He went down the hall to Ellen’s bedroom and knocked on her door. There was no answer. He knocked again and still there was silence. After waiting a few moments, he tried the door handle, but it was locked. He went down to the kitchen and found Sarah, his housekeeper.
“Sarah, do you have a key to Ellen’s bedroom door, please?” he asked with a slight blush.
Her eyes narrowed and she tried to disguise the distaste in her expression, but she could not fully keep it from him. “Yes, sir, I do have a key. I’ll get it for you.”
He followed her to the pantry and she opened a sliding door in the wall that revealed rows of keys for different areas in the house as well as the other buildings on his property. She handed him the key and as she pressed it into his hand she said, “Sir, I don’t know if you want to go walking in there first thing in the morning. You might find an unpleasant surprise.”
Kevin pursed his lips and looked away, then looked back at her. “I understand, Sarah. Thank you for your concern. As always, your dedication and care is much appreciated.” He gave her a smile and headed back up the stairs. The key worked and he pushed the door open.
Her room was dark. The curtains were drawn and no light filtered in through them. He walked over to them and pressed the button to open them. The electronic blinds slid open and wide brilliant shafts of light flooded the room. He shielded his eyes for a moment as they adjusted to the sunlight and then he turned toward her bed.
She was stretched across her enormous bed, lying across one man’s chest, his arms wrapped around her, clutching one of her bare breasts, while another man was sleeping with his face between her thighs, resting on one of them with his arms wrapped around her legs. The three of them were completely nude. It was obvious that she had been entertaining both of them throughout the night. The light did nothing to wake them.
Kevin walked over to the bed, sickened at the sight of the woman he had once loved so deeply and had wanted to spend his life with, and he wondered how all of that had been so keenly changed. It was as though his marriage to her and his life were a geological formation that had been sculpted and changed over time, the difference at first nearly undetectable, but now it was great.
He cleared his throat. “Good morning, Ellen.” His voice was loud and firm in an effort to raise her from her slumber. Her long dark hair was splayed over the man’s chest and as she turned her head slowly and opened her big dark eyes to look at him, the glossy locks shifted, catching the morning light and glowing golden brown. He hated that she looked so beautiful on the outside and used that beauty to hide a cunning and cruel heart on the inside.
She blinked up at him. “What in the hell are you doing in here? You have no right to be in this room!” she snapped at him and glared.
He looked at her without expression or emotion, masking everything raging through his heart and mind without even a single ripple on his serene exterior. “I have a right to be in any place in this house. I own it.”
He slid his hands into his pockets and consciously stopped himself from clenching his fists. “I came to let you know that you need to come down to my office at noon. You have an appointment with Jacob and I, and it’s quite important. This will be one that you don’t want to miss.”
She sat up part way, leaning on the torso of the man she had been sleeping on and he stirred and opened his eyes.
“What the hell are you two doing now? What are you up to?” she asked with enormous suspicion.
The young man opened his eyes widely and gaped at Kevin. “Who is that?” he asked sleepily. “Are we going to add a third guy to the party?” he queried, sliding his hand down Ellen’s back and over her hip, massaging her ass.
Kevin did not take his eyes off his wife. “Be there at noon. This is not an optional meeting.”
Her glare transformed and her Cheshire cat smile spread over her face as she reached her hand to the man’s crotch and began to run her fingers over him, stimulating him and making him erect. “I have guests, Kevin. I have previous obligations. I might be too busy with my friends to make it down.”
Kevin wanted to turn away from her, but he felt like he would be conceding defeat if he did; like somehow it would be letting her win, letting her have the upper hand, and he simply could not let her think she had gotten to him. There was a pit in his stomach that was growing quickly, but he kept a stoic expression on his face.
The man Ellen was manipulating moaned and smiled, his hand reaching up to massage her large breast. She smirked at Kevin and leaned over to the man’s crotch, opening her red lips and sliding her tongue out to run it over the tip of the man’s erection. Her eyes stayed on her husband as if to spite him, to taunt him with pain and frustration.
He kept himself in check and said, “Ellen, be there at noon. Your financial future depends entirely on it. Have some class. You are acting like a hooker.”
He turned his head away and focused on walking out of the door. Before he got to it, he heard the man lying beneath her say, “Who is that guy?”
“Oh, he’s no one important,” she replied to him, “he’s just the money.”
Kevin closed the door behind him and covered his face with his hands. He couldn’t begin to imagine how their lives had changed so much that this would almost be the norm for them; that there would be so little love, so little caring, and absolutely no respect from her toward him.
He had stayed true to her, true to their marriage and his commitment to love and honor her all of her life. But it had turned into a nightmare, and he could not look back at their time together and find any memory, any time, when he could pinpoint the turning page that brought them to where they found themselves at present.
He realized that perhaps that was because she had been hiding her true colors and had finally begun to allow them to show. She was certainly no woman that he wanted to remain with in a marriage. He thought of Marina and her simple sweetness and beauty; her goodness and her kind and loving heart. He would count himself as the luckiest man in the world to be with her.
Kevin spent the morning in his office working, and at eleven o’clock, Jacob arrived with the obstetrician. “Good morning, Kevin!” He grinned at his friend and hugged him tightly. “Today is the day, buddy. Today we change your whole life. I’ve had it with that bitch. Today she goes down in flames.”
“We don’t know that,” Kevin said solemnly.
Jacob looked at him carefully and tilted his head. “What’s got you looking like that? What happened? I expected you to be a little brighter today.”
Kevin leaned back in his chair and rubbed his fingers over his forehead, trying to push the morning’s memories away. He closed his eyes. “Oh, I had to wake Ellen up this morning and she wasn’t alone.”
Jacob did not look surprised, but he did let a scoffing laugh go. “Really? Who else was with her?”
“Two men I haven’t seen before. As far as I know, they don’t work here, which is a change. Did you hire anyone new?” Kevin asked, realizing that it was a possibility they might be working for him and he just wasn’t aware of it.
“No. She must have no end of opportunities to find friends, though,” Jacob said, speaking only part of his thoughts. “Kevin, this is Dr. Branson. He’s going to administer the paternity test today. We are doing it in the guise of a wellness check on the baby; testing for Down Syndrome and things like that. We are going to tell her that we just want to make sure the baby is strong and healthy and that if she doesn’t get the test, she is out her monetary allowance until after the baby is born. That ought to get her attention and cooperation.” Jacob was obviously enjoying the entire thing far too much.
“Pleased to meet you, Doctor, I’m sorry you had to come do this, and I apologize in advance if my wife is out of hand at all.” Kevin had no idea how she would react to this meeting and to the testing he was going to submit her to, but he thought a warning and early apology was most likely in order.
The doctor smiled and shook his hand. “No p
roblem. Jacob has explained some of your situation to me, and I am very glad to help you out with the testing. I think it’s of the utmost importance that we determine the true identity of the father of the child she is carrying, as I am sure that may have quite a significant impact on your life.”
Kevin almost rolled his eyes. “You have no idea, doctor. Thank you for doing it.”
They got set up and the doctor took a blood draw from Kevin and then tucked it away. They were all three sitting together with refreshments when Ellen finally strolled into the office at half past noon. They looked up at her and only the doctor stood when she entered the room.
Kevin was relieved to see that she was dressed nicely and that she was neat and clean. He nodded at her. “Ellen, this is Dr. Branson, he’s here to do some standard blood work for the baby. You’ll need to listen to him and do whatever he requires you to do.”
She smiled at the doctor, a sweet, charming, demure smile, one that belied her true nature and made Kevin look away from her in utter disgust.
She took the doctor’s hand in hers and squeezed it warmly, holding it for a long and lingering moment. “I’m so pleased to meet you doctor. Thank you for standing when I came in. It’s rare to find a true gentleman these days, and I can see that you are unquestionably a real gentleman.” She gazed into his eyes and gave him her sweetest smile.
The doctor looked at her intently for a moment, letting her hold his hand until she wanted to release it.
She let it go and raised her hands to the low neckline of her button down dress, opening the first button and pulling the material apart enough that it gave the doctor a generous view of her ample bosom. “Do you want me to undress, doctor?” she said with an innocently poised seduction, watching him with her wide eyes.
He looked at her directly and shook his head. “No, ma’am, you may keep your clothes on for this appointment. I only need a vein.” She smiled and slowly buttoned her dress back up as Jacob shot Kevin a loaded look.
The doctor helped her sit on the sofa and he prepared her for a blood withdrawal while all three men were silent.
“It’s so nice to see a fresh face, doctor, my husband feels quite strongly about keeping me in the house and I don’t get to see many people. It can be extremely… lonely…” she said softly with obvious meaning, looking up at the doctor and pushing her red lips out into a pout.
“Well,” the doctor smiled down at her, “soon enough you will have your child and you won’t be lonely any longer.” He patted her shoulder and continued his blood draw. She looked dejected and chose to cast her eyes around the room rather than look at Kevin, who was watching her, and Jacob, who was shooting daggers at her with his eyes.
When the doctor completed his initial work, he turned and looked at the men. “This will be a moment, while I complete the lab work here, perhaps everyone might like a break?” he asked.
Jacob looked sharply at Ellen, who moved as though she was going to get up and leave. “Oh no, no, we are all staying here and awaiting the results. These are very important tests and we want to be sure that the baby is fine. Let’s have lunch; we can all stay here and eat together and wait for the outcome of the tests.”
Kevin put his hand over his mouth to hide the smile that wanted to grow there. He truly appreciated Jacob and his dedication. He called Sarah and had her bring lunch into his office for all of them. They ate in moderate silence as no one wanted to speak about what was really going on in their minds and the doctor was working while he was eating.
After a long while, and just about the time that Ellen was becoming highly annoyed and agitated, the doctor paused over his work and looked up, pursing his lips and blinking, then he walked over to Kevin’s desk.
“These are the results of the tests I ran today,” he said simply, placing a sheet of paper on Kevin’s desk, and then looking up at the three of them. Kevin looked down at it and his face paled slightly as he looked up at Jacob who was watching him like a hawk.
The doctor took his glasses off and wiped them with a soft cloth, then placed them back on his nose and spoke softly. “The child that you are carrying, Miss Ellen, has no biological connection to Kevin’s DNA whatsoever. There is no question that he is not the father of your baby.”
Jacob whooped, he could not hold it in, and Ellen gasped, her jaw dropping wide open as she stared at all of them. Fury colored her face and she screamed before she could speak, like a hot teakettle on the fire that whistles before water is poured from it. Water poured from her angry eyes as she jumped to her feet and pointed her sharp red fingernails at Jacob and Kevin.
“YOU! You planned this! This is a trick! This is Kevin’s baby! My doctor said so! He said I got pregnant while I was in Hawaii with Kevin! How dare you try to discredit me like this? It’s a ridiculous plot!” she shrieked.
The doctor looked at her and shook his head. “Miss Ellen, there can be no mistake. It’s a blood test and the DNA does not match. There is no way that he is the father. I ran it twice to be sure, but once was really all we needed. Some other man is the father of the baby you are carrying. I assure you that it is no trick or plot.”
Jacob shook the doctor’s hand with a huge grin on his face. “Thank you so much, good sir! You’ve changed Kevin’s life for the better. You have no idea the good that you have done today and the many lives you have just improved. We’re all grateful.”
“I’m not grateful!” Ellen screamed, tears pouring down her face.
The doctor stared at her, horrified by her behavior, and moved to pack up his materials.
“Thank you for lunch. I’ll mail you all the documentation for this when I get the report written up for her medical charts, and I will send a copy of the paternity test to her physician as well so her records are complete,” the doctor said, somewhat uncomfortably. He walked out of the office and Sarah showed him to the front door.
Jacob nearly pounced on Ellen. “You… you are finished here, woman.” He reached for his briefcase and pulled out several thick packets of documents.
He set them on the table and pulled two pens from his pockets. “Kevin, I’ll want you over here with me,” he stated with happiness and excitement. Then he looked at Ellen.
“Perhaps you’ll remember this. It’s the prenuptial agreement that you signed before you married Kevin. In this agreement, you promised that you would never have extra-marital affairs and that if you did, you would forgo any monetary gain from the marriage in the event of a divorce following said action on your part.”
She glowered at him. “What does that mean?” she asked in a growl.
“It means, my dear, that because you cheated on your husband, and remember that we have substantial evidence of that, that you don’t get one red cent from your husband when this divorce is finalized. You get nothing. No cars, no house, no alimony, no child support, no benefit whatsoever. Nothing but whatever you brought with you when you moved in. I think though, that Kevin will let you take your clothes and personal effects. You may not keep the jewelry, however, or the Lamborghini. Those stay with Kevin.”
She turned bright red and screamed at him again. “How could you do this to me? I’m your wife! I’m pregnant! What do you think you’re going to do? Throw me out into the street?”
Kevin rounded his desk and sat beside Jacob. “No, I am not throwing you out onto the street. I’ve purchased a little condo for you to live in. It’s paid for. You will have a little sedan to drive around. I’ve set up a bank account for you in your maiden name and it has been funded with enough money to see you through for about five years if you live modestly. I feel that I owe you no more than that. In fact, I don’t even think I owe you that, but I don’t want to leave you with nothing.”
She gasped and covered her mouth in shock and horror at the growing reality of what her life was about to become.
Jacob grinned. “Now that I’ve reminded you of this prenuptial agreement, you understand that there is no legal recourse for you; it would do you no good
to try to take Kevin to court because you are already bound by the contract you signed before you married him.”
Having said that, he reached over to the table and picked up a thin stack of pages that were stapled together, “I’m going to have you sign this divorce. It gives you back your maiden name and that is basically it. The divorce will be official as soon as the judge signs this. You will be moving out of this house today and into your new condo. I’ve arranged for a moving crew to come by this afternoon and help you get packed. I can’t imagine it would take long, since all you are taking with you are your clothes and personal belongings.”
She shook her head, her hand over her mouth, tears streaming down her face. Then she looked up at Kevin and shrieked at him. “You bastard! You absolutely rotten bastard! How could you do this to me?” she raged in fury.
The Baby Shower Page 43