Page 74 of Beautiful Noise
“Your grandfather?” The admission felt random but it wasn’t.
Ezren nodded. “You know how I’m always telling you my mother sees herself in you?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with my father and your grandfather?”
“My mother’s maiden name is Lafayette.”
My brows pinched. “Should I know that name?”
He leaned back, removed his phone, pulled up a site, and handed the device over. My brain jolted when I realized what he was sharing, Lafayette Grand Isles Corporation. The multi-billion-dollar enterprise that had hotels, resorts, business plazas, entertainment conglomerates, and a plethora of other successful ventures attached to the brand.
“This is your family?”
He nodded stiffly, as if admitting so was painful. “My father’s last name is Shaw so naturally when my parents married shetook his last name. She was a Lafayette. The only female from her parents. I have five uncles, and collectively, between them, there are nine grandchildren. Ten, if you include me.”
“You don’t include yourself?”
“No but I own ten percent of the Lafayette fortune. Thanks to my grandmother.” He smiled when he spoke of her and I sensed the difference in how he reacted based on when he mentioned his grandfather. “The reason my mother sees herself in you is because she feels like you are the same. She spent her childhood in boarding schools abroad, has an undergrad degree from Spelman, and a master’s degree from Princeton. Her legacy was to work for Lafayette Grand Isles.”
“She didn’t want that?”
“She did until she met my father. A free-spirited guitar player who told her she was beautiful and promised she would be his wife one day.”
“Her family didn’t like the idea of her marrying your father?”
“Nah, they didn’t, but it wouldn’t have mattered. She married him anyway. My grandfather disowned her and for the first few years after they had me she didn’t have any connection to anyone in her family. Everyone did what Rollins Lafayette wanted. He was a loud man with a very fragile ego but he held all the cards. So when he spoke, everyone fell in line.”
“Everyone except your mother.”
Ezren laughed lightly.” Nobody tells Gwendolyn Shaw what to do. She made the decision to be happy. She married my father, had me, and was very fucking happy. It destroyed us when we lost him. But she was happy and it fucked with my grandfather even more that she was the one piece he couldn’t control. You standing up to your father, living your life, is the worst fate a man who thrives on control could suffer. According to my grandfather, and hell even the rest of the world, my mother had so much potential and she wasted it on us.
“She was beautiful, smart, rich, and decided marrying my father and having me was what would make her happy. She chose us, but more importantly she chose herself. You’re allowed to choose you, Ri. No matter what you feel you’re giving up, if what you choose makes you happy, go with it. If the people that are supposed to love you can’t accept who you are, then fuck ’em. His loss, not yours.”
My father…
Gwendolyn being so drawn to me all made sense now. I respected her even more now than I did before.
“Do you know him? Your grandfather?”
“No, I met him once. I was a baby so I don’t remember. He found out my mother had me and flew to Atlanta just to express that she had one last chance to leave her husband and hisbastard. If she did, he would welcome her home with open arms. My father went to jail that night.” Ezren grinned. “And from what I hear, my grandfather learned a lesson in choosing his battles. I don’t know him and never desired to. I know my grandmother. It took a while but she started coming around when I was like three or four. She rebuilt the relationship with my mother. She visited a lot. A week after she passed, I got a call from her lawyer explaining that I was ten percent owner of Lafayette Grand Isles Corporation. Ten grandchildren with equal shares. I don’t know how she managed to make that work but I didn’t fucking care. That was a year ago. The paperwork is in a safe deposit box. I haven’t touched it. I probably won’t ever. I don’t need anything from him.”
I glanced past Ezren out of the window realizing we were at the airport approaching the landing strip next to the private jet we’d arrived in Houston on. I turned back to him after we parked. “It’s not fromhim. The shares are from your grandmother and they’re yours. She wanted you to have whatrightfully belonged to you. You might not have been his family but you were hers. Don’t disrespect her wishes to spite him.”
I leaned deeper into his side and stole a kiss. “And thank you for sharing your mother’s story with me.”
Ezren’s hooded, determined eyes locked with mine. “I told you I’ve got you, Ri. You just have to let me.”
“You definitely have a secret girlfriend hidden away somewhere because you’re too good at this girlfriend thing.”
He smiled sinfully slowly and kissed me again. “I don’t. The right inspiration inspires the right results. My actions are all about you, Ri. Just you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ezren.
I watched Kori’s eyes run through a plethora of emotions as we neared the hotel. We’d managed to slide into Houston undetected but after the clips of the performance there along with the VIP meet and greet went viral there was no way to avoid the media lineup waiting for us outside the hotel in Dallas.
The coverage never bothered me. Years of existing in this world made me numb to the intrusive nature of those who paid their bills by capturing details that exposed my life, but this was new to Kori. I should have considered how she would fit into this equation when I booked at my favorite spot here.