“This ishisbaby!” Ana shouted. Her hand darted out to snatch my phone, nearly touching it right as I stepped back to avoid her. “His baby. Your brother.”
“Ana,” Steele grabbed her arm in a gentle hold.
She ripped out of his grasp with a ferocity I hadn’t been expecting. “No! No more. This is his baby. We did test to prove it. End of story?—”
A radio crackling from behind us cut Ana off. “What’s going on in here?”
Turning to greet both officers, I spotted Brandon bringing up the rear. His eyes were filled with worry, the obvious want to clear the distance between us and glue himself to my sidewas palpable, so much so that I nearly reached out my hand to beckon him over.
Before I could, one of the officers—Sergeant Boise—held up his hand. “Mr. McAllister, a word?”
“Actually, officer...” Steele moved around me, ripping the notice out of my hand. “We have a court order stating we have the right to be here.”
“That was gained under false pretenses,” I argued.
“Regardless, if it’s signed by a judge, there’s not much we can do,” Boise countered with.
Such bullshit.
Why was the legal system always so vulnerable to corruption? One measly piece of paper that falsely stated Ana’s baby was my relative was all it took to be able to grant her access to my home, my property and the right to trespass for as long as she damn well pleased.
And there was nothing any of us could do about it.
Anger surged in me. Burning so bright and brilliant that I was surprised I didn’t have smoke blowing out of my ears. As I turned to Ana again, both of my hands fisted at my sides. Her satisfied smirk, coupled with her hand circling over her belly in an almost mocking attempt to garner sympathy was more than I could take.
“You’re a fucking snake,” I hissed at her, keeping my tone low.
Her eyes shot to me. “Hold your tone.”
“Why? Pretending like you belong here will be the worst mistake you’ll ever make. I can promise you that.”
“We will see when I leave you out on the streets. You are spoiled, rotten boy.”
Now that I thought about it, her and my father were a match made in heaven.
I fully my body turned to face her, the seething anger slowly morphing into glee. Going toe-to-toe with this woman wasn’t something I ever wanted to cross off on my bucket list, but if she wanted a fight, she was going to get it. I’d make her regret ever choosing to mistake messing with my family’s legacy as a smart move—one that would be worth her while as long as she played her cards right.
If I was going to be forced to live with this woman and her bastard child for the rest of my life, I was going to make it hell for her. After all, wasn’t that the McAllister way? I was simply passing down my father’s wonderful legacy to her, making her a part of the family she’d soon regret wanting to join.
“I’m glad my father picked you up off the streets.” Her eyes widened at my words. “I doubt your career would’ve lasted much longer anyway. I’m going to enjoy every goddamn minute of making sure you regret ever saying yes to that rock on our finger and not sticking to selling magazine covers. You think being a McAllister is all about blowing money on expensive cars and getting your hair and nails done every week? You’ve got another thing coming. And I’ll behappyto help you earn your stripes. Whatever back alley that modeling agency scooped you out of is what you’re going to wish you could return to once I’m done with you.”
I heard the slap before I felt it crack across my face. Belatedly, it occurred to me that threatening a pregnant woman as unhinged as Ana seemed to be was probably not one of my finer moves. However, I wasn’t about to take back any of those words. Not when she, out of anyone, needed to realize what the fuck she was getting into.
I wasn’t letting her off that easily with her inflated ego and the false belief that as long as she had a lawyer willing to draft up any motion she desired and warm her bed at night was goingto get her whatever she wanted in life, it was my job to show her otherwise.
My cheek burned from where her hand had caught me, small pin prickles that radiated pain from what I could only assume were her long nails having dragged across my poor skin.
As I lifted my hand to touch the side of my face, she swiped at me again with the other hand.
“You are nothing!” she screamed. “He said so. He told me all about you. How disappointed you made him. How you and your mother wasted his best years!”
I caught her wrist and held it in a tight grip, nearly missing the other one that came swinging at me as she pivoted her weight to the other side. She screamed again when I grabbed onto the other one, too, holding both of her arms firmly no matter how hard she yanked to be let free.
There was no doubt in my mind that my father had told her any of those things. In fact, it sounded just like him, right down to their callous delivery. The only problem was Ana was five years too late for me to care. I’d heard those same tired words my entire life and had vowed on my wedding day to never let them affect me again.
She could hurl whatever insult she wanted, none of it was going to matter.
“Hey! Let go of her!” Steele shouted.
