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Chapter Thirty-Two
Between Lisbeth’s words and the large number of people around her, she felt lost. Jackson held onto her for as long as he could, but when his father asked for help, he was gone. She didn’t blame him; he had a responsibility.
As if hearing her worrisome thoughts, Jackson’s nieces dragged her towards the stage and insisted she dance with them. For one song, she twirled and bounced, letting her hair down and ignored everyone else. But the whispers started to get louder than the music and Ollie freaked out. She hadn’t danced in front of people she didn’t know for this reason, because sometimes just letting go was frowned upon in some way.
After thanking the kids for the dance, Ollie walked back into the house to cool down. She found a wall of photographs, smiling as she traced Jackson’s growth. He truly had been an awkward kid and she could see the point in his life where things had gone wrong for him. Then there were smiles, because Mindy happened. Ollie brushed her fingers over the baby face of her boyfriend and smiled to herself.
Callum and Mindy were perfection, right from their looks to their kind hearts, and Ollie was glad that despite his father not being around for a few years, Jackson got to have him back and to build a relationship with him.
The wandering took her to another office that looked like Callum’s—from the dark colors to the leather chair and the lack of personal touches. Stepping through the open door, Ollie took in the tall bookshelves, lined with leather-bound books she’d never heard of. The office was in such good condition, she wondered if he even used this space anymore. She traced the spines of the books and sat in the large leather chair behind a big desk.
Her family wasn’t wealthy like this, but her parents had made enough money over the years to give the kids a good life. Ollie never had to wonder if she was going to miss a meal, she had good clothes, and every year her mother took her stationery shopping before the first day of school. They’d gone on family holidays every single summer and once in a while, they went somewhere during Christmas. She’d been to both Disneyland and Disney World at least once in her life and grew up watching movies at the cinema regularly. But this kind of luxury was something Ollie had never imagined for herself.
And by looking at Jackson, you’d never even realize he came from money.
Sitting there, Ollie remembered the flowers she’d picked up for Mindy. So she went to get it and then slowly navigated her way to what she hoped was the kitchen. She got lost once and turned a corner in time to hear someone say her name. Frowning, Ollie hugged the bouquet to her chest and walked in the direction of the voice. Not only did she find the kitchen, she found Lisbeth standing at the center island, phone to her ear.
“…and to top it off, she’sIndian…yeah, Indian food is fine, but an Indian in the family? Can you even imagine… God, no, I’m not going to play nice. Jackson can pretend all he wants, but she doesn’t fit…No, I can’tfakeit for Jackson. He should have warned us he was bringing this…did I mention that she’s much older? Close to your age…That makes herold. Jackson is still a kid.”
Ollie rolled her eyes. She’d faced off with lots of racist people, but this was ridiculous. While confronting Lisbeth would only make the situation worse, Ollie needed to end this now. She stepped into the kitchen andaccidentallybumped into a lower cabinet. Lisbeth turned around and narrowed her eyes.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for a vase to put these into.”
Lisbeth hung up the phone and waved Ollie off. “Leave them there, Mindy will do it later.”
“I’d rather do it myself.”
“So, we’re going to pretend like you didn’t eavesdrop on my entire conversation?”
Ollie pulled open cabinets, looking for a vase. “I’m not pretending. You don’t like me, I don’t like you, it’s simple.”
“You don’t belong with Jackson.”
“Why not?”
Lisbeth sighed as Ollie finally pulled out a vase and set it on the counter. They turned to face each other, like they were preparing for war.
“My brother is naïve, young and impressionable. You’re not from here and even if you are, you’ve got your customs and your beliefs and I don’t want you brainwashing Jackson.”
Ollie snorted. “Why are you treating Jackson like he’s incapable of making his own decisions?”
“Ever since our mother left, he’s been making terrible decisions and you’re another one.”
“I don’t think you actually know your brother as well as you claim.”
“It doesn’t matter what I do or do not know,” Lisbeth said. “The point is, you come from a different culture. Don’t you have enough Indian men you can get into an arranged marriage with and leave our men alone?”
“Wow,our men,” Ollie snorted, shaking her head as she filled the vase with water and arranged the flowers.
There was a loud cheer from outside and Ollie wasn’t sure if she was glad for the high volume drowning out this conversation or if she wished someone was able to hear what was happening.
Speaking of which, Ollie was so enraged about the wholeour mennonsense and the way people used arranged marriages as an insult. On the other hand, she hated the way Bollywood romanticized it, because it wasn’t always successful. Her parents fell in love, so did Baby and her grandfather. Her brothers all fell in love with their wives, some of her cousins were lucky. But most of her family in India had arranged marriages, some of them were unhappy, some were divorced and a tiny portion were in love with their partners.
And after everything she went through with those ridiculousmeetingsher grandmother set up, Ollie wasn’t going to stand around and let someone make arranged marriages be a reason why she was unworthy of Jackson. Or anyone, really.
“Your family believes in arranged marriages, do they not?”
