Chapter 85 85

Chapter 85 85
ADELINE
“Wait, what? How? Aren’t you both still married and Scarlett isn’t one to just let you win over her like that.” I rushed, sounding more like I was ranting than anything else, but panic rose in my chest. In all my thinking of their still being married, I hadn’t stopped to consider what that meant for Johnny, Scarlett was his real mother after all. So after over five years, she wanted custody of him now? Why?! What changed?
“I don’t understand, can she do that? I thought since you both are divorced, she can’t…” the words caught in my throat as my lips finally caught up with my brain. “She can do that. She can totally take Johnny,” a wedge settled in my throat as realization hit me like a sledgehammer, panic rushed through my blood like an intravenous shot of hard drugs and not the good kind, the kind that blurred out your brain and leaves you feeling like shit afterwards.
“Exactly, but thankfully Scarlett would always be Scarlett, I’m hoping I’m right about that and I can dig up those skeletons before she gets impatient.” He rubbed the spot between his eyes, letting out a heavy sigh as he crashed deeper into the chair.
“So what was this plan? It still doesn’t make sense why you would believe her over me, especially knowing she would definitely have something she’s hiding, you don’t even believe her!” I tried to wrap my head around how this all connected to being all lovey dovey with his ex, but nothing came to mind.
Was he hoping that by some miracle she would be so blinded by his attention that she would snitch on herself? Give him the one thing he needed to finally leave her and not suffer for it? Yeah, that didn’t sound like Scarlett at all. She might be a bitch, but she wasn’t stupid. More believable, she had left him before without the decency to give him an honest explanation, my guess is her love for Grayson didn’t run all that deep.
“I don’t need her worrying so much she starts covering her track. The more convinced she thinks I am, the less suspicious she would be of my real reason, plus she would lay off disturbing you too. It really did add up in my head as the best course of action.” He met my gaze, his bled with sincerity, worry and desperation. It was so cute that he was that bothered and baffled like a little kid being told that candy didn’t fall from some fairytale freely, but are actually from some store where we give money in exchange for it.
Okay, I had to admit, that did make more sense and I could finally breathe like I actually needed air to survive again. “Why didn’t you just tell me this? I would have understood.” I grumbled. I was about to do the worst, I actually went through with taking an innocent baby out because of fear. What would have happened if I actually succeeded? What would he be saying then? Would he be as apologetic as he was now? Would I even know the real reason he chose Scarlett in the first place?!
“I didn’t want to risk losing you over it. And saying it out loud now, I know how stupid that sounds, but there was another reason I didn’t want you involved.” He looked away from me then like he was scared to. Once again, I was as confused as the next person.
My heart thumped in my chest, from a mix of exhaustion, unwanted anticipation and the suspense of it all. What could be worse than this?
“What?” I whispered, more than a little scared to hear what he had to say this time. Did she threaten me? My mom? Did he not trust me?
I swerved to face him at the thought, the action a little too fast causing my neck to protest in response.
“Don’t you trust me? Is that it?” I rushed, my words tumbling over one another in my haste to get them out. “Well?” I pushed when he didn’t say anything the very next second.
“I wish it was a trust thing.” He sighed, deep and heavy, like a stone was pressed against his chest and it was all he could do to get a second of relief.
“Well, what was it then? You know all this suspense isn’t good for my health.” I added, immediately regretting it when his face fell. The attempted abortion, right. “I’m-” I bit my tongue. I wasn’t sorry. I mean, I was sorry that I was going to make an innocent child suffer for a misunderstanding, but I wasn’t sorry because of him. He kept secrets from me. How did he really expect me to take watching him so cuddly with his ex wife, knowing very well that I was carrying his child?! Of course, I wasn’t just going to smile and wave and hug them both for a job well fucking done.
“It’s about your aunt.” His eyes followed mine like he was trying to read into my soul. My aunt?!
“Wait, how do you know about aunt Dahlia? Did my dad ever mention her?” That was very unlikely, dad never liked aunt Dahlia because she never wasted anytime before telling him the truth. She’d called him all the names in the book. Addict, worthless man, a disgrace of a father, there was absolutely no line she didn’t cross when it came to addressing my father, if I could even call him that. He was more of a sperm donor than anything really.
He paused, his eyes did the searching thing again and with a voice almost inaudible, muttered, “Yes. Very well actually. She was, or rather, is my dad’s mistress.”
Wait what? “What?! What do you mean your dad’s mistress, I’m confused.” I’ve known Dahlia all my life, never once did I associate her with a man. She was always very vocal about how she didn’t ever want to be tied down by any man, how the worst is being strapped by his baby. Would that make being a mistress more appealing to her? But I would have seen someone, we spent most of our time together, she was more a best friend to me than an aunty. Well, until five years ago. Probably during those five years?
“I’ve known Dahlia since I was twenty one. She’s the reason my dad and mum got a divorce.” The air in the room thinned, I could feel my lungs struggling to get even the tiniest bit of air. So he knew Dahlia before he knew me, before he met me. Did he know when he accepted the deal with my father? Did he know before letting my father take the loan from him to gamble?
“Twenty one,” I was so confused. I tried to wrap my head around it, but my mind had stopped processing anything else. “Did you know who she was, her connection to my father before you gave him the loan?”
He looked away, his fingers intertwined together on his thighs, “Yes. I knew she was your aunty before I agreed to a contr
act marriage with you instead of payment.”