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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

❝SHOULDN'T EVERYBODY'S BIRTHDAY GO OUT WITH A BANG?❞

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Peter woke up to the sound of a knocking at his door making him groan in the bed and roll over slowly to get out of it and head to the door.

Once he opened the door, he looked to see Winnie standing at the door fiddling with her fingers as a smile came to her lips.

"Winnie?"

"Hey, Peter."

"What are you—"

"I-I'm taking your advice." Winnie spoke softly as Peter ran a hand through his hair and opened the door so Winnie could come inside.

Once Winnie came inside, she puffed out a shaky breath as Peter turned around to face Winnie as he slipped his hands into the pocket of his sweatpants.

"Where's Anne?"

"She's. . .in the hospital."

Winnie's eyes went wide. "Oh my god, what happened? Is she okay?"

"She had a fall, they said she should be okay."

"When's the next time you're going to see her."

Peter licked his lips. "Now, actually."

"Can. . .can I come?"

"Sure. . .just let me get dressed, okay?"

Winnie nodded and pursed her lips as she watched Peter give her a small smile and turn around to head upstairs to get dressed as she stood in the middle of the room waiting for him.

Hoping her and Peter could survive this hospital visit.

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Justin bit his bottom lip softly as he waited for his father to meet him in the restaurant of the hotels stayed in.

Suddenly, when he looked up, he saw his father walking over to him as he buttoned up his suit jacket and cleared his throat and took a seat down in the chair in front of Justin's.

"Justin."

"Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

"What?"

Justin rolled his eyes. "Don't play dumb, Winnie's mother."

"Justin, do you have something you're trying to prove?"

"I just want to know what's driving you to be paranoid." Justin murmured softly as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest and saw his father squint his eyes.

"Justin, I don't think this is something that we should talk about here."

"No, you've brought this conversation on yourself, be a man about it."

Jeremy chuckled. "Like you were when you heard about Iris and her being pregnant?"

Justin's face went blank — but Jeremy's just held an amused look. Justin bit his bottom lip momentarily and leaned forward in his seat.

"How did you know about that?"

"Iris doesn't just talk to you, son."

Justin clenched his jaw. "She's not pregnant, dad."

"How'd you handle the news though? From what I was told, you were looking like a deer in headlights."

"I would've handled it if she was."

"Sure. . .," Jeremy spoke softly as he waved his hand to a waitress and saw her nod and come over as Justin kept an intense gaze on him. "Are you telling yourself that to cope?"

Justin clenched his jaw and then unclenched it as the waitress came over to the table and took a pen out from her apron followed by the notepad.

"Can I get you both something to drink?"

"I'll take a water, Justin?"

"Water is fine."

Jeremy grinned as the waitress nodded and headed off to fix their drinks, Justin then creased his eyebrows and leaned forward onto the white cloth covered table. "Do you know that we're tied to their business now?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I?"

"But—"

"Honestly, son, this is why I didn't want you to go on this trip. You've lost your touch, we used to make business deals with different affairs in our sleep!"

Justin shook his head. "It's useless talking to you."

"Justin. . .you know why I'm hard on you, right? It's because I'm getting you ready to—"

"Take over the company. . .I know."

Jeremy sighed softly as the waitress came back to the table with Justin and Jeremy's waters and sat them down onto the table and cleared her throat.

"Are we ready to order?"

"We're not dining, love, here's for the waters." Jeremy spoke out as he reached into his pocket and pulled out some money and passed it to the waitress.

"Thank you, sir."

Jeremy hummed in response and watched the waitress head off making him smack his teeth and drink some of his water as Justin watched. "I don't think you realize how bad this deal could've been."

"And I don't think you realize that the business would have been threw if we hadn't taken it."

Justin shook his head and puffed out a slow breath and looked down at his water and took a small sip before looking up to his father again.

"Tell me the connection between you and Winnie's mother."

"Do you really want to know, Justin?"

"Yes. I don't need any more secrets in my life."

"Justin. . .this is something you can't tell anyone. . .not even your little friend, Winnie."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because?"

"She'll hate you."

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Winnie and Peter sat in the chairs that were seated to the left of Anne's hospital bed. Even though Winnie hadn't seen her in a while, she could tell the difference in her appearance, the way her skin color began to fade away from her body and be taken over by a pale complexion, and her soft plump lips began to look more dry and small.

All that was heard through the hospital room was the continuous sound of Anne's heart monitor on the wall that made a constant beep.

"Pete. . ."

"Yes?"

"She's going to be okay, Anne is a strong woman."

Peter let out a shaky breath and nodded as he felt tears prick the back of his eyes as Winnie looked over to him and saw his eyes still on her unresponsive body.

Winnie then looked down at Peter's hand that lie rested on top of the chair arm rest, she bit her bottom lip softly and hesitantly placed her small fingers on top of his large ones.

Peter looked down at their fingers and licked his lips slowly and let Winnie interlace their fingers and let the tingly feeling form as their hands touched.

"Listen, Winnie. . .we can't go back to what we were. . .okay? You need to be with someone who you really want."

"Pete. . .I'm so confused out of my mind, you have no idea."

"Confused about what?"

Winnie let out a shaky laugh. "I-I still want there to be an us, but—"

"Winnie, don't. . .listen, life's too short not to fall in love a thousand times."

"So. . .you're saying I should. . ."

"You should be with Justin, you know it in your heart that's who you should be with."

Just when Winnie was about to speak, the sound of a small gasp for air made Winnie and Peter look over to Anne and see her starting to move in her sleep making Peter hop up from his chair as Winnie watched from her seat.

"Grandma, are you okay? How do you feel?"

"Like. . .like I got hit by a truck. . ."

Peter chuckled and bent down to Anne's face and kissed her forehead tenderly making her smile softly and reach out for his hand and give it a squeeze using both her hands.

"Winnie's here."

"Winnie? Where is my beautiful ray of sunshine?"

Winnie giggled softly and rose up from her chair and walk over to the other side of the hospital bed and see Anne reach her hand out for her to take.

Winnie softly took her hand in hers and let Anne bring the back of her hand to her lips and give it a chaste kiss making Winnie smile.

"Glad to know you're okay, Anne."

"Takes more than a fall to take me down. . .how are you, sweetheart?"

"Good. . .," Winnie breathed out as she gave Anne's hand another soft squeeze and looked up and over to Peter with a soft smile. "Great, actually."

And in that moment, Winnie and Peter both looked at each other with a look in their eyes that made Anne smile wide and laugh softly and begin to chat to them both as they listened to every word.

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Peter parked the truck on the side of Winnie's house and let out a breath as Winnie cleared her throat and moved a piece of her hair out of her face.

"Do you wanna come in for a bit?"

"Oh. . .I don't think I should, Winnie."

"Justin's not home. . .we can make grilled cheese sandwiches."

Peter laughed. "As tempting as that sounds, I have to go, maybe another time."

"Sure, okay."

Peter smiled and watched Winnie wave one last time before opening the door and heading out as Peter waved and watched her head over to the front door.

Once she was inside, Peter pulled off and Winnie went inside the house and shut it back while taking off her jean jacket.

Winnie had paused momentarily as she heard the sound of the television making her crease her eyebrows. "Justin?"

"No, it's me."

Winnie scoffed and walked into the living room and saw Jade sitting on the couch with a bowl of grapes in her lap as she watched The Princess Diaries on Netflix.

"Jade, how did you get in?"

"House key, duh."

"Wow, ever heard of a doorbell?"

Jade shrugged. "They're no fun."

Winnie shook her head and walked over to the couch and plopped down next to Jade and licked her shoes off her feet and took some grapes from Jade's bowl.

"You know, you guys really should find a new spot for the spare key. . .everyone knows that keeping it under your rug is so obvious."

"Yeah, well, that's why we have a doorbell, once again."

Jade snickered and went back to eating the grapes with Winnie as they watched the movie, but Winnie couldn't help but feel Jade's eyes on her.

"Jade, why are you staring at me?"

"You thought you could hide your secret."

Winnie fake gasped. "You know I have six toes on both my feet?"

"What? Ew, gross. . . ," Jade spoke as she scrunched her face up in disgust but Winnie only giggled and ate another grape. "You didn't tell me about your birthday!"

"Oh, yeah."

"Are you serious? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's not as important."

Jade gasped. "But it's your birthday!"

"Who's birthday is it?"

Winnie and Jade turned around to see Iris walking into the living room with Justin following close behind making Jade roll her eyes.

"It's mine."

"Really? How old will you be turning? 18?"

Winnie rolled her eyes. "24."

"What're you planning on doing?"

"Nothing. . .," Winnie murmured softly as she looked over to Jade who had an eyebrow raised making her smack her teeth. "But apparently now I will."

"Oh my god, how about you let me plan it?!"

Jade snickered making Winnie smack her thigh. "That would be. . .nice a small get together would be nice."

"What? Oh no, sweetie, I do things big."

"But—"

"Shouldn't everyone's birthday go out with a bang?" Iris asked as she turned around to Justin and saw him give a closed mouth smile making her giggle and wrap her arm around his waist.

"I suppose. . ."

"Great, when's your birthday?"

"July 3rd."

"Oo, even better, 4th Of July weekend. I promise you'll have fun."

Winnie pursed her lips as she watched Iris laugh softly and reach into her purse and pull out her phone and excuse herself as she walked into the kitchen.

Justin sighed softly and watched Winnie rise up from the couch and walk over to him and look him over seeing he was developing bags under his eyes.

"Jay, you look so tired, are you okay?"

"Yeah. . .I think I should head on to bed, I'll see you guys tomorrow." Justin murmured softly as he cleared his throat and smiled at Winnie one last time before heading upstairs.

Winnie creased her eyebrows and turned around to Jade to see her just shrug her shoulders, and before Winnie knew it, Iris cane walking back into the living room.

"I promise, Winnie. . .it'll be your best birthday yet."

Winnie let out a soft chuckle as she watched Iris wink and head past her as her heels clicked on the wooden floor and she headed upstairs to Justin's bedroom.

Once Iris went upstairs, she opened Justin's door and walked in on him unbuttoning his shirt making him sigh heavily and walk into the bathroom.

"So how was your lunch with your daddy today?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Aw, realized that daddy is wrapped up in this deal more than what you expected?"

Justin clenched his jaw and finished undressing himself until he was left in his boxers, he walked out of the bathroom and into his closet and grabbed some shorts for bed.

"Iris, why are you doing this?"

"Doing what? Business? I'm just doing what my daddy taught me."

"What?"

"It goes back all the way back to Social Darwinism, baby. . .you know? Survival of the fittest?"

Justin huffed. "Iris, there's no way in hell I'm going to let it end like this."

"Really? I'd like to see you try."

And with that, Iris gave Justin a wink and walked away from Justin and toward his bedroom door with a grin on her lips.

As soon as Iris left, Justin's mind started to wonder about how he was going to fix everything, when he thought about it; either decision would be a loss.

If he didn't take over the company and chose Winnie, he would go broke and wouldn't have anything left to his family name along with his father being disappointed in him.

But if he chose the company and left Winnie, he would be rich with all the money that he could have and running his father's business his own way with him being proud of him.

It was all confusing.

But all Justen knew, was he wasn't going to let Iris win.

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