Gabriella
My wide eyes darted around the kitchen in search of little people. Surely they weren’t in bed already. We were still in the, I need a drink, and, I have to pee, stage. That blindsided me. “You don’t have to worry about Mi anymore. I’m killing her,” I assured my very angry husband with a pounding heart, and an adrenaline rush worse than riding in a blimp, high above the world.
“You’re not going to have to. You’re going to be dead. Spill it, Gabriella. No more lies. Tell me what the fuck is going on.”
I played the card, knowing it wouldn’t work before I tried. “Why do you think something’s going on?”
“I’m not fucking around, Gabriella.”
I surrendered with both hands in up in the air. “Okay, let me go say goodnight to the kids.”
“The kids are fine. It’s Friday night. I bribed them with money. They’re in Vander’s room, and Rowan is in charge of reading.”
“Did you know she was reading chapter books?” That didn’t work either. “Okay, okay. I’ll tell you everything.”
“Right this second is the perfect time to start. It was that fucking video, wasn’t it?”
I looked down and nodded, deciding to get it out. It wasn’t like I was good at sneaking around, and Mi sucked worse than me. “I swear I was going to tell you.”
“Yeah, Mi told me. Right after you got our DNA tests back?”
“I hate her.”
“Why?”
“Because she has a big mouth.”
“Gabriella.”
The tone assured me I was done. Out of obstacles. I dropped to the stool Vander sat in and tapped my nails, happy for the island, keeping him from getting too close. “I had sex with Lane after that night.”
“So you were fucking around? The whole time? What about this, Gabriella? Is this all a fucking act, too? You’re a fucking cunt. I mean, what the fuck?”
“If you’re going to be mean, I’m not doing this.” I threatened with a weak tone. I couldn’t even look at him. That didn’t go as planned, not at all. I was supposed to get the results before I had to tell him this part, hoping that at least one of them was his.
“Mean? You’re lucky that island is between us.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said, my words coming out cockier than I meant. Actually, I didn’t mean to say that out loud at all. It just fell out. “You have to remember that I don’t remember that.”
“You don’t remember cheating on me?”
“No, I mean I didn’t cheat on you. Remember how I told you I watched you have sex with Tatiana?”
Paxton twirled his finger for me to continue when I paused. “Keep going?”
“Lane caught me. I think I was afraid he would tell you, or something. I did things with him and he paid me fifty bucks.”
“Wait, you were here for a month before Tatiana came here with Rowan.”
I nodded, assuring him of his memory. “Almost, a little less.”
“So? That’s when it started? Clear back then? Before we ever married?”
“No, idiot. That’s when it started and ended. That’s why I’m afraid Ophelia might be his.”
Paxton rolled his eyes in two quick circles, trying to keep up. “Why? I fucked you that whole month.”
“Yeah, that’s why you’re a cheater, too. Anyway, you always pulled out. And then Tatiana showed up here before I had Phi. She was shocked that you had gotten me pregnant, and I thought Rowan wasn’t yours either. And then that doctor told me your sperm count was almost nonexistent, but then Mi said it only takes one, and then I got pregnant. So I thought, you know?” I had to take a deep breath after that run-on sentence. I just wanted to spit it out. All of it at once.
“You stupid, stupid f—f—fish.”
I looked up, sure fish was his second choice. His head shook from side to side, and for a quick second, I could have sworn, I saw a smirk. “Mi helped me with some DNA tests from Amazon. I planned on telling you as soon as I knew for sure.”
“You have no idea how much I want to stab you in the throat with this fork. How many times after that?”
“None, but when I went to Lane about helping me enjoy sex with you, I told him about Phi, and then a lot more stuff about us.”
“Yeah, I know. What else?”
“I don’t know. I guess we started talking. He knew Phi was his, and I—”
“Ophelia doesn’t fucking belong to that fucker.”
I shrugged both my shoulders, confessing the facts. “We’ll find out as soon as the tests come back.”
“You stupid fucking cunt. One, I had her tested just like I did when my first daughter was born. I mean, I was dealing with two sluts. I know for a fact that Ophelia belongs to me.”
I didn’t speak only because I couldn’t. My mind was too busy trying to comprehend all of this. Both girls?
“I can’t believe that slime bastard thought for one second she belonged to him. Is that why he left? Because you suddenly came home this person that nobody knew, and he got scared? Is that why he ran, Gabriella?”
It took two-point-seven seconds for the anger to move from my mind, to my fists. I even felt my muscles tensing, ready to strike. Paxton caught my wrist midair, but that didn’t stop me from giving him a tongue lashing. “You knew this whole time? Why the fuck didn’t you tell me? You caused way more drama than you needed to. Way more,” I said through a clenched jaw, spitting angry words right at him.
“Oh, no. No way,” he fired right back, a finger right at my nose. “You don’t get to do that. You’re the one that went behind my back to keep something as ridiculous as this from me. I mean, come on. This just keeps getting better and better. He wanted to help you get away from me because he felt the need to protect, Ophelia. Right, Gabriella?”
“How was I supposed to know? If I thought that before I remembered, why wouldn’t I now? All the signs were there.”
“Am I right? He set all that up? The passports, the job, the new life? And just like that, you were going to take my kids away? I would have fucking killed you.”
I took a step back, unsure whether or not I should trust him when he took a step toward me. “I didn’t love you then, Pax.”
Paxton shook his head from side to side, but I wasn’t sure why. Maybe at the whole fucked up mess, maybe at me for sneaking around behind his back. At least, he didn’t find out about Tatiana. I’d never hear the end of that one.
Paxton smiled at me, hands on his hips, and a quick stomp with one foot. Both his hands went into the air, and he smiled, right about the time I pondered his mental state. “Well, we got rid of Candace and Lane.”
My frown strengthened, trying to figure out whether or not he had just made a joke. “Excuse me?”
Yup. He was crazy.
“The perfect storm of two kinds of crazy. Baby, I don’t give a fuck how we got here. We’re here.”
“What?” I questioned again, trying my best to keep up.
His fingers laced with mine at the same time our lips met, mine stuck in a straight line.
“Don’t you fucking lie to me, don’t you ever think you have to sneak around behind my back for anything. You fucking talk to me, not Mi.”
I felt the adrenaline slow in my veins, the beat in my heart calm, and my muscles relax into his arms. “I’m never talking to her again.”
Paxton lifted my chin with one finger and pinched my ass. “Yeah? How about you don’t talk to my ex-wives either.”
I grinned, puckering for his smiling lips. “You’re way better at being a detective than me. You don’t have more than one, do you?”
“Not yet, and you don’t need to be a detective. Let’s go charge these stupid stones with our munchkins, then I’ll take you upstairs and remind you why you’re never going to do anything behind my back again.”
Paxton pulled me by two fingers, and I gladly followed, listening to him mumble about the magic stones. Something about them being bad luck.
I didn’t know what the future held for us, but I knew at that exact moment that wherever it was, I would always be with Paxton. We were the perfect storm of two kinds of crazy, stupid fish who swam against the current for far too long. Who says a solid foundation has to start from scratch? Sometimes you just have to let go of rock bottom, catch the bricks being thrown at you, and build your own foundation. Solid is built on trust, not lies and deceit, and nobody’s going to build it for you. I learned that hard way.
I wish I could tell you the gender of this new little Pierce, but unfortunately, I don’t know. A gender party will reveal the sex over here on December the 25th. Mi is sworn to secrecy. Come join the fun, and win some cool prizes. Club Jettie. Don’t ask. I didn’t pick the place. (Paxton)
The end, but keep reading to find out who will be the new neighbor.