Chapter 33
Andy sort of cocked his head to one side, as Emily started to break down the camera and the microphones. "I'm almost afraid to ask what you mean by that, Jade," he said with a soft chuckle. "What does 'something else in mind' mean here?"
Jade blushed a little, looking away for just a moment before turning back to look at him. "I've... I've been giving it a lot of thought, Andy," she said, pausing a bit in between the words, as if she was making sure she didn't chicken out of saying any of this. "And I've been talking with Lauren some, and she's been an utter sweetheart about all of this, and she's made me realize something..."
"Stop," Andy said. "Before you go any further, I want you to make sure whatever it is you're about to ask for, it's what
you
want. Not what Lauren wants, or what someone else suggested. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I don't want you to regret any aspect of it."
"Oh. Oh! Oh, no! I wasn't..." she said, giggling a bit. "I wasn't going to suggest I wanted this to be my first time! No no no, not at
all
, Andy! Gosh! But, you remember I told you I wanted to record a video to send to my father, to show him that he couldn't control me any more, right?"
"Oh," he said, understanding where this was going. "Sure, and you've changed your mind and don't want to do that any more, no I get that."
"No!" Jade said, shaking her head quite determined. "I still super want to do that, but I realized, uh, I'm going to go a bit... no, a
lot
further than I think you're expecting me to. And I don't want it to come as any great shock to you when I do."
Andy got a strange smile on his face, arching an eyebrow at her. "I mean... I'm glad you're telling me in advance, because it might've come as a surprise to me, but let's be real here, do you think you're going to go further than anyone in this house has?"
Jade's eyes widened a little bit, then nodded with a little impish smile. "Kinda? I mean, I'm not going to do anything you haven't seen before, but I'm certainly gonna
say
some stuff that might shock you a bit."
"Like...?"
The blonde woman sighed a little bit, folding her arms over her ample chest. "So, in talking with Lauren a lot today, I realize that I've been so darn shy with boys because of my dad, because of all the stupid bull honk he told me over the years, because of all the expectations he put on me, and I need..." She looked away again, trying to find the words she wanted to say before looking back at him with those gorgeous green eyes of hers. "I
need
to make as much of a break from him as I can. I need to make him
want
to disown me, to get me out of his life, so he can't try and control me any more, can't try and control
you
because I'm with you."
"This is starting to sound serious," he said, as Emily tucked the camera into the bag, pushing it to one side. "You don't need to do any editing with the footage from Tala?"
The tiny Brit shook her head. "Framed it clean and only recorded what we needed, so no need to do any post work," she said. "Besides, I need to be here to help support Jade. What she's going to ask of you is... very brave."
"Very brave?" Andy said, looking at Emily before looking back at Jade. "What
are
you going to ask of me?"
"I'm going to..." she said, stopping then starting again. "I'm going to ask you to be
okay
with whatever I say during the whole imprinting process, to not interrupt me, to let me get all of this out onto film, that I'm going to send to my dad, so that he knows I don't want him in my life, I don't need him in my life, and that he's not welcome in my life."
"He's still your father. Are you sure you want to kick him out for good?"
Jade sighed a little bit, sitting down on the bed next to him. "That's just it, Andy. You don't know him like I do. You don't know what I've been through growing up. How much he stressed that I had to be a prim and proper lady. Proper forks, curtsying to the right depth, never speak at a party unless spoken to first. That I couldn't have any fun because fun reflected poorly on the family's legacy. He scared off every boy I tried dating in high school and even well into college. He tried to keep me in some protective bubble, where I would be reliant on him for everything, so that I would do whatever he wanted me to. Did I tell you yet that he wanted me to have an arranged marriage?"
"What? No! Really? In this day and age?"
"It gets worse," Emily said, taking the camera bag to the door of the bedroom, handing it off to Nicolette, who was standing there. "Take that downstairs and when Katie Couric's crew comes to pick it up, hand it off to them with our thanks."
"Yes ma'am," Nicolette said, taking the bag from her before heading down the hallway. Emily closed the door after she went, leaving Andy in the room with four conscious women -- Jade, Emily, Sheridan and Lauren -- and three unconscious women -- Tala, Fiona and Moira.
"Tell him
who
the person he wanted you to marry was, Jade," Emily said, annoyance plain on her face. "He won't believe it."
"It won't mean anything to him," Jade said, "but okay. My father wanted me to get married to Benjamin Watkins. He's--"
"I know who the fuck he is, Jade." Suddenly, Andy was furious on Jade's behalf. "You've got to be fucking shitting me," he said angrily. "He's almost a decade younger than you, he's an asshole and he's a selfish little prick. How could your father possibly think that would be a good idea?"
"Wait, how do you even know who Benjamin
is
?" Jade said, looking at her hands nervously.
Andy gave Jade the short version of the poker story, explaining how he had originally gone to protect some of Niko's friends, but had ended up winning even more people, and the last one, Deborah, had been claimed by Benny before she could be brought over to Andy, which was why Hannah had joined the family instead. Benny's awful behavior on his doorstep had left Andy with a very bitter impression of the boy too stupid to be called a young man.
"I mean," Andy said, "I can't imagine Nathaniel, Benny's father, even going
along
with that. Had your dad talked about it with him?"
"I think he wanted to convince
me
to go along with it first before talking with the Watkins family," she grumbled. "But I never agreed to it, because I wasn't going to let my father tell me who I could or couldn't love, the jerk. And a couple of years ago, he stopped talking about that entirely, and I think I finally figured out why."