Grace looked at the baby and then shifted her gaze to Oliver. "I beg to differ. If he'd been less affectionate, I wouldn't even be in this house."
Oliver nodded and rubbed his face with his hands. "Well, I guess I better get back to my room. The real dad is home," he said quietly as he gave Mason a last look, and then walked slowly out of the room.
Later that afternoon, Lance walked into Grace's bedroom with a man she had never seen before. "Hello," he greeted her with a small smile. "I'm Dr. Peterson. I'm here to see your son," he said, walking over to the bassinet.
Grace looked over at Lance and frowned. "Lance, we already have a pediatrician for Mason."
Lance crossed his arms over his chest with a big smile on his face, almost a triumphant smile, and he shook his head. "No Grace, Dr. Peterson isn't a pediatrician. He's here to do a paternity test."
Grace stared at him in shock as rage began to boil up inside of her. She bit her tongue and didn't say anything as her eyes shot over to the man leaning over her son's bassinet. She was standing right beside him in an instant, watching over Mason carefully as the doctor worked.
A short while later, he packed up his tools and walked out of the bedroom door with a nod to Grace. "Thank you, ma'am," he told her as he left, and Lance just shot her a grin as he followed the doctor. She heard him tell Lance as they walked down the hall, "I'll have the results back for you as soon as I can."
"Great, doc, that's exactly what I need," Lance answered him.
***
Two days later, Grace was standing in her room rocking Mason to sleep when Lance walked through the door, a big surprise since he hadn't been in her room to see her or Mason since the first day he'd seen Mason, except for his visit with the doctor. A young woman stepped out from behind Lance, holding his hand and smiling widely.
She was wearing a skin tight white dress that slightly resembled a nurses outfit, and she had high heeled shoes on. Her hair was long and dark and reached her waist. Her figure looked as if it could have been cut from a swimsuit magazine; she had long legs, a tiny waist, and big curves. Her outfit left nothing at all to the imagination, and when Grace saw it, she wanted to suggest that the girl button her top up a little further.
"This is Dana," Lance said with a long smile at the girl before he looked back at Grace. "She is our new nanny."
Grace's mouth fell open in shock. "Our... nanny?" she asked dumbfounded.
"Yes. I hired her." Then he turned to look at Dana. "Dana, this is Grace, the baby's mother, and that's Mason, the baby." He tipped his head toward them.
Dana grinned and bent at the knees slightly in a half bounce. "I just love babies. This is going to be so fun!"
Grace leveled her gaze at Lance. "Lance, I want to talk with you in private the minute you're done."
Lance just chuckled and slid his arm low around Dana's waist. "Let's go in here, and I'll show you your room. Wilson will get your things." He turned away from Grace and started walking Dana to the nanny room. She turned and waved over her shoulder. "Bye Mrs. Mason! It was nice to meet you!"
Grace stared at her as Lance walked her into the nursery, explaining that she should use her own door, rather than Grace's door when she went in and out of her room. She giggled at him and pawed at his arm and his chest, flipping her hair as Lance closed the door behind them.
Grace thought she would be sick. She sighed, thinking that she would get it sorted out when she talked to Lance, whenever that was. She put Mason to bed and sat in the reading cove windows with a book on babies. Half an hour later, Lance came walking into her room and sat near her on the bench where she was. She was shocked to see him there so soon.
"Done already? She's settled in?" she asked in annoyance.
Lance waved a hand dismissively in the direction of the nanny room. "She's putting her stuff away."
"I can't believe you hired a nanny without letting me be part of it! I know nothing about her at all! I have no idea what her credentials are, I don't know who she is or where she comes from, what kind of background she has... nothing! I can't believe you did that! You should have talked with me first! I didn't even know we were going to get one yet!" She tried to keep her tone civil, but she was plenty angry with him for going behind her back the way that he did.
He shrugged. "She checked out. She fits our needs. Listen, don't sweat the small stuff, okay?" he said, giving her a disdainful look.
"This isn't small stuff! It's our son's nanny, and she has to be perfect!" Grace insisted.
Lance looked at her and gave her a half smile. "We're done talking about it. She stays. I want her. The paternity test came back," he told her, eyeing her carefully.
Grace rolled her eyes and looked out of the window. "I already know what it said. I told you on the first day that Mason was yours, and he is."
Lance reached his hand over to her and lightly stroked her upper leg. "Yeah, but how do I know who you've been with and who you haven't been with. It was three months since you and I had our little... night." He winked at her and she swatted his hand away from her.
"Anyway, the results are back and I guess I must be the proud papa. Or something." He stood up. "I just wanted you to know. So, since it's official that I'm the father, we'll go forward with the wedding and you can scrap whatever wedding plans you made and we will just have a little ceremony here at the house in a week. Got that?" He leaned down to her and slid his finger beneath her chin, tipping her face up to look at him.
"I want to keep it more... intimate," he said with a drawl and a smile as he leaned down and closed his mouth over hers. He kissed her hard for a moment and then let her go and she looked up at him in irritation and disgust. "You weren't helping me with the wedding plans because you wanted to wait and see if the baby belonged to someone else?"
"Yeah, pretty much. There's no way I would have married you if he wasn't mine. I just let you do what you wanted with it to keep you busy, you know, to let you feel like you were doing something productive until I could find out for sure. Now that I know the kid is mine, and we are actually going to get married, I don't want to have some big fluffy pink and white wedding. I hate those things. We're just going to do something simple and civil right here at the house. I've already phoned the judge. He's ready to go. It's next Saturday, so... find a little dress or something, and make sure you look special for the honeymoon." He gave her a wink and walked out of the room as she gave him a dark look.
She wasn't sure at all how she was going to like being married to a man like him, but she wasn't doing it for Lance, or for herself. She was doing it for her beautiful little baby, Mason. He deserved a father, a last name, and a good home to grow up in. He deserved to be part of the family that he was born into, and share their heritage. She could put up with being married to Lance if it meant all of that for Mason. She sighed and went back to her book, trying to focus on all the positive things in her life.
***
The next day she had Mason down in the library beside the fireplace, and he was sleeping peacefully. Oliver was in the armchair reading a book and Grace was sitting on the sofa reading the same baby book, and as she turned the page, she realized that she had Mason's pacifier stuck on her finger. She looked at it and sighed, shaking her head and laughing a little.
Oliver looked up at her questioningly and she showed him her finger with the pacifier hanging off of it. "I forgot I was holding it. I must have mommy brain or something," she joked.
Oliver laughed lightly and went back to his book, and Grace leaned over to put the pacifier in the diaper bag. She stopped as she was looking in the bag and realized that there were no diapers in it.
Sighing, she stood up and looked at Oliver. "Would you mind keeping an eye on him for a minute please? I forgot diapers, too."
Oliver grinned. "Absolutely. Glad to. You know, I'm sure your mommy brain will normalize when you start getting more sleep."
She sighed again. "I hope so," she said as she shook her head and walked out of the libr
ary. Grace went upstairs to her room and reached under the bassinet, pulling out a short stack of fresh diapers. As she stood up and was walking out of her room, she heard a strange noise coming from the direction of the nursery. Frowning, she walked over to the door and opened it. No one was in the nursery. She heard the noise again and walked over to the nanny's room door and opened it.
Her jaw fell almost to the floor.
Lance had one of his fists clenched in Dana's hair as she was bent over in front of him, scantily clad in sexy lingerie, and his other hand was closed hard around her breast as he stood behind her, nude, thrusting his erection into the depths of her. They both looked up in surprise at Grace as Grace gasped in horror.
"What on earth are you doing?" she shot at Lance. He gave one last thrust into Dana before letting her go and pulling himself out of her, standing bare and hard before Grace. Dana stood up and started searching for something to pull over her nearly naked body.
"Well, I was getting laid until you walked in and ruined it for me," he said with a snarky tone. "You know, I am still technically a bachelor. We don't get married until Saturday."
Grace glared hotly at him. "We are not getting married," she told him angrily. She pulled the ring off of her hand and threw it at him. Then she snapped her eyes to Dana.
"You are fired, Miss. Pack your things and get out. Now!" she demanded.
Dana frowned at her and looked at Lance. "Do I really have to go?" she asked with a pouty face.
He sighed in irritation and nodded. "Yeah, baby, you better go. You know I'll call you."
Grace was furious. "How dare you—“ He cut her off as he walked toward her and held his hand up to her face.
"Don't you say a word to me. We aren't married yet," he snapped at her.
She shook her head at him. "Did you hear me? We aren't getting married. Just because I don't have anything doesn't mean I'm not worth anything," she told him sharply, and then she turned on her heel and walked out, slamming the door behind her.
She went straight downstairs and headed to the library where Henry was standing over the bassinet, and Oliver was smiling at his father.
"I want you both to know right now, there is not going to be a wedding here next Saturday. I'm not marrying Lance," she announced as she walked in and went straight to the bassinet to see Mason. She hated that Lance was such a lowlife.
Henry looked up at her and frowned in disappointment. "Why ever not? What happened? Lover's spat?" he asked, obviously hopeful that it was something that could be remedied.
"No, I just walked in on him having sex with the new nanny," she said simply.
Oliver's mouth closed in a hard line, and he looked away from her, and Henry's mouth fell open as he stared at her for a long minute. He closed his mouth then, and his gaze fell to the floor.
"Well, that's a shame. I had high hopes," he said quietly. He turned and walked out of the library in silence, closing the door softly behind him.
Grace picked Mason up and gathered his bag and then turned to leave, but found Oliver standing behind her.
"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.
She nodded. "I'm fine, I'm just so... furious with him!" she whispered in hushed anger.
Oliver nodded. "I get that way with him, too. I will say, though, I'm not disappointed that you aren't marrying him."
Grace was too angry to respond to him just then. She nodded and walked past him, taking Mason upstairs to her room. She had no idea what would happen, but she wasn't about to tie herself to a man who was so casual about sleeping with other women, especially a woman who was supposed to be his son's nanny.
***
Wilson informed Lance that his father wished to see him, and Lance was fairly certain that he knew why. He walked into his father's office and Henry looked up at him with a stern face.
"Have a seat, Lance," he said in a solemn tone.
Lance pulled the chair from in front of the desk and sat.
Henry looked up at him and shook his head. "I'm extremely disappointed in you, Son. I've heard what happened between you and the nanny."
Lance began to speak to defend himself, but his father held up his hand and shook his head.
"I don't want to hear it, Lance. I'll do all of the talking this time. I have overlooked so many of your transgressions for so many years. I've probably been too lax with you, letting too many things go since your mother passed away, but I thought you needed compassion and understanding, not a firmer hand, and as it turns out, I may have been mistaken about that." He shook his head sadly and looked at his wife's portrait on his desk for a long moment before looking back at Lance.
"Grace tells me that there will be no wedding, and I feel certain that there is no way that you can convince her to marry you after this indiscretion." He sighed heavily. "So, I have decided that the inheritance that I was going to give to you upon your marriage to her, will now go directly to my grandson, Mason." He watched Lance's face go pale.
"I know that wealth is important to you, Son, but I want you to know that you've lost so much more than that today. Your actions have cost you a marriage... a lifetime in fact, with a very good woman, and they have cost you a precious family that you might have had the benefit of all of your days. If she was still marrying you, I might reconsider this decision, but as I said, I feel quite certain that there is nothing you can do to change her mind. I'm so sorry, Lance. You have your minor inheritance, but I will leave the bulk of the estate to Mason." Henry leaned back in his chair.
"You can leave," he told him simply, as he looked down in disappointment.
Lance left his father's office with a deep and heated anger, and as he walked slowly through the downstairs, he could only think of one thing. He had to find a way to get the money back. As he stood in the foyer, he looked up toward the second level of the house, and moments later, he bounded up the stairs to the second floor, and hurried down the hall to Grace's room. He walked right in as she was setting Mason in his bassinet and looked at her, shaking his head.
"You really did it this time, Grace," he said with a wicked smile and a dangerous gleam in his eye.
She frowned at him and walked toward him angrily. "No, you did it, you sleaze: screwing the nanny? Seriously? Is that why you hired her? Just so you could screw her?" She voiced the thought that had been biting at the back of her mind.
He laughed and nodded slightly. "Maybe. I'm not here about her, though. I'm here about you, Grace. We have to talk."
She glared at him. "No we don't. I don't have anything to say to you."
"Oh, yes we do, baby." He reached out for her swiftly, grabbing her and turning her to pin her up against the wall. He pressed his body tightly to her and, holding her head in his hands, he kissed her hard on the mouth and then groaned softly with a smile on his face. She tried to turn her head away, but he kissed her hard again and then pushed his growing erection against her, grinding it on her between her legs.
"You shouldn't be jealous of the nanny, baby, I've got plenty left for you too... feel that? That's all for you. Remember the night we were together?" he asked in a dark and gritty tone. "This was inside you once before. Do you remember it? Don't you want it again? Do you miss it, baby?"
"Get off of me and let me go!" she demanded angrily.
He kissed her hard again and then looked at her with narrowed eyes. "I'll give you one choice. Are you listening to me?" he asked as she tried to wiggle free from him.
"You can marry me, and just figure out a way to deal with my little flings, and then you can stay here and live with the baby. Or," he said with a lower voice, "you can leave, but if you leave, the baby stays."
She glared at him with hateful eyes. "I am not going to marry you!" she insisted.
He stepped back and let her go, and he shook his head and laughed at her then. "Fine, bitch, have it your way. You made the wrong choice." He turned around and walked out of her room, and she wished desperately that she could slam the door behind him.
&
nbsp; ***
The next day found her sitting in the library alone with Mason when Lance walked in wearing a suit and a grin. He walked over to the sofa where she was and she looked up at him with a dark glare.
"Coming to try to intimidate me again?" she asked smartly.
He shook his head. "Not at all. This isn't intimidation. This is consequence. You made the wrong choice last night, so this is what you get, and by the way, if you want to change your mind now and marry me, it's too late."
He dropped a file down on the sofa beside her and she frowned at it and picked it up, opening it to find legal documents in it. Her name was opposite his name, and there in black and white at the top of the page were the words 'custody hearing'.
Her eyes shot straight back up at him. "What is this?" she demanded.
He shrugged. "That's a custody hearing, you little whore. You see, you decided you wanted to do this the hard way, well, this is the hard way. We have the best attorney in the state. This is a document evicting you from the premises immediately, which means you should get your ass up off of that sofa and go start packing, and it is also a custody hearing, because I'm taking custody of little Mason here away from you.
“You see, you had an affair with my brother and that makes you an unfit mother to keep in the family. Now, if you go quietly, I won't say anything to my father about your little affair, and I'll even give you a payoff. You can take some money with you to go start your new life somewhere else, far away from here. Just let me know so I can send you the papers to sign away all of your parental rights, otherwise, I'll be taking you to court, and bitch, there's no way you'll win. I can promise you that.
“It isn't even so much that you cheated on me and had an affair with my brother. It's that you just won't be able to afford an attorney who will be able to beat mine. Mine will shred you into little pieces, and make the biggest public stink you ever saw. You won't be able to show your face in this state. Now, go upstairs, pack your crap, say goodbye to the baby, and get the hell out of this house, and don't you say a word to anyone, not a single soul, or I'll rain hellfire down on you." He stood there looking down at her and laughing, and she stood up from the couch feeling lightheaded. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
The Baby Shower Page 66