Page 11 of Merging with the Billionaire

“Where’s Artie?” she heard her father inquire from his place at the head of the table. He was glancing around with a confused look on his face. “Shouldn’t we wait for him?”

“No, dear, Artie isn’t with Tiffany anymore,” her mother explained with an exasperated tone. “Their engagement got called off, remember?”

“Why? What happened? What did she do?”

Tiffany clenched her teeth in anger as her eyes dropped to the plate in front of her. The last thing she wanted to see was her mother’s look of disappointment and her father’s confused anger. Why did they always assume everything was her fault? She had been embarrassed enough to find out Artie had been cheating on her, especially when she had only started to date him in order to please her parents. The idea of telling the truth to anyone else, let alone her judgmental parents, had been more than she could stomach. Her mother would have asked her why she couldn’t keep Artie from straying, and her father would have told her to ignore it. She didn’t need that on top of how bad she already felt about the situation.

“Believe me, I wish I knew. At least then I would have something to tell everyone at the club,” her mother lamented. “I sometimes wish arranged marriages were still an option. Then maybe we could get Tiffany to finally settle down with a proper match. Artie was the first one that actually would have been right, but she had to—”

“Mom, why don’t we talk about something else?” Roger coaxed. “It’s been a long day.”

Their mother shrugged, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. “You two always were thick-as-thieves, plotting together and taking each other’s sides as children. It doesn’t feel right to be outnumbered by your own children.”

The rest of the meal passed with relative ease. They talked about the upcoming wedding, how plans at the company were going, and Marcus’s school.

“Is Marcus learning Mandarin Chinese at his school?” their mother asked with curiosity.

“No, Mom, they’re focusing on math and reading. He’s only in preschool,” Roger explained.

“My friends at the club said it’s so important for children to be learning it as early as possible. Kitty’s grandson is learning it over at Talenstay. Perhaps we should consider sending him there instead,” their mother suggested in a way that made it less of a suggestion and more of a demand.

“I don’t want to go to another school,” Marcus whined. “I just started making friends at my new one.”

“You won’t have to, Buddy,” Roger promised his son. Then turning his attention back to his mother, he added, “I appreciate your interest, Mom, but his schooling decisions will be made by Celeste and myself.”

“I just think you should want the best for him. His first couple of years already put him at a disadvantage. You need to think about his future. With everything going on, it’s important—”

“That’s enough, Mom,” Roger demanded with a raised voice. “Can’t you see you’re upsetting Marcus? If you don’t drop this right now, we’re going to leave.”

Their mother pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes as she clicked her perfectly manicured nails against the edge of her wine glass. She didn’t say a word, but it was obvious she wasn’t pleased with how Roger just treated her.

Something must be off with her mother tonight. It was normal for her to be harsh with Tiffany, but she never acted that way with Roger. This mandated dinner was in the middle of the week, unusual to say the least, which made Tiffany wonder if something was wrong with their father.

After dessert, their mother ushered everyone into the parlor for drinks. “What can Alima make for you, Tiffany?”

“I have an early morning, Mom. Can I just have a sparkling water?”

A flick of her mother’s wrist made it clear Alima could start on her task. A couple of moments later, she handed Tiffany the glass filled with the bubbly liquid. Next, Alima made drinks for everyone else, handing them to each of them before stepping back.

“That’s all we need for now, Alima. Do you mind taking Marcus into the other room and setting up a puzzle for him?” their mother stated dismissively. “We have a sensitive matter to discuss.”

Once the maid and Marcus had left the room, their mother began. “We wanted to have all of you here when we told you about your father’s doctor’s visit this week. Unfortunately, the disease has progressed faster than they had expected.”

“What does that mean?” Roger probed. “What do we need to do to fix it?’

“There’s nothing to be fixed,” their father interjected. “Nothing can be done. I only have two months left, three if I’m lucky.”

“What?” Tiffany cried out in shock. “That can’t be right.”

“There has to be something we can do,” Roger added, equally distraught over the unexpected news. Celeste reached out and grabbed Roger’s hand, trying to comfort him.

As quickly as their father spoke, his eyes transfixed on something far away and he was gone again.

“I wish there was something we could do,” their mother lamented, sniffing and swiping at the tears in the corner of her eyes. “He still has good days right now, but it will only get worse, and rapidly from this point on. I’m sure you’ve already noticed how despondent he’s been recently. They told me he will drift away, more and more, until he’s completely gone. Then, he won’t be able to take care of himself, and eventually he won’t be able to…to….”

Her mother couldn’t finish the words, but Tiffany knew what their mother was trying to say. He would forget how to take care of himself, including eating. Eventually he would be unable to swallow, which meant in order to live, he would need a feeding tube, but her father had given each of them a copy of his advanced care directive. He didn’t want any prolonging of life interventions, making it very clear that he wanted to go on his own terms, and not be a shell of himself tied to machines.

Tiffany had known this was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. Though her relationship with her father had always been difficult, she loved him dearly and couldn’t imagine life without him.

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