𝒯𝓇𝑜𝓅𝒽𝓎 𝒲𝒾𝒻𝑒

Capitulo 51

"Umm.. Mr. DeLoughrey and Ms. James." I corrected Xiomara, I don't have any intentions of taking Beckham's last name. I agreed to marry him, not to uphold the mundane and frankly ridiculous traditions of a patriarchal society.

Why is the woman excepted to take the man's last name in the first place? The entire thing reeks of ownership and entitlement and I'm not a fan. Plus my name sounds better as my name, Lennox Estelle James and I'm not looking to redo all of my IDs. Lennox Estelle DeLoughrey sounds terrible, and hyphenating is out of the question. That was decided when Knox was born and Beckham and I found ourselves at an impasse because we never got around to discussing who's last name he would get. We finally settled on giving him two middle names so his full name reads as Knox Alexander-James DeLoughrey.

"Len.." Beckham squeezed my hand an evident frown on his face. He hates when I bring that up but I'm not changing my mind. This is important to me. "Ma can you just give us a second, please?" He smiled through clenched teeth before dragging me outside the ballroom into the hallway.

"You want to do this here? Fine, Lennox." He huffed.

I shook my head, "I'm honestly not trying to cause a scene. And we both know we cannot discuss this here." We don't not ever discuss our contract in public there's no telling who could be listening in.

Beckham wasn't as thorough as he thought he was. None of the language in our signed agreement states that I'm obligated to take his last name during our marital union. Legally, there's no obligation for a wife to take her husband's last name. It's a tradition, a preference if you will. I would prefer not to, it's as simple as that.

"I'm not talking about that. You won't even consider hyphenating."

"Because De-Lough-Rey is already a mouthful. James-DeLoughrey? Absolutely not that's too much."

"That cannot be the reason." Beck rolled his eyes at me, running a hand through his hair. "This is important to me."

"And it's important to me too! You can't always get what you want, why is that so hard for you to accept?"

I don't understand how this is going to work. This engagement has been putting a serious strain on our relationship. Not just because of the conflicting views on the issue of last names, but the stress of all of the expectations that are suddenly being thrust upon us. That Harry and Meghan comparison, Christian isn't the only one making it. It has very much so taken on a life of its own in the media. Our families aren't helping at all to alleviate any of the extra stress we've been feeling these past few weeks. Being in school, Beckham working full-time and raising two kids on top of that. It's been kind of a disaster. The kids are fine. Beck and I, not so much.

"You'd think with how much I'm-" He cut himself off before he finished his sentence, remembering where he was at. That save wasn't quite close enough, I knew exactly what he was going to say.

You'd think with how much I'm paying you.

I scoffed, staring at him in disbelief. "Well I'm sorry to have forgotten my place. My apologies, massa it won't happen again." I spat bitterly.

"That was low and you know it." Beckham's frown deepened.

"And what you said wasn't?" I turned on my heels, stalking away before things truly got ugly between us. Now is not the time or place.

"Is everything okay? You look stressed mija." Xiomara observed as I walked back into the room.

"I'm fine. Wedding planning is just a little overwhelming for us, and we haven't even really gotten started yet." I let out a small laugh, pushing a stand of hair behind my ears.