Total pages in book: 235
Estimated words: 227851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1139(@200wpm)___ 911(@250wpm)___ 760(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 227851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1139(@200wpm)___ 911(@250wpm)___ 760(@300wpm)
Then tried to kill me.
“You’re going to stay with him when he’s having a baby with another woman?” Coral says. “Where’s your self-respect?” My God, I wish I could do the unthinkable and slap her out of this apartment.
“I’m going to trample now,” Ava says quietly. It pulls an inappropriate smile from me.
“Knock yourself out, baby,” I say, pressing my lips to her cheek. “But please, let’s just make this one a verbal trample.” And, sadly, that’s not only because Ava’s expecting my babies. I turn and face Coral. This witch is too. Good God.
“What are you two talking about?” Coral asks.
“Get me your picture,” Ava says, looking at me.
“What picture?”
“The one that you carry everywhere,” she says. “I’m not stupid. Where is it?”
My scan picture? Why the hell does she want that? “In my suit jacket.”
“Go and get it.”
Is she mad? “No, I’m not leaving you with her.” Fuck knows what will go down in my absence.
“Her?” Coral asks, insulted. “Is that the way you’re going to speak to the mother of your child?”
“You are not the fucking mother of my child, you deluded freak!” I will only ever see her as a smear on my life. And now one that can’t be rubbed away. Ever. Fuck!
Ava walks away, so fucking calm, leaving me with Coral. “I can’t believe you’ve done this to me,” I hiss. “This is low, Coral. So fucking low.”
“I didn’t plan this, Jesse,” she says, moving closer. “It was obviously meant to be.”
“What, like we were meant to be?” I ask on a laugh. “Then why the fuck did I marry another woman, Coral?” She’s fucking loo-la, I swear it.
“We had something special.”
I practically dive from her outstretched hand. No. She’ll never touch me again.
“Special?” Someone, knock some sense into her, please. “I screwed you for a while,” I remind her for what feels like the millionth time. “I fucked you and then kicked you out. How the fuck is that special?”
“You came back for more. That has to mean something. You made me need you.”
“No, you made yourself need me.” There was no worshipping, no devotion, no love, not even any fucking smiles. She’s fabricated a relationship that never happened, and that is on her head, not mine. “I barely even spoke to you when I was screwing you,” I go on. “You were a piece of meat that was handy to have on call.” Before Ava O’Shea arrived in my life and everything except her was irrelevant. “You’re just like the rest of them, but even more desperate.” I sneer, my contempt rife. “Get a good seeing to and you think your life depends on it. What the hell makes you think that I’d leave my wife for you?” I ask, looking her up and down.
“Because I’m having your baby.”
“You’re lying.” If I keep saying it, it might come true. If she didn’t have that proof, I would laugh her out of my penthouse with a boot up her arse. But she’s come armed with evidence, and that changes everything. God damn it, how did I let this happen?
“She is lying,” Ava says quietly.
What?
I feel something inside lift as I look back at her. Again, so calm. Too calm for a woman who’s just found out her husband is fathering a child with another woman.
“I’m not,” Coral says, indicating the picture. “You have the proof there.”
“Yes, I do.” Ava shows her the picture. Wait. I frown. That’s my picture. It’s tatty, the edges worn from me holding it so much. “This is a six-week scan picture,” Ava says.
“No, it’s a four-month scan picture.”
“This isn’t your baby, Coral.”
“Whose is it then?”
Oh my God, is what I think’s happening actually happening? Coral doesn’t know Ava’s expecting?
Ava gazes down at the scan picture. My scan picture. My scan picture with my babies on it. “This is my baby,” Ava muses, almost wistful. “And Jesse’s.”
“What?” Coral asks, unsure.
“Well, I say baby,” she goes on. “What I actually meant was babies. You see, we’re having twins, and I know you’re trying to pull a fast one because this really is a six-week scan picture. And there are two peanuts here, smaller than your one blob, I know, but I can get a feel for it. I don’t know. Maybe it’s motherly instinct.” She smiles, while I stare at her, mouth agape. “Is that all?” she asks.
I’m speechless, wanting to grab the pictures and compare them. Or maybe I’ll just take her word for it. Is she right? Has Coral got herself pregnant and is trying to pass it off as mine?
“Unless you can miraculously produce this missing strip that’ll confirm your dates,” Ava says, pointing at the photo. “I think we’re done.” The picture gets tossed on the floor at Coral’s feet. “Now fuck off and go find the real father of your spawn.”