When David had gotten home he could hear his mother and stepfather fighting. Neil was hanging outside the study door listening.
"Is she going to give up?" David ask.
Neil shrugged, "Doesn't look like it. How can that woman be like this. Dad even threatened her with divorce if she did not give up the child."
"Your Dad would be smart to let her go. Zane Heart will bury his business. However he should of learned from what happened to my father in the past."
Mr. West walked out of the study fuming. "My lawyer will be in touch. This is all on you now. I also will not let you have a penny of my money because of this. So good luck. Neil pack your bags we are leaving unless you agree with your mother."
"No, I'm with you Dad."
◇◇◇♡♡♡◇◇◇
Betty was tired by the time she headed back to the office. She now had a sweet 16 party and a retirement party on the books.
When she walked in at 3pm Sally was waiting for her with messages of three more consultation. The way things are going she was going to need to hire more.
"Oh, I almost forgot, Oliver McLaughlin stopped by for lunch." Sally said.
"Okay I'll call him." She walked into her office.
She pulled out her personal phone and dialed.
"Hello, you didn't need to call me." Oliver said.
"Well if you would rather not talk to me then I'll hang up."
"No, I'm glad you called. I stopped by for lunch but you were out. How about dinner tonight." He said.
"Sure, what time?" She asked.
"Will you be through by six?" He asked.
"Yes, picked me up at my new office. You know were it's at."
Oliver showed up a few minutes early and waited for Betty to get finished.
He then lead her a 2019 Mustang GT in Metallic Silver. "Fancy Car" She said.
"I like it. Always wanted one and it's the first thing I bought when I became partner."
"Why did we not take this to the amusement park?" She asked.
"I am not parking my baby in a parking lot like that. I have my own space here and at my place."
"Where are we going for dinner?" She asked.
"It's a suprises."
They drove to a little condominium by the sea. He pulled into a garage and opened her door.
"Welcome to my home." He said.
Everything was done in grey and silver. A big 65 inch Tv hung on the wall. Law books lined the bookshelf. Only one thing looked out of place and that was a photo of three dirty boys with their arms around each other.
"Who are they?" She asked.
"My brothers. Tim the tall one is a doctor now. Joe the one in the middle runs the orphanage. Though he likes to be called Father Joseph now. I grew up with them."
"What's for dinner?"
"My house keeper made rack of lamb, fingerling potatoes, and an apple chutney. For dessert Mississippi mud pie."
"Sounds good." She walked over to him.
"This way then. Everything is ready." He lead her into a small intimate dining room.
"This looks good. Thank you." She said.
They had small talk. "Tell me Miss Betty about your family. I've told you a little about mine."
"I grew up with one older brother, Bert, One younger brother, Ben, Two younger sister, Babs and Bella. We were raised mostly by my father because my mother got sick when we were young and passed away."
"How did you get into planning partys?" He asked.
"I was spoiled and went to a lot of partys growning up. Then my soon to be brother-in-law gave me a chance to make right a wrong I had done to my youngest sister and helped me to start my business."
"How did you become a lawyer?" She asked.
"Growing up Father Micheal raised us. Tim was always doctoring everyone. Joe was always guiding everyone. I was always arguing with everyone. He sat us down and planed out how we could be the best at our strength. He help get Tim and me scholarships for school. He then help Joe attended the seminary."
"What does your family do?"
Bert is a personal assistant for an up and coming business Cœur Société. My Dad's fiancée runs it for my youngest sister's boyfriend. Dad runs the mail room there.
Babs works part time as a veterinary assistant at the pet shelter and volunteers at the hospital. Ben works at Cœur Société as an Accountant but right now is on loan to Puissance Entreprise where Bella's boyfriend and my brothers boyfriend work. Bella is going to school for a degree in Business."
"Both those business are run by Zane Heart right?" He asked.
"That's Bella's man. And my partner in the party planning." She said.
"You suprise me." He laughed.
"Good or Bad?" She smiled.
"Good. Only good. Want to here a joke?"
"Sure" she said.
"A lawyer boarded an airplane in New Orleans with a box of frozen crabs and asked a blonde stewardess to take care of them for him.
She took the box and promised to put it in the crew's refrigerator. He advised her that he was holding her personally responsible for them staying frozen, mentioning in a very haughty manner that he was a lawyer, and proceeded to rant at her about what would happen if she let them thaw out.
Needless to say, she was annoyed by his behavior. Shortly before landing in New York, she used the intercom to announce to the entire cabin, "Would the lawyer who gave me the crabs in New Orleans, please raise your hand."
Not one hand went up . . . . so she took them home and ate them."
Betty laughed, "Why always a blonde?"
"Hey this time she was a smart blonde."
"True."
"One more... A guy took his blonde girlfriend to her first football game. They had great seats right behind their team's bench. After the game, he asked her how she liked the experience. "Oh, I really liked it," she replied, "especially the tight pants and all the big muscles, but I just couldn't understand why they were killing each other over 25 cents." Dumbfounded, her date asked, "What do you mean?" "Well, they flipped a coin, one team got it, and then for the rest of the game, all they kept screaming was, 'Get the quarterback! Get the quarterback!' I'm like, hello? It's only 25 cents!"
"Ok that was funny too."
"Lets take a swim. I have extra suits in many sizes." He said and lead her to a little cubana on the beach to change.
She found a cute one that fit and met him beach.
He was a lot of fun; nothing like what she thought a lawyer would be like. By the time he took her home he was looking forward to seeing her again.