~~Author's note~~

In the name of creative license, the fidget spinner hasn't been invented yet. Thanks for bearing with me here.

Special thanks to T Traveller & Snoopylover60.

Chapter twenty-three:

There were few things more irritating in life than people's inability to park the way God intended. Especially if the person in question happened to be his cousin Elliot.

For the last six months, Elliot had enjoyed the privilege of owning the premier parking privileges. His crooked, diagonal parking was legendary. Every day, he parked his Tesla in a way that forced people to develop feline superpowers and squeeze into the tightest of spaces on their way to the elevators.

Enough! Christian fumed, parking in his usual spot next to Elliot's.

It was about time he taught Elliot a lesson.

Christian retrieved a piece of red chalk he'd been saving in his trunk, waiting for the perfect chance. Using bold strokes, he traced diagonal parking lines around the Tesla. The red lines stood out against the clearly marked white parking lines.

He was doing this on behalf of all the drivers out there. Drivers who'd been unfairly penalized by self-appointed kings of the road who thought nothing of straddling the parking lines and taking two parking spaces.

And so, with great satisfaction, he wrote in bold letters:

There you go, VIP of the year!

A few of the other employees clapped and cheered.

Who said revenge couldn't be sweet?

Once they were on the elevator, Christian engaged with several employees in easy conversation.

Elliot's secretary joked about drawing chalk lines around her workspace for added privacy. Two other people nodded in agreement.

A quick survey of the newly remodeled second floor and his eyes flashed with recognition. It had been Elliot's idea to re-design the second floor. The new open space was designed to allow the sharing of workspaces. Because of this, the work environment was loud and full of distractions, allowing very little privacy.

Christian shook his head. Clearly, this had been a miscalculation on Elliot's part. If anything, the new changes would result in reduced productivity. For the rest of the day, you could hear the second floor laughing and making fun of the caulk lines all day.

Later

"Saw your artwork down at the garage. So funny I forgot to laugh."

Christian looked up from his computer to see Elliot standing under the threshold to the office. It amused him to see him clapping mockingly, acid draining from his tone.

"Hey, cousin. You're very welcome, just making things easier for ya. Oh, and don't worry about inconveniencing anybody. Whoever designed those parking lines clearly has no concept of time and space and how your Tesla fits into the equation."

"I hate to break it to ya, especially when you're in such a roll, but you're NOT funny. All you got is the reputation. It's a Greek tragedy how everyone in your life is too damn nice to tell you the truth. You lost your touch back in middle school."

Christian let out a chuckle. "That reminds me. You should share the name of your driving school. Either they're exceptionally good or exceptionally bad," he paused nonchalantly. "Either way, what matters was that you must have been sick that day they taught parking."

"Laugh all you want now...you won't be laughing for long."

"What's the matter? Allergic to chalk? Need the parking lines professionally drawn?" He asked with a straight face. " The question is, white or yellow? Now, if you don't mind, I have a meeting," he said, gathering his papers and heading for the door.

Later that day, Christian went to Carrick and expressed his desire to hire someone else to redo the second-floor offices. He was pleasantly surprised to see Carrick approving his request to add interior designer Gia Matteo to the team. The blonde woman exuded sex appeal and came with glowing recommendations. Christian, however, was quick to flash his wedding ring, keeping their meeting strictly professional.

...

Later that evening

"I think I'm carrying twins," Ana said in a serious tone in an attempt to get her husband's attention.

Slowly, Christian dragged his eyes away from his laptop. "Wh-what?"

"I have all the classic symptoms..." She replied with a straight face. "It's practically official. We're having identical twins...alien twins to be exact."

Ana was lying sideways on the bed, facing him. He reached over and put a protective hand over her still flat belly, his lips curving into a slow smile.

"I think you're getting ahead of yourself here, Ana Banana.. .let's wait until the first ultrasound to start calling them aliens."

"Most ultrasound pictures look out of this world," she replied thoughtfully.

"As long as they're healthy, I'll be happy even if they look like furbies."

"Don't you make fun of Furbies, mister," she mock scolded him. "I had a Furby when I was eight …I was very attached."

Christian opened another tab on his laptop and did a quick search. He considered getting one for Ana, but, looking at the images of the horrible- ghastly creatures, he was having second thoughts.

"Listen to this. According to Cybersecurity experts, the Furby became a serious identity theft threat. It had a blue tooth capability that allowed anyone within 100 feet to hijack the connection and turn the microphone on and speak to children."

"I don't remember any of that. Furbies were cute, and everyone I knew wanted one."

"What are you working on?" She asked the second his gaze returned to his screen.

Eyes still glued to the screen, he told her about this idea he had about a fidget spinner toy to be marketed to kids from 1 to 92.

"Can you imagine tiny tots with their eyes all aglow?" He went on, his tone reminiscent of the legendary song by Nat King Cole.

"A fidget toy that spins? How big?" she murmured, feeling her eyelids suddenly growing heavy.

"Yep. Just small enough to fit in the palm of your hand," he tilted the screen, which displayed a three-dimensional prototype of the toy.

"Hmm...Interesting."

When I was growing up, I always carried a Koosh ball in my pocket. Sometimes, when I was doing my homework, I played with a pendulum on my desk. It helped."

"Which one helped?" Ana said, struggling to keep her eyes open.

"They both did."

Christian recalled how his occupational therapist provided him with an assortment of toys designed to promote executive function and self-regulation. Growing up with Attention Deficit Disorder meant his brain had trouble filtering extraneous information. But having his hands engaged in simple repetitive movements allowed him to focus on a task while tuning out distracting sights, smells, and changes in his environment.

"I think the fidget spinner will be a big hit. Especially if we combine the visual stimulation of the fidget spinner with the tactile benefits of a Koosh ball. " He paused as his eyes returned to the screen and started typing a new search. "Did you know that back in 2001, a woman sued the Rosie O'Donnel show after getting hit in the face with a Koosh ball?" He chuckled. "Apparently, the staff was in the habit of flinging Koosh balls to the audience," he continued, his voice growing serious. "The woman got hit in the mouth, causing pain, swelling and bleeding and spoiling her holiday plans that year."

"Really"" Ana yawned, fighting sleep. "I'm so tired...time to sleep."

He turned off the lamp beside him, still focused on his project. "K, good night, baby."

"It's late. Chris?" She reached for him.

"I got to finish this," he replied in an apologetic tone. "I'm almost done, but I can't stop now."

Whatever happened to Lazy Mondays?

"You've been staying up every night," she mumbled. She couldn't help the resentment coming through her voice.

In response, he put a hand on her shoulder, his eyes still on the screen. He wished he didn't have to work late, but he had no choice. There was too much at stake here.

Now more than ever, he had to give it all he got.

He owed it to their unborn child.

Otherwise, it would be like handing over the company to Elliot on a silver platter.

Just as she drifted off to sleep, Ana found herself wishing things were back to the way they used to be.

That night she dreamed of a choir of Elves singing Christmas carols and two tiny tots, a boy and a girl, sneaking down the stairs to see whether reindeers really knew how to fly.

…..

Kate had a secret online persona.

It had all started with Kate wanting to promote her youtube channel. Her obsession with fashion and makeup led her to launch the filming of beauty tutorials. She'd enjoyed reading the comments and replying to messages.

The fact that her own father owned Kavanaugh Media was unrelated to Kate's fake online presence. She wanted to be her own person and hence, avoided any association with the Kavanaugh name. Her handle name was Katherine Ann Gray heygorjess.

Kate believed the slight variation in the spelling of her last name ( swapping the 'e' for the 'a' in Gray) was quite clever.

In any event, she was careful not to include any of her real-life friends on this account. And she set all the privacy settings so that her personal information was available to 'only me.'

One day, while filming a beauty video, Kate made an impulsive decision. She candidly shared her infertility issues. At once, a couple of women reached out to her. And that's how Kate started her Barrens Club Facebook group. Their mission statement was to create a sisterhood of women who shared their struggles

with starting a family.

Several club members, including Kate, openly discussed surrogacy. Then, shortly after announcing her intention to pursue surrogacy, Kate was taken to the ER, suffering vaginal bleeding and severe pelvic pain.

Naturally, she received heaps of sympathy when she revealed the tragedy of her ectopic pregnancy.

The women rallied behind Kate. They especially loved it when she bravely announced keeping the baby. Most of them cheered. Only a handful of women questioned her decision to undergo the experimental surgery.

As the days wore on, so did the level of pain. More than once, Kate questioned her decision. However, backing out of the surgery also meant letting everyone down. All these women were counting on her, she reasoned. All she'd ever wanted was to feel she belonged.

…..

Elliot arrived home feeling exhausted, convinced that Christian was out to get him. It was time to step up his game. And in this game, there was room for one winner only.

The company had been his grandfather's legacy. Therefore, his claim to inherit GEH was just as legitimate as Christian's.

The last thing he'd expected was to bump into Gia as she left Christian's office earlier this afternoon. His eyes immediately fell to her impossible to ignore chest.

In truth, Elliot was couldn't get his ex out of his mind. He and Gia had a long-troubled affair that had ended on a bad note, and his mind seemed stuck in reliving a past he'd so desperately wanted to forget.

However, there was no reason to mention any of his troubles to Kate. He had no interest in Gia. And his problems with Christian were his own to solve.

After greeting his wife with a kiss, his eyes scanned the room, expecting Grace to pop out at any moment. He was surprised to learn that Kate had called her and asked her not to come.

"Mother came by today," Kate announced happily. "She says she can start helping out."

"I thought she was too busy traveling to third-world countries and immunizing babies in Myanmar?"

Kate shook her head at the sarcastic tone in his voice. "Elliot! Please don't make fun of my mother. She's only trying to help us. We should be proud of her charity work."

Elliot rolled his eyes at that. For the past few months, Kate's mother had become active in a high society philanthropic organization raising money by hosting charitable bingo games.

"So is our lovely mom gracing us with an hour of her presence...once, twice a month?"

"She's coming every day and staying all day."

"What about Grace?"

Kate was silent for a moment. "I guess we won't need her anymore."

Elliot nodded in agreement. Grace was not his favorite person. He acknowledged that his opinion of her had been colored by his late mother, who hated Grace for reasons he never fully understood.

Right then, they heard a knock on their door. It was the housekeeper, telling them dinner was ready.

Elliot scooped Kate into his arms and brought her down to the dinner table.

Kate giggled, enjoying the extra attention her husband bestowed on her.

During dinner, she pulled out her phone to reply to her social media messages.

"What's that about?" Elliot asked with mild interest after seeing the confused look on Kate's face.

"It was just someone in my group wishing us well with our baby," she lied, turning her frown into a smile. In reality, the post was about a woman with a serious chip on her shoulder. As an ectopic pregnancy survivor, she resented Kate's miracle baby story, claiming it set nearly impossible expectations for the group.

It's not like any of us are going to get excited about your stupid baby announcements. Besides, how could any one of us ever expect to reach your level of sainthood? The woman had written.

Another woman was calling for her to step down from the group. Being pregnant no longer qualified as a group member since she was no longer a woman struggling with infertility.

Kate was outraged at the suggestion.

She was the group's founder, for Heaven's sake!

How could someone have the nerve to ask her to step down?

This group was her lifeline; this was the place where she had formed deep friendships. Sure, they were online and all, but that didn't make them any less valid.

"Sounds great," Elliot mumbled, uninterested.

Now Elliot knew that Kate was a social media influencer wanna-be. She'd made a few mistakes along the way when linking her social media sites, such as changing her name a few times and then forgotten to update the links on her own website. As a result, she lost the opportunity to gain big sponsors.

But other than that, he had no clue his wife was living in a completely different world.