His Beautiful Addiction

As they sat on the table, Claire ate to her fill. She barely contributed to the discussion as she was busy eating and nodding only when asked a question.

Zach wondered what was going on, but he did not ask.

"Don\'t they make a perfect pair?"

Claire heard her dad speak and she smiled,

"We do." She replied, smiling brightly,

"In fact I want to get married to him."

Zach\'s lips fell open, what was she saying?

Claire saw shock flash through her father\'s eyes and he clapped,

"Oh my this is great news!"

He exclaimed, clapping excitedly.

Zach stared at everyone on the table a little confused, what was going on.

When Claire felt she was full, she drank the remaining contents in her glass, and she wiped her lips with the table tissue, then she turned to her father.

"We can get everything organized in a few days so you both can get married as soon as possible."

Her father added excitedly.

Claire arched her left brow, just how stupid did he think she was?

She watched their bright jovial faces and then she cleared her throat,

"I didn\'t remember saying who I was getting married to, did I?"

Everyone stopped laughing and turned to her in surprise, there was no other bachelor there except Zach, what was she saying?

Claire watched their shocked faces and after some seconds, she laughed.

"Mr. Brown, Mrs. Brown, I\'m deeply sorry for the inconveniences I\'m about to cause you now, it is not my intention, but I don\'t really have a choice."

She smiled and then turned to her father and her step mom.

"You must think I\'m foolish father," she shook her head, as she took out her phone from her pocket,

"You must really think I\'m a stupid five year old,"

She turned the phone on, and then tapped on it and placed it on her side,

Mr. Howard was yet to understand what was happening when he heard his voice ring out from the phone.

"…Choose wisely Claire, his life is in your hands."

There was a three seconds pause before Claire\'s voice was heard,

\'\'You wouldn\'t dare… \'\'

\'\'You forget that I am the president, Leo is going to die and no-one will say a word about it. But it is up to you whether you want to save his life or not, you have one week to decide. \'\'

She panted heavily, and she screamed,

\'\'ROT. IN. HELL!! \'\'

Then loud stomping of feet was heard and then the recording ended.

Her father\'s expression turned pale and red and shocked all at the same time. Claire smiled evilly as she watched him,

"How… how, where did you…" he stammered,

Claire laughed, "Oh dear father, did you think I wouldn\'t have a backup when dealing with someone like you?" she arched her brows with a sweet chuckle,

"You know, I waited for you, I waited for you to change. I waited to see if you still had a slither of humanity in you, I wanted to see if you would surprise me, but you didn\'t. You didn\'t even try. "

The room was as quiet as a graveyard, Zach\'s father still had food in his mouth.

"You know, I\'m actually ashamed to say that I wanted you to be my father. I waited for you to act like my father for once in your life, but until the end, you didn\'t. You have always been controlled by your selfish desires and I just realized that trying to make you change is like searching for a river in a desert. Tsk Tsk, even to the very end, you wanted to push me into a forced marriage, how wicked could you get?"

"What is wrong with you Clair…"

Mr. Howard busted angrily but Claire glared at him ferociously, stopping his words on his tongue,

"I\'m not done talking Father… I\'ve been doing the listening for the past months, now is your turn to listen to me."

She spoke authoritatively, making everyone in the room shudder as they watched her silently.

"You know, now I think about it, the only mistake my mother made was getting married to you, if only she had said no to your devilish proposal, then she might have been alive now and I would have had another father. I hate you so much Mr. Howard, so very much that it tears me apart knowing we bear the same last name, well that is about to change now because I\'m getting married to Leo and I\'m carrying his baby."

Mr. Howard nearly fainted when he heard her words, his wife, who had been pretending not to be affected by what she was saying couldn\'t help turning to her with shock.

Claire laughed, "why are you all surprised? I mean, did you expect me to believe that someone who loved me for seven years if not more would give up on me just like that, I mean, that\'s quite impossible! And only a baby would believe that. You can\'t imagine how many times I wondered how your brains functioned, well, I wasn\'t expecting anything less from someone overridden with greed, who knew how much her daughter loved someone and still did everything within his power to separate them."

Zach\'s parents turned to the couple in front of them in surprise, they were trying to understand what was happening,

"Just so you know, I know about your deal with Leo and everything so I have been fooling you all along. I wanted to wait till the end of the six months to tell you this, but I got a tiny weeny swimming in my belly and I need to be dotted on every single day, oh well, you wouldn\'t understand because you didn\'t even know when I was born."

She watched her father\'s hands shake as she attacked him from every angle, his face as pale as blue. She had not felt this relieved in months.

Smiling, she turned to Zach\'s parents, "Thank you Mr. Brown, thank you Mrs. Brown, thank you so much for the meal and I\'m sorry you had to witness this family drama, Zach, I\'m so grateful for you and your support, I owe you one." Smiling, she stood up, "I think I\'ll take my leave now, "

She was about to leave when she remembered something and stopped,

"Ah, lest I forget, if any harm comes to my baby, or Leo or me, this recording will automatically be sent to the FBI, and you can bid your political career goodbye, I\'m sure you don\'t want that."

Claire grinned, "Have a splendid life with your beautiful witch of a wife ." Claire said, her eyes meeting her step mom and with that she turned around and walked out of the house.

Everyone was quiet as so many thoughts ran through their head as they tried to fix the dots of what just happened. Well, it was obvious dinner had officially ended.

Mr. Howard was yet to recover from the shock, his face was pale as he breathed heavily.

Mr. and Mrs. Brown stood up and without saying anything to the couple, they walked out of the dining room, Zach followed.

"I\'ll be waiting in the car."

Mr. Howard watched the woman he had given up his family for, stand up and walk away like nothing happened and he knew he was finished.

…

Claire quickly called Zach after she left his house in the car she had come with. It was her father\'s but she didn\'t mind, he wouldn\'t dare hurt her. His career was something he valued more than his own life.

"Hi, Zach, I\'m so sorry for shocking you today." Claire said immediately the call connected,

Zach laughed, "Don\'t worry, I understand."

"Thank you so much for your help, I\'ll be sending something soon and please, don\'t send it back."

"Ha-ha, you don\'t have to."

"I\'m not asking, and send my apologies to your parents, it wasn\'t my intention to hurt them."

"Aish, you worry too much. They are currently watching Netflix and chilling, they\'ve forgotten about it already."

Claire smiled, "I\'m glad to hear that."

"You\'re welcome, I\'m looking forward to seeing this Leo, who is worth more than a thousand men."

Claire laughed, "Trust me he is and he\'ll be looking forward to meeting you too."

"Haha okay, yes that reminds me, are you really pregnant?"

"mm… yeah," Claire blushed, tucking in her hair to the back of her ear,

"Wow, that\'s great news. I\'m so happy for you Claire, your father wouldn\'t bother you anymore after this."

"He wouldn\'t dare."

She smiled and they spoke some more before the call ended.

Quickly she called Leo.

Her heart raced as she waited for him to pick. It rang severally but he did not pick up.

Tapping on his ID again, she called. This time he picked,

"Claire, why are you…" Leo answered with a worried tone,

"Where are you?" Claire cut him off instantly,

"what is happening?"

"Where are you already!"

"I\'m at home, what\'s wrong?"

Before he could get a reply she ended the call.

Before she would get to the airport and get back home it would be up to an hour. Although her lips itched to tell him, it was best she told him to his face.

Claire smiled as she imagined the look in his eyes as she broke the news to him. She was carrying his child, Claire couldn\'t contain her joy.

When they arrived in California, she couldn\'t wait to go to him. She lost count of how many times she shifted on her spot, excitedly.

Immediately she got to his house, she jumped out of the car…