The week flew by and Alex had to admit that she enjoyed having Gabe there. He was up bright and early with Emma every morning. Emma was so excited for him to walk her to school that she was waking up before the sun and getting dressed in the dark. She was worried that even in his baseball cap and sunglasses, he would draw attention, and he certainly did. Although the other moms couldn’t see his face very well, his height and muscled body were hard to miss, especially at drop-off where almost everyone knew everyone else. Wearing his incognito attire, he could drop Emma off with her without too many questions.

For the questions she got, she told people that he was Emma’s dad in town for a visit. There were a few shocked glances, but no one was too nosy. She was sure they were all talking about her behind her back, but she didn’t really care too much. The biggest issue occupying her days with him around was what to do when Emma wasn’t there as a buffer. He was wreaking havoc on her equilibrium. While she generally worked from home a couple of times per week, she found herself going into the office almost every day just as a respite from being in the house, feeling like he was tracking her every move.

He’d practically set up shop in her office, even though there was a desk up in the guest room. He also found any chance he could to touch her when they were alone. It could be brushing against her when reaching for something, or not moving to the side when they walked down the hallway. She’d even walked out into the hall one day when he was coming out of the shower with just a towel wrapped around his waist. She swore that her legs turned to jelly as she placed a hand on the wall to steady herself.

Gabe apologized as he hustled into the guest room with the water glistening on his body and muscles rippling as he adjusted his towel. Alex hadn’t even realized she’d been frozen in place and staring until he gave her a wink and closed the door right in her face. She had made sure that she went into the office that day and the following day, partially to tamp down her embarrassment.

If she was in the office, he would pick up Emma on his own. When she came home, there were tales of their trip to get ice cream, or of him pushing Emma on the swing almost up to the sky. Emma was beaming every single day and that was how she knew that going to Scotland was the right choice. Maybe it wasn’t the right choice for her, but for Emma it was a no-brainer.

The only hiccup they’d had during the week was one day when she’d come home early from work. At first, she thought that maybe he had gone out, but then a raised voice came from her office. The door was slightly ajar and he was shouting inside.

“If you think for one fucking minute you are getting another cent from me, you are sorely mistaken! You’ll be lucky if I don’t kill you the minute I see you,” he roared. She pushed the door open a little bit further. He was in the office pacing and pulling at his hair with his phone to his ear.

“I don’t care about your excuse. You kept my daughter from me for six years and you kept Alex away from me for even longer. Don’t call me again. And don’t even think about calling me from another number. I’ll talk to you through my lawyers.”

She could hear raised voices through the other side of the line, but couldn’t make out what was being said.

“I’ll get my own lawyers, Aaron. I don’t care.”

“We’ll see about that. I’ll make sure that you never work for another client ever again. Don’t contact me again.” He slammed down the phone so hard, the screen cracked. He picked it up and cursed at it. She knocked on the door to make her presence known. He whipped around with his eyes wide.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard shouting and just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

He dropped his head, shaking it. “I’m sorry Alex. I didn’t mean to get so loud.”

“It’s all right. I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

“About as okay as I can be after realizing I let a snake run my life for the past seven years.”

“So, Aaron’s done more than keeping the knowledge that Emma existed from you?”

“That by far takes the cake and makes everything else pale in comparison,” he said solemnly.

“If you want to talk about it, we have about twenty minutes until we need to pick up Emma. We could go for a walk,” she offered. He looked up at her and gave her a small smile.

“Sure, that sounds good.”

They began their walk the long way to the school in silence. The warm, late-spring air was filled with lively sounds of the neighborhood. The birds were out and a warm breeze was passing by them.

“I knew from the beginning that Aaron was out for himself, but I always thought he was also on my side,” Gabe began. “He was just starting out as well when I started on Stargazer. I was his first big client in a major movie, so I thought we were a good fit. Navigating the world together. The first indicator that I should have seen coming was the relationship clause in the Stargazer franchise agreement,” he said, as he stopped and looked up at the sky. Alex stopped beside him as he seemed to be gathering his thoughts.

“That fucking agreement. What a mess!” he said as he continued walking. “Aaron told me that the studio could have sued me for millions of dollars if I backed out of that agreement because of the relationship clause.”

Her stomach turned at the thought of that Stargazer agreement. She’d known that he’d agreed to it, but she never got the why.

“They would have sued you for millions?”

“That was what Aaron was telling me. I had no idea how to read contracts back then. When I told him no way, that I was in a relationship with you and I wouldn’t do it, that’s when he threw down the lawsuit hammer. Said they would sue me for breach of contract and I would be on the hook for millions. What an idiot I was,” he said, his hands fisted at his sides.

“So, it wasn’t in the contract?”

“Turns out it was a studio suggestion and Aaron decided to run with it and push for it. He said it would raise my profile, thus raising his profile,” he said, giving a harsh laugh and shaking his head.

“So that’s why you agreed to it,” she said, finally realizing what she hadn’t back then. He stopped abruptly, stepping in front of Alex, and placing his hands on her arms.

“I would have never agreed to that under normal circumstances. I told him ‘no.’ I gave Aaron a flat out ‘no’ to pretending I was in a relationship with Lesley,” he said, staring into her eyes. A crawl ran up her back envisioning about Gabe and Lesley together. So many dominos stacked up and had been ready to fall all because of greed. “But once he told me about the damages I had to pay, then I had no choice,” he said with a sigh, breaking eye contact and dropping his hands from her arms.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” she asked, trying to catch his eyes again.

“We weren’t exactly having an easy talk about what was happening. You were upset. Completely and totally, justifiably upset and I kept trying to figure out a way to make it work. I was trying to figure out how I could do both—not get sued to high heaven and not have to hide being with you—but I couldn’t.”

“If you had just told me, I would have understood,” she said, her voice raising an octave. “If you had told me, I wouldn’t have left. You wouldn’t have—,” she stopped mid-sentence, not wanting to bring up Lesley. That would lead to an even more unpleasant conversation and it was almost time to pick up Emma.

“I wouldn’t have what?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing. What are you going to do about Aaron?” she asked, kicking a stone off the sidewalk.

“I’m going to have to get a lawyer and figure out how to get out of his management agreement. It’s for another five years and there is no way he’s getting another cent from me. He’s lucky I don’t knock his damn teeth in after what he did. But I’m sure he would love that. The little weasel would try to sue me for damages and milk a little bit more money out of me,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Alex,” he said, turning to her as they stood at the fence to the school waiting for the bell to ring. “I’m sorry for what happened in the hotel room. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything then. I was so excited about the franchise. I couldn’t believe this would be my big break and I—for some stupid reason—thought that you’d go along with the lies when it came to my relationship status. It was a mistake that I’ve regretted almost every day and if there was a way to go back and change it I would.”

“Thank you for the apology Gabe, but is that all you’re apologizing for?”

“Is there something else?”

Before she could say anything else, the bell rang and the teachers came walking out with their classes of students to hand off to the parents. Emma ran to them immediately. Gabe crouched down and held his arms open and Emma squealed and jumped as she threw herself right into his arms. He picked her up and spun her around.

“How’s my best girl?” he asked, pulling her to him and showering her face with kisses.

“Daddy!” she giggled, trying to evade his kisses. The sour pit in Alex’s stomach ebbed away a bit seeing those two together. He was going to be a great dad. Whatever happened between them, at least they had that.