Chapter 34

Ella

After the situation with Dante's arrest and me being questioned by the police regarding his alibi, I'd developed a better understanding of why "club business" was a big thing to the MC. In the month since, Dante and I had reached an understanding that any threat to either of us or our families had to be disclosed. Anything else would be handled on a case-by-case basis, with him using his best judgement. It wasn't perfect, and I still didn't like secrets, but it was working for us so far.

This morning, I got a different perspective on the matter, and it was all thanks to Dante's ex-wife.

While the men were at the clubhouse for Church, I was teaching Molly and Abby how to make bread. Ethan was spending the afternoon with Abby's parents, and Everly was asleep on a blanket on the living room floor. The girls and I were sitting in the kitchen chatting as we waited for the dough to rise before we punched it down and kneaded it. The doorbell rang and I hurried to answer it, not wanting the noise to wake the baby.

There, standing on my doorstep was Christy, looking even worse-for-wear than the only other time I'd seen her. She demanded money and became irate when I told her to leave. Everly started to cry, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Abby picking her up to comfort her. Molly appeared at my side moments later with her cell phone in hand, threatening to call Jagger.

Christy just laughed, the sound bitter and almost deranged as she picked at a sore on her neck. "That won't do you any good and you know it," she spat at Molly. "Jagger's in Church right now, and so is Rome. Those boys of mine are useless to you. Useless to everybody. They won't take care of you," she said, her words starting to slur as her eyes seemed to lose focus.

"I told King I shoulda gotten rid of ‘em the minute I found out I was knocked up with twins. I would have, too, but it was too late and the fuckin' doctor wouldn't do it, and now we're stuck with ‘em. Useless fuckin' brats. They ruined my life…stuck with them…I don't want ‘em anymore…Didn't want ‘em in the first place…he can have ‘em," She continued rambling incoherently for a moment before turning and wandering back out to the car that was parked at the curb.

It was as if she'd forgotten we were there, or why she'd come here in the first place. I stepped back inside and closed the door as the car drove away with her in the passenger seat. I had no idea who was driving.

My heart sank as I realized what she had revealed to Abby and Molly. Molly looked stricken, and Abby had tears in her eyes as she clutched Everly to her chest.

"Dante will be devastated," I told them softly. "He never wanted them to know that Christy wanted an abortion."

"Caleb knows. He heard them fighting about it when they were seven. It was the weekend she left and didn't come back for months," she whispered as a tear ran down her face. "It's part of the reason he started drinking back in high school. Our therapist said he needed a release valve, partly because of the pressure of trying to keep that secret all these years while dealing with the hurt it caused him. He tried to protect Jagger, so he wouldn't hurt the way Caleb was, and he didn't want King to know he heard it either. He said his dad already blamed himself because they didn't have a decent mother. He didn't want to make him feel even more guilty. Oh, God, I don't know what this will do to him." She started to cry, and Molly stepped in to take Everly from her as I wrapped my arm around Abby to console her.

"Cole's already been hurt so much by his mom over the years, I don't want him to get hurt again," Molly said fiercely as she swayed back and forth to keep Everly calm.

"Then maybe we need to keep this to ourselves," I suggested as I smoothed Abby's hair back from her face. I glanced over at Molly to find her nodding in agreement. "I'm not a fan of secrets in a relationship, but this is one secret that will do far more harm if it comes to light."

Abby raised her head and gave us both a grateful look. "Thank you," she whispered. "I hate secrets, too, but I can't let this put Caleb's sobriety at risk."

"So we're agreed then. We keep this strictly between us," Molly clarified.

"Yes," I agreed. "The men have their club business, and now we have Ol' Lady business."

That caused Abby to laugh through her tears, and we ended up in a group hug, until Everly cried again, clearly unhappy about being squashed between us.

Dante was livid when he got home, and I told him that Christy had stopped by wanting money again. I didn't mention anything about the horrible things she'd said.

"That's it, I'm putting in a call to her probation officer to see have him call her in for a piss test. She'll end up serving out the remaining eight months of her sentence, so we won't have to deal with her for a while."

The drama surrounding my own ex changed dramatically a few days later, during the kids' overnight visit with Clayton on Wednesday. While Sabrina was at her spin class Wednesday evening, Mia spotted Clayton in the neighbor's backyard, being a little more than neighborly.

She was undecided about what to do with the information until the next morning at breakfast, when Sabrina commented that I would never be able to hold on to a man like Dante. At that point, my sweet, darling daughter informed her bitch of a stepmother that she should be the one worried about losing her husband, since Clayton was sleeping with the neighbor's college-aged daughter.

Clayton denied it and yelled at Mia while Sabrina accused her of being a spoiled brat who was just trying to cause trouble. That's when Mia whipped out her phone and showed them the picture she'd taken, showing the pair in a heated lip lock, and Clayton's hand up under her shirt.

Shit had gone downhill from there, and it turned out that Clayton wasn't the only getting a little something on the side.

Hunter called when the screaming started and asked me to pick them up. Dante insisted on going with me, of course, and we'd walked into my former home just in time to hear Sabrina screaming at my ex.

"I had to start fucking the bartender at the country club since you couldn't manage to find my clit if you were given a goddamned map with " O marks the spot" drawn in big, red marker!" I'd snickered, because she wasn't wrong.

When Clayton spotted the kids coming downstairs with their things, he'd screamed at Mia, and called her a fucking bitch. He lunged toward her with his hand raised as if he were going to smack her. Hunter stepped in front of her to block him just as Dante tackled the sonofabitch. He punched him in the face, leaving Clayton with one veneer missing and several others loose.

Clayton threatened to call the police on him, and Sabrina told him to go ahead and call. She'd gotten the whole thing on video.

"I can see the headline now. Dentist arrested for attempted battery on his teenaged daughter, " she taunted. "The state licensing board is going to love seeing this, too."

Dante grabbed Clayton by the shirt and pulled him to his feet, then told him he was never seeing the kids again. Sabrina screamed at Clayton that she was filing for divorce, and he ran out of the room after her.

Dante walked over to where Hunter and I were trying to soothe a sobbing Mia, then pulled her into his arms for a hug.

"Let's go home, sweetheart," he whispered, then released her to give Hunter a one-armed manly hug.

With the kids' and my approval, he called his lawyer the next day to have paperwork drawn up to terminate Clayton's parental rights. Dante paid him a visit a few days later to get him to sign them and came home with fresh bruises on his knuckles.

When I asked what had happened, he told me not to worry about it. "My hand is fine, sugar, and the douchebag is a dentist. He can replace a few more veneers if he needs to."

The kids approached him the next day, and asked if they could change their last name to Morgan once we were married. I was so busy crying that I almost missed the glossy sheen in Dante's eyes as he told them he would like to formally adopt them, if that was all right with me.

That evening we went to the clubhouse, where I took him upstairs and showed him a new yoga position I'd learned. We came downstairs a little while later to a round of applause, catcalls, and whistles. Apparently, Dante had been even louder than usual.

I buried my face in his shoulder to hide my embarrassment. Dante chuckled as he leaned down and nuzzled my cheek.

"We're going to have to add soundproofing to our bedroom at the new house," I muttered quietly. He'd sold his house, and we'd bought the larger house across the street from me when Miriam Kirschbaum had decided to sell and move in with her kids. We were in the process of remodeling it, complete with my dream kitchen and a primary bedroom suite on the first floor, on the opposite side of the house from the kids' bedroom upstairs. Dante also made sure that the shower and the free-standing bathtub were both big enough for two.

"Sorry, sugar. That's what happens when you rock my world," he said with a satisfied grin.