I could hear voices outside the door as I walked past to go to the kitchen. "What are you doing here?"

"You're pregnant?" the other person asked. I froze since they sounded like they were male.

"Wyatt, what are you doing here?" my wife repeated. That's when I knew I had to stay close to the door.

I swear there's something unstable about this Wyatt guy.

"You're fucking pregnant London? Is it his child? Lazwas it?" he questioned.

"You have some nerve to show up here and cuss at me after I explicitly told you not to come back. I'm not even going to get started on you thinking I owe you any kind of explanation or any answers for that matter. Get out of my way," she told him.

"Answer my question first," he demanded.

I couldn't even begin to imagine how livid she was since my own anger almost blinded me as I opened the door. "Do we have a problem here?"

The man is considerably shorter than me, and his eyes widened a little when they landed on me. London looked visibly relieved to see me before she managed to move past him and come to me.

"Wyatt here was just leaving," she said, glaring at him.

"Who are you?" he had the nerve to ask me.

"Who are you?" I returned the question.

"I'm her fiancé," he said proudly.

I scowled, looking to my wife. "Mrs Diaz, is polygamy a legal thing here? It isn't back home so I'm not sure if you can take on a second husband."

She bit her lip to keep from laughing while Wyatt's eyes looked like they'd roll out from their sockets soon. "Mrs Diaz?"

"The name's Cuba Laz Diaz, otherwise known as MrDiaz," I told him.

He took a while to process my words, before turning to my wife. "Is this why you broke up with me? Because I wouldn't have sex with you?"

"Excuse me? Are you suggesting that I'm a whore?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Why else would you go off and marry some man you barely know and have a baby with him?" he questioned.

"I, why, how? You know what? I don't have time for this," she said before walking inside, leaving me outside with him.

"This is the only time I will tell you this. Whatever you had with my wife has passed. She will never again be yours. She doesn't think about you, let alone speak your name anymore, so I would suggest you get a grip on moving on with your life without her. She's never coming back to you," I told him.

He looked intimidated, despite the false bravery on his face. He looked like he wanted to say something else, so I raised an eyebrow, daring him. He was wise enough to know not to even try it as he sighed and turned to leave.

I closed the door and checked the time. It was five in the evening, and I wasn't sure what time we were meeting her dad for dinner, if she'd even remembered to text him. I headed to the kitchen and she was packing food into the cupboard.

"Are you ok?" I asked her.

"Despite the little incident that just took place with that moron, I'm actually great. I had a wonderful time with the girls, and I refuse to have Wyatt affect my life in any kind of way. He no longer has that privilege," she smiled.

I went up to wrap my arms around her. "I'm proud of you."

"I'm proud of me too," she said cheekily.

I chuckled before kissing her forehead. "Did you text your dad?"

"Yeah. I could tell from his response that he's confused, but he'll be home, so we'll head over there in the next two hours," she informed.

"Are we taking anything?" I asked as I let her get back to what she was doing.

"We can stop by the liquor store and get him a bottle of his favourite whisky, but that's as far as I think we can go. He probably hired a chef to cook for him now that my mother left him alone," she said.

"A chef?" I asked unsurely.

She nodded. "He does that when my mother isn't around since he insists that he's too busy to make himself food."

"That's, wow," I said, speechless.

She laughed. "I know. It's sad when you really think about it, but it's also cute how he's nothing without my mom around."

"He's living the life though. I mean, that means your mom cooks for him when she's around. I can just imagine that kind of life. Me, just working all the time while my sexy wife cooks for me," I joked.

She threw me a side look. "I thought you said polygamy isn't a thing back home because I sure as hell hope you don't think I'mgoing to be a participant of such nonsense. I am no Martha Stewart and there's nothing wrong with your God given hands."

I laughed, hard. London can be such a character at times. She surprised me by coming around to kiss me. I didn't waste any time in kissing her back, as surprised as I was. I got her onto the counter and she giggled when I squeezed her butt.

"It kills me that you giggle every time I do that," I chuckled.

"It's ticklish. I don't get how other women are ok with it," she defended.

She squealed when I lightly bit her cheek. "Well I think it's adorable."

"I love you Laz, like a lot," she smiled.

"I love you too Dori, like a lot, a lot," I replied.

She caressed my cheek. "Are you nervous about talking to my dad?"

"Of course, I am. The man is scary," I admitted.

"But you said you've met him before," she said, visibly confused.

"I have, but I was seventeen and I hadn't married his daughter and gotten her pregnant without his permission. If I was afraid of him then, can you imagine how I feel now?" I explained.

She bit her lip. "Does it make a difference that I'm in trouble too?"

"As cute as that is, no, it doesn't. He wouldn't kill you, whereas he might not even think twice about killing me," I replied.

"I wouldn't let him," she said confidently.

I chuckled before kissing her. "And that's why you're the love of my life. You'd defend me against a man with twice your size with twice your strength."

"Hey! Strength isn't everything. I could totally outsmart him in some other way that I'm too lazy to come up with now," she defended.

"And I'm sure you'd still lose," I taunted, making her laugh as she smacked my arm.

"I'm nervous about this. What if it backfires and he's not on my side? I can handle not talking to my mom or JR, but if my dad shuts me out too, I might not be able to handle it," she confessed.

"And I wish I could say that everything would be ok after that, but I can't because I'm just as terrified of that happening. I hate that things are turning out like this with your family because of me, and I know you don't want me to look at things that way, but that's the truth," I replied.

"It's the half-truth Laz. Iwas also a part of the decision wemade to sleep together in Paris. Nemo is a result of both ourdecision making here, so no, it isn't allbecause of you. We don't control how other people think. We only control how we feel, and it's because of how we feel that other people have reacted in the way that they have. There's nothing wrong with me loving you, you loving me, us having Nemo, and us deciding that we want to spend the rest of our lives together. I mean, did we go about it conventionally? No, but I feel like given a different setting, the result would still be the same. If I'd met you in a coffee shop first and we'd gone on multiple dates, I feel like we'd still end up right where we are. You're my soulmate Cuba Laz Diaz, and fate would've found a way to always bring us together. This just happens to be the way it chose, and I accept it because I choose you. I will alwayschoose you."

She was caressing my cheek, wiping away tears I didn't even realizing had escaped. The way in which this woman loves me always reminds me that I don't deserve her, but I will do everything in my power to keep her.

"You're very adamant on having nothing to say at our wedding," I joked.

She laughed before kissing me. "Maybe I don't want a wedding after all."

"Now you're just looking to have everyone in your life hate me," I commented, making her laugh harder.

We stayed in the kitchen, just talking and kissing every now and then. It's not often that we've gotten to be like this together, so I appreciated the moment. When it was time, we left to get ready for dinner, accommodating the fact that we still had to pass by the liquor store.

We were both dressed formally and she was driving to her home. I could tell that her nerves were shot – and I probably shouldn't have let her drive in this state, but I'd already figured out that she wouldn't have agreed not to.

We arrived outside a huge gate with an intricate design, and the security guy at the gate looked surprised to see London. He opened the gate after they'd engaged in a short conversation in a language I learnt was Setswana, which is my wife's home language – from her mother's side.

She parked the car but was unmoving for the longest time. I let her prepare herself, until I realized that she was trying to talk herself into leaving. I got out of the car and went around to open her door.

"Out you go Mrs Diaz," I told her as I helped her out of the car.

She was visibly having a panic attack. "I can't do this!"

I leaned down and kissed her softly, and she relaxed into the kiss. "You've got this, and I've got you. We can both do this."

"I can do this," she agreed with a small nod.

We headed towards the door and she had my hand in a vice grip. She'd decided to wear a tight dress, one that wouldn't hide her pregnancy. She was hoping Nemo would speak for himself, and now that I'd thought about it, it wasn't the worst idea.

We just had to be ready for the retaliation.

Because my wife was so terrified, she knocked – despite the fact that she'd grown up in this house. Mr Simmons opened the door, bewilderment on his face, and it was like time stood still. You could tell that he was waiting for either of us to speak, and when we weren't, he moved onto the alternative.

First his eyes moved to our conjoined hands and his eyebrow raised. He still said nothing as we followed his vision to London's bulging stomach. The look on his face changed to one I couldn't read as he looked back up at our probably tense faces.

"Are you the father?" he asked me.

I nodded. "Yes I am."

"Daddy, I can expl-"

A finger shot up, stopping her. "Are the two of you planning to stay together?"

"We're married," she said with a shaky breath.

We studied his unmoving face for the longest time, until he broke out into a smile. I'm pretty sure I speak for the both of us when I say we didn't see that coming. He laughed and threw his arms around us.

"I'm so confused, and I'm sure Cuba feels exactly the same."

"Come in and I'll explain," he invited.

Sceptical, we followed him in as he led us to the lounge. I was impressed by what I was seeing. London had mentioned that her mother had singlehandedly decorated the house, and Mrs Simmons has an eye for style – even if she doesn't believe that that's the case with her daughter.

We sat on the couches and London didn't skip a beat, shooting him an impatient look which he chuckled to. "Ever the impatient one."

"Excuse me for thinking you were going to murder my husband and then lock me up for the rest of my life," she argued.

"You're a grown woman London. What reason would I have to look down on the decisions you make?" he asked.

"Sir, you're singing a very different tune to that of your wife," I pointed out.

"Cuba son, how are you?" he asked me, ignoring my words.

"I'm ok?" I said unsurely.

"You don't sound too sure there," he taunted.

I cleared my throat. "I'm ok. In fact, I'm beyond ok – I'm great. I'm in love and I'm the happiest I've ever been."

"That's wonderful to hear. What about you baby girl? Is Diaz treating you well?" he questioned.

"I echo his sentiments in this regard, but I'm more confused by why you're so calm about this," she replied.

He shrugged. "Because it's what I wanted."

"Come again?" my wife and I said.

"Do you really think a dying man thought of this? When I sat down with Ricardo in Paris, he was telling me about Cuba and his regrets when it comes to his grandson. He told me that he wished that Cuba would end up with someone like London, so I suggested we do just that. He was worried that Cuba would be worse with his inheritance in the picture, so by tying London to it, it would force you to both meet at some point. The rest was really just us hoping fate would work the rest out. Given the fact that you're pregnant, I take it fate didn't take that long?"

I'm pretty confident that my wife's face mirrored my own as we looked to her nonchalant father. He was as serious as a heart attack, and I could only think about how he and my grandfather wanted this to happen, and it did.

I didn't know whether to be mad or happy.

However, it took one look at my wife to know the answer. She caught me looking at her, and notwithstanding the tears in her eyes, she smiled. I took her hand in mine and brought it up to kiss it while she released a laughter of disbelief.

"So, just to be clear, you don't want to kill Cuba?" she asked her father.

His laughter boomed in the room. "No baby girl. I don't want to kill him. If anything, I'm proud of the man sitting before me. He's come a long way since his partying days."

I scratched the back of my neck. "You know about that?"

"When my daughter loves, she loves with her entire being, but I needed to be sure that I wasn't setting her up for something she wouldn't be able to handle. I was confident that she could bring out the man Ricardo wanted you to be," he explained.

"Your confidence in me is shocking," she commented.

"It's also not misplaced. Look at the two of you now. I can already tell that the will isn't what brought you together, so fate already agreed with Ricardo and I about the two of you. So, you see, I'm not the only one who had faith in you changing Cuba's life," he defended.

"And I thank fate, you and my grandfather for that. London is the greatest person to ever step into my life, and she and Nemo are my everything," I stated.

He smiled. "Nemo? I take it London's responsible for that one?"

"Hey! It could've easilybeen him," she protested.

"Baby girl, you're a special brand of whacky, but no one can match your wackiness. Naming your child Nemo sounds like a product of said wackiness," he retorted.

I couldn't stop my laugh, which I was smacked for. "You didn't seem to have a problem with the name Nemo."

"If I remember correctly, you shot me a look that suggested that it would be wise to not argue with your choice," I defended, making her dad laugh.

"Ricardo must really be happy wherever he is."

That line had the power to kill the humour in the room. Mr Simmons was smiling, but I could see the sadness overpowering my wife. I was feeling the same as I was suffocated by feelings of guilt and regret.

"I wish I could've seen him," I admitted lowly.

"He knew you weren't going to make it," Mr Simmons commented.

That took me aback. "He didn't believe in me that much?"

"It's got nothing to do with you. He knew you weren't going to make it because he could feel himself losing the fight. He confessed to me that he would've been long gone if it wasn't for London. She kept him fighting, and while he wanted to hold on for you, his body just wasn't on the same page. I don't think he expected you to miss his funeral though," he elaborated.

"I was in hospital. Someone tried to kill me just before I could come to Paris," I informed.

London frowned. "We still haven't solved that by the way."

"I haven't been running in my old circles, so I can only guess that the person who tried to kill me is from there," I responded.

"But that doesn't mean you're in the clear. You need to get a handle on that Cuba. You can't make my baby girl a widow at such a young and delicate stage of her life," Mr Simmons warned.

"I'll get right on it when we get back," I stated.

"Now, do any of you want to explain to me why I received a bank notification with the reference London's Fees on it?" he asked.

"Mom is in New York right now. She strong-armed JR into going there as well, and they are against our relationship," London responded.

"That doesn't answer my question baby girl. My job as a parent is to put you through school, and yet you paid me back all the money I spent, down to the last cent. I'm offended," he pointed out.

She sighed. "Mom was waving the fact that you guys put me through school in my face. She was making me feel horrible for not wanting to have anything to do with the internship and literature right now."

He turned to me. "And I take it you're the one who paid?"

"I wasn't in agreement with it, and I told London, but she was adamant to prove a point to her mother," I agreed.

"And what are your feelings on my wife?" he asked.

"I don't hate or dislike her. I've dealt with people like her judging me my whole life, but I know that she's judging the part of me that even I hate. While London and I's situation doesn't come off as ideal, I thought that having shared a moment with her and having told her a little bit about myself, she'd at least understand. Her bringing your son through showed me that I didn't get through to her. Again, I'm ok with that," I replied.

"You don't want your mother in law to like you?" he challenged.

"If there's one thing I've learnt in my life, it's that you can't force people to like you. You can't tell them how to like you either. You can only be yourself and hope that that's enough," I explained.

He nodded in what I could only pinpoint as understanding before facing his daughter. "What exactly is her problem with this?"

"She says I'm not ready and I'm unfit to be a mother because I'm immature. She doesn't believe that Cuba is ready to be a father either. She's convinced that we're both messes who won't be able to do this, and she even went on to rub the fact that Cuba had foregone his inheritance in my face."

"What?" both Mr Simmons and I asked.

I didn't know that bit.

She sighed before first telling her father everything that had happened with us and how we got to this point. As soon as she was done, she continued on to tell us about the argument she had with her mother. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

But it shone a light on just how deep the rift between London and her mother was.

"You've fought before, but I don't think it's ever been like this," Mr Simmons commented while I put my arm around my wife as she wiped away her tears.

"I told Cuba that I wouldn't be as strong if you weren't on my side. She's wrong dad, I just know she is. I hate that she got to JR before I did. You should've seen the amount of hatred on his face when he looked at Cuba. I don't even know what she told him," she sniffed.

"So, you haven't spoken to your brother since his arrival?" he asked.

She shook her head. "We came here just hours after that confrontation with him in the kitchen."

He released a breath of frustration as he leaned forward, rubbing his face. "I hate that it's come down to teams, but Ria was wrong for how she handled this, especially since she still hasn't told me any of this. She told me that she was going to England."

"Wait, so you haven't spoken to her?" London asked.

He shook his head. "I called her to ask if she knew about the money in our account, and she told me that she has no clue. I'm not sure exactly what her agenda is, but I'm confident that I don't like it."

"Why does it sound like you guys are having problems?" my wife voiced what I felt was not my place to question but was thinking.

He stood up and headed over to the small table with the bottle of whisky. "I'm going to need something much stronger if we're going down this path."

"Daddy," London said quietly.

"Baby girl, you know I love you, your mother and JR very much, but I don't know what to do anymore. You mother and I are drifting and it feels like there's nothing I can do to fix it," he admitted.

I felt like I was an intruder in this conversation but seeing my wife shake made me think otherwise as I wrapped my arms around her. "What do you mean? I thought you guys are happy? You took her to Bali. I thought she was excited."

"Your mother is a great actress when needed. She didn't even want to go to Bali, despite it being my effort at keeping our marriage alive. She spent the whole time away from me doing God knows what," he confessed.

"What?" she whispered.

"I love her London, but I don't know if our marriage is going to make it. I've spent more days waiting on her to serve me divorce papers than I have waiting to hear her tell me that she loves me. She doesn't even do that much anymore."

Watching him take a swig of his drink, I could only imagine what was going through his head. I couldn't even attempt to imagine what my wife was thinking. Hell, it tortured meknowing what he was going through.

When we weren't saying anything, he continued. "I can't say I know when things started getting this bad since she won't even talk to me. I don't want you to hate her baby girl, especially now that she doesn't agree with your relationship. Perhaps I was also at fault for not involving her in this, but I just really believed that the two of you could make it work. The fate of my marriage is one that I don't know, but I don't want you getting involved, or letting your feelings dictate how you treat her from this point onwards."

"How do you expect me to see her in the same way?" she suddenly shouted.

I held her closer. "Dori, calm down and listen to him. He's making sense. I know that you've always felt connected to him and you feel that JR is closer to your mom, but you can't shut them out. You can't hate your mom for things you don't understand. This is between them. With us, she'll come around when you've proved her wrong, but with this, you can't interfere, and you can't look at her any differently when even your dad doesn't know what changed."

"Cuba's right baby girl. I didn't share what I did with you to make you hate her. I told you simply because I believe you're grown enough for me to tell you such things. Prove me right and react in a way an adult would."

I could see the turmoil in her eyes, but she nodded anyway. While the mood was heavy, we still managed to get through dinner together – even if London ignored us. By the time it was time for us to leave, she headed straight for the car, leaving me with her dad.

"She's not going to listen to us, is she?"

"Nope!" I confirmed.

He sighed. "She's her mother's daughter, even if Ria won't see it that way when she's challenged."

"What about you? Are you going to New York?" I asked him.

"I can only imagine my doing that ending badly. I'll stay home and wait for things to play out. My baby girl can call me when she needs me and I'll be there for her, but having all of us there will only be bad for her and the baby. Where are Gloria and Junior now?" he questioned.

"We left them in the mansion. They're staying with us," I informed.

"You have to make them leave," he stated.

"I'm not doing that. That's just going to make matters worse," I argued.

"On an emotional level yes, but at least they won't be around London. Cuba, I understand that you're trying to keep everyone happy, but in the long run, this isn't good for London. I know my wife, and when she's teamed up with our son against our daughter, it never goes well. London doesn't need that stress. She might lose your baby, or even worse, her own life. I love my wife and son, but I also don't want them to have that guilt on them if we lose London because they refused to accept this. London is strong, and now that she knows I'm on her side, it will make things better, but having Gloria and Junior around her with their negativity isn't going to be beneficial for either party. I know kicking them out sounds bad, but you're doing them all a favour in the long run by avoiding interactions that would be left better circumvented."

Everything he was saying was making sense, and as uncomfortable as it would be to do what he was requesting of me, I didn't have much of a choice in the matter – not when I had so much to lose.

Protecting London and Nemo is my number one priority, family wars aside, and I shall honour that code.