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Max closed to the door to the nursery with a heavy sigh. Closing his eyes, he leaned against the hardwood. After nearly an hour and half, the twins had finally gone to sleep. The kids had spent the week adjusting to the time change. The cross country move with two babies was exhausting. He looked forward to collapsing in bed with Fran. Unfortunately his brain was still running at high speed with all of the unpacking that needed to be completed along with the work on the television series. Max decided to have a nice glass of scotch to decompress before bed.
He slogged downstairs to his new office. He and Fran chose a seven bedroom house so there would plenty of room for their family to stay when they visited. The office had been set up immediately so he could do work from home while helping Fran take care of the twins.
Opening the door, he went to flick in the light and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a person’s silhouette at his desk. The office was lit softly already with the desk lamp turned on a low setting. CC sat in his large leather chair.
“Damn it, woman!” Max exclaimed. “You scared the living daylights out of me!” At the moment he was rethinking living next door to his business partner and her husband.
Clearing her throat, CC answered hoarsely. “I’m sorry Maxwell, I thought you were bed.”
“Not yet.” As he moved closer, he noticed her red rimmed eyes and dried tear tracks on her cheeks. “Have you been crying?”
Swallowing heavily, CC bit her quivering lip. “I was just looking for a quiet place to drink.” Before Max could open his mouth, she sighed. “Milkshakes. Turns out your wife found a restaurant that also delivers shakes. Of course you have to meet the fifteen dollar minimum delivery fee, but…” she gestured to the desk littered with several Styrofoam cups. “Obviously I met that.”
“Ah.” Max took out the scotch bottle a glass from the nearby cabinet before sitting across from her. “What brings you here?”
“Turns out I couldn’t find a quiet place in my house to cry without my husband finding me.” CC stared down at the desk and quietly said, “I told my family about marrying Niles.”
“And how did that go?”
She gave a mirthless chuckle. “My parents laughed for a solid minute before asking if it was a joke. And my brother…my brother…” Her breath hitched. “Noel asked if I needed him to find a good doctor to ‘take care’ of the pregnancy.” CC’s voice cracked at the last word.
Max took a deep breath to quell his anger. “CC, I am so sorry.”
“I couldn’t believe he said that.” She balled up her fist so tight, that even Max could see her knuckles turn white in the low light of the room. “I am finally, finally happy; having finally found someone who loves me for me, ten tons of baggage and all. And I thought of all people in my family, Noel would share that with me. When he acted like my pregnancy was just some inconvenience…” Clenching her jaw hard, CC gave a small sob. “I…that hurt me more than I ever thought possible.”
Furiously wiping at the fresh tears on her cheeks, she sniffled. “When my dad realized I was serious, he insisted that I get pre-nuptial agreement. Said he wasn’t going to lose his fortune to some butler. God forbid the man actually loves me and couldn’t care less about my money.”
Then she looked thoughtfully at Max. “You know, when we went to get him added to my bank accounts, Niles offered to sign a pre-nuptial agreement, retroactive to our wedding day.”
The corner of Max’s lips rose. “Yeah, that sounds like something Niles would do.”
After a moment of silence, CC spoke again. “I just want my parents and my brother to understand my marriage to Niles and our child is the most important thing to me.”
After taking a gulp of scotch, Max rested his arms on the desk. “Right before the wedding my sister told Fran our marriage wouldn’t work out because of our differences. My mother was kind enough to repeat the sentiment when I talked to her about missing the wedding.
“I admit I was furious; Jocelyn was a hypocrite because she married her chauffeur. But I told my family Fran made me the happiest I had been in a long time. And they needed to support me. Well that wasn’t enough for them. Their biggest concern was protecting the family fortune.
Max shook his head. “At the time Fran and I were talking about having a baby and I knew that would be the final straw for my family. I had no idea what to do. Its part of the reason I first balked at having more kids with Fran. I knew my family wouldn’t take it well.”
“So what did you do?”
Gesturing to her, Max smiled. “That’s where your husband came in. Niles cornered me one night after I barked at him one too many times. He finally got me to admit what I was worried about. And you know what he said?”
“409 is better than Soft Scrub?”
Max actually barked out a laugh. “No. He told me he hadn’t seen me this happy since Sara’s death. And then he asked if I was ready to give up my marriage simply because my family was worried about the money.
“I thought about it for a long time and I realized that even if my family cut me off, even we ended up living in a tiny apartment in Queens, as long as I had Fran, I would be happy.”
“So you had to give your family an ultimatum,” CC stated quietly.
Max nodded reluctantly. “That’s what it was going to come down to. I called my mother and sister and told them while I knew they wanted what was best for me, I was a grown man, and this was my life. Fran wasn’t perfect, but everything they hated about her was superficial. The children loved her and she glued my family back together when we needed it the most.”
His mind flashed back to the phone conversation. It was the most uncomfortable moments of his life. “I told them I was going to stay married to Fran and they needed to respect that. If they had nothing nice to say about her, then I didn’t need to hear it; I didn’t want to hear it. She was my family now and they needed to accept that.”
“So what happened?”
Blowing out a breath, Max leaned back in the chair. “It took them a while to come around, but both my mother and Jocelyn are coming at the end of the month to see Jonah and Eve.”
CC’s postured softened. “That’s really wonderful, Max.”
“Unfortunately, that’s something you need to figure out: how much Niles and your child mean to you; if you’re willing to give them up for your parents or if you trust in the family you are forming.”
“I can’t,” she answered right away, shaking her head vehemently. “As much as what Noel hurt me, not having Niles and this child…I would never recover from that.”
Max reached across the desk, taking his friend’s hands. He was amazed in a few short years how much CC had changed. Admittedly, he was first worried when she and Niles got together; worried she would break his friend’s heart. Now, without a doubt, Max nothing to worry about.
“Take a few weeks before you call them again, make it clear that Niles is your family now. Your parents will figure it out,” Max assured her. “And if not, you always have me and Fran and the kids. We’re here to support you as just much as Niles.”
For the first time since he came into the office, CC smiled genuinely. “Thank you, Max. That…that means the world to me.”
“Of course,” he squeezed her hand again.
“You know it’s funny,” CC said sounding more like herself. “My parents think its Niles that isn’t good enough for me. But really I sometimes don’t feel worthy of him.”
“I know the feeling. I wonder why Fran chose to love a grouchy, uptight, fuddy duddy like me.”
“In any case, I’m grateful. They brought us back to life.”
“I like that,” Max smiled. He held up his glass. “To Fran and Niles.”
CC also toasted with him. “To Fran and Niles.”