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Post by Amber Jacobs on Oct 5, 2015 4:02:20 GMT
The past few weeks had been eventful, that much was for sure. Amber almost would have preferred to go back to being boring. After the incident with Eliot Quinn, Amber had been feeling just a little off. While the attorney's words had clearly gotten to Brandon, they'd also gotten under her skin, but with all of the chaos of assault charges and then having to travel for work, Amber hadn't actually addressed any of them. Admittedly, she'd taken things out on other people while in Paris again. Cassidy had blamed it on hormones and she'd allowed for it.
In part, it had been because she didn't necessarily like traveling without Brandon now. But it also had to do with her worry that Eliot was right. Her being pregnant caused more than just a little issue for Brandon, especially when it came to his job. She knew that it hadn't been ideal for them to be having a baby, but she had just been getting out of the phase where she'd felt guilty about it.
Coming home had made things a little easier, she was about to distract herself with Brandon's presence. It had always been easy for the two of them to fall into familiar patterns, and after a week apart they'd spent quite a while locked away in the Penthouse making up for lost time. But left alone with her thoughts, her mind filled with concerns again. So she distracted herself, waiting for him to come home by curling up on the couch with one of the book's Cassidy had gotten her. So far, most pregnancy books had irritated Amber - as they seemed contradictory, but she was willing to give them a shot again.
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Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 5, 2015 5:02:37 GMT
Brandon had tried not to dwell on the incident that had led to the assault charges that had been made against him. Eliot's words had gotten to him in the moment but the more time that he had to dwell over them, the more he started to have questions about whether or not there was any validity to what the other man had said. As much as there was red tape in the lower rungs of the corporate ladder, the higher the position in a company, the more red tape there seemed to be. And unfortunately, it was the Board of Directors that he ultimately ended up having to answer to. Despite the fact that everyone had seen it coming, he couldn't say that everyone had been happy when he had stepped into his role sooner than had been originally planned for. Not only was he considered to be too young, but his past seemed to be hard to shake as well. Maybe even more unfortunately, Amber played a large part of that past and that may have put them in a situation where there might be some question over the legitimacy of their child. That thought alone made his fist clench in anger and he reminded himself briefly of the last time he let his anger make a decision for him.
The assault charges that had come from it had been more of a nuisance than it had been something that truly worried him. In thanks to a fair bit of money and a highly skilled lawyer, he had been able to escape from the situation relatively quickly. Not that it had escaped the circulation of gossip. Should there ever be a second time, he made a mental note to hit someone in a much less visible location. In Amber's absence, he had opted to avoid the prying eyes as much as he could, choosing to spend any spare time he had at home with a strange combination of baby books and large glasses of scotch. But since she'd been home the talk had seemed to have all but faded away entirely and he'd found it easy to slip back into a much more comfortable routine.
He grinned at her as he stepped into the Penthouse, thinking to himself how lucky he felt to have her in his life again. "Hey," he greeted her. "Are those books making any more sense yet?" It had quickly occurred to him how little he had actually enjoyed reading the baby books himself. Between the graphic details he didn't want to know about the entire process, and the very confusing and admittedly terrifying advice and recommendations, he wasn't entirely sure he was ever going to be ready for a baby himself.
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Oct 5, 2015 5:11:06 GMT
Amber grinned when he walked in, shaking her head at his question and dropping the book onto the coffee table. She sat up a bit straighter, adjusting her glasses and smiled at him. "They're annoying, I mean, entire generations of people were raised without books. I think maybe we'll be okay without them, Cassidy is insistent yet. But she also is overeager, she ordered a few picture books for the baby." Amber nodded, gesturing to a small pile on the coffee table. "Admittedly, there's one about a puppy's first day of school that's adorable." Chewing on her lip for a moment, she stood up and walked around the couch to wrap her arms around him and gave him a proper kiss to greet him.
"How was work?" she asked him gently. She had to imagine that things hadn't been easy since the social function that had stopped just short of leading to Brandon being arrested by Eliot's insistence. Amber had to admit she owed Riley Nichols a thank you for that, but she also felt like she owed Brandon an apology to some extent. As much as she hated to admit it, Eliot had sort of been correct and the idea that she and their baby could be causing issues for Brandon stressed her out substantially.
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Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 5, 2015 20:01:15 GMT
He felt like there had always been this wall that they had hidden behind. Maybe it had been something about the way that they had been raised or something in their personalities alone, but something had thrown a wall up between the people that he felt they were in public and the people that they were behind closed doors. Brandon justified that it was that dichotomy that somehow made him like seeing her in her glasses so much. It was like a literal signal that the wall had come down and she was someone with him that she was never in public. It was oddly endearing if he was being entirely honest. Brandon grinned at her and wrapped his arms around her in response, returning her kiss.
"Work was fine," he dismissed the conversation, wanting to continue to place that wall between his own public life and private life in this matter. Dwelling on everything that had happened just wasn't in his nature, but in Amber's absence, he had received advice from Riley in reference to his next move in quieting the gossip and the questioning. If he had been entirely honest with her, he would have told her that his job over the last several days had consisted of him trying to find a way to get out of feeling like the only thing he could do next was to follow through on Eliot's remark of a paternity test. It was entirely likely that even the suggestion of it was going to cause a fight. And it wasn't that he even questioned whether or not it was his child, it was just that he was in a difficult spot. But now, it just didn't seem like the right time to try and broach the topic, in fact, he wasn't sure that he was ever going to feel like there was a right time. So instead he ignored it and pulled her close to him. "Have I mentioned how glad I am that you're back from your trip?"
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Oct 5, 2015 22:02:10 GMT
The truth was that Amber was glad to be back from her trip, too. In her time away from Brandon, she tended to be a bit more irritable. Whether it had to do with hormones or not, she wasn't sure. But she didn't sleep as well without him beside her and upon her return she found that all of the lingering concerns she had quieted themselves. Brandon had always had the uncanny ability to do that. Things were simpler when they were together and she relaxed into someone other than who she normally was. She'd always felt as though he saw something in her that no one else did, from the moment he'd first told her he'd loved her when they were still just teenagers - neither of them quite comprehending what it meant. But still she'd known that he'd meant it. It wasn't the way other boys said it in a hope to get her in their bed. She liked to think that, someway or another, they were supposed to end up here together like this and that when they were together she was a bit closer to the person he seemed to think she was.
"You might have mentioned it," she replied but then shrugged her shoulder up. "But I never get tired of you telling me." Amber pulled back slightly, toying with his tie and tilted her head. "Or you showing me," she added with a smirk.
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Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 5, 2015 22:49:17 GMT
Brandon smirked back at her, more than willing to procrastinate again on bringing up an uncomfortable situation. She was very good at distracting him in ways that he was only too willing to be distracted by and so he kissed her again, lingering longer than he had anticipated. It was much more difficult to approach the topic than he had been planning on it being and the more he allowed himself to be distracted by her, the longer he knew he was going to wait to say anything. And he wasn't sure how much longer he could go on without finding himself entangled in a much more dangerous place. He hoped that his personal life wasn't going to be a factor in his professional life, but he had to admit that it seemed naive to think that if they had entwined in his father's life, it was only a matter of time before it happened to him. He smiled softly at her, bringing a hand to rest on her cheek for a second before pressing another kiss to her lips. "Actually," he started, trying to keep himself focused on the topic at hand. "There is something that we should talk about concerning my job."
The problem, he was quickly realizing, was that he hadn't given much thought as to what he was going to say to her when he did finally decide to bring up the topic. But not being one to flounder once he made a decision, he decided to just try and be honest with her about what was happening. "There is a small chance, and one that I am working to get out of, that there may be a need to a paternity test." He hesitated for a minute, trying to decide the best words he could say next, but he was floundering. "Just to have the paperwork to present to the Board."
He felt awful saying it and hearing it aloud he realized how much Eliot had actually gotten under his skin with it in the first place. Well, aside from the obvious displays.
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Oct 6, 2015 0:03:16 GMT
Amber frowned at Brandon, taking a slight step back and looking up at him. It had been one thing for Eliot to spew everything that he had during the event they'd attended. It was another to confirm it, more or less. Her pregnancy was clearly posing problems for Brandon at work. She chewed on her lip and shook her head at him, "Seriously?" she asked. "Hasn't everyone figured out that Eliot Quinn is complete trash and that just because he says something." She paced away and frowned. "You can't just tell them no?" she asked softly. "I mean, it's your company. Shouldn't you just be able to tell them that we're not going to do it?"
She chewed on her lip and hesitated for a moment. "Unless you think it's the right thing to do."
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Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 6, 2015 0:26:01 GMT
She had a point, in fact, he had tried to use the excuse of it being his company to try and dismiss the idea that any such test was necessary. It was just that there were a lot more controlling interests in the company than just himself, and while he was sure that he could escape the necessity of having to submit a paternity test to the Board now, some day their son or daughter might end up taking over the company. And he didn't want to think that they would be back in this spot in another twenty or thirty years down the road. Especially when he considered that the time between now and then might just end up being filled with more gossip and speculation. In his discussion of it with Riley, he had quickly realized that it was better to silence the questions now than it was to wait and see if things ended up being as bad as they feared.
Brandon sighed, "It was what Riley recommended that we do. Just to legitimize everything right off the bat. That way we can just put all of this behind us."
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Oct 6, 2015 0:49:14 GMT
Amber stiffened for a moment and her eyes narrowed. "Fine," she said with a shrug. "But do me a favor, next time you and Riley and any other member of your staff wants to discuss a decision that involves my body and our baby, we can have that discussion while I'm on this side of the Atlantic Ocean?" She frowned at him, shaking her head, "You know, if this were ten years ago, I could understand why they were so concerned. Because maybe I was the kind of girl that you would need to ask this of. I've worked very hard to get where I am now, but maybe you just can't live certain things down." Pushing her hair out of her face, she shook her head.
"I'd like to talk to my doctor about the potential risks," she said stiffly after a long moment. "But if it's important to you, fine."
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Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 6, 2015 0:58:21 GMT
It was the way that she had said "if it's important to you" that had caused the guilt to begin seeping in. Brandon wasn't sure that repeating that he knew the truth of the matter already and that truly it wasn't important to him, but he didn't know what would ultimately happen if he refused to comply with the advice that had been given to him. As he had speculated, it could come back in several years when their kid decided that they wanted to take over the company. He couldn't imagine what it would have been like if there had been any question of whether or not he was truly his father's son, and he didn't want to even think about that for their own child. And the absolute truth of it was that he knew that there was another option, and ultimately maybe it was an easier option. But he wasn't sure that he was ready to propose to Amber not, at least not because he felt like it was something that he was supposed to do.
And so he just frowned, looking at her for a minute to gauge how badly he thought she was taking it. Truthfully, he thought it could really be a lot worse. "Amber, it's not that I want you to do this, or think that you should even have to. There are just certain controlling forces at work here that I don't know how to get out of." He gave a shrug and decided that it wasn't necessary to continue having this discussion while still fully suited for work. He took his jacket off and loosened his tie before walking into their bedroom to change. He called out from the room to her, "Just think about what would happen if one day the kid wanted to take over the company - don't you think this would all just rise back up to the surface then anyway?"
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Oct 6, 2015 1:25:42 GMT
Amber took a breath and shook her head, "Yeah. I already said I understood," she snapped slightly. "I don't want our kid to be punished just because I..." she shook her head. "I'll do it," she muttered. She knew that it was important to Brandon and to Brandon's family that someone eventually take over Finn Industries. She hadn't thought about it much until Eliot had said something, but the fact remained that Brandon had always, to some degree, known that taking over for his own father was in the cards. It was part of their family. A small, petty part of Amber realized that was a family that she still wasn't quite part of. She was fine with that, really. She didn't want to be married while she was pregnant and definitely didn't want to get married beccause she was pregnant. She'd spent a lot of time thinking about what marrying Brandon would be like and every time, it was because they both wanted to and because their wedding could be perfect. She thought that the two perfect things they might actually accomplish flawlessly together would be their son and when they finally decided to get married.
"I'm sorry," she offered reluctantly. "If I weren't pregnant you wouldn't have to deal with all of this."
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Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 6, 2015 1:55:30 GMT
He paused in the middle of unbuttoning his shirt to step out of the bedroom to look at her after she snapped. Making her upset hadn't been on his to-do list and he was not necessarily pleased to find that she was becoming visibly more upset about it. "Because of what? Because you have a past?" Brandon shook his head at her, "I don't think it has anything to do with that. And I don't think that it has anything to do with you. I think it has a lot to do with a bunch of bored old men who want to make sure that they continue to make money and in order to do that they need to make sure that there's nothing that could come in the way of that. And unfortunately, they think that scenario that Eliot's put into their heads could be enough to distract me. And if I get distracted, I might make stupid decisions which keeps the company from making as much money." It was all stupid corporate politics, he knew. He even knew that it was in thanks to Eliot that they were in this situation in the first place, but he wasn't sure he could still fight the fact that it wasn't entirely unreasonable. It was, as he continued to remind himself, not like they were married.
"There's nothing to apologize for," he told her firmly. "Sure, I didn't necessarily handle things the best at first but I wouldn't change the situation now. I wouldn't change any of it, Amber."
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Oct 6, 2015 2:32:35 GMT
Amber gave a slight nod. "Okay," she muttered, she stood in the doorway of their bedroom, leaning against the doorframe. "I get it. I even know that everything he said was true," she admitted sadly. "I just wish that it wasn't. But I know how hard you've been working and you know how proud I am of you - so if this is what Riley says will help clear everything up, okay." She shook her head and looked away, "I do just want to talk to my doctor about it first." She rubbed her hands over her face and let out a deep sigh. "I don't want me or the baby to cause problems for you at work," she told him and shrugged her shoulder up.
"Are you hungry?" she asked gently. "Do you want to order something to eat?"
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Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 6, 2015 2:51:41 GMT
Brandon frowned at her. He hated that they had even gotten to this point, not the point where they were just starting to come to terms with what it was going to mean to have a baby, but the point where other people had suddenly been allowed to pass judgment on them. And most of all, he hated that somewhere over the last few days he had felt like giving into it might have been the right thing to do. But now, standing here in front of Amber, he just wanted to tell her that she didn't have to and that he would find a way to work around it. The idea that he could end it all just by asking her to marry him kept circling around and he kept trying to shove it aside. It would, he admitted, be a really easy way to make everything go away. He just wasn't sure that she would necessarily be happy about it. At least not now.
"Amber," he said softly, "Neither you nor the baby could ever cause problems for me in any part of my life." Shaking his head to dismiss the idea, he turned back to unbuttoning his shirt. "I love you," he added in between buttons. "And I'm sorry that this is happening." Pulling his shirt off, he shook his head at her. "No, I'm not hungry. Not right now." He smirked at her, "But I might have an idea of how I can make it all up to you?"
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