a new girl every night of the week. You couldn’t care less when my engagement failed. You let us all off with free passes, all except Charlie. This is the end of line!”

He stomped over next to me putting his arm around me, “You won’t mistreat her anymore. None of us will stand for it.”

“You know what? Fuck this! I can’t deal with all of this.” I walked out of the house. The only thing I wanted was dinner and I wasn’t even going to get my honey-mustard chicken. I knew my mother was going to blow up like my fifth-grade science project. Her treatment of me was typical. But the way my father and brother stood up for me was like nothing I had ever seen.

Bentley came running after me. As he reached me he grabbed my hand and pulled me into him. “Charlotte, you’re the love of my life. I’m not going anywhere. Don’t listen to what your mother said. She couldn’t be more wrong. You are my everything.”

Smiles washed over both our faces. My mother’s reaction couldn’t take away my happiness, any of our happiness. We were going to have a baby and she simply was going to find herself excluded from it all. For once in my life, I didn’t care about winning acceptance from my mother. It was so freeing! Trey and Christian walked out of the garage door and down the driveway, straight for us. Christian was still pissed, you could tell just by the icy expression on his face. I had only seen him like this once in my life and that was after his ex-fiancé skipped out on him. “Bentley you fucking son of a bitch,” he said as he cocked back to take a swing at him. Bentley moved and Christian fell towards the car parked next to ours.

“CHRISTIAN! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!” I shrieked as he stumbled back up trying to get back towards Bentley.

“She’s my baby sister you bastard! It was bad enough when you took my girl, but now... this! You got my sister pregnant you son of a bitch!”

I froze. Christian’s words had me paralyzed.
Took his girl?
I felt like Christian’s fist made contact with my stomach, almost knocking the wind out of me with nothing more than accusations across our family driveway. The tears started back up while I watched the man I loved and my brother duke it out.

“Bentley, what is he talking about?” I felt like the floor had been pulled out from under me. My stomach was in a giant knot just imagining what the hell Christian was talking about.

“That son of a bitch is why she left me! She was fucking him!” Christian screamed at me. “I was going to let it slide, but this...” he motioned around and pointed at my stomach “I can’t let it all go anymore! I just fucking can’t! Charlie, you needed to know.”

“Like this? I needed to know like
this
Christian?” I flipped him off and walked to the rental car.

The color drained from my face and the tears poured like a faucet. My hands shook and all I could do was bite my bottom lip because nothing I said right now would have made any sense.

“That was a long time ago, Christian, I’m not that guy anymore. Charlie knows that. It’s the past!” Bentley said looking over at me. He looked taken back when he realized how upset I was. As Bentley walked towards me, I stepped back until I bumped into my father’s car. I had forgiven a lot, but this was just
different.

“Just stay away from me. Don’t fucking touch me! Don’t come any closer!” I screamed at him. Trying to distance myself as much as I could. I had no desire to be near him at all, or even look at him.

He tried walking towards me again and I could only hold my hands up warning him to stay away. As much as I wanted him to hold me, I just had to walk away. At least for now.

“You heard her Young, why don’t you just leave?” Christian barked.

“Is that what you want Charlie? Do you want me to leave?” Bentley asked with tears in his eyes.

“Bentley, just go.” was all I could whisper out. I couldn’t even talk. The lump in my throat had grown so big I felt like I was choking-- choking on my life. I felt like I was shitty at life. All of my decisions felt like bad ones.

My mother was right. I was the shame of the family.

“Come on baby girl, I’ll take you home,” Christian said as I watched Bentley back his car out of the driveway. The tears just poured and all I could do was hug my brother while I cried hysterically in front of my parents’ house where I had just chosen Bentley over my mother, only to have that blow up in my face. I would be alone for the rest of my life.

“You okay, Charlie?” Christian asked. He knew something was up, I was hurting because of his actions. I just didn’t want to be bothered anymore tonight. I just wanted to go to bed and not wake up for days. Before all this bullshit started, the Detectives suggested we both leave town for a while. I would vacation in my bedroom and pray Bentley got lost.

“I’m okay, Christian, I just want to go to bed. If you wanna stay the night, I can throw together some blankets for the couch.”

“No, I’m going to head home. If you need anything just call me please. I’m serious, Charlie.”

I nodded and gave him a hug so he would be on his way. I just wanted to be alone. Even the thought of Shay being around was upsetting. I just wanted to have a good cry and go to bed.