Chapter Ten
“You’ve got a lot of damn nerve coming here like this. I thought I told you last time I saw you to never darken my doorstep again. I don’t want you here and I’m sure Carys feels the same.”
Lacey smirked not seeming a bit bothered by his hostile tone. “Did you even tell her I’d stopped by last week? I bet you didn’t.”
Rhys flared his nostrils. He could feel the vein throbbing in his forehead. It wouldn’t take much for him to wrap his fingers around her throat and squeeze. After he’d found her in his driveway last week and told her in no uncertain terms to get lost, he thought he’d seen the last of her. He should have known better. Lacey didn’t do anything without an ulterior motive.
Her scarlet painted lips curved to a near sneer. “You don’t have to say anything. Your face gives it away. But that’s okay. I guess I’ll just have to keep coming back, I mean, after all, you can’t be here twenty-four, seven can you? Eventually, Carys and I will talk and I have lots of tales to tell her.”
He wanted to slam the door in her face, but Rhys realized not only would she make good on her threat, she’d enjoy doing it. The evil bitch. “Come inside and don’t make too much noise. You have ten minutes to tell me what you want. When you’re done I want you to leave and never come back.”
“How generous of you,” she murmured, pushing her way past him when he opened the door enough to allow her entrance. He’d probably regret letting her in his home, but if he didn’t deal with her now, there was no telling what she’d do later.
She looked around with an accessing eye. “Nice place. It’s much bigger than the little shack you had us living in when we were together.”
“I’d hardly call a three-bedroom house a shack,” he huffed. “That was your problem. You were never satisfied with what we had.”
Lacey shrugged an expensively clad shoulder with the same air of nonchalance she gave any topic that wasn’t about her so-called greatness. “I didn’t realize a professor made the kind of money to afford and keep a place like this.” She picked up one of the valuable knick-knacks as if examining its value.
Rhys refused to discuss his financial status with her. “In my study. Follow me.”
“But I’m parched. Won’t you offer me a drink, darling?”
He whirled around to face her. “As you weren’t invited, no I won’t offer you a drink and your ten minutes is now seven. Now you can follow me or you can waste more time before I kick you out.”
Lacey pursed her lips. “I see you’re just as obstinate as ever.” She sighed. “Very well take me to your study.”
This time she followed. Once inside, he rested his rear against his desk, his arms crossed as he glared at his ex. She was just as beautiful as he remembered, not a hair out of place and dressed immaculately, yet the coldness that surrounded her put him off. And on closer inspection, he realized her beauty was carefully constructed with makeup and possibly plastic surgery. She didn’t possess the natural loveliness of his Sadie, making him wonder what the hell he’d seen in Lacey in the first place.
“Tell me what you want Lacey.”
“Perhaps I’d like to see my daughter.”
“When you walked out of her life twelve years ago without a backward glance, you forfeited the right to be in her life. You’re a selfish bitch and you always will be, so pull the other one because I’m not buying it. What the fuck do you really want?”
Green eyes flashed fire briefly and it looked as if she wanted to return his angry retort for one of her own, but instead, she exhaled deeply. “You always were an unfeeling bastard, but I had hoped I could count on you for a loan. Well, maybe not a loan. I need money.”
“You need money? And why in the world do you think I’d give it to you? After we divorced, you forfeited alimony because I got custody of Carys. I owe you absolutely nothing. Besides, don’t you have a husband to take care of your financial needs?”
Lacey clenched and unclenched her fists at her sides. Her bottom lip quivered as if she was about to cry. “That son of a bitch left me for a kid barely out of high school. He’s decided he wants an heir even though when we met he mentioned not wanting children which was fine with me. Said, he didn’t think I was young enough to carry a healthy baby. I gave that son of a bitch the best four years of my life.”
“Aww yes. This is husband number four right? What happened to number three by the way? I’d heard number two died of old age and left the bulk of his estate to his adult children.”
Lacey rolled her eyes. “Roderick is old news. He made some bad investments and lost most of his money. I couldn’t live like that. Besides, Elgin had come along by then and promised to take care of me.”
Rhys raised a brow. “Elgin, I assume is the one who just dumped you.”
“You don’t have to be so crass about it, but yes. Once I get my hands on a good attorney, I’m going to make him pay. That’s where you come in. I need you to provide me with the money to procure a good divorce attorney and perhaps enough money for me to rent some suitable accommodations while this is going on.”
“And why can’t you obtain your own attorney?”
“That bastard has stopped all my credit cards and wiped out our joint bank accounts. I’ve been cut off. I can’t even buy lunch for myself in a nice restaurant,” she whined. “I’ve had to sell jewelry I managed to take with me when he kicked me out. I could get an attorney who’d wait for payment after settlement, but any lawyer worth his degree wants a retainer and I’m going to need a good one to break the prenup that jackass made me sign.”
“I can’t say I feel sorry for your predicament but just for shits and giggles, how much money do you think you’ll need?”
“I think fifty grand should be enough to get by on for a while.”
His eyes nearly bulged out of his head. Was she insane? “You’ve got to be kidding me. You have a lot of damn nerve coming here after all this time demanding money from me as if you weren’t one of the worst fucking people in the world. Are you really that stupid to think I’d just give you a large amount of money just like that?”
Her eyes narrowed to green slits as she swept her arms out, gesturing around her. “Look at this place! You’ve done quite well for yourself since we broke up. This house is practically a mansion and has to be on several acres of land, not to mention those two nice cars you drive around. You could spare that much money and not blink an eye. And anyway, it’s not like you couldn’t ask your brother for the money. He’s loaded and we both know it.”
The vein in his forehead throbbed even harder and it felt as if it would burst. “You are absolutely insane. Has it occurred to you to get a job to support yourself rather than expecting someone else to take care of you? Perhaps you should take this as a lesson learned. You won’t always have your looks and plastic surgery can only do so much before you become a cautionary tale, so do yourself a favor and start taking responsibility for yourself. You might be a better person for it.”
Rhys’ advice was clearly the breaking point for Lacey who turned a molten shade of red, her features contorting to something ugly. “Who the fuck are you to give me advice on anything! You were a lousy husband and a fool! What do you think your daughter would say if Mommy started telling tales? You may have custody of Carys now but I have more rights to her than you do.”
His breath caught in his throat. He knew where she was going with this and if she said it he really would kill her. “Shut your mouth!”
She snickered. “What? You haven’t told your precious little angel the truth? You make me sick. You always paid more attention to her than me and it made me want to throw up. All she ever did was cry and whine with me, but when you showed up she was sweetness and light.”
“She was a baby for chrissake. They need love and affection something you know nothing about. You were too busy feeling sorry for yourself rather than trying to be a good mother to your daughter.”
“I didn’t want the brat! I should have had an abortion, but you were so gung ho about that fatherhood shit weren’t you?” She began to laugh maniacally. “The joke was on you wasn’t it?”
“I said shut your fucking mouth!” He advanced on her with every intention of choking her, but she must have recognized something in his eyes because she backed away.
“You can’t stop me from speaking the truth. And if you don’t want her to know that you aren’t her real father, I’d pull out a checkbook right now if I were you.”
“He doesn’t have to because I already know,” a voice said in the doorway.
Both adults whirled around to see Carys in the doorway, tears streaming down her face. Rhys’ heart sank.
Lacey was the first to recover. “Well, hello darling. Why aren’t you just lovely? Why don’t you come over here and say hello to your mother.”
Carys shook her head before turning and running off.
Lacey giggled. “A little high strung isn’t she?”
“Get out,” he spoke through clenched teeth. So many emotions swirled within him, mostly murderous ones as he glared at the object of his ire.
With the audacity of the proportions only she could pull off, Lacey dug into her purse and pulled out a card. “Here’s the hotel I’m staying in for the rest of the week. I’m in room 317. I do hope you’ll be reasonable enough for us to work out a mutually satisfactory arrangement. With me being the only natural parent and all, no court would turn me away.”
Rhys took a step forward and, Lacey released a screech as though she finally sensed the real danger she was in. The card floated to the floor as she flew out of the study and raced through the house and out the door.
With balled fists he watched as her car tore off, leaving skid marks on the asphalt. For just a brief second, he’d nearly snapped. No one had ever been able to push him to this point before. He asked himself for the thousandth time what the hell had he’d ever seen in her. And the answer came to him in an instant. Carys.
He and Lacey had a brief fling and it would have been nothing more than that had she not showed up on his doorstep teary-eyed one day to tell him she was pregnant. She’d claimed the condom broke and her birth control had failed her. Rhys had been young and naïve then, but he wanted to do the right thing and the right thing was offering to marry her. He’d tried his best to make things work with her but nothing he did seemed to satisfy her and by the time Carys came along their marriage was pretty much in shambles.
But for the sake of their daughter, he’d stuck it out. Lacey, however, didn’t seem to appreciate the attention he lavished on Carys accusing him of loving their child more than her. At that point, it was probably true, but Rhys denied it which led to more arguments. Most of their arguments centered on Carys. Rhys would come home from work to find their daughter hadn’t been changed or fed. Once he’d had to take Carys to the pediatrician for a particularly nasty diaper rash. That had been the day he’d found out just what a conniving bitch Lacey was.
When Carys was settled in later that night, he’d torn into Lacey, going as far as accusing her of being a horrible mother. It was then she’d let slip he wasn’t the father and the real father had been an older married man who refused to leave his wife and family to be with her. Rhys’s initial reaction was to call Lacey a liar but she challenged him to take a DNA test to prove it. The results come back 99.9 percent that he was not the biological father of Carys.
Devastated he could barely bring himself to look at Carys for at least a week, scared he wouldn’t feel the same way about his little princess now that he knew the truth. Eventually, he did build up the courage to face Carys and discovered he didn’t love her any less. Whether he sired her or not, she was still his daughter because no biological father could love their child more than he did her. Lacey, of course, wasn’t happy about this development. She began staying out late and ignoring both of them. They basically had an empty marriage, with Rhys sleeping in the guestroom. So when he came home one day to find Carys all alone it pissed him off that she’d leave their daughter to her own defenses not caring whether the child could hurt herself or not. But in a way, he was relieved that she was finally gone. He was thankful that Lacey didn’t fight for custody. Besides, it was his name on Carys’s birth certificate and that was all that mattered.
But somehow that bitch had managed to cause more problems after all this time. She was nuts if she believed he’d give her one red cent after the stunt she’d just pulled. With a sigh, he headed back inside. He needed to check on Carys. Rhys had debated telling her the truth when she was old enough to understand, but now the choice was no longer his. His only goal now was making her realize how much he loved her no matter what.
Damn Lacey.
* * *
“It’s not like you have much to stick around here for anyway. You can sell this little house and get a decent job in DC. You can be closer to me. Besides, Terrell has been asking about you. You should at least give the boy a call. You’re not going to get any better than him.”
Sadie bit her tongue to hold back the retort as she reminded herself that this was her mother. She picked up the remote control and flipped the channel to the Home Shopping Network. If she was going to have to listen to another one of her mother’s lectures she may as well turn the station to something she wasn’t interested in watching. When she’d opened the door a week ago to find her mother standing on the other side of the door claiming to be on vacation, she knew she was in for it. But she didn’t realize her mother would be this relentless.
“I’ve already told you, I’m happy where I am. I have a job I like, and I’m currently in a relationship.”
Jackie snorted. “With that white boy? Don’t you know they only want one thing and your little friend is no different? Mark my words, the novelty will eventually wear off for him and you’ll be alone again.”
Sadie crossed her arms over her chest. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. It’s always nice to know I have my mother’s support. And in case you’ve forgotten, Terrell is married.”
“Separated. And don’t you get smart with me. I’m only looking out for you girl.”
“Okay, I appreciate your concern, Mom but I’m not interested in moving back to DC. For the first time, I have my own place and I love it here, I’ve made friends. And I love Rhys and he loves me. I wish you wouldn’t be so negative when it comes to him. It was very nice of him to take us to dinner earlier this week. You seemed to like him just fine then.”
Her mother shrugged. “A free meal is a free meal. So what? He’s into you now, sure, but you couldn’t hold Terrell, what makes you think you can hold a man like Rhys?”
It stung the way her mother so casually wielded her emotional paper cuts without batting an eye. “Yet, you want me to get back with a man whose interest I couldn’t hold?”
“You know how men are. They make a lot of mistakes, but eventually, they come to their senses. It was a lapse of judgment on his part to marry that hood rat and they’re no longer together. I don’t see why you won’t hear him out.”
“Because he broke my heart. Because he promised me marriage, but then married someone else behind my back. Because I have more pride than to take someone back who would treat me like that. Do I need another reason?”
“You’re making mountains out of molehills. What will you do when things end with you and that white boy? And they will. Then what? You’re not in a position to burn your bridges. It’s not like you have your sisters’ looks.”
That did it. “When did you say you were leaving again?”
Jackie raised a brow. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“Well, don’t you have to get back to your cushy government job?”
“I told you, I’m on a two-week furlough. This damn recession. When you come back to DC you can stay with me for as long as you’d like. You can help me out with the bills of course. It’ll be like we’re roommates.”
Sadie narrowed her eyes. “Are you having money problems, Jackie? Is that why you want me to move back to DC? To help you out?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why do you want me to return to DC so badly, when you know I’m happy where I am? And please don’t bring up my relationship with Rhys again. With all due respect, what we have is none of your business and if you can’t be happy for me, that’s your problem, not mine. I don’t know why you go out of your way to put me down all the time, but it certainly doesn’t make me want to pack up and leave North Carolina just to take more of your abuse.” It was the first time she’d stood up to her mother and it felt great.
For once Jackie seemed to be at a loss for words before her face fell. “So you’re going to do me like your sisters did?”
“Jackie, let’s not start on that.”
“I’m dying, girl.”
“What?” Sadie couldn’t have heard her correctly.
“I said I’m dying.”