I could, I faced my wife and her latest sex toy. That was all these men were to her. Someone to please her for a night or two before she let them go.
Kind of like August.
No, August was different.
Was he?
“Poppy, if you’d dismiss your guest, I’d like to speak to you in my office.”
I stalked off to my home office and paced the length of the room. I wasn’t supposed to do this yet. My lawyer wanted me to wait it out, but I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t have Poppy under my roof, not knowing if at the end of it all, I’d be the father of her child.
Our child.
She had absolutely no idea who the biological father was, and she couldn’t offer this child what I could. I could give her the entire world, a legacy. What did Poppy have to offer but instability and constant reminders of how much she didn’t want to be a mother?
After a whole forty minutes, Poppy entered my office, disheveled and smelling of sex. She hadn’t even bothered to shower as if she wanted me to know she’d walked in on her own time because she was too busy fucking someone.
If she thought I was about to comment on it, she had another think coming. Whatever she did with her body was her prerogative. And after last night with August, I could hardly be the one to throw a stone.
No, we were fine seeing other people. Even for just one night.
“Sorry, I had needs to fill,” she said on a dramatic sigh, claiming the lounge sofa in the room. Her expression turned irritable. “Goddammit, I can’t wait for the day this thing comes out of me and I can sit any way I want in a damn chair.”
“That’s actually what I want to talk to you about.” I took the chair behind my desk. “You already know what I want.”
She placed a hand over her belly and smiled smugly at me. “Now what on earth could I have that the powerful and rich Charles Moore wants?”
“Cut the crap, Poppy. I want to be the baby’s father.”
“Hmm, I don’t know. What will the actual father think?”
My heart sank, and I placed my arms on the desk. “You know who the father is?”
She waved her hand at me. “He’s nothing but a fucking bum. Said he wants nothing to do with me or the child.”
“Then I don’t see a problem.”
“Except that the baby is mine. Not yours.”
The way she talked about the baby made me nauseous. Sometimes I wished I could just walk away. Out there were so many other kids who I could adopt instead. I couldn’t explain it, though. I just needed it to be this child. Since the beginning, when I found out she was pregnant, I wanted it.
“All I’m asking is for my name to be on her birth certificate when you give birth.”
She struggled to an upright position. “And why would I do that?”
“Because I’ll give you anything you want. A house, car. I’ll take care of you for the rest of your life. I-I don’t even have to divorce you. I have no desire to marry again.”
“Hmm, I like the way that sounds.” She twirled a lock of hair around her index finger. “Mrs. Charles Moore always. I’d get that down in writing somewhere, right? That you can’t divorce me?”
Was I really doing this?
“Yes.”
She sidled to the edge of the sofa and rose to her feet. “I’ll need some time to think about it. Possibly talk to my lawyer first.”
“Why are you doing this?”
She let her mask slip, and a sneer took over her features. This was the side of her I should’ve seen before we got married. She’d played her cards well, and I’d been so full of myself and the woman on my arm that I hadn’t seen who she really was until it had been too late.
“Because I am sick and tired of men like you always getting away with what they want while women like me get kicked to the curb once you’re through with us.”
“You’re going to punish me because of what someone else did to you?”
“You’re just like all the rest. You take what you want, and then you walk away. Do you think I really believed this marriage would last? You’ve been married five times for a reason, Charles. You get bored easily, and you’re always looking for the next conquest. Seems like you found it with a man this