go down in person to the court office and retrieve, or pay a fee to see. I am not certain of the cause of her death.”
“I looked at some public records and didn’t see that. I spent hours combing through documents online but yeah, several of them were locked. I could see a record for whatever it was, but wasn’t allowed to open it. I actually planned to head downtown next week. So, just to clarify, you’re saying there were three marriages?”
“I believe so. Don’t quote me, but that’s the impression I got.”
“So, with one wife, it was annulled. With another, he was a widower … that’s regarding the first marriage?”
“From my understanding, yes. Oh, and as far as his son, I don’t think that was his biological child, but he adopted him.”
The man’s jaw tightened further.
“Yes, I found that out yesterday. Isn’t that some shit?” He chuckled dismally. “Benjamin may have had a lot of money, but he wasn’t worth a fuckin’ damn!”
“Aries, maybe we should continue this conversation later? You seem a little agitated.”
“I would still be agitated later. Doesn’t matter if we have it now, later, next week next year, next decade or next century. My reaction would be the same.”
They glared at one another.
“Uh, all right… well…” She wasn’t certain what to say, so she threw up her hands and took a deep breath. “This is… awkward for me. I feel for you, Aries. I do, but—”
“Lauren.” He leaned back in his chair and glanced up at the ceiling. “I have had thirty-eight years to wonder. Thirty-eight years to stew. Thirty-eight years to imagine. Thirty-eight years to be angry. Thirty-eight years to grieve a man who was dead to me from the moment I drew my first breath, a man I never knew. When I was about, oh, I’d say, seventeen or eighteen, I decided I didn’t care. I said it. I meant it. Family is very important to me. I take it seriously, but I had to accept that this man did not want me in his life. I don’t live in la-la land. Hopes don’t change anything. We can hope for all sorts of things but this by itself never makes a dream into a reality. Action does. I received not one visit.”
He held up a finger and narrowed his eyes. Dark slits, like the open wounds of his soul. “Not one phone call. Not anything. He knew I existed the day I was born. In fact, he stopped by the hospital. My mother did admit to me that much. This wasn’t somethin’ he’d just found out about. He made a choice to ignore me and for whatever reason, my mother didn’t pursue tryna get child support or anything. Well, let me take that back. If she did try and get it, she never told me about it. So I am sayin’ this to say, nothing you tell me is going to cause me to go off on the deep end. I don’t have to like anything you share, but I’m not going to sit here and lose my shit over it. The worst has already happened. He treated me as if I were invisible. Nothin’ can top that.”
She nodded and crossed her arms.
“Got it.”
“Cool, so you’d give him books about Asia, he liked coffee, was obviously generous regarding the rent, he lost his first wife and adopted one of his ex-wives’ sons. I am pretty sure that’s the one that they said had died. What else?”
“I gathered information about him over time, so it’s kind of hard to think of things just off the top of my head but, personality wise, I think you should know he was funny, too. He would crack jokes.”
“Funny, huh? What types of jokes? Like the kinds on the back of juice boxes or more polished ones?”
“I’d say a combination of both.” She held his gaze for she refused to be intimidated by the man. He had a strange way of wanting something and making a person afraid to give it to him…
“You’ve got a pretty ass smile, you know that?”
Her stomach flipped. His words slipped out slow and raspy, husky and sexy, dripping with filth and beauty.
“Thank you.”
“I’m serious. You’re drop-dead gorgeous. I’m not flirting, just stating the obvious… really beautiful woman.” The man seemed serious, too, sitting there looking at her as if she were the next best thing to winning the damn lottery.
“Well, thank you again. That’s nice of you to say.”