6. Ollie

CHAPTER 6

Ollie

“What am I going to do?” I asked Caleb as we sat at his kitchen table the next morning. “She literally won’t talk to me.

“Maybe you should have come clean when she asked what the blackmail was.”

“I planned to do that, but not in a text. I need to be there, to make her understand.”

“Make her understand what? You had a one-night, hate-fueled sex-a-thon with your ex, Denmark’s DNA donor, and that she recorded it to use against you. So then, you continued to meet up all over the country with said ex-girlfriend and fuck her in every which way she told you to while fleecing you for as much money as she possibly could?”

I stared at my best friend wondering if he was even on my side at all in this fucked up mess. “First, that night she recorded us was the only time I stuck my dick in her. Second, it’s not that simple.”

“Let me ask you something.” He paused long enough for me to tilt my head toward him in silent agreement. “Have you ever taken Steph on a trip?”

“A trip?”

“Yeah, like an overnight someplace new. A weekend couples getaway.” When I didn’t answer, he huffed. “A fucking honeymoon after you married her?”

“I was swamped with work then and she was starting her new job, so we didn’t go on a honeymoon.”

“You’re a bastard, you know that, right?”

“Well fucking aware.”

“Right. Good you know. Listen up, because I think you need a little perspective on just how fucked you are where she’s concerned. I deal with embittered women seeking divorce more often than I handle the men. Right now, Steph is analyzing everything in her relationship. She’s probably doing it with the help of her twin who hates you because he always saw through your bullshit where his sister was concerned.”

I balled up my fists and paced, but then stopped and placed my hands flat on the kitchen table to keep from punching something. My best friend’s face was at the top of the list, since Steve wasn’t here.

“She’s not just cataloging your infidelity, which I guarantee she didn’t know all the dirty details about, since you just said you didn’t tell her about the blackmail Jia held over your head.”

“Julia,” I corrected.

“She changed it legally, so technically I’m correct.”

“Whatever, asshole. Finish your point.”

“So, she has your infidelity to deal with. Worse, you refused to acknowledge the blackmail or explain to her that it was the only time. Even I thought you’d been fucking your ex all over the country. I’m sure Steve’s private investigator filled them in on the fact that you were sharing hotel rooms with Jia, so what else is everyone supposed to think?

“Your wife literally has proof that you’ve been on coast-to-coast, what probably appeared to be numerous romantic trips, with your ex-girlfriend. Also, she probably doesn’t think Jia is your ex at this point. It probably feels more to Steph like she’s the other woman in the scenario even if she is wearing your ring. Then she is wondering what is wrong with her.”

“There’s nothing wrong with her.”

“I agree, but women don’t see things like that. She’s wondering why she never warranted a single trip with you, even overnight. Meanwhile, your ex is getting trips to all these places. She also has her brother in her ear reminding her that you only married her for your son, not because you ever felt anything for her.”

“That’s bullshit!”

“It’s fucking true!” Caleb shot back. “That’s exactly why you married her. If you managed to finally catch feelings for the perfect woman, who agreed to marry you because you deceived her into thinking it was all real, she doesn’t realize that and no one will believe you.”

“You don’t believe me?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Oh, no! I believe you finally fell for Steph. Unfortunately for you, I think it was too little, too late on your part because you showed her through your actions that she was never important or a priority unless her being in the picture revolved around your son.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“Did you two ever even consummate the marriage?” Caleb had the audacity to ask.

“Of fucking course we did.”

Caleb threw his hands in the air in a sign of surrender. “As your lawyer, I needed to know. Is there any way she might be carrying your baby by now?”

I shook my head. “We haven’t…” Fuck, how did I tell my friend that I hadn’t even fucked my gorgeous wife in months. “I didn’t want to taint her with the shit I did with Jia.”

“You were careful with Jia, weren’t you?”

“I wore a condom, if that’s what you mean.”

“Yeah, that’s what I meant. Why weren’t you fucking your wife then?”

“Every time I looked at her like that, all I could see was her heart breaking if she ever found out about Julia. Guilt man. The guilt was eating me alive and I couldn’t give her the shitty leftovers after stupidly going there with my ex and then being forced into situations that I knew would look bad if it ever got out.”

“If this shit with Jia hadn’t come up, do you think you would have realized that you’d fallen for your wife?”

I scrubbed a hand down my face in frustration and thought about what he was asking. “I don’t know, man. Fucking up definitely put things into perspective for me.” I stood and moved to the sink, overlooking where the window view was nothing more than a tiny patch of grass before Caleb’s grandmother’s house took up the rest.

“What if she can never forgive me?” I asked. “What if Den hates me and wants to stay with her?”

Caleb scoffed. “According to Jia’s plans, your ex-girlfriend won’t allow that to happen anyway. Remember back when that bitch left, and I told you to get her to sign her parental rights away?”

“Yeah,” I huffed before turning back to look at my friend.

“As I recall, you never did that, since you never returned the papers for me to file with the courts.”

I shook my head in response. “I didn’t want to chase after her and sever that tie for my son.”

“Well, that means she still has parental rights and a say in whether Den and your wife can see one another. From what you told me about her plans, that might be something she tries to exercise.”

“Can we get an emergency injunction to keep her from exercising her rights?”

“Already had my assistant file the paperwork this morning.” He glanced away and then back down at the table where his fingers tapped out a rhythm that was only in his head.

“What is it?”

“Just because we file it, doesn’t mean the judge has to grant it. Had you not had an ongoing affair with Jia, I’d say you had a good case to terminate parental rights.”

“It wasn’t ongoing. I know there is a ‘but’ in there, so what is it?”

“First, appearances are everything. No one is going to believe that you weren’t fucking her that whole time. The “but”, part is that you getting involved with Jia for months on end will not look good in your favor. In fact, it will appear as though you approve of her being in your life. Not only that, it will look worse on you because you brought her back into your life by having an affair while you left your kid at home with your wife.”

“Fuck. Could this get any worse?”

“Judging from Jia’s plans to use you and Den to springboard her into the hearts of her future adoring fans, yes. It will get worse and not just for you. Denmark and Steph are going to be thrust into the limelight in the worst way possible and I don’t think either of them is ready for this. They certainly don’t see it coming.”

“You need to get in touch with Hutch and let him know.”

“I’ll give him a call as soon as we’re done with this conversation. You said you had proof of Jia’s blackmail?”

“Yeah, I have audio and video recordings of her talking about it.”

“We need to be able to authenticate which states you made those recordings in and figure out what their laws are for consensual recording. Hopefully, they were done in a single-party consent state like Virginia.”

“That’s easy enough. The first recording I made, where she talked about how I had to fuck her or she would release the sex tape she made without my knowledge, was recorded in Virginia when she came back the first time.” Caleb gave me a look and I growled my frustration out. “I didn’t fuck her again. When I refused, that was when she demanded that we go search for a doctor to fix her face, since my dick no longer worked.”

Caleb rolled his eyes as he laughed. “She is something else, but that’s good. I need that recording. Get it to me while I reach out to Hutch and give him a head’s up about Jia’s plans. Once you send everything, you need to get with your parents and make a plan for Denmark. When the shit hits the fan, it’s liable to get ugly.”

“Fuck!” I hissed through clenched teeth.