by Liv Bennett
My mind refuses to focus back on the yawn-inducing arguments of my lawyers, but I keep sitting in my chair and pretend to be listening.
Five minutes later, Julie rushes back into my office, without caring about the niceties, like knocking on the door or excusing herself for her abrupt entrance. “Zane, you should see this!”
The dreadful tone of her voice has me on my feet in a heartbeat. She opens the door wider and wider until I spot a tall blonde in a black summer dress with her back to me. Slowly, the blondie turns and places her hands on each side of her waist, making my eyes snap down to her very huge and very pregnant belly.
“Remember, Theresa?” Julie lifts both hands toward the girl, while the girl’s lips curl into a creepy smile.
Theresa? The only Theresa I remember is the church girl who sucked me off right after our first and only date. Wait, the Church Girl’s name wasn’t Theresa, but with her charity addiction, she might as well be called Mother Theresa.
“Hello.” I walk out of my office and into the anteroom that constitutes Julie’s office. The closer I get to the girl, who’s chewing bubble gum with her mouth open, the more familiar her face becomes.
“Zane.” The blondie flips her long hair behind her shoulders before she takes a step closer to me.
Suddenly, something snaps in my mind, and I’m quickly taken back to the hotel room where two hot girls offered their pussies to me on a random Monday morning— Beverly and Theresa.
My eyes wide in fear, I examine her belly once again to rule out any possibility that her enormous belly might be due to massive weight gain in the last six, seven months. Holly freaking hell!
Theresa stops when her stomach touches mine and glances up at me with her teasing green eyes. “Haven’t seen you for a while. Thought I should give you the great news in person.” She pushes the gum with her tongue and blows a bubble into my face.
“Theresa.” I guess I never used her name before because my tongue protests using it.
Her hands move up and her small fingers circle around the lapels of my jacket, inching up at a slow and steady pace. “I’m pregnant, and you’re the father.”
“What?” I yell.
I know it’s rude to yell at a woman, but I’m in shock and controlling my actions isn’t at the top of my list when a random girl I fucked half a year ago surprises me with my worst nightmare.
“I knew you’d be surprised. That’s why I brought my lawyer. Laura Preyton.” She tilts her head back and signals with her chin toward the hall, where I spot a middle-aged African American lady, who’d actually look sweet and calming with her smile if it wasn’t for the fact that she’s here to rip me off for half my fortune.
“Hello.” Adjusting her purse under her arm, the lawyer walks toward me and offers her hand. “I’m Laura Preyton. I’m here to represent Theresa and your child.”
Your child? Your child?! This is literally a guy’s worst nightmare, way above not being able to get a boner or being ridiculed for having a tiny penis. Seriously, I’d rather release a quarter of my assets to Theresa right now than have to raise the child she got from another man.
“There must be a mistake,” I cut her off. “I can’t be the father. I used a condom.”
Theresa turns to me with her irritating smile. “You did, but you left the condom in the suite with your load in it.”
I stare at her with the hope that she’ll elaborate. I distinctly remember throwing the condom into the trash after having fucked Beverly in the ass.
“You lucked out, darling. Beverly had a miscarriage in her second month,” Theresa adds. I swear I can see dollar signs blinking in her wide irises.
I feel puke coming up in my throat. Does she mean to say both women went into the trash can for that poop-covered latex and somehow found a way to inject my sperm inside themselves? Can a woman stoop lower than that to conceive a child? If, Heaven forbid, the child is really mine, how much can I expect from it if its mother’s only concern is to get a permanent seat on the gravy train?
“This is stealing sperm,” I call out. “You can’t get a single penny from me. In fact, I’ll sue you for using my personal property.”
“Actually, you can’t,” the lawyer says and adds, “The court only cares about the child’s best interest. You’ll be given a period to prove or disprove your paternity, but until the decision is ruled, you’re under obligation to take care of my client financially.”
“Excuse me?” I start to ask, but the lawyer pulls a stack of papers out of her purse and shoves it in my face.
“These are Theresa’s medical expenses since the start of her pregnancy. You, as the father, have to cover them all, since Theresa can’t work while pregnant.”
“I’m not the father.” I hiss between my teeth, hoping I’ll scare both of them away.
Theresa nods her head eagerly. “You’re the father. I’m hundred percent sure of it. I didn’t sleep with anyone else.”
That’s hardly saying something. She slept with me within a half hour of meeting me. How does she expect me to believe her ridiculous abstinence claims?
“Here.” The lawyer forces the papers into my hand, and I have no choice but to gape at them.
“Fifty thousand dollars?” I yell in panic, but neither woman seems to be affected by my shock. In fact, both smile eagerly as if they derive extra pleasure from my misery. “There’s no way I’m paying fifty thousand for a ten-dollar pregnancy test and a fifteen-minute ultrasound visit.”
“It’s not up for negotiation. Either you pay it now, or you’ll see us in the court.” The lawyer spins on her heels and heads out, with Theresa following her.
I gaze after them with my jaw dropping down to my chest, and then look down at Julie’s pale face. “What the fuck just happened?”
“Oh, my God!” Julie finally makes some noise. The whole thing must have shocked her into silence, which is saying something because very few things scare her.
“Get out!” I yell once I shake the shock out of my system enough to make a move and enter my office. “Everyone, get out!”
With the anger boiling inside my veins, I could kill someone, and I’d rather not add another misery to my very scandalous life. The lawyers hurry out and Julie grabs the door handle to pull it closed.
“Not you. I need you in here.” My fury vibrates through my words. Scaring Julie is the last thing I want, but I can’t help it with my anger at this moment.
She complies without any protest and enters, closing the door behind her silently.
“How could that happen?” I ask, more to myself than to her, because I know for a fact, she’d rather see me castrated than go through yet another shocking indignity for everyone to gossip about.
I’m so deep in shit, I wish I actually had been castrated rather than see my child born to a trashy woman like Theresa. I grew up at the mercy of an abusive parent, and there’s no way in hell I’ll tolerate my kid going through the same abuse.
It doesn’t take a PhD in Psychology to know Theresa isn’t into having children for motherly reasons. Money is her one and only purpose, and just the way she conceived the baby makes her a number one candidate to become an abusive parent.
Running my fingers through my hair, I glance out of the wide windows at the unending view of L.A. spread out before me. From the corner of my eye, I see Julie’s subtle moves as she approaches me.
“What am I going to do?” I whisper to myself, feeling anger giving up its place to hopelessness. I haven’t felt hopeless since before Michael’s death, and it was liberating.
Julie stands next to me and her hand gently slides over my shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I’m out of my scope here. We should hire you a proper crises management team to handle this case.”
A bitter smile touches my lips, her words only adding to my frustration. How could I forget about the opinion of millions of people, who make up the target group of my network? “Are you saying you’re not gonna be there for me?”
“Of cour
se not!” She frowns, her expression hurt and insulted. “I’ll always be there for you, but I’m not sure I can handle your public image adequately with this news.”
I nod and draw in a long breath to calm myself. “What am I going to do about Scarlet? She’ll hate me once she finds out.”
“First of all, we’re not sure the kid is yours. All you’ll lose until we have the paternity results is money.” She squeezes my shoulder and moves closer to me. “Secondly, if the child is yours, there’s a chance we can get full custody of it. I mean, who gets herself pregnant using sperm out of a condom, right? I’ll get Frank to run a background check on her. She must have other dirty laundry, and I promise you I’ll find it and use it to your advantage.”
I raise my hand and reach over to cover hers on my shoulder. “What would I do without you?”
Her cheeks blush, and she casts her gaze away. The knock on the door makes us both turn our heads.
Scarlet stands at the doorway, her eyebrows frowning with a confused expression. Julie quickly drops her hand off of my shoulder and takes a step away from me.
“What’s going on here?” Scarlet enters, her large dark-pink handbag hanging down her elbow, her tight black dress making it hard for her to take large steps. Her hair is styled into a bun, her makeup a little darker than her usual style and it makes her look older and somehow colder.
“I’ll leave you two alone.” Julie hurries out and closes the door.
I turn my head back to the window, trying to gain a few more minutes of silence before breaking the horrific news to Scarlet. She stayed with me despite my sexual history, but that must have already been hard to overlook for her. A child conceived from practically a prostitute won’t be easy, even for a woman blinded by love.
“Zane.” I feel her move, and then her hand grabs my bicep tightly. “What are you not telling me?”
I crane my head to glance down at her puzzled face. She’s the same fun-loving, youthful girl I fell in love with, but something about her expression is forcing me to raise my guard against her. I’ve made a mistake by falling for her too quickly. Our relationship is too young to weather this kind of challenge.
“I’ve got bad news.” I exhale and shift my body to face her as I begin telling her everything starting from that evil Monday morning a little over half a year ago.
As soon as the word “pregnant” is out of my mouth, she loosens the grip of her fingers around my arm and pulls her hand away. The more I explain, the further she gets away from me, and once I’m done talking, she’s sitting on my chair, her hands laced together on the desk, her whole body tight and still.
She can’t look me in the eye; she can’t even voice her thoughts. But, she doesn’t need to. I can see the shock and disgust exposed on the hard lines of her otherwise smooth skin.
My lips move; my mouth opens while words form in my mind. I want to apologize. I want to promise her everything will be all right, that we can still enjoy a peaceful and passionate relationship together, but I’d be lying to her. I don’t know what will happen the next day, how can I promise her a problem-free life?
I wish she’d speak, even if it’s to blame me for acting like a savage animal, rather than keeping the storm bottled up inside her. Instead, she remains silent and thinking.
“I’m sorry I did this to you,” I finally say when I can’t control the pang of guilt eating me inside out.
She’s been one of the most moral and respectable people I’ve ever met, and I’ve brought nothing but problems into her life with my promiscuity. I can handle the public’s judgmental opinion regarding my choices, but it kills me to see I’ll be pulling her down in the mud with me.
At last, she swivels the chair and turns to me, her eyes moving slowly over my body up to my face. She nods, perhaps to show her acceptance of my apology. “I forgive you.”
“No.” I shake my head and fall on my knees in front of her, feeling small against her unconditional love. “You shouldn’t forgive me. I’ll be ruining your reputation.”
“You’re my fiancé, and you’ll be my husband soon. We’ll unite out lives with an unbreakable bond. We’re in this together.” Her hand reaches for my shoulder and she pulls me into her lap, wrapping both her arms around my neck. Her embrace gives me the tranquility I’ve been needing since Theresa showed up with the news.
“You’re an amazing woman, you know that?”
She doesn’t respond but just holds me tightly, her support recharging me with strength. A man’s power comes from the woman who stands behind him, and I’m glad I have Scarlet’s backing and love.
CH 10 - The Payoff
~
After a long day of discussion with my lawyers, Julie, Scarlet, and I decide it’s best to cave into Theresa’s wishes, including the one about postponing the paternity test until after the birth. It won’t hurt to keep the relationship smooth with her if she’s really carrying my child. Besides, she only seems to care about money and promises not to go public with the pregnancy as long as I keep the money pipe open for her.
Despite her lawyer’s disapproval, Theresa agrees to sign an NDA in exchange for seventy-five thousand dollars, which includes her medical expenses as well, plus the payment of a six-month lease on a condo in the same building as mine. If the child is indeed mine, I’d rather be have her close in order to keep an eye on her during the last months of her pregnancy and the birth of the child.
As annoying as Theresa might be, the possibility of becoming a father stirs up my urge to protect my child, and if Theresa’s spoiled and sometimes ungrateful attitude is something I have to deal with, so be it.
Scarlet acts cautiously in the following weeks and, perhaps out of jealousy, makes sure to be present during every meeting I have with Theresa, which only happens once a day after work and at her new condo two stories below mine. Her fears are completely unfounded, though, since a woman with Theresa’s gold-digger attitude could never get my cock to twitch even if she were the last girl left on earth. It’s much easier to fuck a mediocre-looking stranger than a hot girl that I know to be cold and empty inside.
As expected, Theresa fills her days with shopping for clothes for her post-pregnancy self and spa visits. She buys clothes for the baby only occasionally. The reason she gives is that she doesn’t want to know the gender of the baby until she gives birth to it. I wonder what she’ll do with the baby if I don’t turn out to be the father. I can only hope she’ll put it up for adoption to parents who long to have a child, rather than stringing the poor baby along until she finds another man to latch onto.
Julie also never misses a meeting between Theresa and me, though her reason is primarily to protect me. She has this paranoid thought that Theresa might claim that I hit her or raped her during one of our meetings to demand more money for her silence, which is why Julie accompanies me every evening to Theresa’s condo to just sit still and witness the whole conversation. I’m fairly sure she’s recording everything with the camera of her phone secretly because she keeps it in her hand pointed toward me the whole time.
Scarlet, Julie, and I line up on the couch in Theresa’s medium-sized living room, while Theresa has her swollen feet propped up on the coffee table and goes through the details of her day.
“Zane, hurry! It’s kicking again.” Theresa pushes the bottle of purple nail polish away and points to her belly with both hands.
I slide down my seat on the couch and kneel in front of her, softly touching the spot on her belly she’s pointing at. She guides my hand to the exact spot, and suddenly, I feel the gentlest of kicks against my palm. Each time I feel a proof of the baby’s existence, something warms inside me.
I smile and look up at her eyes that’re lit with excitement. Moments like this, I wish the baby was mine and Theresa was Scarlet. The emotions running wild inside me would augment tenfold if I was sharing this special moment with the woman I love, rather than this woman I barely know and mostly detest.
Scarlet quickly shifts on the co
uch to get closer to me and lays her hand on my back to claim her stake. I guess it’s Theresa’s voluptuous breasts spilling out of her low-cut summer dress that’s getting on Scarlet’s nerves, more than anything else. Keeping my smile on, I crane my head and wink at Scarlet.
“Baby, we’ve been here for longer than an hour,” Scarlet points out with a sweet tone in her voice. “We must be disturbing Theresa. Let’s give her some space so she can rest.”
“Nonsense! You’re not disturbing me at all. I actually thought we could check out some designs for the baby’s room.” Theresa presses my hand harder on her belly to return my attention back to her. Slightly, she arches her back to get her breasts closer to my face.
“But, you said you don’t want to know the baby’s gender yet,” Julie calls out from the end of the couch, her hands suspiciously tight around her phone. The camera must be rolling to record every second I have with Theresa. “You can’t exactly chose a theme without knowing its gender.”
“We can go for something unisex.” Theresa’s eyes narrow in clear irritation. I guess, between the two women, she dislikes Julie most, since she has the least control of her tongue, and Scarlet chooses to remain cool and sweet most of the time.
I shake my head and pull back. “Julie’s right. I don’t want to invest anything into a room design without knowing its gender.” And it’s father.
Standing, I offer my hand to Scarlet to help her up and together we head for the door. Julie quickly follows us out and then wishes Theresa a good night.
“All right, guys. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Theresa says as she pushes the call button of the elevator for us.
After Julie takes the first elevator that comes, Scarlet slides her arm through mine and together, we hop onto the next elevator.
I kiss the top of her head as the doors close on us. “You’re a wonderful partner,” I whisper with an appreciative tone.
She tilts her head up and adjusts her lips right below mine. “I hope so.” Then she smiles a devilish grin. “I have a surprise for you.”