#14 | Second Chances

Logan slammed the door to his mother’s home, the family home where he grew up, livid. He’s just come from his meeting with Francesca, and he headed straight from there to his mother.

‘What is the noise for?’ Leila comes barrelling down the grand steps leading into the hallways because the entire house shook at the force of that bang.

‘Did you pay off Francesca?’ Logan is standing at the door, if she looked closely, Leila can see the steam rising from her son. Francesca did say she would tell him considering everything that happened with Blu and Brodie.

‘What-’

‘DO NOT lie to me. Did you pay her off?’

Leila heaved a deep sigh, ‘Sterling was going bankrupt.’

‘That’s not an answer to my question.’

‘Fine. Yes, I did. I needed to save our legacy and I did what I had to do.’

‘Can you hear yourself?’

‘Yes! I can and I’m a terrible mother, what did I do that was so wrong? I secured my children and my grandchildren’s legacy. Shoot me for that. I approached an old friend to secure your high school crush so that we wouldn’t go homeless.’

‘We were never going to go homeless, our trusts secured that-’

‘Yes, and it was entangled in Sterling which meant if we blew up I would have probably had to use money from your trusts to bail us out, sell off Sterling for parts and then what? I had to do something.’

‘Of course, you did, you had to use the fact that I am the only one of your children who gives a damn about you and played me.’

‘I didn’t play you. I simply did what I had to do to secure my children and grandchildren’s future. And I would do it again. For what its worth? I’m sorry. I knew you got her a ring-’

‘You had me-’

‘Oh for heaven’s sake Logan don’t be ridiculous, you know we have had you all secured since the thing with Brody.’

‘Oh, you mean the time you thought he ran away because he’d run away before because of how much he hates you. You do realise he escaped because he thought you were not going to save him.’

‘Yes, I know he had to find his way home and it would take us two years to find his kidnappers and he still thinks I hate him. I am a terrible mother.’

‘Yes, you are. Am I meant to feel sorry for you?’

Leila shrugs, all out of steam. ‘I am so sorry Logan.’

‘I don’t forgive you.’ Logan left the way he came in, with a door slam.

…

Logan was meant to head home but he found his way outside a door in Kensington. It was late, ten pm, to be showing up at someone’s house unannounced but he decided to take a punt. He pressed the bell and waited.

‘Hey man. What’s up.’ Roland answered the door, and he was unsurprised to see Logan standing there. Francesca obviously told him everything.

‘Hey Roland, I’m sorry to show up so late-’

‘Not at all, come in.’

‘Logan?’ Francesca walks out into the hall wondering who it was showing up this late at her home.

‘Hi. I talked to my mother.’

‘Oh.’

‘I’ll give you both some privacy.’ Roland gives his wife a kiss on the cheek before heading up the stairs.

‘Come in, let’s sit in here.’ Francesca showed Logan to the parlour just off the kitchen.

‘Francesca I’m so sorry.’

‘You don’t-’

‘I do. I was a jerk before and for a long time I hated you. Hearing what you told me about the agreement between you and my mother-’

‘It couldn’t have been easy, and I am sorry. I’m sorry I was bought and paid for, to treat you the way I did.’

‘I’m sorry you felt that way and I’m even sorrier you weren’t given much of a choice.’

‘I could have said no.’

‘You could have, but life dealt you an unfair deck of cards and you did what you had to do.’

They sat in silence for a time, both minds going back into a time when they’d been happy together and making peace with where they are now. They had a great love and for the time they were together, they’d made a good run at it.

It was time to let it all go.

‘For what it’s worth Logan, JoJo looks good on you.’

Logan smiled; he has a lifetime of making it up to his wife.

‘Roland looks good on you too. You look happy together.’

‘We are.’

Logan stands, ready to leave.

Franny takes his hands in hers, ‘we had a good run, a lovely love story, life got in the way but for however long it lasted it was good, and pure and beautiful. I’m not mad at that Logan, I thank you for that. I wish you and Jojo all the love in the world and so much more because if anyone deserves a love story like no other, it is you, Logan.’

…

Logan walked into his home through the back door, to see Jojo and the children at the breakfast bar, she is helping them with their homework.

‘Daddy’s home!’ August their daughter, is immediately on her feet and all but tackles her father with a hug, ever the daddy’s girl.

‘Hi sweetheart. How was school?’

‘I got an A in my science project.’

‘Really? The kinetic energy project that you worked so hard on.’

‘You mean the one you worked so hard on with her.’ JoJo teases helping Finn their son off her lap so he too can bear hug his father.

Logan needed to talk to her, but he wanted the comfort of his children first. Of their children. When he thinks of how awful he’d been to JoJo when they first got married, what an arse he’d been.

He did bedtime with the children; bath, brush, and a bedtime story before heading back downstairs to help with the tidy up. The staff always have Friday nights off.

‘Hey.’

‘Hi. How was your day?’ JoJo asked clearing up the homework station.

‘We need to talk.’

And there it was, that look on JoJo’s face, the one that broke his heart in that moment; it was a look of fear, terror at what might be coming. This was the state of their marriage, he always had the upper hand, he could reduce her world to ash at any time and she was completely devoted to him. To their family. She possibly even loved him.

‘Sure.’ JoJo wiped her hands on the kitchen towel. Leaning on the sink, more like using it as a brace for what might be coming, sure this was the conversation she’d lived in fear of all these years.

‘Marcus, your trainer-’

‘I haven’t spoken to him since-’

‘I don’t care about that JoJo, I simply want to know if you did that just to give me an out so you would take the heat if I filed for divorce and Sterling would be saved.’

JoJo caught her breath.

She knew their marriage was an agreement between their parents, she’d always had a thing for Logan, heck, not a thing, she’s been in love with him for as long as she can remember, but she knew there was no reciprocation from him. She entered their marriage knowing the details of the arrangement. Logan did not hide his indifference to her, he was not cruel, they appeared to be darling in front of the cameras when they had to be seen together and for their children but behind closed doors, alone, they were cold, separate, distant. Three years into their marriage, she devised a plan that would free him of his marital obligations, give him an out for divorce and safeguard Sterling. Two weeks after that scandal broke, she found out she was pregnant and with the drama erupting all around them, Logan went into protective mode. He took her away from the press and paparazzi that stalked their every move, away from the gossip and curious eyes and ears. They stayed in the cabin belonging to his brother, Elliot, for much of her pregnancy, and they worked things out. But he would still have the upper hand in their marriage, she would still always be more in love with him than he with her. They’ve a beautiful life together, and love doesn’t have a lot to do with it; she made her peace with that knowing he could walk away, save Sterling and she would still take the heat.

‘I am so sorry JoJo.’

‘Wh-’

‘I have been such a bastard to you and if you want a divorce, I’ll take the heat.’

‘I don’t want divorce but if you do-’

‘I don’t.’

‘Wh-’ her words were suddenly failing her.

‘I want to give this marriage a shot, a real shot.’

‘What about Francesca?’

‘My mother paid her off, she told me today, I met up with her and she told me everything. All roads lead to Sterling. Francesca was a great love of mine, I won’t deny that, but she no longer is. For a long time, I was mad at her, I resented her for what she did, and I think I took that out on you. Today she came clean, my mother made her sign an NDA, but she just didn’t care anymore, I actually walked on her having said some not-so-great things to her and then I went to see my mother and had it out with her then I had to go and apologise to Francesca before I came home.’

‘Do you want to have it out some more?’

Logan smiled, and walked towards his wife, he caged her in, bending his head to meet her, she stands on her tippy toes to meet him. ‘I want to have it out with our marriage.’

JoJo laughs a little, ‘what does that even mean?’

‘Didn’t make sense, did it?’

‘No, it did not.’

‘I want to work on us JoJo if you’ll let me. I love you but I have never gotten my act together enough to show you much. I love you.’

‘I love you.’

‘Daddy.’ Finn, makes his sleepy way downstairs, rubbing his eyes.

‘Hey buddy, what are you doing up?’ Logan is immediately at his son’s side.

‘There’s a monster in my room.’

‘There is.’ Logan picks him up, coaxing him gently.

‘With horns.’

‘Oh my darling. Let’s go scare the monster away.’

‘August and that monsters Inc. soft toy.’ JoJo laughs a little following Logan and Finn upstairs to put him back to bed.

…

‘Are you okay?’ JoJo asks Logan.

He’d returned to the kitchen to finish the tidying up, having put Finn to bed, the damn monster had cast a shadow on the wall with his night light, so it took a longer time to coax him to sleep.

‘I mean about your mother and paying off Francesca, it must have been hard for you to hear that.’

‘It was. And for a long time, I am going to be mad at her, for a longer a time however, I am going to be making it up to you. I am so sorry JoJo for everything, for being a jerk-’

‘You weren’t a jerk, you were dealt a hand you never saw coming, you weren’t even at the table.’

They both sit opposite each other on the floor, legs extended and tangled.

‘Nothing happened with me and Marcus you know, I mean we didn’t-’

‘I don’t care if you did.’

‘We didn’t. We only came out that morning looking like we did. I paid him twenty grand for that kiss and hug but that was the extent of it. I knew the paparazzi would be there.’

‘And I never slept with Francesca after we got married, I never contacted her after she left me in Florence. Today was the first since then. I know I was a jerk to you for a long time in our marriage, but I never stepped out on you.’

‘I know you didn’t Logan.’ JoJo changes her position, so she is ensconced in Logan’s arms. ‘I’d like us to continue on from here, but with a promise to be better to each other.’

‘I’d love that very much.’ Logan leans and presses a kiss on her head.

They settle into each other, lost in the moment but filled with a particular kind of bliss.

‘I love you.’