Chapter 3: When Are You Getting Married

“So when are you getting married, Ezra? Have you found a woman yet?”

Ezra didn’t look up from the orange he was peeling. "You called me here because you’re sick. If you’re well enough to interrogate me, you’re well enough to go home.”  

His grandmother – Matilda Grey – glared at him. She knew her grandson so well to not be bothered by his cold attitude. “Don’t change the subject, Ezra.” Her expression changed as if her health was of no importance in the face of his continued bachelorhood. She was completely unbothered by his prickliness.

“You’ve been gone for almost ten years,” she continued. “Do you really want me to believe you haven’t been in a relationship since then?”

“I don’t have time for a  relationship,” he responded, focusing on peeling off an orange segment.

“But it's been years!” She insisted. “I know Lana did a number on you, but that’s no reason why you should close yourself off forever.”

Ezra’s expression darkened at her words, and he glared at his grandmother.

She rolled her eyes when she saw his expression. “Yeah, yeah, I know you don’t want to hear her name ever again. But look at what you’re doing to yourself because of her. You’re almost forty and still single. Aren’t you lonely?”

“I’m not lonely. I have Jason.” And his age was an exaggeration. He’d turned thirty-two last year. Unwilling to hear any more of her marriage propaganda, Ezra stuffed the just peeled orange segment into her mouth in the hopes that it would shut her up. She gave him a dirty look he pretended not to see.

“Having an assistant doesn’t count as not being lonely. Jason has to be sick of your constant presence by now,” she said as she finished the fruit in her mouth.

“I pay Jason well enough.”

“How about going on a blind date?” She asked, ignoring his statement. “I know just the person. She’s a lovely girl, her father is one of our board members. You’d like her.”

“No,” Ezra refused firmly. “No blind dates.”

“No blind dates, no dates set up by you, what exactly is your problem here? Have you forgotten exactly what’s at stake?” When she saw that he had no intention to answer, she continued. “I’m old, but my need for grandchildren and seeing you happy with a family aside, you need this. Remember the hereditary illness, and also the board is already unhappy with you and looking for ways to push you out of the company. Not to mention Olivia and her dumb son Ethan. Any more delay on your part, and Ethan will beat you to having a wife and heir. The company will fall right into his lap then.”

“I wonder whose bright idea it was to set such a stupid clause for inheritance.” He raised an uninterested eyebrow.

“Do you want the company or not?” His grandmother asked impatiently.

Of course he wanted it. He wouldn't sit back and let his family's company fall into the hands of the daughter of the woman who ruined the happiness of his family. But he just wouldn’t act like a puppet to get what he wanted. He did things his own way. 

Deciding a change in topic was overdue, he asked, “When will you be meeting with Olivia and her son?”

She must’ve also gotten tired of the previous topic, because she didn’t try to pull him back. “I don’t have to meet them. The only reason I allowed myself to get roped into that family meeting is because you just came back to the country and I knew Olivia would keep bugging me into a gathering just so  she can pretend we’re one big happy family while she passes thinly veiled insults at you and her son tries to suck up to you. Jeez. They are so tiring. I’m glad I’m here in the hospital instead of there with them.”

That his grandmother didn’t like Olivia wasn’t news to anybody. He shook his head, handed the rest of the orange to her, and pressed the button for his assistant. “I’m going to have a word with the doctor. After that, I’ll be leaving.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Go on. But think about what I said. You need a wife and child. There's not much time.”

Ignoring her, he turned his motorized wheelchair to the door just as it was opened from the outside and Jason appeared.

“Jason, convince him for me, will you?” she said to Jason, leaning out of bed slightly.

Ezra wheeled himself out of the room while Jason simply smiled and told her he would try his best.

When they got to the doctor’s office, they found him pacing, with Ezra’s chart on the table. Ezra raised an eyebrow when he saw the folder with his name on it, but decided to ask about his grandmother first.

“I’m here for my grandmother. Is there something you haven’t told me?”

The middle-aged doctor froze, looking like a deer caught in headlights. The man had been their family doctor since Ezra could remember, and Ezra had never seen him look this panicked before.

“Your grandmother… She’s fine. Ahem.” He cleared his throat. “We’ve checked her and there’s nothing seriously wrong with her. We’ve given her more supplements and something more for pain relief. You just have to make sure she takes them regularly.”

As suspected, there was nothing wrong with the old crone. She’d just gotten herself admitted so she could drag him down here for another round of guilt-tripping. 

He nodded, then gestured with his head to the folder still on the table. “And that?”

Pallor returned to the doctor's face. “About that, Mr Grey… There’s good news and there’s bad news.”

Ezra was impatient. “Don’t waste my time. Spit it out.”

“Yes, Sir,” the man replied. “It concerns your semen sample and the woman it was inseminated in.”

Ezra froze. What woman? He hadn’t ordered for the insemination process to begin yet. That sample was just a fail-safe.

“What do you mean?”

The doctor gulped. “There was a mistake, you see. A woman came in here wanting to be inseminated with a sample, but there was an error with the labelling. The sample she brought in was labelled E. Grey – identical to yours. But when it was tested, we found that it wasn’t viable. However, having tested your sample before and being sure of its viability, we thought there had been an error somewhere else. So we – ”

“So you inseminated a random woman with my semen sample,” Ezra finished for him, his expression cold.

“Yes, Sir.” The doctor looked like he was one second from death.

Ezra was quiet. Inwardly, he was fuming. “You mean to tell me,” he asked in a chilling tone, “that there’s a stranger out there carrying my child?”

“Sir, we didn’t know – ”

“You didn’t know? Is this the kind of mistake you can just make? Do you know what you’ve done?!”

The doctor was ready to pray to any god from any religion. It really was  a coincidence with an extremely low chance of happening. What were the chances that another person would arrive at the hospital with not just the same  last name, but the same first letter in their first name? God, he was done for. This would be the end of his career.

“I apologize for the – ”

“Save your apologies for the court after I sue you,” Ezra told him. “As for the woman, find her and make sure she gets rid of that fetus.”

At Ezra’s mention of suing, the doctor bowed his head. “Please, Mr Grey, if I may…”

“I don’t want to hear it. The woman?”

His shoulders slumped in defeat. Trying to beg was useless. Ezra wasn’t known as a kind man. He would be better off appealing to someone higher up. Someone like Ezra’s grandmother. “Um… the woman is already here at the hospital.”

“Even better,” Ezra said. “I’ll speak to her myself.”