Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
Becca looked at me. “Are we going back to the hotel we stayed in last night?” she asked, sounding a bit defeated.
I decided I needed to be strong for the both of us, at least until Becca got her confidence back. “No, love. We’re going to a home in Scarsdale. It will be well-fortified.”
“Okay.” Becca rose slowly to her feet, clutching her purse like it was a shield. She didn’t even question my choice in homes.
“Don’t get disheartened. We’re working on this around the clock, and we’re going to put up a strong fight,” Ms. Loveless said.
I rocked the screaming Alessandro in my arms. “Thank you, Ms. Loveless. We’ll keep our spirits up.”
“Court is a week from today at 9:00 AM sharp,” Ms. Loveless informed us. “We’ll be meeting before then, of course, but I wanted to give you our timeframe.”
“Not a lot of time,” I murmured.
“It’s going to feel like forever,” Ms. Loveless warned. “Call me anytime with questions or concerns.”
“What happens if we lose him?” Becca asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Ms. Loveless steepled her fingers again, clearly trying to figure out how to phrase bad news. “If we lose, there are many options. Even if you lose some custody, there’s always partial custody, half-custody…”
“I mean what happens if we lose him altogether?” Becca choked.
“Then we appeal. And we appeal. And we appeal,” Ms. Loveless said firmly. “It’s never over.”
“And they can do the same if they lose,” Becca inferred.
I looked at Ms. Loveless.
“… Yes,” Ms. Loveless replied. “And they probably will.”
Becca closed her eyes. “It’s never over.”
Becca.
I walked out of the lawyer’s office feeling as though I were floating somewhere outside myself. Everything just seemed so… surreal.
James was carrying Alessandro. But then I had a sudden need to hold the child, as though physically having him in my arms could protect us all from having him taken away.
Woodenly, I held out my arms for Alessandro.
“Becca… are you sure?” James asked.
I nodded, and James carefully passed the one-year-old over. Alessandro blinked dark eyes up at me, completely unaware of the dangerous game that was going on around him. Unaware of the dangerous games that had been going on around him.
“James, I can’t lose him,” I whispered. “If the judge says I can keep him, but I have to go away from you… I will.”
“I know,” James said without judgment. He put a hand at my back, but I pulled away.
“Everything’s gone wrong, and every time it does, there you are right in the middle of it,” I spoke sternly. “Why is it that you keep f*cking up my life? Our lives?!”
James frowned. “Becca, that’s not entirely fair.”
“Oh yeah? What’s ‘fair,’ then? Grooming Alessandro to be a mafia don or maybe having Russians descend on my home in New Zealand—”
“That was Neal’s fault, not mine,” James said angrily.
“And Tally? What about Tally?” I replied in a harsh tone.
James scowled. “Don’t you dare bring my daughter into this. Of course, I feel guilty over what happened to Tally. Do you think I don’t? Do you think I don’t beat myself up every day over it?”
“You should!” I shouted.
People on the sidewalk began giving us a wider berth, staring at us incredulously.
James shook his head. “You’re not in any fit state of mind to have this conversation. I’ll see you at the car.” He strode away from me, knowing full well that “the boys” were surrounding us at a discreet distance.
I’d upset him so much, however, that he began to cross against the light, and a taxi came zooming towards him.
“JAMES!” I shouted, running towards him.
With the bumper merely inches from James’s legs, one of “the boys” appeared and hauled him back.
Alessandro began fussing, not understanding what was going on but able to sense that something was wrong.
I went to James, who still looked bewildered, and pressed into his side. “James, what the hell were you thinking?!”
James looked down at me and Alessandro and shrugged, regaining his composure. “I suppose I wasn’t.”
“I—” I began.
“Let’s just go home, Becca,” James said.
“Home? Italy?” I asked. “But they’re taking our passports—”
“Scarsdale. Let’s go.” James almost roughly directed me across the crosswalk once the light turned and escorted me into the black sedan that was waiting for us on the other side.
My heartbeat was still erratic, but Alessandro had calmed down with a little bouncing. “James—?”
“Not now, Becca,” James snapped. He rubbed a hand over his face. “I just… can’t… right now.”
I swallowed. “Okay.”
It took about an hour to get to the beautiful, large, colonial mansion in Scarsdale that James had either bought or rented. I didn’t know which, and I couldn’t ask him, given the mood I’d put him in.
When the car stopped, James hopped right out and stalked away from Alessandro and I, two of “the boys” trailing behind him.
I blinked tears from my eyes and got out of the sedan with a little help from “the boys” to get Alessandro and I out upright.
“He’ll be in his study, ma’am,” one of “the boys” said, trying to be helpful.
I nodded, but I was fairly certain he didn’t want to see me. Not right now.
Inside the house was just as gorgeous and tasteful as the outside. I took a long staircase upstairs to get to my room, which had a connecting door to the nursery. Both were already set up.
I noticed that James had not put his things in my room. I wondered if that was a recent decision, or if he’d done that in deference to my lingering misgivings.