When New York and London Collide

Chapter 20

Liam Reid

Deep down I knew Chase was right. Despite being a lawyer, Jameson Haufftner was a dangerous man. Maybe the most dangerous in London. He didn't commit murder, but he'd do anything short of it. And that was what made him ten times scarier. He didn't even have to kill someone to ruin their lives. If you had seen the state of Celine's ex-boyfriends, you'd be scared too. Hell, you'd be shitting yourself. It was like he was sending everyone a message. Dare to cross his daughter and you'd be better off dead than alive. At least, that was the message I'd gotten.

Logan Harrison - Celine's first boyfriend when she was 18. They dated for over three months before Logan took her virginity. It was consensual, but the part after was what sealed Logan's fate. Within two weeks of fucking Celine, he broke up with her. From what I heard, sex was all he wanted. For an entire month, Celine was heartbroken. She told me how she refused to eat, leave the house, or do what she loved most. Read. It made sense. It was her first relationship, the feeling of being used must have crushed her completely. Her father bore witness to what happened, the lack of life in his precious daughter's eyes. Within a month later, news spread in London of Logan's tragic accident. He'd broken his ankle, and from then on, he never walked normally.

Eric Mason - Celine's alleged soulmate. They met when they were both 20. An extremely rich man, Eric mason seemed to have everything a girl dreamed of. Riches, looks, a hot body. The complete picture of Prince Charming. To many, even to me, he lacked nothing. However, everyone had their flaws. And Eric Mason's was that he was insatiable. After her first relationship, Celine was unwilling to have sex, so their bedroom life, the way she described, was mundane. Pleasurable, yes. But sex always had a measure of pleasure, that was the whole point. The problem was, even though it was enough for Celine, it never was for Eric. A year into the relationship, Celine caught him cheating on her. As if that wasn't bad enough, she caught him with one of her friends. Not her best friend, but that still hurt. Of course, news travelled fast. Jameson Haufftner was alerted and in two weeks, Eric Mason lost everything and so did Celine's friend. His business collapsed nearly instantly, and few knew how. All anyone knew was that his riches were gone. Looks, judging by the way Celine described his bashed up face, gone. Unless he had means to fund a decent amount of plastic surgery, though unlikely. He had no more money by that point. But at least he still had his insatiability.

Finally, me. Celine's first love, as she always told me. I don't even have to give a detailed breakdown of what I'd done. I knew it was incomparable to that of what Logan Harrison and Eric Mason had done. I wouldn't even be surprised if Jameson Haufftner broke his "strictly no murder" rule and hired an assassin to kill me in my sleep. In fact, I'd bet on it.

Despite knowing all of this and knowing the fate that awaited me, I hesitated. Looking at Jane's number, I contemplated ending things right there and then. I didn't want to end up crippled, disfigured, or worse dead. But more importantly, I love Celine. She is everything to me. So why I couldn't simply send a text saying that I was done, was baffling to me. And it was driving me fucking crazy.

"Fuck." I threw the empty bottle of beer into the trash. It was currently 2am, and Celine was asleep. I knew Chase meant what he had said, but I couldn't do either. My heart knew what it wanted but my head argued what was right. It was a war zone, and either way, I'd be a casualty.

Just then, I got a notification from Jane. Lately she'd been telling me how she could never sleep and had been constantly brainstorming baby names. I was in a similar situation, less the baby names. Now, I was staring at a list of compiled girl names.

Janet, Alison, Kate, Jennifer, Eve, Chloe. It made it all so much more real. I was a father, this child was mine, no matter how much I fought it. No matter how much I regretted it. I couldn't just abandon it.

All these thoughts, these factors. It only made my impending decision more difficult.