standing here, threatening my girlfriend, on her property. Which you should probably stop doing. Now.”
“Your girlfriend?” Karl sounds as astonished as I feel.
He looks back and forth between the two of us while I all but melt with relief. I’ve looked pathetic entirely too many times in front of Karl and Sasha over the last few months, and I will be forever grateful to Nick for saving me from further humiliation right now, while my head is still spinning and my heart is still breaking.
Not over Karl, of course, but over the baby I wanted so badly and for so long.
“I’ll have you know,” Karl says, trying to stand taller than Nick but falling woefully short, “Mallory is my wife. I have every right to be here.”
“No, you don’t,” Nick says. “Not after she’s asked you to leave.”
“Do you really want to get into a debate over the law with me?” Karl’s eyes narrow. “I’m an attorney, and I assure you this is perfectly legal.”
“Yeah, well, I’m an attorney, too—and apparently, a much better one than you, because I can assure you that you’re wrong. And that you’re trespassing, which is very much against the law. So”—he waves his hand in a dismissive gesture—“you can scurry on back to whatever hole you crawled out of now.”
Karl’s face turns so red that, for a second, I actually think he’s going to have a stroke. Sasha must think so, too, because she comes awkwardly shuffling up the driveway toward him.
“I didn’t know you were dating anyone,” Karl says, accusation thick in every syllable.
“And I didn’t know you were about to become a father.” The words come out of nowhere before I have any idea that I’m going to say them. “Looks like there’s a lot we don’t know about each other anymore. Then again—” I shoot a look at Sasha, who is staring at Nick with her mouth open and more than a little avarice in her eyes. “That’s always been the case. Hasn’t it, Karl?”
My ex looks like he is about to explode, which—not going to lie—I would totally be here for. He’d make a big mess, of course, but it’s a small price to pay for this whole nasty divorce business being over quickly. Plus, I’d get everything, and as I glance back over at Sasha’s burgeoning belly, that feels about right at the moment.
“You don’t actually expect me to believe you’re an attorney, do you?” Karl spits out.
Nick looks more amused than insulted at the obvious cut. “I don’t give a shit what you believe.” He squeezes me tighter, his hand stroking up and down my arm in an obvious display of affection meant to make Karl even angrier. “Facts are facts. I’d say that Mallory has a type, except…” He trails off on a derisive little laugh as he looks Karl up and down.
Karl’s hands fist at his sides, and alarm shoots through me. “You son of a bitch.”
Nick gives him a look that practically dares him to take a swing at him. Even though I’m horrified at the idea, there’s a small part of me that wouldn’t mind seeing my ex arrested for assault—not because I actually want him to go to prison but because I am apparently vengeful enough to relish the thought of him being disbarred and losing the practice he all but worships. The law practice I worked so many long hours to help him build.
“Karl, let’s go.” Sasha’s voice is high and grating, her eyes filled with fear as she looks between Nick and Karl.
Of course she’s afraid—if Karl gets disbarred, she and her baby would lose their meal ticket, not that it’s the baby’s fault.
It’s that thought that has me stepping forward, putting myself a little between Nick and Karl. Whatever else is going on here, the baby doesn’t deserve to suffer for choices their parents made.
Nick growls a little at my movement even as his hands come up to rest—warm and secure—on my shoulders. I know this is all fake, that it’s just a show for my ex, but I can’t help leaning back into the strength and heat of him, just for a little while. It’s been so long since I’ve had anyone to lean on.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Karl snaps at Sasha. “Not until Mallory signs the fucking divorce papers.”
“If that’s the case, then you leave me no choice but to call the police,” Nick says. “Because both Mallory and I have told you there’s not a chance in